Would you guys like it if they took the same art direction as TSL?

[Anakin Skywalker]

Telltale, if you're reading, this is what we want:

Actually, I would absolutely love it if Telltale went for a 2D/2.5d in a KQ5/KQ6 style, with high definition artwork (just think what KQ5 and KQ6 would look like in high resolution).

[BagginsKQ]

I also want the option to buy it for Nintendo 3DS for kicks!

[Chyron8472]

Originally Posted by Lambonius

In my opinion, there is a very simple formula that Telltale should try to duplicate. Simply look at the cutscene paintings from KQ5, and turn them into 3D characters and settings. That style should be mimicked as closely as humanly possible. Sierra never surpassed it, and Telltale doesn't have the skills to successfully fuck with it.

Agreed. My thoughts exactly.

also this:

[Lambonius]

Now see, the thing is--I don't include the cutscene graphics from KQ6, because honestly, many of them aren't true illustrations in the manner of the KQ5 paintings. Many of the KQ6 cutscenes are just digitized images of actors in cheesy costumes with lame, detail-less backgrounds. They honestly look dated and ugly to me--kinda like the digitized actor sprites from the original Mortal Kombat. The KQ5 screens on the other hand, are true works of art, fully fleshed out paintings loaded with detail and packed with a distinctive visual style reminiscent of any of the best high fantasy illustrators out there. I like KQ6 graphics, but they just don't have that timeless quality for me.

[Anakin Skywalker]

Even Sierra admitted that more money went into developing KQ6's story than it did the art. I forget where I read this but yeah.
Compare the graphics of KQ5 to KQ6. Same graphics system yes, but the backgrounds in KQ5 are detailed to the most minute degree, every little blade of grass...The backgrounds in KQ6 are not nearly as well detailed, nor as vibrantly colored. And that's because the focus was more on the story than the world.

[MusicallyInspired]

I tend to consider Graham's sprite and walking animations from KQ5 much smoother and more polished than Alex's from KQ6.

[Anakin Skywalker]

Originally Posted by MusicallyInspired

I tend to consider Graham's sprite and walking animations from KQ5 are much smoother and more polished than Alex's from KQ6.

Yeah Alex's sprite always struck me as a little clunkier, and his walking feels more "linear" somehow. I can't explain it. With Graham it actually feels like you're controlling him. With Alex, it has the same sort of effect that moving Adrian around in Phantas does. Like a cinematic-ness to it that takes away from the feeling of control over the character.

[BagginsKQ]

Mind you kQ6 artwork is less static because many of the elements are animated sprites over the background. Arms, legs, faces, bodies. Look at those images in the files and you see hat the arwork is incomplete to allow for the animated elements.

KQ5 had less animation, it's more static background.

Thus Kq6 backgrounds are technologically superior, although it came at a cost to visual quality.

An example is the above pic of winged ones... In the game it has an additional sprite and animations for Alexander in the foreground. Azure's arm is a sprite, he is armless in the artework. Allaria has no left hand. The hand is another sprite.

Similar thing occurs with the oracle. In re arwork she has no arms, and Alexander is a separate sprite.

Yeah Alex's sprite always struck me as a little clunkier, and his walking feels more "linear" somehow. I can't explain it. With Graham it actually feels like you're controlling him. With Alex, it has the same sort of effect that moving Adrian around in Phantas does. Like a cinematic-ness to it that takes away from the feeling of control over the character.

That's because KQ6 and Phantas used the same technology. Live actors and green screen, with motion capture for some elements.

[Anakin Skywalker]

Originally Posted by BagginsKQ

Mind you kQ6 artwork is less static because many of the elements are animated sprites over the background. Arms, legs, faces, bodies. Look at those images in the files and you see hat the arwork is incomplete to allow for the animated elements.

KQ5 had less animation, it's more static background.

Thus Kq6 backgrounds are technologically superior, although it came at a cost to visual quality.



That's because KQ6 and Phantas used the same technology. Live actors and green screen, with motion capture for some elements.

So technically in some ways, KQ6 was actually Roberta's first foray into interactive movies....Sort of a testing ground for Phantas. I know in the Making of KQ6 she says she feels that in her games you're basically playing a movie in which you're the director, the actor and the audience all at the same time. You could see the ideas for Phantasmagoria, and for making games a truly cinematic experience were bubbling in her mind around this time and Ken too as early as 1990 or so was pushing more and more for games to become interactive movies.

He was much more optimistic in the late 80s/early-mid 90s. He felt that games would become on par with movies and literature as ART...By the late 90s, around the time of the sale to CUC, he seems sort of dejected, and doesn't refer to games as interactive stories or movies anymore but as simply games; entertainment, not art.

[Chyron8472]

Originally Posted by Anakin Skywalker

I know in the Making of KQ6 she says she feels that in her games you're basically playing a movie in which you're the director, the actor and the audience all at the same time. You could see the ideas for Phantasmagoria, and for making games a truly cinematic experience were bubbling in her mind around this time and Ken too as early as 1990 or so was pushing more and more for games to become interactive movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwBeQvSUBg4

quote is at @ 3:38

[MusicallyInspired]

Graham moved his arm in a closeups at the beginning and ending of KQ5, but yeah, generally there's not much movement. But KQ6 doesn't have THAT much more.

[BagginsKQ]

In KQ6 there are generally 4-5 things that move. Generally marked by incomplete painting if you rip the painting from the files. This is one of the reasons why the quality suffered.

Plus Alexander is usually a separate individual sprite/s placed on top of the painting. Shamir is a separate sprite as well in many if the close up screens as well.

KQ5 had one or two things that moved maybe an arm and facial features.

Some scenes like the closeup of Alexander putting ring on Cassima's hand are partial green screen work that were apparently either hand painted over or digitally painted over. One claim is that one of the actors who played Alexander had long blond hair, they had to fix it. Others they repainted to try make it have the same style.

[Cez]

Of course, I'm biased, but I wouldn't mind seeing Telltale's game taking a next gen take at this look:

[Chyron8472]

dang it, Cez!

resize your images for crying out loud....

[Cez]

There that should be better. Still a bit big, but they are not overblown.

[thom-22]

One thing I've always really liked about TT's games, from the first Sam & Max series, is that the camera in most scenes is just about horizontal to the characters, often at a near-constant distance, and fairly close so that the characters are appropriately sized on the screen. Occasionally, the camera moves up of course to show more in larger spaces, or closer in for more confined spaces. But it's still quite a contrast from how LucasArts did 3D; I remember quite a few scenes in Grim Fandango where Manny was but a speck as the camera went high overhead.

The downside of this is that you don't get many wide open spaces. Telltale's games often have an east-west orientation to them, and not a lot of north-south. When Guybrush moves from the docks of Flotsam into the jungle, there's kind of a disconnect, the camera jumping from one parallel line to the next (though the jungle did have paths in four directions, as part of a puzzle or two).

So I look at that shot of King Graham on a horse in a vast cavern with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I hate to see the game character so small, but at the same time I'd love to explore a huge cavern (assuming there's interesting stuff to do in there). Is that shot from a cut-scene, or does the player have control of that horse? Is the cavern something the player gets to explore, or just a "photo-op"?

[Cez]

It's a cutscene prior to an arcade sequence where you get attacked by some shadow monsters. The camera pulls closer on for the gameplay section, looking something like this:

http://www.postudios.com/blog/?attachment_id=969

We do have a WIDE area in Episode 4 that pulls back significantly, and that is the Maze of the Isle of the Beast, where you get to explore the majority of what we created for it (which is a very large area). It used to be mostly desolated, but when we broke the episodes and started to add content to the isles, I decided to fill it with puzzles and different things to find. I'm quite happy with how it feels now having just taken a full pass through it.

I normally like to be closer to the character, but when there's opportunity to explore big areas, it's cool to pull back.

[BagginsKQ]

I'm bias

Hi Bias, nice to meet you.

[Cez]

Originally Posted by BagginsKQ

Hi Bias, nice to meet you.

Heh... :P

[Lambonius]

And the TSL self-promotion machine revs back into high gear!