RPS Feature Creole intentions
Well, 21st Anniversary really, but who’s counting? Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition is a chance to return to 1993 to re-experience the Schattenjager’s first case, but has it stood the test of time? Note to anyone who hasn’t played it, this is mostly going to be looking at the game as a remake rather than as a brand new adventure. Some spoilers inevitably lurk within.
RPS Feature Here we go again
One of the higher profile Kickstarters in the Great Wave of 2012 was Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen’s half-million pot for her new Pinkerton Road Studio. The first project to emerge from this, in collaboration with Phoenix Online, is Moebius: Empire Rising. A brand new adventure game featuring a genius antiques dealer and a worldwide, history-spanning mystery. Is it any good? Spoiler: No, it’s astonishingly terrible. Here’s wot I think:
Our John certainly enjoyed Jane Jensen’s Moebius when he got to play it last year, but how has the adventure game changed over the last eight months? And do you truly trust John anyway? You can test both Moebius and your gamepatibility with John through a demo for Jensen’s new point-and-clicker, available now for Windows and Mac.
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Update: As we suspected, this is a misunderstanding rather than a conspiracy. A Linux version was never planned. Details below.
Activision have always been a strange lot. Peculiarly aloof to games journalists, they put out their billion dollar generating games with a raised nose, and that seems to be working out for them. But it doesn’t stop them from having a really rather meticulous stranglehold on the IPs they own but never touch. Try to create a fan game based on, say, the Atari 2600’s Fishing Derby, and you can be sure to have a letter from their spinning-eyed shark-teethed lawyers promptly delivered to your door. But most strange of all is the news that the new Gabriel Knight, created with Activision’s eventual blessing, is not allowed to be released on Linux.
I watched the new trailer for Jane Jensen’s Moebius between the gaps in my fingers, afraid that it might be as frightening as the last video of Malachi Rector’s adventures that slipped out of my monitor and into the screaming recesses of my brain. The little that I saw confirmed what I’d expected – the haunting qualities remain. Moebius looks like a Sims 3 murder mystery machinima. Although I feel like I’ve been assailed by awkward animations and hammy voice acting, John’s hands-on with the game makes me keen to play it – “It was peculiar to be experiencing all the silly tropes of the genre, but realising I wasn’t fighting against it to have a good time. It was just letting me.” Hurrah! Now, prepare to hide from the janky shoulders of doom.
Jane Jensen is awfully busy. Not only is she working on the rather promising Moebius, as well as other secret Pinkerton Road projects, but she’s just announced a 20th anniversary edition of the classic Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Father. Indeed, the IP has been wrestled from the mad grip of Activision, and an extraordinarily well-loved game is getting a 21st century makeover.
RPS Feature Sins Of The Forefathers
As RPS drop-out Kieron tweeted the other day, “We are the generation who funded more point and click adventures, and we’ll get what we deserve.” He was expressing frustration at the woeful lack of funding for Satellite Reign (FUND IT!), while seemingly so many adventures are seeing that green, green light. But what of those adventures? For all of last year’s fuss, little has appeared so far – has it been money well spent? Should the Gillens of the world be quieted by the adventure devotees and their wallets? Well, it’s a pleasure to report that from my time with Jane Jensen’s Moebius, in at least one case the answer could well be: yes.
Jane “Gabriel Knight” Jensen’s Moebius has a trailer that’s worth a watch for jonesing point-n-clickers. Looking pleasingly modern, yet obviously still a traditional adventure, it’s partly the work of Phoenix Studios – they who as a group of amateurs from around the world brought the King’s Quest series back to life. Now pro and working with Jensen’s Pinkerton Studios, there’s good reason to have hope for this one.
Hmm, maybe we need to somehow add a live Kickstarter ticker feed to the site to save ourselves a trinity of blogging. The ritual seems to be: 1) news of returning dev/series via crowdsourcing 2) interview with said dev 3) news that funding targets have been reached. Reaching step 3 today is Jane ‘Gabriel Knight’ Jensen, whose new studio Pinkerton Road is working on GK-inspired supernatural pointer-clickerer Moebius.
Pinkerton’s Kickstarter has reached $312,000 of its $300,000 target, with 11 days left on the clock. Obviously, they’d like more, so they’ve added assorted new tiers and rewards including ebook version of the old Gabriel Knight novels, design bibles and all sorts. Also revealed is that Pinkerton is working on another, more conventionally-funded adventure game, which copies of are available to Moebius funders who lob $50 into that hat (to get both) or $16 (to choose one or the other game). Vidja-based details below.
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RPS Feature Mo' money, Moebius
After years of working on casual games, Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen is using Kickstarter to help launch her own studio – Pinkerton Road – which recently held a vote amongst contributors to decide its first project. That’s now going to be an adventure called Moebius, which you can read about here and add your pledge to to the pot. I caught up with her to talk about adventures, story, crazy fans, casual gaming and definitely not That Puzzle. (Much.)
And still they come. Jane Jensen’s Kickstarter has been going for over a week now, and is steadily bringing in the cash. She’s after $300,000, and has almost reached $173,000 with a month to go. It seems pretty likely she’ll hit it, but what is it going to be? Well, a cannily released email has finally made me take notice by saying it’s a “spiritual successor” to Gabriel Knight, and it’s called Moebius.
