Heather Hudson Interview (Jess Harding, JP: The Game) - Alternative Magazine Online

[martymcfly]

I have just posted an interview with Heather Hudson (the voice of Jess Harding, Jurassic Park: The Game) on Alternative Magazine Online:

INTERVIEW – In Conversation With Heather Hudson (Jess Harding, Jurassic Park: The Game)

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts!

[sniperwar10]

deleted scene........

[RexMaster]

Had to stop reading in the first paragraph, LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
“undoubtedly the best Jurassic Park game ever made.” ?
AHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAAH HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funniest thing ive heard all day and I laughed a lot today!

It was a good game but no way! QTE gameplay? Compared to Trespasser or JPOG which both had better graphics and gameplay? lol The strongest point in JPTG was the story, and I enjoyed it a lot but that line from the magazine is ridiculous.

[DAISHI]

Originally Posted by RexMaster

Had to stop reading in the first paragraph, LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
“undoubtedly the best Jurassic Park game ever made.” ?
AHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAAH HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funniest thing ive heard all day and I laughed a lot today!

It was a good game but no way! QTE gameplay? Compared to Trespasser or JPOG which both had better graphics and gameplay? lol The strongest point in JPTG was the story, and I enjoyed it a lot but that line from the magazine is ridiculous.

Aaaaand trolling.

I give you Trespasser.

[RexMaster]

Originally Posted by DAISHI

Aaaaand trolling.

I give you Trespasser.

Thanks for posting a pic so I didnt have to go find one myself... The graphics are more realistic than JPTG honestly! The graphics are far ahead of most games of the time other than Half Life. The first physics engine ever, first relatively good AI, voices of Richard Attenborough and Minnie Driver, and about a hundred more breakthroughs in gaming that made the game revolutionary that I dont wanna get into. The fact is that even though it failed because it didnt meet the expectations created due to the game's hype, it was far more revolutionary than JPTG and far more popular. You didnt hear that much hype about Jurassic Park: The Game (extremely creative name btw), plus the Trespasser team actually released info on the game early during creation as opposed to the day before release like JPTG. My point is that saying that JPTG was the best JP game of all time is very far from the truth, it didnt do anything special but clear up a few questions we had about the first movie, big deal. Anybody who isnt a huge JP fan like ppl here didnt buy the game and were turned away from the JP franchise even more than JPIII caused which is another setback for Universal in continuing the franchise. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed the game a lot, but it was far from the best JP game. Plus the framerate was worse than putting a bunch of JP pictures in a powerpoint slideshow and skipping through them, and the control system was similar also (press a single button over and over to continue watching basically). I spent a lot of time defending this game myself so I know where your response is coming from and the responses that will probalbly come after this post. Trust me, I tried to get myself and others to believe this was a good overall game but it wasnt, it was like watching a 5 episode JP TV series. (Edit: my bad, I mean 4 episode TV show, because they had to cut an episode due to time even though the graphics were 90s graphics in 2011) Now theres a lot more to JPOG, Trespasser, and other JP games from the past that have things JPTG could never have. Once you've mastered the controls to Trespasser, then you've played a game, and anybody who has played it knows what I mean, those are hard controls to learn (or in Telltale language, hard QTE combos to master).

Read up next time before you try to insult an unfinished, yet revolutionary masterpiece: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park:_Trespasser

I felt like Telltale had a lot of potential before playing JPTG, and it was a good game, but only good enough to satisfy the people like me who love the franchise. Universal's evry move with the JP franchise should be world-known like in 93 after the first movie's release but its getting further and further from that point as more unpopular games and toys and crap are made. JPTG had an awesome story, interesting characters, and interesting new dinos (and Tylosaurus!), but it literally destroyed that potential with the horrible framerate, secrecy until the release was days away, and cartoony, bad graphics.

I was looking forward to Law and Order Legacies, but the graphics with that game were even worse than with JPTG, and even though the graphics are horrible compared to other games on the iPad, it ran worse than them which is just sad. Crysis runs better on my PC than JPTG and BTTF:TG and it could run better on the iPad than Law and Order Legacies. I was then still willing to give Telltale another chance because I like The Walking Dead but Telltale is still playing thier "Telltale's Keep-Everything-Secret-'Til-The-Last-Day Game:The Game" once again and after making us wait months without any info. Then they give basically nothing to us in thier Playing Dead video other than that WD wont be all button pushing like JPTG and two screenshots that showed us nothing about the game. Evry aspect of getting a Telltale game is frustrating, especially because the games are usually released on a random day, and at the last minute they delay the game for six months or dont have it playable for fourteen days after the release because of "technical difficulties" basically. Of course you can only rarely buy a disc copy, too, usually you HAVE to buy the downloadable version that takes days to work. I will probalbly end up buying WD despite all of this because ive wasted so much time waiting for it, but after that I really hope Telltale doesnt make another JP or BTTF game. This system for selling and creating games is horrible and it leads to the end of a company that has a lot of potential in most cases, and if Telltale does go down I hope they dont take Jurassic park with it. Im suprised Telltale didnt learn after Jurassic Park The Game, it really is sad. If Jurassic Park taught us anything it is that life finds a way, meaning that IF YOU DONT ADAPT, YOU DIE! This is what is happening to Telltale, if they want to keep the dead Point and Click genre "alive", cool, but with thier methods of selling the game, it can only last so long because in a way, they are killing the Point and Click genre faster than it was dying. I am just trying to give advice btw from a JP and BTTF fan's view, I dont care if people say that I'm wrong because a lot of what I said in this very long, badly written (im tired, lol) post is true. I hope that you can see that, and I hope if anyone from Telltale reads this, they dont take it as an insult but that they take some of the advice from this post and better thier company with it.

[Trenchfoot]

Great interview! Now TellTale must answer about that juicy deleted scene... Tell us!

PS: Michael Land interview!

[Sadonicus]

Originally Posted by RexMaster

I spent a lot of time defending this game myself so I know where your response is coming from and the responses that will probalbly come after this post. Trust me, I tried to get myself and others to believe this was a good overall game but it wasnt, it was like watching a 5 episode JP TV series.

Yeah, its funny. The more I look back, the more the nostalgia-dust settles, the more I see how bad that game was and how unsatisfied and dissappointed I am. The story and atmosphere was really good, but this is just not how you adapt a movie into a videogame. Its just a lazy and uninspired approach.

I really only remember watching an animated movie, I never had a feeling I was "doing something", totally unlike the memories I got from other videogames.
I wouldnt care if it would be some experimental approach with a new IP, but it kinda annoys me that a game company makes a game about one of my favourite movies, the possibilities waving in front of my eyes, and what do they come up with? To be honest I suspected it the day I heard it would come from telltale, but I WANTED to like it. I needed to force myself to look over all the glaring flaws I would never forgive if this wouldnt be Jurassic Park, like most of all fans who played this game I guess. But you know what? Fuck that! I guess we will still have to wait for a proper Jurassic Park videogame

I think the Jurassic Park franchise was simply too big for telltale, end of story!

You just cannot make a game off of a blockbuster IP which always stood for cutting edge special effects and adventure and excitement and turn it into a barely interactive, technologically extremely outdated animated movie with some button prompts, remove all exploration and immersion, and expect people to love it!

I know about budget problems, but if you dont have enough money to pay the movie justice, then just leave it.

And look what went wrong:
- the unauthentic T-Rex roar in the first trailer, which should be supposed to make people excited, but instead irritated them
- the massive delay on the very last minute, and still cutting an episode, still buggy
- the intelligent telltale employees faking metacritic scores
- the too slow reaction to the "jeep-affair"
Are these professionals or what?

I really hope they learned their lesson and do a better job on the Walking Dead, so that at least WD-fans wont be screwed!

[RAnthonyMahan]

Originally Posted by RexMaster

Had to stop reading in the first paragraph, LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
“undoubtedly the best Jurassic Park game ever made.” ?
AHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAAH HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funniest thing ive heard all day and I laughed a lot today!

It was a good game but no way! QTE gameplay? Compared to Trespasser or JPOG which both had better graphics and gameplay? lol The strongest point in JPTG was the story, and I enjoyed it a lot but that line from the magazine is ridiculous.

As much as I hated Telltale's Jurassic Park game, you're just being silly if you think Trespasser or Operation Genesis had better graphics. It's pretty much a given that a game that's less than a year old will have better graphics than a game that's over ten years old.

Besides, the best Jurassic Park game was clearly the Sega Genesis platformer.

[RexMaster]

Originally Posted by Sadonicus

Yeah, its funny. The more I look back, the more the nostalgia-dust settles, the more I see how bad that game was and how unsatisfied and dissappointed I am. The story and atmosphere was really good, but this is just not how you adapt a movie into a videogame. Its just a lazy and uninspired approach.

I really only remember watching an animated movie, I never had a feeling I was "doing something", totally unlike the memories I got from other videogames.
I wouldnt care if it would be some experimental approach with a new IP, but it kinda annoys me that a game company makes a game about one of my favourite movies, the possibilities waving in front of my eyes, and what do they come up with? To be honest I suspected it the day I heard it would come from telltale, but I WANTED to like it. I needed to force myself to look over all the glaring flaws I would never forgive if this wouldnt be Jurassic Park, like most of all fans who played this game I guess. But you know what? Fuck that! I guess we will still have to wait for a proper Jurassic Park videogame

I think the Jurassic Park franchise was simply too big for telltale, end of story!

You just cannot make a game off of a blockbuster IP which always stood for cutting edge special effects and adventure and excitement and turn it into a barely interactive, technologically extremely outdated animated movie with some button prompts, remove all exploration and immersion, and expect people to love it!

I know about budget problems, but if you dont have enough money to pay the movie justice, then just leave it.

And look what went wrong:
- the unauthentic T-Rex roar in the first trailer, which should be supposed to make people excited, but instead irritated them
- the massive delay on the very last minute, and still cutting an episode, still buggy
- the intelligent telltale employees faking metacritic scores
- the too slow reaction to the "jeep-affair"
Are these professionals or what?

I really hope they learned their lesson and do a better job on the Walking Dead, so that at least WD-fans wont be screwed!

I completely missed your post and it is 100% accurate. I am glad somebody sees what I am trying to say, Jurassic Park really wasn't a license for Telltale. This is the reason that people consider games based on movies crap. We did nothing and payed for a game that we could've watched on YouTube and not missed out on anything besides the cool things in the Deluxe Edition box. Universal could've sold the deluxe edition box without the game and sold more of them. I've spent over a year on these forums since the announcement and it really didn't pay off, I really am disappointed. What you said about making a game like this off of a franchise based around its revolutionary graphics in 1993 is so true. How Telltale actually got this franchise from Universal I will never know and never want to know because those cartoony graphics, no matter how smooth the game went with full character control, it would never be the Jurassic Park game that the fans have deserved for 20 years.
Like you, i tried to lie to myself to make myself buy it and want it, and want to believe it was going to be great, but once I saw the graphics of Telltale's games it was hopeless. Yet, I bought BTTF, saw the crappy framerate and graphics, and still convinced myself that JPTG would be better even though it ended up worse than BTTF! To answer your question about their flaws, they definitely aren't professionals, and the budget was not their reason, it was their excuse otherwise they wouldn't be stupid enough to make a game with the franchise (especially if they were the true fans that they claim they were).
If you look at my posts here and at JPLegacy, you will see just how much time I spent talking about how good this game was coming along, even though as time passed with nearly no updates or screenshots, it started hurt more to LIE to the community about a game that I knew would fail.
To sum up my entire opinion, this game would have sold 0 copies except for the copies sold to the moms of the designers who felt bad if it didn't have the Jurassic Park logo stamped on the front of it, and it really didn't deserve the Jurassic Park name. Telltale probably wont even learn from their mistake, hopefully Universal will though...
For the Walking Dead, even though I was looking forward to it, I am trying to look at the bigger picture now as opposed to during the release (like I did with JP). We just got our first announcement (that told us NOTHING) after months of no info on the game. It seems that Kirkman and fans of the WD TV show and comics are going to get screwed on this too, although I shouldn't talk bad about it, it can use all of the positive attention it can get. Telltale may have gotten some good franchises, but it just doesn't know what to do with them and it is destroying Telltale Games, and at the rate they are going, companies will no longer give them the rights to franchises when they see what Telltale is doing. I really hope this isn't the case, so I am sticking around to see what happens with WD, but like I said, I REALLY hope they dont make another JP or BTTF game. If they really must make a BTTF2:TG game, fine, but I would pay them NOT to make a second JP game and leave the damage done to the franchise, alone.

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

As much as I hated Telltale's Jurassic Park game, you're just being silly if you think Trespasser or Operation Genesis had better graphics. It's pretty much a given that a game that's less than a year old will have better graphics than a game that's over ten years old.

Well the Operation Genesis graphics were definitely better than JPTG graphics so idk what you mean, and JPOG didn't skip every 10 seconds. The year that it was released doesn't mean anything, JPOG probably had the greatest graphics out of any JP game and it was released 10 years ago like you said so it really is sad that JPTG's graphics didn't beat it. Everything but the people in JPOG is pretty realistic.



As you can see, the JPTG Rex is more detailed even though its slightly cartoonish, but since the dinos in JPOG could roam around and interact with the environment without the game designers pre-designing the scene, I say that JPOG's graphics were better overall for anything but the people.

The reason I say that JPOG had better graphics than JPTG is because they have way more dinos that all look better, the didn't float across the screen, and JPOG's dinosaurs went where they wanted, they didn't have a single path to walk on no matter how many times you play the game like with JPTG.

Now to back up Trespasser, lol. I guess what I meant by saying that Tres' graphics are better than JPTG is that for the time the graphics were way better since JPTG would have been an okay (only okay) game graphics-wise 5-10 years ago, whereas Trespasser's graphics revolutionized gaming in a way, even though computers at the time couldn't run the game because of how powerful it was, not for the reasons that computers today cant run JPTG, which is extremely sad considering the graphics of the game and how simple it is compared to a game with full AI like Trespasser or even JPOG.

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Besides, the best Jurassic Park game was clearly the Sega Genesis platformer.

It seems that the graphics for the dinos were better than JPTG, too...

and if you have played that game, even though the Rex's head skips around it still moves faster than JPTG's framerate.

[martymcfly]

To be honest RexMaster, I found your original post a little bit rude. Fair enough if you disagree with my opinion about Jurassic Park: The Game being the best JP game, but there's no need to be so dismissive about it, typing multiple HAHAs.

You're obviously a huge fan of Trespasser, to a fault. I actually think you were far too hasty to refer DAISHI to the Trespasser Wikipedia page, telling him to "Read up next time before you try to insult an unfinished, yet revolutionary masterpiece."

Yet, you obviously haven't read the page yourself! You say above:

"which is extremely sad considering the graphics of the game and how simple it is compared to a game with full AI like Trespasser or even JPOG."

Yet the Wikipedia page for Trespasser clearly states:

"Unfortunately, system bugs in the artificial intelligence routines made it so that dinosaurs would have drastic mood swings and would switch between mood-based actions so quickly, they would actually stop moving, unable to do anything at all. A quick fix was hard-coded in to the game that locked all dinosaurs’ anger at maximum, leaving all other emotions at zero. This fixed the bug, but also negated all the work the team had done on programming the AI, leaving the dinosaurs ultimately simplistic in their goals." So much for 'full AI'.

Just to be clear, I bought Trespasser upon release and still own the big box version. I agree that it attempted a lot of revolutionary game ideas that are now commonplace. I enjoyed the game despite its glaring faults. However, let's be clear: it was (and still is) an unfinished, buggy experiment that never realised its full potential. Say what you want about Telltale Games, but they delivered what they promised: a QTE driven Jurassic Park game that was faithful to the films.

[martymcfly]

Originally Posted by Trenchfoot

Great interview! Now TellTale must answer about that juicy deleted scene... Tell us!

PS: Michael Land interview!

Thanks Trenchfoot, I'm also very curious about that deleted scene!

PS: I'm still working on it...

[Irishmile]

Good interview as always buddy... I know I cant expect actors to LOVE the franchise they are working on but you can really tell sometimes when for some of them its just a job... I think this is one of those times.

As for that deleted scene I thought she meant .. it was a sample audition scene... or did I read that in the wrong context?

[martymcfly]

No problem, thanks for the kind words Irishmile I really appreciate it as always! Nice to know people are still reading these.

Regarding the deleted scene, that's the question - WAS it a deleted scene, or simply an additional scene thought up solely for audition purposes? Anybody from Telltale care to clarify/elaborate?

[RexMaster]

Originally Posted by martymcfly

To be honest RexMaster, I found your original post a little bit rude. Fair enough if you disagree with my opinion about Jurassic Park: The Game being the best JP game, but there's no need to be so dismissive about it, typing multiple HAHAs.

You're obviously a huge fan of Trespasser, to a fault. I actually think you were far too hasty to refer DAISHI to the Trespasser Wikipedia page, telling him to "Read up next time before you try to insult an unfinished, yet revolutionary masterpiece."

Yet, you obviously haven't read the page yourself! You say above:

"which is extremely sad considering the graphics of the game and how simple it is compared to a game with full AI like Trespasser or even JPOG."

Yet the Wikipedia page for Trespasser clearly states:

"Unfortunately, system bugs in the artificial intelligence routines made it so that dinosaurs would have drastic mood swings and would switch between mood-based actions so quickly, they would actually stop moving, unable to do anything at all. A quick fix was hard-coded in to the game that locked all dinosaurs’ anger at maximum, leaving all other emotions at zero. This fixed the bug, but also negated all the work the team had done on programming the AI, leaving the dinosaurs ultimately simplistic in their goals." So much for 'full AI'.

Just to be clear, I bought Trespasser upon release and still own the big box version. I agree that it attempted a lot of revolutionary game ideas that are now commonplace. I enjoyed the game despite its glaring faults. However, let's be clear: it was (and still is) an unfinished, buggy experiment that never realised its full potential. Say what you want about Telltale Games, but they delivered what they promised: a QTE driven Jurassic Park game that was faithful to the films.

I am a huge fan of all Jurassic Park games including Trespasser, and I dont think I was too hasty referring him to that page. Ive read that page many times and it is true that some of the moods and emotions of the dinosaurs were removed, but the AI of the dinos are still amazing, especially for 98, and way better than JPTG's dinosaurs because they move on set paths yet still glitch bad and sometimes worse than Trespasser, that is all that I said.

[MarkDarin]

Concerning that "deleted" scene... You guys guessed right, it was just a scenario created soley for audition purposes. I often write scenes for auditions that don't actually exist in the game to ensure that the actors can provide a wide enough sample of their range, and still be able to understand the context of the audition dialog. So while we never had a fleshed out scene where Jess falls into a Troodon nest, we did know that she'd be facing dinosaurs in horrific situations!

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by martymcfly

"Unfortunately, system bugs in the artificial intelligence routines made it so that dinosaurs would have drastic mood swings and would switch between mood-based actions so quickly, they would actually stop moving, unable to do anything at all. A quick fix was hard-coded in to the game that locked all dinosaurs’ anger at maximum, leaving all other emotions at zero. This fixed the bug, but also negated all the work the team had done on programming the AI, leaving the dinosaurs ultimately simplistic in their goals." So much for 'full AI'.

Hey, the AI in Operation Genesis isn't much better. I had Site B mode going and was keeping an eye on my rex. He laid down to take a nap when suddenly a Triceratops charged over and gored the poor thing. Without any provocation at all.

[Sadonicus]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

Hey, the AI in Operation Genesis isn't much better. I had Site B mode going and was keeping an eye on my rex. He laid down to take a nap when suddenly a Triceratops charged over and gored the poor thing. Without any provocation at all.

His presence is provocation enough

[Trenchfoot]

Originally Posted by MarkDarin

Concerning that "deleted" scene... You guys guessed right, it was just a scenario created soley for audition purposes. I often write scenes for auditions that don't actually exist in the game to ensure that the actors can provide a wide enough sample of their range, and still be able to understand the context of the audition dialog. So while we never had a fleshed out scene where Jess falls into a Troodon nest, we did know that she'd be facing dinosaurs in horrific situations!

Any chance we could hear it?

[Faceslasher]

Originally Posted by RexMaster

Had to stop reading in the first paragraph, LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
“undoubtedly the best Jurassic Park game ever made.” ?
AHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAAH HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funniest thing ive heard all day and I laughed a lot today!

It was a good game but no way! QTE gameplay? Compared to Trespasser or JPOG which both had better graphics and gameplay? lol The strongest point in JPTG was the story, and I enjoyed it a lot but that line from the magazine is ridiculous.

You hurt my eyes holy fuck.

JP:OG was the best of all JP's, sorry but JP:TG beats Trespasser in my books. Trespasser was just way too buggy and broken to enjoy.

[Faceslasher]

Originally Posted by RexMaster

I am a huge fan of all Jurassic Park games including Trespasser, and I dont think I was too hasty referring him to that page. Ive read that page many times and it is true that some of the moods and emotions of the dinosaurs were removed, but the AI of the dinos are still amazing, especially for 98, and way better than JPTG's dinosaurs because they move on set paths yet still glitch bad and sometimes worse than Trespasser, that is all that I said.

the AI was not in it, the AI was a rough piece of code that was just slammed in there. I don't know where you were in those days, but there were better AI based games out there.