Nico Sels

I've seen some reoccuring messages criticising Wizarbox during the development of Gray Matter. And it appears some people are misinformed.


1) The long development time: Gray Matter was outsourced to an Eastern Europe company named Tonuzaba, they created the game engine and alot of artwork. During development it became clear that Tonuzaba was not up to the standards and pace of develloping of a Jane Jensen game. probably the reason why DTP pulled the game out of their hands and went to look for another develloper. The transition took almost a full year!

2) Wizarbox visual standards where so much higher than Tonuzaba, that they ended up redoing or restyling all of the artwork, animations, etc.. already done. This of course took some time.

3)The engine the game used was a difficult and very basic tool, giving Wizarbox a hard time to finetune. They had alot more ideas to improve it, but there was no possibility to change the engine or update it. they had to work with what Tonuzaba left them with.

4)the cutscenes: the visual style was chosen due to the fact that the budget had practically ran out. I think that knowing this fact, they still did a good job with the limited funding they had.

5)the lack of close-ups and facial expressions: again something betatesters and Jane fought real hard for, but there simple was no more time or budget to incorporate that. Also a result of the whole streched out development.

I think all in all Wizarbox delivered a very "pretty" game (Jane seems to agree, because it's visually her favourite), but it was left with some serious flaws they wish they could have changed..

TalC2

Nico, while I personally am familiar with this history, I thank you for taking the time to elucidate this matter! I sure miss the days of chatting away in the cort-x fan site forums

I agree; visually Gray Matter looked great and was even stunning at times, certainly in AG standards - Timmons Park for example looked beautiful. Totally loved that chapter just for that.

millenia

I'm not against remake of GK1 but it's still very playable to me and I'd rather have people using that time to do some more Jane Jensen games

The world, the characters and the cases of Gabriel Knight games are really something else, you don't just play a game anymore, you live it.

__________________
Currently playing: AlternativA, Diablo III
Recently finished: Hector - Episode 1, Dear Esther, Gemini Rue, Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, Blackwell trilogy
All-time favourites: Discworld Noir, Gabriel Knight trilogy

VampireNaomi

I'd rather see a remake of the third one. It's perfect in nearly every way, but the graphics are distractingly ugly.

lobotomy42

As much as I love Gabriel Knight, and as I much as I feel that all three games have somewhat flawed user interfaces (and occasionally puzzles,) I think remakes are a bad idea. In general, game designs are made with technological strengths/constraints in mind. When you update a game designed around one set of technology for a new set, a *lot* gets lost. Either the old design starts to look awkward in the new clothes, or else you end up modifying the gameplay as well...and at that point, you might as well just start from scratch. Unless a game has truly aged the point of unplayability, I would much, much rather see Gabriel Knight 4 than an update of any of old games, despite their (sometimes very painful) warts. But I'd also equally be happy with Gray Matter 2, or Moebius, or "Anglophile Adventure." Perhaps I just have a short attention span.

Gonzosports

Despite all our handwringing over the amount of donations, Kicktraq still has it on pace for $750K+. Now, I know that donations will slow, but they may also speed up at the end - which, although it DID happen significantly for DFA, does not seem to be happening, to the same extent, for Wasteland 2.

__________________
there's more to me than you'll ever know, i got more hits than sadaharu oh
-- beastie boys

azadragon

Gonzo I don't think the algorithm of this Kicktraq thing is very well-thought. I'd be surprised if the donations exceed the 400K limit. I personally pledged more than a 100 solely because of what Jane has made in the past. I am not convinced if it will really worth it at the end of the day. I do hope that we will all see a great game I just don't know how realistic that is.

zane

loooks like all that kicktraq thing does is take the avg overall rate and gives you the number if it stayed that rate for the rest of the time, blah. O_O

Yesterday we got 110 backers, and would seem to be a down-day in general.... except.... somebody added 10k to the donations.. without selecting the reward tier for 10k. So some weirdness is going on for sure.. hopefully that gets straightened out and we now have 2 10k backers.

__________________
Currently focussing on: Book of unwritten tales
On deck: lone survivor
Recently finished: donna: avenger of blood, machinarium, botanicula, grim fandango, corpse party

fov

Jane has announced that anyone who wants to vote for the first game Pinkerton Road will make needs to back the project by tomorrow at 9:00pm Eastern time. (I figure most people following this thread have already backed it - but just throwing it out there!)

I have no idea what to vote for. Honestly I'd be happy with any of the three.

Jannik

fov:
Have you sent the press release to Indiegames.com? If not, it's probably a good idea (or maybe just the next one), since it's arguably the largest indie gaming site, and they often write about Kickstarter projects

For the voting, I'll go with Moebius. And I'm 97.143% sure it'll "win" since they already sort of sold it as a Gabriel Knight-like game

EDIT: Corrected the site name.

inm8#2

Okay not to rehash the discussion from a day or two ago, but this is exactly what I'm talking about. You won't find someone who receives less of a benefit of a doubt from her fans than Jane Jensen.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthre...5#post36845155

What I'm hoping for is that after the voting, the people who have been waiting come on board. Jane's probably going to need to provide a bit more concept art and some descriptions of the chosen game to entice people further. I hope and imagine she's working on that, or maybe the pdf the backers receive tomorrow will contain the information she publishes on the Kickstarter page.

Also, nice article and interview here that Jane just posted in the comments on the KS page: http://alternativemagazineonline.co....n-road-studio/

__________________
***Read the bolded part***

"You ever wish you could just follow your instincts, live for the moment?" - Gabriel Knight

Now playing - Legend of Grimrock
Need to finish - The Whispered World
Finished - Botanicula, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
Up Next - A New Beginning, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition
Anticipating - Asylum, Bracken Tor, The Last Crown

inm8#2

From the above article:

If that's not reason enough to donate, I don't know what is.

__________________
***Read the bolded part***

"You ever wish you could just follow your instincts, live for the moment?" - Gabriel Knight

Now playing - Legend of Grimrock
Need to finish - The Whispered World
Finished - Botanicula, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
Up Next - A New Beginning, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition
Anticipating - Asylum, Bracken Tor, The Last Crown

ozzie

Yay! We reached the half-way point now! $150,120!!

Terabin

If we can get some good press when the game is decided on and the kickstarter page is accurately geared towards the winning game, I think the campaign will easily push towards 300,000. I bet a lot of folks are still on the fence not knowing what the csg is all about. If there is a definite game to support there will be a huge uptick in casual supporters. Count on it!

TalC2

Funny that Tim Schafer didn't offer anything definite, much less a definite game, and yet...well, you know

But this is not directed at you, Terabin, so don't be taken aback or something.

zane

^yeah, and nobody demanded that tim make grim fandango 2 or it wasnt worth donating. Its ridiculous.
EDIT: and on that note, expect everyone to lose their %$#@ when doublefines concept does come out and its not exactly how each person perfectly imagined it.

Anyway, its friday and we still havnt gone under 100 new backers per day!!!

__________________
Currently focussing on: Book of unwritten tales
On deck: lone survivor
Recently finished: donna: avenger of blood, machinarium, botanicula, grim fandango, corpse party

ozzie

To be honest, Tim has the advantage of never having done any sequels (well, except for Monkey Island 2 of course, but that's more Ron's game). So he showed again and again that he is capable of coming up with new and exciting fantastical worlds. Maybe there is a feeling, especially shared by people who didn't play or didn't like Gray Matter, that Jane is only capable of doing Gabriel Knight or at least at her best while doing it.

It's an unfounded feeling, I agree, but I think that might be an unspoken emotional argument shared by quite a few.

Monolith

So just read the new GameInformer. Didn't expect a nice two page article on Gabriel Knight.

__________________
"Oggi abbiamo erediteranno la terra! Domani, ci distruggiamo!" -S. B. Newsom

http://www.sbnewsom.com/

fov

A really nice article (that includes an interview with Jane) has just been posted on Forbes.com.

Unfortunately when Jane did that interview, she wasn't able to talk about the new studio yet! But the coincidental timing was great, anyway.

They should have received the press release, yes. But thanks for mentioning it, I'll follow up with them.

endym

Thanks for all the updates, great article.

Keep up the good work.