Future Remake: Part Deux

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What are your top 3 Sierra remakes you would like remade?

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
181
27%
Police Quest II: The Vengeance
34
5%
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon
68
10%
Lara Bow: The Colonel's Bequest
51
8%
The Black Cauldron
19
3%
Codename: Iceman
8
1%
Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail
45
7%
Gold Rush
19
3%
Manhunter: New York
7
1%
Manhunter 2: San Francisco
3
0%
Leisure Suit Larry (II) Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)
25
4%
Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
20
3%
Quest for Glory 5 VGA de-make
60
9%
Quest for Glory 3 remake (fixed points system)
53
8%
Mask of Eternity: Point & Click adventure remake
76
11%
 
Total votes: 669

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They Call Me Brutus
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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#76 Post by They Call Me Brutus » Mon Feb 28, 2011 1:21 pm

I really do not see the point in demaking QFG5. The game (especially the combat) is designed in such a way that there would actually be a severe drawback in quality via reverting to a VGA-style graphics system. For the combat, you can't really have a QFG2 style fight system for areas such as the Sifnos fortress or the fishing villages, where you are constantly assailed by enemies and from multiple directions at that. The difference would be way too jarring. In all honesty, the game should not be as much demade as it should be enhanced - perhaps have the graphics updated slightly and re-add features that were removed during production.

Soulfire: That you dislike QFG3 (and QFG5 for that matter) with a passion doesn't mean that other people don't think the game was worth playing. I still go back to it and accept it for its flaws. For what it's worth, I thought it was well-designed.

Also I detect that, since AGDI has had a number of KQ remakes under its belt, there may be a definite bias in the polls towards remaking KQ4 just to complete the set. That may account for the high number of votes it has received.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#77 Post by DrJones » Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:49 pm

They Call Me Brutus wrote:Also I detect that, since AGDI has had a number of KQ remakes under its belt, there may be a definite bias in the polls towards remaking KQ4 just to complete the set. That may account for the high number of votes it has received.
I think it's called the "rule of three". After you start a recognizable sequence with a missing but clear end, people will expect that very end.
There's another bias in that having just played King's Quest III, the mindset is already put on it. Oftentimes, when a person ask for a sequel, what they truly want is just to relive the same experience. That doesn't mean it's not a good idea to make sequels, but it shouldn't be taken for granted.

Everything is taken into account. Still, this poll is more about having a good time than about starting a serious project, given the current state of affairs.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#78 Post by Bobbin Threadbare » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:19 pm

I think I'm one here that actually disagree having QFG in the polls. IMHO, the one that's actually has the most problem is QFG4 due to the amount of bugs it has. Even so, I'm still not keen having any of QFG series being reworked, except QFG2 which AGDI teams did a fantastic job on it.

And as of my personal fave aside the bugs, QFG4 actually is my lowest fave after QFG3. It might have influences from some references related on those years like Dagger of Amon Ra and the Lion King film. Plus, I'm not a big fan of Nosferatu related stories combined with the quirky adaptation of street fighter-like fighting sequences. If it was implemented correctly, it may become the best fighting sequences in QFG histories, but it was very clunky and really drop my expectation.

And for the other thing I like about QFG3 are the soundtrack selection which are amazingly second best from QFG5 and near the finale which the events has a sense of teamwork although in stories only.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#79 Post by blueskirt » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:32 pm

I don't know what you are trying to achieve, but if I read between the lines correctly, taking your previous remakes and download figures and contacting Activision to propose them to launch a second line of Sierra adventure games, either remakes or original games (think Kingdom Of Sorrow), running in parallel with Telltale Games' Sierra episodes, creating a synergy and increasing the sales of both Telltale's effort and your games sounds like a good idea, and if you push the marketing card enough to Activision, emphasizing on the synergy between both lines and how profitable your remakes can be, it could work. That said, there are several things I don't know if you are ready for:

* First, (http://www.squidi.net/blog/index.php#02.18.11)if this guy is to be trusted Activision will be ruling your life all the time you will work for them. They will decide the schedule and have a lot of stupid requests, there will be a whole lot of extra crunch time, shipping buggy games to meet deadlines and when you will finally escape the machine your reputation could be in a worse state than when you entered.

* Second, you will have to drop AGS and go multiplatform, today the indie gaming scene is not just on PC, it's also on XBLA, PSN and the App Store. Telltale's games are multiplatform, if you want to follow them, you will have to do the same. Even if your plan is not to follow Telltale, Activision will want to maximize profits and you will still have to go multiplatform. That means learning a new engine, extra coding and extra testing.

* It's not just coders who will have to carry an extra burden. Want it or not, Activision and some of your fans will probably ask you to switch to HD.

* Last but not least, if you convince Activision that, instead of simply boosting the sales of the original games, remakes and fangames can be sold too, I think we can all forget every other fangames or remakes based on a Sierra IP because Activision will declare them war like they never have before and I don't think they will remain passive to games that slip out of their nets like they have done in the past. I know there are three Space Quest and one King's Quest related projects that are currently in progress, there are surely more which I am not aware yet, dealing with Activision could spell their death and I believe it's a steep price to pay for a remake.

That's all I have to say I guess. And ditch Quest For Glory III from your poll. Yes it could use an upgrade but since most assets exist already, it's a job for coders and modders, not you. Plus, who in their right mind would pay for a patch to an old game? Stick to remakes and original games.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#80 Post by Radogol » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:43 pm

blueskirt wrote:You will have to drop AGS and go multiplatform, today the indie gaming scene is not just on PC, it's also on XBLA, PSN and the App Store. That means learning a new engine, extra coding and extra testing.
I've been wondering recently if it would be possible to write an AGS interpreter, sort of like NAGI or Scumm VM, that would support multiple platforms. Has Chris Jones ever talked about something like that?

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#81 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:55 pm

Let's just see what happens, eh? :)

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#82 Post by ATMachine » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:15 pm

I voted for KQ4, SQ3, and Conquests of Camelot. Though I must say, I think even the fabulous JP Selwood would face a challenge in recreating the Camelot backgrounds. That game had some STUNNING dithering work!

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#83 Post by MusicallyInspired » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:31 pm

Seeing as AGS is open source now (well, portions of it, but apparently the whole thing will be open source soon?) I don't see how difficult it would be to port it to another platform. I thought I saw somewhere on the internet that it was possible to port certain types of AGS games (uncompiled) to the iPhone or something via different compiler. This is all a while ago and my memory is rusty. Still, there are possibilities. I have no idea what's going to happen, I'm just pointing things out.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#84 Post by Blackthorne519 » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:04 am

Yeah, I'd love to see AGS go multiplatform. I'd play the hell out of these games on my Wii.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#85 Post by Xandarius » Tue Mar 01, 2011 3:05 am

I vote overwhelmingly in favor of KQ4, particularly if it could be a Redux or + version. In fact, I'd be willing to pay money for such a remake.

I'd also vote in favor of AGDI or Himilaya continuing the King's Quest series or for any other remakes.

Otherwise, I'd like to see you guys making original adventure games. I'm particularly excited about the Mage's Initiation game in the works, or whatever it's called.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#86 Post by soulfire » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:01 pm

They Call Me Brutus wrote:Soulfire: That you dislike QFG3 (and QFG5 for that matter) with a passion doesn't mean that other people don't think the game was worth playing. I still go back to it and accept it for its flaws. For what it's worth, I thought it was well-designed.
Haha fair crack of the whip, I just haven't had a chance to rant about it in a while and kind of cut loose :p. I think it just felt like a shoe-horned game, which it was, and I could never get into it, it just wasn't rewarding unless you were a paladin or magic user. That's where a + version I guess would make it a good remake... But it would be cooler to see the whole non-VGA series of games updated first, then you could go about retelling the existing ones.

AGDs... The thing that worries me if you go full commercial is the post-Indie tall poppy syndrome. You'll get everyone starting on the "IAs KQ3 was so much better... I mean AGDI are just a bunch of sellouts anyway" haha.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#87 Post by Erpy » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:56 pm

AGDs... The thing that worries me if you go full commercial is the post-Indie tall poppy syndrome. You'll get everyone starting on the "IAs KQ3 was so much better... I mean AGDI are just a bunch of sellouts anyway" haha.
Heh, we've been getting the small name/big ego kind of complaints from the moment we released KQ1VGA. No need to go commercial for that.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#88 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Tue Mar 01, 2011 2:53 pm

Selling out would be catering to the masses and betraying the origins of your success so you can make more money. Turning your back on what brought you that success in the first place and then blaming it on "marketing trends", "changing demographics", "metrics" and other similar excuses to be lazy and unoriginal!

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#89 Post by Ryu » Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:19 am

Heh, neat seeing my QFG V de-make idea in the poll. But in the years since I posted that, I really came to love Conquest Of The Longbow. And as a big fan of Arthurian legend, I'd love to see Quest for The Holy Grail be remade with a more modern interface. Maybe even a QFG-esque stat/combat system!

But yeah, I'm throwing my hat in with QFTHG.

Still cool seeing my suggestion was noticed!

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#90 Post by Scully » Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:41 am

Camelot, definitely. My younger son learned to spell just so that he could play this game...at age 5. He loved being able to type "get copper," etc. and have cool things happen. I think it would be awesome to see this updated in true AGD style. What an awesome gift it would make for him, as he's nearing his 20th birthday (and still a die-hard fan of KQ and QFG games)!

Also, Graham's quest to find his family, which was not on the list. I was never able to play that one because it never would work properly on my PC.

I did vote for Alexander's quest, which was my all-time favorite of all the QFG or KQ games (although Dragon Fire comes in a very close second)...but it was so well done the first time that I wonder if even AGD can improve on it. My favorite character was the shopkeeper. Such personality in his voice!

The Princeless Bride is a no-brainer. Although the story was very clever, and the artwork was quite good once we got used to it...it was such a jarring departure from what we all knew and loved. KQ should not look like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Just my 2 cents. ;-)
Last edited by Scully on Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#91 Post by Brainiac » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:27 am

You know, I think I'd put Camelot as my fourth choice (the demakes drop to fifth and sixth). It is an EGA game, after all, and deserving of a visual upgrade (though perhaps not as much as even older games like Gold Rush). It also suffers from the same shoddy points coding as other games (indeed, even the official hintbook flat-out says you're not going to get all the Skill Points that the game says you can).

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#92 Post by Sarcastic Sid » Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:37 am

Please please please do for QFG3 what you did with KQ2! More Tarna! More class specific tasks! Less annoying music! More character development! A better ending (I mean, give us a ceremony which improves depending on how much you accomplish, then zap us away to Mordavia.) A thieves guild! Access to the Liontaur section of town! More! just, more and better please. if anyone can do it, it's you guys.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#93 Post by etherlad » Wed Mar 02, 2011 6:44 am

Much as I love AGDI (and I do love you guys), I think what I'd like most is to see QFG5 fixed. Not a de-make. Like the Saurus Repair Shop, Dragon Fire had a lot of stuff cut for time. Multiplayer support was going to be included, then later deferred to a planned epilogue/expansion, and then later scrapped altogether. I'd love to see all the planned extra material to make a full game.

Never going to happen, but as long as I'm dreaming...

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#94 Post by spacecadet » Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:42 pm

My choices would have to be: KQ4, Camelot, and... I guess Gold Rush, esoteric and less popular a choice though it is, compared to the more prolific Sierra sagas.

KQ4 is an obvious choice being the remaining un-remade chapter of the KQ saga, and a solid and rewarding game to tweak and enrich through a "redux" format.

And, me being a sucker for historical fiction, be it interactive or not, Christy Marx's Camelot will always be a personal favorite. Here again, there's lots could be done in the design department to make a "redux" version richer than the original, not to mention more approachable and less rigid. For example, get rid of the dead ends, like where you could neglect to pick up some items or moneys in Camelot, then get barred from returning once you left. Redo the annoying copy protection puzzles into more user-friendly tasks that would pose an even greater challenge to the player. Spruce up the Britain map with a couple extra locations to replace the inaccessible points-of-interest strewn across it in the original (even if only mock locations, like the Saurus repair shop in QG2VGA). Finally, perhaps make the "honor accomplishment" point system more relevant to progress during gameplay, and not just have it come into play when you get zapped in the amphitheater at the end. Ideally, the design and storyboard people of such a remake could profit from some knowledge of Arthurian legend and Celtic lore, in order to successfully add their own extra flavor into the game and have it up to par with Marx's meticulous research and design.

Gold Rush would be a solid contender in my eyes for the same reasons. Not as popular a game as almost any other on the list, but maybe on a more edutainment platform (such as the original was), it would have a certain appeal as a refreshing change from the games of today... something like the Eco Quest games, but marketed (well, marketed as a free downloadable remake) as a quasi-epic VGA-style romp through the American Frontier, spruced up to include more challenges and more true-to-life historical detail than the original. It could work.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#95 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:56 pm

I should add that if we were ever to remake commercial versions of games like King's Quest IV, we'd make it playable in two different formats. The first would be the original format, which would be identical to the EGA version in every way, except for maybe some rewritten or additional dialogue and the removal of dead-ends (i.e. on the same level and KQ1VGA is). And the other version would add all of the AGDI non-canon events to the story. You would choose which version you wanted to play at the beginning of the game. That way both purists and people who like Daniel's story can enjoy the game without having to endure trade-offs.

This was actually an approach we tried to take with King's Quest III Redux. Originally all the Father related content was supposed to be completely optional. In a way, it still is if you avoid optional dialogue that refer to the Ancients, don't pick up any non-canon items, and refuse to talk to him. However, some new parts of the game that tie into the non-canon lore, like Treasure Island and Seran, became permanent fixtures, so we kind of abandoned the idea mid-way. For any newly made commercial remakes, we'd try to keep the two versions fully separated.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#96 Post by Radogol » Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:00 pm

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:I should add that if we were ever to remake commercial versions of games like King's Quest IV, we'd make it playable in two different formats...
And how would that work for Mask of Eternity?

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#97 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:05 pm

I don't know since I haven't even thought about how such a game would work as a point & click adventure yet, and I don't even know how Daniel has factored in the MOE era events with the Father and the Ascension (which would roughly occur at the same time as MOE's Cataclysm).

If a MOE remake was made and it kept the basic plot and premise of the current game, then I don't think it would be difficult to add and remove the Father related material as needed.

But MOE isn't an adventure game, so in order to be converted into one, it would require a more radical overhaul than something like KQ4. Therefore,the same principles of keeping the original game intact wouldn't apply here. ;)

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#98 Post by MusicallyInspired » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:17 pm

It'd be really interesting if whatever Lucreto did was a detriment to The Father's plans and they were at odds with you caught in the middle. Nothing beyond references, though, perhaps. Still an interesting thought to have two enemies that are themselves in opposition as well as you.

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#99 Post by Diath » Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:32 pm

Thats about the only negative thing that came out for me when finishing KQ3 Redux, which was the father story not being concluded. I really hope there is a way to continue the games commercially because I want to know how the Father story eventually concludes!!

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Re: Future Remake: Part Deux

#100 Post by cynicalmatt » Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:13 pm

Sarcastic Sid wrote:Please please please do for QFG3 what you did with KQ2! More Tarna! More class specific tasks! Less annoying music! More character development! A better ending (I mean, give us a ceremony which improves depending on how much you accomplish, then zap us away to Mordavia.) A thieves guild! Access to the Liontaur section of town! More! just, more and better please. if anyone can do it, it's you guys.
I know I already voted, but I still have to express my support for this idea. Quest For Glory 3 is simply too short. It feels exactly like what it is - an intermediary chapter. I like a lot of what exists in QFG3, but it's too easy to fly right through the game in a single evening. It would be great to see some additional content, in addition to fixing the existing problems with the original.

Quest For Glory is my favorite Sierra series, so more of it is almost never a bad thing unless it's done with misguided intentions.

That said, I'll take whatever I can get. Any of the games on that list would make me happy, in all honesty. I would fully support commercial releases as well. I regularly buy games I already ownon GOG, just so I don't have to find/swap discs (Gabriel Knight 2, Baldur's Gate, etc.), so I'd have no problem paying for high quality remakes.

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