Two Guys From Andromeda making new game...

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I figured this deserved its own thread, because FUCK. YES.

http://guysfromandromeda.com/

I... I think we might be allowed to have nice things again. Contrary to almost everyone's expectations, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe (AKA The Two Guys From Andromeda), the original creators of Space Quest are teaming up once again to bring us a new SPACEVENTURE™. They also got Gary Owens to come back and do the Narrator (the guy who did it in SQ4 and 6).

I think I'm going to die of joy.

Oh look, more has-beens on the kickstarter bandwagon. I wonder who else will come out of retirement to get a piece before the whole bubble bursts.

^ I know you're trolling, and I'm supposed to rage and stuff, but I just don't care. That's how awesome this news is!

Nah, just jaded. Nobody else find it strange that all of a sudden everyone wants to make "oldschool" games and revive classic franchises after decades of not giving a fuck? Looks to me like they want a piece of the cake while it's hot, fully aware that the craze won't last forever. I'll happily eat my words once the first games come out and are actually good.

I know, right?

To be fair, I would not call it decades of not giving a fuck. Al Lowe tried to start a new series and was shot down by publishers. Jane Jensen spent a decade trying to get one game released as it was tossed around by publishers and dev studios. Tim Schafer has been continuing to make (mostly) great games, but adventure games just weren't feasible. Scott Murphy left Sierra completely jaded about the direction of the games industry, and for good reason.

Now, all these people see a method for making these games again that simply hasn't been available up to now. To me, it is exciting. Maybe it won't pan out perfectly, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing.

From what I know Telltale were quite successful with their Sam&Max series and other Lucas franchises, AGDI release their Sierra remakes for free. It seems to me that if you're passionate about making your game you will find a way to make it without a "money first, game later" scheme.

This is one side of the coin.
But you spend 10 years in the gaming industry, many times under crunch mode (cool story bro here), you're getting burned out, and at the end the games you're being asked to make are no longer the ones you want to make, or in their case get fired.
The other side of the coin is the opportunity to get back to doing what you love and a chance to relieve the good old days.
I really don't know what's the story with these Two Guys. If they're doing it for the money or for the fun of getting back to doing something they loved.
Let us wait for their kickstarter and listen what they have to say. For me an honest approach to kickstarter is the one made by Jane Jensen. She's putting her money where her mouth is and is just asking for half of the project cost.

Have you seen the latest Telltale games? Back from the Future and Jurassic "quick event" Park?

Sweet baby Jesus H. Christ in the stable with the three wise men around. Fuck the haters, this is the dawn of a new golden age until we're proven wrong.

Well Krauts don't seem to have any problems making adventure games, often quite good ones, so I can understand made's skepticism. It does seem like a case of trying to cash in on nostalgia but hell, if at the end of it we get good games, then it's not a problem.

I thought they had some kind of falling out.

Yes, they did, but apparently reconciled.

However, that's from an interview that's close to six years old at this point... According to a blog post linked from their twitter thingy, they recently met up and reconciled

So yeah, that's that.

Wasn't one of them going to team up with Josh Mandel to do a new Space Quest after that Al Lowe venture thing got funded? I forget what that company was called but I thought they acquired all the old Sierra licenses (or at least rights to do one each).

This is the single greatest adventure gaming announcement, ever. Space Quest 1 was the first game I ever played, and it is the reason that I am both a gamer, and a big adventure game fan. I'm very excited about these two collaborating again I hope it can match their masterpiece, Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers!

What a glorious 10th year for the Codex.

The drought ends! The is over!

So how did this stuff come to happen? As far as I've been able to follow, it all started with Schafer talking about wanting to make Psychonauts 2 but not finding the funding, after which Notch offered $1M to Schafer which made quite news while Schafer remained mostly silent other than saying that Psychonauts cost several millions and then he re-emerged with Kickstarter. Was Notch a catalyser for Schafer to embark on this? Or did he have plans under wraps anyway?

I think Schafer probably had the idea for a Kickstarter before Notch contacted him, but it did probably garner him additional publicity. I recall the Kickstarter happening just a couple days after the whole Notch thing happened, and Kickstarter has a review process, so it would have had to be a pretty quick decision if they were related. Just speculation though, really. The first episode of the DFA documentary mentioned them having a project cancelled and looking for a way to keep the team on. That might have been the impetus behind it.

While part of me feels as though some of these oldies popping up after decades with kickstarters is kind of taking advantage of the platform, I then think about how we've been eating shit for the past 15 years. The chance of getting steak once in a while is worth a little wallet rape, I suppose.

It's too bad this is all coming at once. That's another thing: it feels like everyone is jumping on the ship at once to get it while it's hot.

Ah, fuck it. I just want a steak. These guys haven't done an adventure game in nearly 20 years, though.

What's confusing about it? They might have made the SQ games but they haven't made anything even remotely similar in almost 20 years. I would question anyone's ability to design a game if they haven't done it in 2 decades.

For those who are interested, there is a new podcast interview with the two guys where they discuss topics various and sundry...

http://guysfromandromeda.com/podcast-episode-1-the-two-guys-speak/

The most relevant (and unsurprising news) is that they'll be starting a Kickstarter campaign sometime soon.