Just when you thought you couldn't get any more excited for tomorrow's release of Grim Fandango Remastered, here comes a fat new interview with Tim Schafer about all things Land of the Dead.
[...] Schafer heard competition to license Grim Fandango was fierce. "We didn't think we'd be able to do it as we'd heard someone else was trying to do it, and we were like 'oh no!'" When asked who this mysterious competitor was, Schafer says "It turned out to be Adam Boyes [VP of publisher & developer relations at SCEA]."
"Adam was like, 'we weren't trying to mess anything up. We just wanted to make that game come out again," Schafer recalls. "And we were like, 'Us too! But we think we should do it because we can remaster it the way it should be done.' And they agreed, so we decided to work together." Schafer notes that there were other companies vying to license Grim, but Sony came the closest.
There's a lot more, like Tim's correct observation that Double Indemnity and Sweet Smell of Success feature some of cinema's best dialog, as well as some mysterious claim that the game features a new camera pan and hints about future adventure remakes, but you'll just have to read it all, my good man.
Source: Eurogamer.net
jp-30
I'm not talking about concept art being somehow used in the remaster. I'm talking about the actual backgrounds, if they exist, in a higher res or physical form.
I don't believe those exist. The "concept art" WAS what got scanned in, then work was continued once digitized. This probably limits Double Fine's choice to either re-do the art completely (like Monkey Island) or simply try to smooth out the jaggies in the final art. Neither is ideal, really, but I'm certainly more confident in Double Fine's artists than in LEC Singapore (may it rest in pieces).
AlfredJ
Another problem is that some of the physical art doesn't match up with what ended up in the game. Take this one for example: http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/24600000/Concept-Art-Apartment-day-of-the-tentacle-24614742-700-525.jpg
I don't think that translates to an actual usable background to the game very well, and a lot of details ended up being changed for the actual game.
jp-30
Depends what he means by 'painted backgrounds' - ie physical paintings, which can be rescanned. Or digital paintings done at the game resolution of, err, 640x480(?) which will need to be re-created I guess. Unless there are higher res original digital images that were scaled down for the game.
There are a couple of problems with rescanning physical paintings though - the chance of the physical art of every environment still existing is low (assuming it existed at all for every screen - there could be some environment that were directly drawn digitally). Another problem is that some of the physical art doesn't match up with what ended up in the game. Take this one for example: http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/24600000/Concept-Art-Apartment-day-of-the-tentacle-24614742-700-525.jpg
I don't think that translates to an actual usable background to the game very well, and a lot of details ended up being changed for the actual game.
AlfredJ
Is he implying there that they want to redraw the DoTT graphics, or am I reading that wrong?
Depends what he means by 'painted backgrounds' - ie physical paintings, which can be rescanned. Or digital paintings done at the game resolution of, err, 640x480(?) which will need to be re-created I guess. Unless there are higher res original digital images that were scaled down for the game.
Man 2015 is going to be insane.