The big adventure game news this week has been the announcement that Telltale Games will be producing a series of games featuring Wallace and Gromit. You can read the official press release, here.
The thing that struck me as really odd is that nowhere in the whole press release is there a mention of Nick Park, the man who created the wonderful characters to begin with. While I appreciate the role of Ardman in the success of the films, the true creative star is Nick Park and it’s a pity they didn’t mention him.
I’m sure that Telltale will do an excellent job, particularly as the trailer on this page already holds great promise. However, my first reaction was that it’s a real shame that a British company couldn’t have been chosen to make the games.
Then I thought about it some more and realised that there is no one here that could do it. Quality adventure development in the UK is pretty much non-existent.
Even if we look to Europe, where we regularly see adventures being developed, I don’t think that there is one of them who would do maximum justice to a license like W&G.;
Telltale Games really is the best choice for this project.
Not only has the company proved they can deliver to a regular schedule with two seasons of Sam and Max, what they’ve shown of W&G; so far looks incredibly promising and as a fan of the films I can’t wait for the games to come out.
What I find a little scary in all of this, is that when you look around for studios capable of creating humorous, fun adventure games capable of extending beyond the core fan market, there really aren’t many around.
Good luck, Telltale. My god, how we need you to succeed.
BTW – noticed that you’re a Neil Gaiman fan. Ditto. Have just finished Mr Punch, a graphic novel he’s done with Dave McKean. Spooky, meditative, and with all of the disturbing undertones he does so well. I wonder if he’s ever considered turning to games, like Clive Barker seems to have.
It would be interesting to see how some of his ideas would be turned into games. Stardust would make a wonderful adventure game (with maybe a bit of action) and Coraline would be a fascinating project to turn into a game.
I think Coraline (my favourite book of his by a long shot) would make a terrific macabre adventure game. It would simply mean building on the ‘world next door’, creating new horror scenarios and characters. Ultimate goal – free the ghost children and destroy the false Mum.
Also BTW – just played a bit of Nutso. great fun!
I can see the Coraline adventure in my mind already. 🙂
Thanks for playing Nutso and I’m glad you like it. I was playing some Lego Star Wars II yesterday and thought that if Nutso was combined with Lego Star Wars it would be perfect. 😀
A legoised laser-rifle-toting Mr Smoozle. Cool. And yes, I could see Nutso in that 3D platform style.
Not that it would ever happen, but we can dream…