The International House of Mojo

I was hoping to hear if Autumn Moon are focused on a phased gate type of a process, where they understand a greater level of granularity as they go through the development phase.

Maybe next time.

Wow, very candid that... Good job, Jason.

Agreed. This is great stuff.

Fantastic interview, guys!

H'okay, good interview. I hope they make better games in the future. But a couple of thoughts:

1. They really, really should stop having the first game be a set-up to the second. The first should be self-contained, and with a door open just enough for a second game. I'm guessing a lot of people were reluctant to buy AVS and now Ghost Pirates based on this.

2. He's right: the adventure game market isn't what as big as it used to be (or is exactly what it used to be in a much bigger market, I dunno). Digital distribution, however, has made it easier to reach all the fans. Why not stick the game up on Steam? A lot of people trust Steam. Bonus cherry: if they have a sale on your game, they could help sell a few hundred extra copies.

3. I wouldn't mind smaller episodic games. I doubt their business model is set-up like Telltale's, but if they released a new AVS game every year, it'd be pretty great. Obviously, it'd have to be a bit shorter, but if it were also a bit cheaper, then hey. It could work. I don't have any numbers, but it could.

4. It's probably a good idea to work on only one game at a time. Indie studios need to work on some other game as the first is rounding-up, and that's fine, but they shouldn't still be writing dialogue for game 1 whilst starting game scripting for game 2.

Just some thoughts. I liked the interview and am looking forward to AVS2.

I played Ghost Pirates and I think it's safe to say that its ending feels not as unfinished as AVS'. There's room for a sequel, but the main story is totally covered in one game, no cliffhangers. There's something missing from the ending (I cannot tell what, that would be spoiler), but you'll definitely buy a single, complete story. Don't worry. :-)

Cheers, Diduz. Now I'll just need to find a way to be able to actually get it.

Mind telling us how it compares as a solid adventure game in general?

The pace of the story is much better handled this time (if we compare the game to A Vampyre Story): the parallel narration, which follows three characters in three different situations and locations, really works. The main characters are defined and nice, their motivations always clear. Graphics are solid, except in the cutscenes (as Bill himself admitted in the interview, BTW).
The puzzle-design is the thing I didn't like that much: too often I got the impression that the characters had puzzle-solving ideas I ignored, forcing me to follow THEIR logic instead of mine.
All in all, I enjoyed Ghost Pirates more than A Vampyre Story. As Bill says, the game is far from being perfect, but they're evolving.
Dialogues are shorter and funnier than the endless banter in AVS.

I kept thinking the game could be a Monkey Island rip-off BEFORE actually playing the game. When I was playing it, I was reminded of MI no more than once or twice. GP probably manages to get the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Disneyland even better than MI.

For the record, I bought the German version with English subtitles, but I also did a bit of editing on the Italian translation of the original English dialogue for the soon-to-be-released (March the 26th) Italian edition. ;-)

Regarding your first point: I think the problem isn't that people don't want to buy the first game because because the story might not be completed until a sequel arrives. I think the problem is that the amount of people buying the sequel to your game will be significantly smaller than the amount of people who bought the first game when the story is a direct continuation. This is why Hothead stopped production (at least for the moment) on further PAA-episodes - The first episode sold good enough, but the second episode didn't really do much. Telltale mentioned that whenever they release a new episode all the media attention to that episode leads to a renewed interest in the first episode of whatever series they're working on, so maybe it will work out for Autumn Moon in the end. I hope it does, anyway.

How much experience do you have at being a small company games developer?

I'm sure point 4 isn't always feasable -- Bill has talked elsewhere about always having to think several stages ahead, and that can mean having more than one project on the go.

And 2 -- sure, but is it that easy? Do you just press a button, and your game ends up on Steam? I doubt it.

And why would people be reluctant to buy a game because it leads on to a sequel? I suppose because they think they won't be getting the full story? Personally it doesn't bother me.

4 - It's a mistake to work on two games at once for a small studio because it puts them at a lot of risk. I obviously don't have any experience, but this article, whilst old, does a decent write-up on several failed studios.

"I suppose because they think they won't be getting the full story?" Exactly.

"And 2 -- sure, but is it that easy? Do you just press a button, and your game ends up on Steam? I doubt it."

No - Steam is a business deal, not Megaupload, but it's a profitable deal. I don't have any numbers, buttt it'll at least lend a wider market. Look at me: I'd play the games, but I can't get them from anywhere. Steam would be a good place.

You can get AVS online from GamersGate, but it's so expensive I couldn't even be bothered to add a link. $39.99. D2D only has the Mac version, oddly.

The Adventure Shop has it for $29.99.

Ohhh, tempting. I'm currently holding-out for Sam and Max 2010 (or Dunk, if today's Telltale Blog update means anything), but that's the next thing on the list.

I still say that Steam would be a good move.

In that blog post: "we still have no plans to make a Dank game"

No doubt, but it's also a Crimson Cow move.

Errr, I meant Ghost Pirates. AVS2 as well, though I'd get the first one if it first went up on something like Steam. It's impossible to get it on retail here. I WANT to buy your game. Give me a chance to.

So, is the company still based in Petaluma? Cause I thought Bill moved to Boston for work?

As far as I know their corporate headquarters remain in Petaluma. I guess it's not inconceivable considering that from the sounds of it Insecticide's development was effectively shepherded over Skype.

Wow, excellent review, and excellent answers Bill!

"I remember working on Curse of Monkey Island and suggesting we have a mermaid in the game, and Larry Ahern and Jonathan Ackley saying that was too fantastic for MI"

I'm sure a few people agree...

It was too fantastic for MI *then*, I think, but not so much now. A mermaid like Ariel wouldn't have worked, but Anemone and her crew are just bizarre enough to fit in.

What I think the mermaid image in Dread's map in Monkey Island 2 and the sea creature concept art for the MI movie show is that mythological creatures occurred to multiple people as being natural possibilities in the MI universe long before the Vacalians of TMI that rubbed some people the wrong way turned up and supposedly took things to far.

I think if TMI is a little more "out there" than the others, the justification is in the fact that the game's setting is literally a little more out there than the previous installments, rather than because of the distance between the previous games. We're obviously still "Deep in the Caribbean" in the same universe as the other games, but it takes place a little further from home, away from the Tri-Island area.

Ha, that was my personal take as well. The stuff in Tales takes place, in my imagination at least, closer to the edge of the map of the MI universe.

Winslow's and Anemone's daughter could look like Ariel. Maybe in the next season.

Haha. I hope not. Part of their charm is that you don't even know if they're gay. I mean, you'd THINK you'd know if Winslow was hetro or not by his lover, and then you realise you can't even tell if his lover's a guy or not. I sometimes wonder if his "Just don't go KISSIN' them all" was a reaction to the realisation that he'd been kissing women.