Writing and Design

Steve Ince, freelance writer and game designer, posts thoughts and comments on these two meaningful aspects of his life.

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Name: Steve Ince

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Another good So Blonde review

I've just read a pretty cool review of So Blonde. It's always so encouraging to read positive reviews.

"Overall So Blonde is a very good and enjoyable game that will remind old timers of the great Lucas Art games of the 90s like Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and Full Throttle. For the young’uns it is a great opportunity to get a feel of what great adventure games are."

Thank you, nostalgeek.

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Wallace and Gromit

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.

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Friday, July 25, 2008

Leipzig 2008

Hooray, I'm going again. And posting again. :)

I'll be at the game convention on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Last year was so insane with meetings and interviews that I felt I had no time to myself. This year, though, DTP have left me with Friday to myself so that I can see the show and hang round with cool people. If you're a cool people and going to the show, let me know and perhaps we might arrange to casually bump into each other unexpectedly.

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