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[Pishtaco]

There already was one, about Lovecraft. A more broader one where someone could adapt any out-of-copyright literary work would be nice though.

If that happens, I think people should be encouraged to do short works (poems?) or small sections of works. Otherwise I foresee mostly jokey entries, which would be a shame.

[JLJac]

Oh yeah.

[aeiowu]

interview with the devs at 5:00 in: http://crackle.com/c/Jace_Hall#id=2453907&ml=o%3D12%26fpl%3D349935%26fx%3D

interesting look at how uncreative douchebags look at game dev.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

interview with the devs at 5:00 in: http://crackle.com/c/Jace_Hall#id=2453907&ml=o%3D12%26fpl%3D349935%26fx%3D

interesting look at how uncreative douchebags look at game dev.

Ya that video made me cringe really.

Dante's inferno really needs a good game based on it to come out before this abortion. Hell, even a simple exploration game would suffice. "Atmosphere as gameplay" (from indie bingo) so to speak. Walk around, talk to things, figure out how to get to the next circle of hell (not necessarily a difficult puzzle or anything, as there wasn't much puzzle for dante, but you know stuff like, figuring out which way to go, making sure you don't stray too far from virgil, although there's no consequence if you do, it just might make it a little more difficult to find your way).

If you wanted to do a "re-imagining" of the inferno, you could simply pop in a few current politicians and executives into different layers of hell. It's what dante did, but with a tiny modern spin on it.

Nothing in hell can hurt dante, so all "fear" must come psychologically from the player's mind. You can't lose.

[Shade Jackrabbit]

interview with the devs at 5:00 in: http://crackle.com/c/Jace_Hall#id=2453907&ml=o%3D12%26fpl%3D349935%26fx%3D

interesting look at how uncreative douchebags look at game dev.

Ya that video made me cringe really.

Dante's inferno really needs a good game based on it to come out before this abortion. Hell, even a simple exploration game would suffice. "Atmosphere as gameplay" (from indie bingo) so to speak. Walk around, talk to things, figure out how to get to the next circle of hell (not necessarily a difficult puzzle or anything, as there wasn't much puzzle for dante, but you know stuff like, figuring out which way to go, making sure you don't stray too far from virgil, although there's no consequence if you do, it just might make it a little more difficult to find your way).

If you wanted to do a "re-imagining" of the inferno, you could simply pop in a few current politicians and executives into different layers of hell. It's what dante did, but with a tiny modern spin on it.

Nothing in hell can hurt dante, so all "fear" must come psychologically from the player's mind. You can't lose.

I'd be more inclined to buy a game like that.

Also, the video appears to be down. Alternate link?

[aeiowu]

Also, the video appears to be down. Alternate link?

Works for me ATM, update flash player?

@glaiel - I tried to get steam rollin' on a compo but it was met with "meh" = http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6612.0

We're having a game jam next month here, we're thinking of assigning a level of hell to each team and see what we come up with.

[Shade Jackrabbit]

Flash Player is fully updated. Maybe it's still in your cache and loading from there? I dunno, won't load for me. Says the video is "unavailable".

[aeiowu]

ah, you're right... here we go:

[Shade Jackrabbit]

Oh for fuck's sake. It's not available in my country due to copyright restrictions. Probably cause we don't have a DMCA...

Okay, maybe a text transcript?

[aeiowu]

just because I care, I'll spit some blurbs out for you.

CAST
CUB - played by Jonathan Knight - Executive Producer
BEAR - played by Steve Desilets - Lead Designer
GOD - played by bald dude host

BEAR: "and we kick ass all the time. The poem's important but to me that's the backdrop. It's about blood, violence and gore."

BEAR: "this whole backstory, nobody read the frickin' poem. the cliff notes maybe is about as deep as anybody would get into it."
CUB: "but the game will want to make people read the poem."
BEAR: "games don't make me want to read anything. I don't even read the instruction manual."

GOD: "are there girls in the game?"
BEAR: "there's women, lots of women in the game."
CUB: "Dante spends his adult life writing this poem, this love poem for this woman who's died and gone to heaven."
BEAR: "That's the love story, but there's plenty of just... TITS!" ... "Tits are very tasty."

::cut to footage of polygon boobs and grumbling over breast size, lots of "BIGGER BIGGER BIGGER" chanting and beating of man chests.::

[Shade Jackrabbit]

I think I just tried to regurgitate brain cells. I don't think I've ever been offended so deeply to my core by a game developer's raw stupidity since Cliffy B talked about how big his dick was because of Gears of War.

Thank you, aeiowu. I see what we are dealing with now.

Also that compo now sounds like a good idea. I mean, I feel hurt and I haven't even read Inferno yet!

[Glaiel-Gamer]

If I ever do this though, I'm popping the EA executives and designers of this game in the circle that represents "violence against art"

[aeiowu]

If I ever do this though, I'm popping the EA executives and designers of this game in the circle that represents "violence against art"

definitely.

that Desilets creep is all kinds of horrible.

[Shade Jackrabbit]

If I ever do this though, I'm popping the EA executives and designers of this game in the circle that represents "violence against art"

The extremist counter-organization would then be "violence against violence against art". Heh.

[Loren Schmidt]

I think that as a game developer, there's a certain way in which you are responsible for respecting your audience. One can make a game that assumes its players are illiterate cretins, and people will play it.

But people will also play an intelligent game that, while providing them with entertainment, also respects them and asks them to think.

There are ways for a game to be intelligent without insulting or excluding its players. Would you rather aim too low, or aim slightly high and give people the opportunity to grow somewhat?

[Shade Jackrabbit]

See, that's the problem. The business model claims that it is better to aim slightly low to hit the greater populous. But hell, why not just aim high? If your gameplay is solid, the people who don't want any meaning or substance won't care anyways. (Hint: They don't right now.) Couldn't one argue that having BOTH solid gameplay and substance actually increases audience?

The business model says this is too much work, though. From what I understand.

Course, that would require developers to stop masturbating to their own drunken frat-boy egos. *cough*cliffyb*cough*

[Loren Schmidt]

Absolutely, why not aim high? It certainly requires a specific approach to have a game satisfy on multiple levels. But provided a developer is willing to make sure a game can be enjoyed on a simple, pure gameplay level, people will see any quality design, art, writing, storytelling, etc. as a definite plus (or at least be ambivalent about it.) There is, I think, a lot of room in the market for games that are fun to play and respect the player's intelligence.

Actually I think there's a fair amount of positive player response to this sort of thing within the RPG genre. Even if RPG's aren't all particularly deep, people seem to appreciate the occasional attempt at profundity or meaningful character development within that context.

People really do notice when the games they play are ridiculous, shoddily put together or fundamentally broken, but there aren't a lot of alternatives right now. I guess I'm an optimist, but I'd like to think that intelligent, well crafted games that respect their players could work as a default.

[aeiowu]

Couldn't agree more Sparky et. al. Though, I think this is really a matter of taste more than anything. Desilets has none, while most of us here do. That's how I'd describe his attitude. Tasteless.

Even if we make a bloody, hell-bent game it still has charm because it wasn't built as a superficial vehicle to give the audience softcore blood porn (or at least I hope). It was just something we wanted to do and loved doing it. Using the mother:child :: dev:game analogy: We love our children. We care for them deeply, sometimes more than ourselves. These people abuse theirs, or at least have a wildly different idea on what makes a good "parent". One that casts away the best interests of the child for their own selfish goals: greed, vanity, etc. 8 levels of hell . Kind of like one of those crazy Pageant moms...

"Why not aim high?"
because it's risky. because it's 10x harder and not only that but aiming low is a well trodden path with a much larger margin for error. Ultimately, Desilets doesn't give a shit about aiming anywhere it seems. He wants to see blood and tits. He embodies the reason the public views gamers as pubescent teenagers in arrested development. The dude looks a fair bit older than me and acts like he's half my age.

[SevenPoint83hertz]

What makes this case special?
Is the threadstarter from Italy?
There are several games that contain Greek and Christian mythology, also what about making money by re-enacting WW1 & WW2 in countless fps? where is the thread shaming the makers of the Aladdin game series, an oriental classic.

I'd like to talk to the board that says what one can draw inspiration from or what is OK to badly re-enact, and right after that I want to talk to the board that measures what is bad and what not.

Everything goes. if you don't like it, don't watch/play it.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

What makes this case special?

Production values and marketing, and the extent to which they butcher the original and have the guts to not only name it after the book, but call it THE videogame adaptation of the book.

Listen to the developers talk "I was reading the book and instantly thought, "this is a video game""