Unofficial Tex Murphy

Long time no post, but still furiously lurking

Sorry for the misleading allegory title, but I won't be discussing a Tex tv series. Although now that I think about it, that would be pretty nice indeed.

I'm here because Warren Spector, fame producer of Thief and Deus Ex, just recently gave his opinion on the future of gaming and specifically mentioned lengthy games, especially lengthy adventures, were on their way out the door. Other than the feeling of hearing parrots echoing what Aaron said years ago, it got me thinking again about how to fuel this beloved engine of ours.

I know it was discussed back then but with the not so recent releases of Half Life and Sam&Max episodes it seems all that more viable, especially if the trend picks up with other developers. How realistic would it be to release a Tex game one "Day" at a time, the way they used to sell demos and sharewares? Implementing pledged pre-orders might help insuring at least two or three episodes to get the ball rolling, while the investment of the initial episode would be significantly inferior to the cost of a full game.

What I fear for this venue though, and the question was raised before, is the cancellation of series after only a few episodes, the way Fox has been butchering tv for years now (I still cry for Firefly ) Still, a few more episodes of Tex would be worth more than seeing him hang in the air as time passes by.

The other two problems we can already foresee are intrinsically linked to one another. How would we keep people waiting between episodes, and how to attract a broader audience than a simple cult following? The only solution I can come up with is the creation of a syndicated network à la HBO. Subscription fee that gives you access to a bunch of different series with different strokes for different folks. It wouldn't even have to be adventure-only, because honestly almost any game can be broken down to episodes, especially shooters or addictive arcade games like Super Smash Brothers. Hell, some games could even be interlinked the way Marvel always did with their comics, and more recently with their movies. This network could also be accessed by consoles if anyone wants to port their games for an even broader audience.

Of course for such a network to be viable and get people to actually pay you'd need a few big names in there to get the ball rolling. Games like Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego would have been perfect for this, along with Half Life episodes of course, but pretty much any established franchise would do the trick. It'd be hard to get some big names to share the wealth of course, unless they're presented with the right arguments, but it would be a viable solution even for them to continue on a smaller scale a franchise that still has a following but not large enough to fund a full game up front.

This still requires a lot of tuning but I was wondering if anyone thought it was viable or realistic, and what the costs of an episode would be, as opposed to a full game?

FRANK!! Stick around this time bud! And by stick around I mean post more!

Also, I agree (and also weep for Firefly!) But look at other games that manage to go in episodes. Half Life's doing it (to a very retarded degree) and so does Sam & Max.

To success.

So why not Tex? I mean, if done right, and by right I mean the opposite of Limbo :p

I have faith in Conners and Jones.

-Fred

FRED!! I shall stick around, and by association post more!

Those were pretty much my feelings.

But it seems that although quite a few devs are coming to the same realisation none or few are truly prepared to join forces for it, while it seems to be the only real solution left. I mean it's all going down the Hollywood boulevard, in the sense that the money from successful games only serves to finance other large productions, and no longer goes to development of smaller projects with less chances of success, and there isn't really any indie production left. I know there are a few, but how many make it to the actual retail store?

There are many ways this idea could go wrong, but surely there must be a way to make it work properly.

I think its a good idea and like the suggestion of using the Tex Murphy "Days" as the markers for the episodes. That certainly makes it sound like the Tex series would fit well into such a format considering it already sort of was cut up into episodes previously.

And speaking of Hollywood. Watched a documentary on the history of B-movies recently that was good and highlighted to me the fact that B-movie doesnt necessarily mean monsters, aliens and bad acting (even if that is part of the fun of alot of them). And how they were made to support the main film and (in Britain) for a time were government funded to encourage the British film industry giving rise to various amateurs drawing off the funds made available. And how a lot of those amateur directors made a bad name for B-movies (but of course for many the cult charm of B-movies is the 'badness') but that there were many high quality diamonds in the rough too that came from it that sometimes topped the films they were supporting (but sadly died with the rest of them). Your mention of Hollywood kinda made me make a link.... of how old Adventure games (especially FMV ones) are rather like the B-movies. Some gave it a bad name but there are many diamonds in the rough. Like the film industry, times have changed a lot but there always ways for 'smaller' productions to get out there.