Please, Please, Please Can We Have A Discworld Game

[saltski]

The discworld games are the perfect format to be included as with Sam & Max and ToMI, the point and click interface and the 'inane problem solving' would be wonderful. The voices are already in the original games so just an update of graphics would be great. The original games are now very rare to get hold of and would be great to get them onto XBLA or PC.

With the current interest in the Pratchett/Discworld films on Sky they are increasing in popularity in mainstream culture and I'm sure would be very sucessful.

Please Telltale, can you make this happen?

[Shwoo]

Are you saying you just want an updated rerelease of the Discworld games that are already out? I can't tell.

[GuybrushWilco]

I played the original disc world game a long time ago, and the puzzles were so illogical and obscure that I did not find it enjoyable.

[City Of Delusion]

I've heard that ScummVM's preparing to announce the freewareing of the original games. That said, there may still be a market for a remake (Beneath A Steel Sky, already declared freeware, has recently been ported to the iPhone).

[Ayato]

A remake of the old games would be somewhat counterproductive. New adventures based on the characters and worlds of the books would be preferable in opinion.

[Molokov]

As an incredibly huge Discworld fan who owns all the books, and most of the "special" books, maps, games, music, tv series/telemovies, playscripts[1], badges, and a few figurines and more... I say no.

We don't need more Discworld games. The original three were good, but not brilliant. Most of the problem lies in the fact that the games didn't have much original humour - lots of jokes straight out of the books (no problems there) but everything else they did was not really that funny, and definitely not quite up to scratch with Pratchett's style.

I'm more than happy for us to just keep getting Terry's novels while we still can. Next one (Unseen Academicals) is out in October, and he's started work on the fourth Tiffany Aching book, "I Shall Wear Midnight". Let's hope he can complete that and the third Moist von Lipwig outing "Raising Taxes" (only rumoured at this point) before his Alzheimer's gets too bad.

Let's not pollute Discworld with bad game spinoffs. I mean, I love and trust Telltale, but do you really think they can mimic Pratchett's style of humour?


[1] Including one I adapted myself

[Secret Fawful]

Originally Posted by Molokov

As an incredibly huge Discworld fan who owns all the books, and most of the "special" books, maps, games, music, tv series/telemovies, playscripts[1], badges, and a few figurines and more... I say no.

We don't need more Discworld games. The original three were good, but not brilliant. Most of the problem lies in the fact that the games didn't have much original humour - lots of jokes straight out of the books (no problems there) but everything else they did was not really that funny, and definitely not quite up to scratch with Pratchett's style.

I'm more than happy for us to just keep getting Terry's novels while we still can. Next one (Unseen Academicals) is out in October, and he's started work on the fourth Tiffany Aching book, "I Shall Wear Midnight". Let's hope he can complete that and the third Moist von Lipwig outing "Raising Taxes" (only rumoured at this point) before his Alzheimer's gets too bad.

Let's not pollute Discworld with bad game spinoffs. I mean, I love and trust Telltale, but do you really think they can mimic Pratchett's style of humour?


[1] Including one I adapted myself

What if Terry Pratchett wrote the storyline? Which is a rare but not unheard of undertaking.

[Juicius Maximus]

What if Terry Pratchett wrote the storyline? Which is a rare but not unheard of undertaking.

Beyond ideal, but again, the Alzheimer's

[Ayato]

Originally Posted by Jucius Maximus

Beyond ideal, but again, the Alzheimer's

Granted, but that hasnt exactly stopped him from writing yet.

[natlinxz]

Whatever happened to telltale selling 3rd party games?

[Spadge]

I love Discworld, but it just works better on paper.

[Badwolf]

Originally Posted by Ayato

Granted, but that hasnt exactly stopped him from writing yet.

It's definitely slowing him down though. I saw a documentary about him and alzheimers a few months back and he really does seem to suffer at times, having trouble even writing his own signature nowadays.

[Fury]

Telltale could pull off a pratchett episodic series, but I would really avoid the old games. based on reviews, the puzzles were a bit whack.

The main issue is Terry, he would have to write the episodes, and given his current state that won't happen.

It would be nice, but I'm fine with MI and Sam and Max for now.

[Chris1]

Lots of pessimistic outlooks in this thread. I don't see why.

The problem with the old Discworld games was that they tried too hard to get the Discworld universe to fit into an adventure game. I don't think that worked very well; you ended up with a weird rehash of the Discworld plots and nonsensical puzzles.

However I think if Telltale were handling it, it would work out a lot better as their episodic style would fit far better.
They should probably avoid Ankh-Morpork and Rincewind (mostly because they've been covered too much by the existing spin-offs, but partly because it would be difficult to make them fit to Telltale's episodic model).
Lancre and the Witches would probably be a much better fit; I mean just look at The Sea and Little Fishes for something that would be a good example for an episode.

I agree that the writing would have to be done correctly. But I think you'd also have to agree that it can be done; just look at how the Vadim Jean movie adoptions have turned out.

[Molokov]

As a big fan, I think the Vadim Jean adaptions (by "The Mob" films, in case people aren't sure what we're talking about - Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, and currently Going Postal in production now) are.... well, bad, really.

They have the LOOK perfect, and there's lots of great inside jokes and tiny detailed stuff from the books for the fans.... but the adaptations fail mostly because of poor casting (on the whole) and very poor direction. Hogfather's Part 1 was a complete mish-mash of plot threads that I'm sure would have confused anyone who hadn't read the book, and The Colour of Magic just didn't work mostly due to the casting of the two main roles - David Jason could have made a good Rincewind about 25 years ago, but not now. Sean Astin is a great actor, and he did well with Twoflower... but Twoflower is supposed to be a parody of an Asian tourist, not an American one.

Anyway, if it gets people interested enough in reading the books, I'll support them.

Having been involved in and seen many stage adaptations of the books, they work sooo much better on stage, because you can afford to be silly (to get audience laughs) and it's far easier to have a sixty foot dragon when it's all in the audience's imagination

[Best play to be in, and funniest to watch: Lords and Ladies. And no, I will never, ever be doing the Stick and Bucket Dance, ever again!]

[Ayato]

Originally Posted by Molokov

As a big fan, I think the Vadim Jean adaptions (by "The Mob" films, in case people aren't sure what we're talking about - Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, and currently Going Postal in production now) are.... well, bad, really.

They have the LOOK perfect, and there's lots of great inside jokes and tiny detailed stuff from the books for the fans.... but the adaptations fail mostly because of poor casting (on the whole) and very poor direction. Hogfather's Part 1 was a complete mish-mash of plot threads that I'm sure would have confused anyone who hadn't read the book, and The Colour of Magic just didn't work mostly due to the casting of the two main roles - David Jason could have made a good Rincewind about 25 years ago, but not now. Sean Astin is a great actor, and he did well with Twoflower... but Twoflower is supposed to be a parody of an Asian tourist, not an American one.

Anyway, if it gets people interested enough in reading the books, I'll support them.

Having been involved in and seen many stage adaptations of the books, they work sooo much better on stage, because you can afford to be silly (to get audience laughs) and it's far easier to have a sixty foot dragon when it's all in the audience's imagination

[Best play to be in, and funniest to watch: Lords and Ladies. And no, I will never, ever be doing the Stick and Bucket Dance, ever again!]

I agree that David Jason wasnt an ideal Rincewind, but he made a damn fine Albert.

[guitarsareboring]

Originally Posted by Ayato

I agree that David Jason wasnt an ideal Rincewind, but he made a damn fine Albert.

Casting David Jason as Rincewind has stopped me from watching that adaptation... perhaps I'll go for it eventually.

[guitarsareboring]

Originally Posted by Secret Fawful

What if Terry Pratchett wrote the storyline? Which is a rare but not unheard of undertaking.

I'm pretty sure he wrote the storyline for Discworld Noir.

I don't think there's anyway it would happen. Considering his health he's going to want to focus all of his attention to writing as many books as he can before he's no longer able to.

It'll be a sad day when he realises (if he realises) that he's passed that point.

[Cyrus7]

Originally Posted by guitarsareboring

Considering his health he's going to want to focus all of his attention to writing as many books as he can before he's no longer able to.

Probably, but on the other hand, he may consider using his writing talent for something new before it ceases. And Discworld's atmosphere seems suitable for the Telltale.

[Darth Marsden]

Originally Posted by guitarsareboring

I'm pretty sure he wrote the storyline for Discworld Noir.

Nope! I was an original story by Perfect Entertainment. They consulted with Pratchett though, and he did write some of the dialogue, but it wasn't all him.