6 ms·

Space Quest creators create kickstarter for a new Space Adventure

59 points by e1ven 14y ago

untog 14y ago
This is awesome. I've long since accepted that the adventure games I grew up playing aren't profitable enough, so it's fantastic to see Kickstarter step in as a way to create and fund these days. I loved the Space Quest series and was disappointed to see it slowly fade and disappear- you'll bet I'll be contributing to this. I was laughing just reading the description. Next: a sequel to Star Control II. Please.
- lucisferre 14y ago
  There was a sequel actually. Was released with little fanfare and it wasn't amazing, though I still enjoyed it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_3
  - untog 14y ago
    Oh, I know. But it wasn't made by the guys who made the original, and was, as you say, not great.
    - creamyhorror 14y ago
      I liked it, but I didn't play SC2 so it had no expectations to live up to. Ship duels were fun.
      - lucisferre 14y ago
        Ship duels in SC2 are awesome too no reason not to play it now: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
        untog 14y ago
        Also worth mentioning: a mod based on the SC2 engine with a new story: http://code.google.com/p/project6014/ http://code.google.com/p/project6014/ Slow progress, though.
- gavanwoolery 14y ago
  Yeah, I actually twittered Paul Reiche about kickstarting a real Star Control 2 sequel. SC2 might not have the biggest fan base, but I would argue it is probably the most passionate :)
zandorg 14y ago
It'd be nice if the Infocom guys could get a text adventure on Kickstarter!
- egypturnash 14y ago
  The dude behind the GET LAMP documentary proposed that a little while back, IIRC. I don't think he got much interest from the ex-Infocommies. google yeah here's the post. http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3490 http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3490
- tdicola 14y ago
  Check out the modern interactive fiction scene, there are some great games being made by passionate people today. The annual competition always has some good stuff: http://www.ifcomp.org/ http://www.ifcomp.org/
bane 14y ago
from the source http://guysfromandromeda.com/new-game/ http://guysfromandromeda.com/new-game/
stock_toaster 14y ago
Seems like a bit of a high budget cutoff. I wonder if that has the opposite effect, of making fewer people donate because they think it will never be met, as apposed to people donating to 'see how high we can get it' after a lower threshold has already been met. I hope they make it though. :) EDIT: after reading more about it and watching the video it does seem like a pretty ambitious undertaking. fingers crossed
- arihelgason 14y ago
  A comparable project, the Leisure Suit Larry remake, also had a $500,000 cut-off. It ended up raising over $650,000 so it doesn't look far-fetched. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-le...
highace 14y ago
Bit disappointed that it isn't gonna be another actual Space Quest starring Roger Wilco, I'd definitely be up for that.
- bitops 14y ago
  In all likelihood that's what they wanted too, but the IP is restricted.
melling 14y ago
There are a lot of ambitious projects on Kickstarter. Here's one that I hope makes it but which has a long way to go: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightytreehouse/dome http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightytreehouse/dome Anyone here from Kickstarter? I was thinking that a cool feature for the site would be to have groups, kind of like SETI @ Home groups. People from HN or Reddit, for example, could have groups then we could see how much each group contributes. There was a 10" rocket engine that recently got funded (barely) and it seemed like a great HN sponsored project.
- egypturnash 14y ago
  They've got curated lists of projects[1], some of which are things like "projects from people on Metafilter"[2], but I believe the only way they have to group pledgers is their "follow your Facebook friends' activity" feature[3] 1: http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/curated-pages?ref=home_curated http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/curated-pages?ref=home_c... 2: http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/metafilter http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/metafilter 3: http://www.kickstarter.com/friends?ref=home_social http://www.kickstarter.com/friends?ref=home_social
vl 14y ago
How about iPhone/iPad version of Space Quest before this grand project? Also, their physical/digital pledge structure is extremely confusing, gonna do $30 pledge, seems like a nice balance.
- e1ven 14y ago
  I'm sure they'd love to -- Hell, I'd give a kidney to be able to, but those rights aren't cheap. Last I heard it was 250K + a hefty per game royalty. They are doing this as a "spiritual sequel" if you will. They aren't spending kick starter funds on buying back the rights.
- egypturnash 14y ago
  Read all the way to the "special thanks" section at the bottom: Not coincidentally, Martin is responsible for Sarien.net and for bringing some of Sierra’s classic games (including Space Quest) to the iPad. Check out his site.
  - vl 14y ago
    I played it, while it's impressive effort, it's not that great - I got tired of being unable to walk through some bridge, etc. without falling and of being stuck because of collision detection errors.
    - mrtnkl 14y ago
      Sorry to hear. I made it as a tribute to keep fans just one click away from playing and allow them to refer other (new) players to these games long forgotten (by publishers). Sure there are technical tidbits but if you read the how-to-play instructions below the game screen there are many little tweaks (such as doubleclicking or doubletapping) that overcome what you're mentioning, and could've given you a more pleasant experience.
fforw 14y ago
Oh how I not miss dying all the time because I clicked 2 pixel in the wrong direction.
- nona 14y ago
  Well to be fair, in those days pixels were, like, HUGE! ;-)
bigethan 14y ago
So I loved Space Quest, loved these guys stuff. But does it feel like this trend of Kickstarting adventure games has jumped the shark a bit? Their video was high quality, but also painfully unwatchable. I could feel them wanting to hit the kickstarter lottery more than wanting to actually be doing this.
- SaigonKick 14y ago
  That is probably due to the audio post-processing... the video was great, but I found myself wanting to turn on subtitles.
- jerf 14y ago
  Hasn't the rush to be the first to declare some trend still in its infancy has jumped the shark itself jumped the shark?
troymc 14y ago
I thought it was bizarre that they'd have all those voice-over artists come on and say they'd be involved. When I think Space Quest, I don't think great voice-overs, I think quirky graphics and offbeat plot, all conveyed by text. Do modern adventure games now use voice-overs instead of text? (The last ones I played were the Sierra games of the 80s.) I think I might hold off on supporting this game until I see what they make.
primigenus 14y ago
It's not super obvious from the page but the thing that sets this project apart from all the other is that they're going to build a HTML5 demo game during the Kickstarter period based on fan feedback. This is a great way to show that these two guys who haven't been in the gaming scene since the 90s are able to work with modern technology to build a solid multiplatform release that makes use of today's gaming paradigms (like touch support). I know I'm excited and I invested up a tier on principle because this is what I want to see more of rather than just someone coming out and saying "here's a HD remake of a game I made in 1987" - nostalgia-driven I'm sure, but the reason we love these guys is because they're supposed to be able to create something new, not recreate things they made when they were young.
- peterkelly 14y ago
  There's some info at http://martinkool.com/post/22706224644/how-i-brought-html5-to-the-space-quest-creators-kickstar http://martinkool.com/post/22706224644/how-i-brought-html5-t... about the HTML5 stuff they're going to be doing, which looks extremely cool. I think that in addition to promoting the kick-starter campaign it could be a great demo of what can be done using today's browsers. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come out with. The demo was done by Martin Kool, who previously ported some of the early space quest and other Sierra games to HTML & Javascript, which can be played online at http://sarien.net/ http://sarien.net/
allenbrunson 14y ago
Oh, man. Never saw this coming. Scott Murphy has been talking shit about Mark Crowe for, like, forever. Would I want to work with Mark again? No, I don't think so. As I learned the hard way, Mark was not a very good partner in the long run. http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/234/ http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/intervi...

59 points by e1ven 14y ago

untog 14y ago

This is awesome. I've long since accepted that the adventure games I grew up playing aren't profitable enough, so it's fantastic to see Kickstarter step in as a way to create and fund these days. I loved the Space Quest series and was disappointed to see it slowly fade and disappear- you'll bet I'll be contributing to this. I was laughing just reading the description. Next: a sequel to Star Control II. Please.

lucisferre 14y ago
There was a sequel actually. Was released with little fanfare and it wasn't amazing, though I still enjoyed it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_3
- untog 14y ago
  Oh, I know. But it wasn't made by the guys who made the original, and was, as you say, not great.
  - creamyhorror 14y ago
    I liked it, but I didn't play SC2 so it had no expectations to live up to. Ship duels were fun.
    - lucisferre 14y ago
      Ship duels in SC2 are awesome too no reason not to play it now: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
      - untog 14y ago
        Also worth mentioning: a mod based on the SC2 engine with a new story: http://code.google.com/p/project6014/ http://code.google.com/p/project6014/ Slow progress, though.
gavanwoolery 14y ago
Yeah, I actually twittered Paul Reiche about kickstarting a real Star Control 2 sequel. SC2 might not have the biggest fan base, but I would argue it is probably the most passionate :)

zandorg 14y ago

It'd be nice if the Infocom guys could get a text adventure on Kickstarter!

egypturnash 14y ago
The dude behind the GET LAMP documentary proposed that a little while back, IIRC. I don't think he got much interest from the ex-Infocommies. google yeah here's the post. http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3490 http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3490
tdicola 14y ago
Check out the modern interactive fiction scene, there are some great games being made by passionate people today. The annual competition always has some good stuff: http://www.ifcomp.org/ http://www.ifcomp.org/

bane 14y ago

from the source http://guysfromandromeda.com/new-game/ http://guysfromandromeda.com/new-game/

stock_toaster 14y ago

Seems like a bit of a high budget cutoff. I wonder if that has the opposite effect, of making fewer people donate because they think it will never be met, as apposed to people donating to 'see how high we can get it' after a lower threshold has already been met. I hope they make it though. :) EDIT: after reading more about it and watching the video it does seem like a pretty ambitious undertaking. fingers crossed

arihelgason 14y ago
A comparable project, the Leisure Suit Larry remake, also had a $500,000 cut-off. It ended up raising over $650,000 so it doesn't look far-fetched. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-le...

highace 14y ago

Bit disappointed that it isn't gonna be another actual Space Quest starring Roger Wilco, I'd definitely be up for that.

bitops 14y ago
In all likelihood that's what they wanted too, but the IP is restricted.

melling 14y ago

There are a lot of ambitious projects on Kickstarter. Here's one that I hope makes it but which has a long way to go: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightytreehouse/dome http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightytreehouse/dome Anyone here from Kickstarter? I was thinking that a cool feature for the site would be to have groups, kind of like SETI @ Home groups. People from HN or Reddit, for example, could have groups then we could see how much each group contributes. There was a 10" rocket engine that recently got funded (barely) and it seemed like a great HN sponsored project.

egypturnash 14y ago
They've got curated lists of projects[1], some of which are things like "projects from people on Metafilter"[2], but I believe the only way they have to group pledgers is their "follow your Facebook friends' activity" feature[3] 1: http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/curated-pages?ref=home_curated http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/curated-pages?ref=home_c... 2: http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/metafilter http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/metafilter 3: http://www.kickstarter.com/friends?ref=home_social http://www.kickstarter.com/friends?ref=home_social

vl 14y ago

How about iPhone/iPad version of Space Quest before this grand project? Also, their physical/digital pledge structure is extremely confusing, gonna do $30 pledge, seems like a nice balance.

e1ven 14y ago
I'm sure they'd love to -- Hell, I'd give a kidney to be able to, but those rights aren't cheap. Last I heard it was 250K + a hefty per game royalty. They are doing this as a "spiritual sequel" if you will. They aren't spending kick starter funds on buying back the rights.
egypturnash 14y ago
Read all the way to the "special thanks" section at the bottom: Not coincidentally, Martin is responsible for Sarien.net and for bringing some of Sierra’s classic games (including Space Quest) to the iPad. Check out his site.
- vl 14y ago
  I played it, while it's impressive effort, it's not that great - I got tired of being unable to walk through some bridge, etc. without falling and of being stuck because of collision detection errors.
  - mrtnkl 14y ago
    Sorry to hear. I made it as a tribute to keep fans just one click away from playing and allow them to refer other (new) players to these games long forgotten (by publishers). Sure there are technical tidbits but if you read the how-to-play instructions below the game screen there are many little tweaks (such as doubleclicking or doubletapping) that overcome what you're mentioning, and could've given you a more pleasant experience.

fforw 14y ago

Oh how I not miss dying all the time because I clicked 2 pixel in the wrong direction.

nona 14y ago
Well to be fair, in those days pixels were, like, HUGE! ;-)

bigethan 14y ago

So I loved Space Quest, loved these guys stuff. But does it feel like this trend of Kickstarting adventure games has jumped the shark a bit? Their video was high quality, but also painfully unwatchable. I could feel them wanting to hit the kickstarter lottery more than wanting to actually be doing this.

SaigonKick 14y ago
That is probably due to the audio post-processing... the video was great, but I found myself wanting to turn on subtitles.
jerf 14y ago
Hasn't the rush to be the first to declare some trend still in its infancy has jumped the shark itself jumped the shark?

troymc 14y ago

I thought it was bizarre that they'd have all those voice-over artists come on and say they'd be involved. When I think Space Quest, I don't think great voice-overs, I think quirky graphics and offbeat plot, all conveyed by text. Do modern adventure games now use voice-overs instead of text? (The last ones I played were the Sierra games of the 80s.) I think I might hold off on supporting this game until I see what they make.

primigenus 14y ago

It's not super obvious from the page but the thing that sets this project apart from all the other is that they're going to build a HTML5 demo game during the Kickstarter period based on fan feedback. This is a great way to show that these two guys who haven't been in the gaming scene since the 90s are able to work with modern technology to build a solid multiplatform release that makes use of today's gaming paradigms (like touch support). I know I'm excited and I invested up a tier on principle because this is what I want to see more of rather than just someone coming out and saying "here's a HD remake of a game I made in 1987" - nostalgia-driven I'm sure, but the reason we love these guys is because they're supposed to be able to create something new, not recreate things they made when they were young.

peterkelly 14y ago
There's some info at http://martinkool.com/post/22706224644/how-i-brought-html5-to-the-space-quest-creators-kickstar http://martinkool.com/post/22706224644/how-i-brought-html5-t... about the HTML5 stuff they're going to be doing, which looks extremely cool. I think that in addition to promoting the kick-starter campaign it could be a great demo of what can be done using today's browsers. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come out with. The demo was done by Martin Kool, who previously ported some of the early space quest and other Sierra games to HTML & Javascript, which can be played online at http://sarien.net/ http://sarien.net/

allenbrunson 14y ago

Oh, man. Never saw this coming. Scott Murphy has been talking shit about Mark Crowe for, like, forever. Would I want to work with Mark again? No, I don't think so. As I learned the hard way, Mark was not a very good partner in the long run. http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/234/ http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/intervi...