Bill Tiller, Jeremiah Grant, and Gene Moscy started a new company (Venture Moon Industries) and a new kickstarter to fund a pirate themed adventure game inspired by Monkey Island. It's called Duke Grabowski, Mighty Swashbuckler, and will be set in the Azurbbean, the fictional version of the Caribbean from Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island.
The three created a tech demo for an homage and spoof of The Secret of Monkey Island, but liked it so much they decided to extend it into a full, small adventure game. The game puts a twist on the concept, as the main character is a big, dim, angry man who turns out to be a man of honor. Bill Tiller is going to be the project lead and art director, Gene Mocsy is going to design, produce, and write for it, and Jeremiah Grant is going to be the programmer. They founded a new company to produce the game because the three wanted to be equal partners and since Autumn Moon Entertainment belonged solely to Bill Tiller, a new company was decided the best way to do so. Because of this, Autumn Moon Entertainment will be licensing the Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island intellectual property to Venture Moon Industries for this game.
They're looking for $40,000 which will fund the game, which will have about ten to twelve rooms and be a quarter of the size of A Vampyre Story. So, if this interests you, what are you waiting for? Pick a tier and back it now.
Kolzig
I have always some issues with this stuff that Tiller makes. His art is beyond gorgeous and is just really beautiful stuff always.
But then his talent is wasted on these really low grade projects. Personally I have thought that he hasn't been doing even one good project since leaving Lucasarts. The background art in AVS was awesome, but the characters, cheap 3d models, plot and voices were really not even close to the same level as Tiller's art.
He and Gene Mocsy have improved a lot in the design area since A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates. The Perils of Man: Chapter One has a design by Tiller and Mocsy (and strangely not art by Bill Tiller, which I was on the fence about when it was announced). It actually has one of the best adventure game designs in an adventure game I've played since the LucasArts classics. After playing Chapter One, The full Perils of Man game is one of my most anticipated adventures of this year. I really hope that it ends up coming out for PC, Mac, and Linux so that more people can get to play it. If this game has anything close to the design of Perils of Man, we’re going to be in for a nice treat. :)
But then his talent is wasted on these really low grade projects. Personally I have thought that he hasn't been doing even one good project since leaving Lucasarts. The background art in AVS was awesome, but the characters, cheap 3d models, plot and voices were really not even close to the same level as Tiller's art.
Jason
1) So they're making a Ghost Pirates spinoff. But why do it under yet another company name?
1) So they're making a Ghost Pirates spinoff. But why do it under yet another company name?
2) The "good reason" AVS:Y1 is on hold sounds hopeful. Did they get some kind of financing for it or AVS2, perhaps?
3) Thank goodness for that goal. They should accomplish that easily, despite this coming out of nowhere.
4) I'm excited! I always want this team to be working on graphic adventure games. Can't wait to pledge.