Please, Please, Please Can We Have A Discworld Game

edited May 2010 in General Chat
The discworld games are the perfect format to be included as with Sam & Max and ToMI, the point and click interface and the 'inane problem solving' would be wonderful. The voices are already in the original games so just an update of graphics would be great. The original games are now very rare to get hold of and would be great to get them onto XBLA or PC.

With the current interest in the Pratchett/Discworld films on Sky they are increasing in popularity in mainstream culture and I'm sure would be very sucessful.

Please Telltale, can you make this happen?

Comments

  • edited August 2009
    Are you saying you just want an updated rerelease of the Discworld games that are already out? I can't tell.
  • edited August 2009
    I played the original disc world game a long time ago, and the puzzles were so illogical and obscure that I did not find it enjoyable.
  • edited August 2009
    I've heard that ScummVM's preparing to announce the freewareing of the original games. That said, there may still be a market for a remake (Beneath A Steel Sky, already declared freeware, has recently been ported to the iPhone).
  • edited August 2009
    A remake of the old games would be somewhat counterproductive. New adventures based on the characters and worlds of the books would be preferable in opinion.
  • edited August 2009
    As an incredibly huge Discworld fan who owns all the books, and most of the "special" books, maps, games, music, tv series/telemovies, playscripts[1], badges, and a few figurines and more... I say no.

    We don't need more Discworld games. The original three were good, but not brilliant. Most of the problem lies in the fact that the games didn't have much original humour - lots of jokes straight out of the books (no problems there) but everything else they did was not really that funny, and definitely not quite up to scratch with Pratchett's style.

    I'm more than happy for us to just keep getting Terry's novels while we still can. Next one (Unseen Academicals) is out in October, and he's started work on the fourth Tiffany Aching book, "I Shall Wear Midnight". Let's hope he can complete that and the third Moist von Lipwig outing "Raising Taxes" (only rumoured at this point) before his Alzheimer's gets too bad.

    Let's not pollute Discworld with bad game spinoffs. I mean, I love and trust Telltale, but do you really think they can mimic Pratchett's style of humour?


    [1] Including one I adapted myself
  • edited August 2009
    Molokov wrote: »
    As an incredibly huge Discworld fan who owns all the books, and most of the "special" books, maps, games, music, tv series/telemovies, playscripts[1], badges, and a few figurines and more... I say no.

    We don't need more Discworld games. The original three were good, but not brilliant. Most of the problem lies in the fact that the games didn't have much original humour - lots of jokes straight out of the books (no problems there) but everything else they did was not really that funny, and definitely not quite up to scratch with Pratchett's style.

    I'm more than happy for us to just keep getting Terry's novels while we still can. Next one (Unseen Academicals) is out in October, and he's started work on the fourth Tiffany Aching book, "I Shall Wear Midnight". Let's hope he can complete that and the third Moist von Lipwig outing "Raising Taxes" (only rumoured at this point) before his Alzheimer's gets too bad.

    Let's not pollute Discworld with bad game spinoffs. I mean, I love and trust Telltale, but do you really think they can mimic Pratchett's style of humour?


    [1] Including one I adapted myself

    What if Terry Pratchett wrote the storyline? Which is a rare but not unheard of undertaking.
  • edited August 2009
    What if Terry Pratchett wrote the storyline? Which is a rare but not unheard of undertaking.

    Beyond ideal, but again, the Alzheimer's
  • edited August 2009
    Beyond ideal, but again, the Alzheimer's

    Granted, but that hasnt exactly stopped him from writing yet.
  • edited August 2009
    Whatever happened to telltale selling 3rd party games?
  • edited August 2009
    I love Discworld, but it just works better on paper.
  • edited August 2009
    Ayato wrote: »
    Granted, but that hasnt exactly stopped him from writing yet.

    It's definitely slowing him down though. I saw a documentary about him and alzheimers a few months back and he really does seem to suffer at times, having trouble even writing his own signature nowadays.
  • edited August 2009
    Telltale could pull off a pratchett episodic series, but I would really avoid the old games. based on reviews, the puzzles were a bit whack.

    The main issue is Terry, he would have to write the episodes, and given his current state that won't happen.

    It would be nice, but I'm fine with MI and Sam and Max for now.
  • edited August 2009
    Lots of pessimistic outlooks in this thread. I don't see why.

    The problem with the old Discworld games was that they tried too hard to get the Discworld universe to fit into an adventure game. I don't think that worked very well; you ended up with a weird rehash of the Discworld plots and nonsensical puzzles.

    However I think if Telltale were handling it, it would work out a lot better as their episodic style would fit far better.
    They should probably avoid Ankh-Morpork and Rincewind (mostly because they've been covered too much by the existing spin-offs, but partly because it would be difficult to make them fit to Telltale's episodic model).
    Lancre and the Witches would probably be a much better fit; I mean just look at The Sea and Little Fishes for something that would be a good example for an episode.

    I agree that the writing would have to be done correctly. But I think you'd also have to agree that it can be done; just look at how the Vadim Jean movie adoptions have turned out.
  • edited August 2009
    As a big fan, I think the Vadim Jean adaptions (by "The Mob" films, in case people aren't sure what we're talking about - Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, and currently Going Postal in production now) are.... well, bad, really.

    They have the LOOK perfect, and there's lots of great inside jokes and tiny detailed stuff from the books for the fans.... but the adaptations fail mostly because of poor casting (on the whole) and very poor direction. Hogfather's Part 1 was a complete mish-mash of plot threads that I'm sure would have confused anyone who hadn't read the book, and The Colour of Magic just didn't work mostly due to the casting of the two main roles - David Jason could have made a good Rincewind about 25 years ago, but not now. Sean Astin is a great actor, and he did well with Twoflower... but Twoflower is supposed to be a parody of an Asian tourist, not an American one.

    Anyway, if it gets people interested enough in reading the books, I'll support them.

    Having been involved in and seen many stage adaptations of the books, they work sooo much better on stage, because you can afford to be silly (to get audience laughs) and it's far easier to have a sixty foot dragon when it's all in the audience's imagination :)

    [Best play to be in, and funniest to watch: Lords and Ladies. And no, I will never, ever be doing the Stick and Bucket Dance, ever again!]
  • edited August 2009
    Molokov wrote: »
    As a big fan, I think the Vadim Jean adaptions (by "The Mob" films, in case people aren't sure what we're talking about - Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, and currently Going Postal in production now) are.... well, bad, really.

    They have the LOOK perfect, and there's lots of great inside jokes and tiny detailed stuff from the books for the fans.... but the adaptations fail mostly because of poor casting (on the whole) and very poor direction. Hogfather's Part 1 was a complete mish-mash of plot threads that I'm sure would have confused anyone who hadn't read the book, and The Colour of Magic just didn't work mostly due to the casting of the two main roles - David Jason could have made a good Rincewind about 25 years ago, but not now. Sean Astin is a great actor, and he did well with Twoflower... but Twoflower is supposed to be a parody of an Asian tourist, not an American one.

    Anyway, if it gets people interested enough in reading the books, I'll support them.

    Having been involved in and seen many stage adaptations of the books, they work sooo much better on stage, because you can afford to be silly (to get audience laughs) and it's far easier to have a sixty foot dragon when it's all in the audience's imagination :)

    [Best play to be in, and funniest to watch: Lords and Ladies. And no, I will never, ever be doing the Stick and Bucket Dance, ever again!]

    I agree that David Jason wasnt an ideal Rincewind, but he made a damn fine Albert.
  • edited August 2009
    Ayato wrote: »
    I agree that David Jason wasnt an ideal Rincewind, but he made a damn fine Albert.

    Casting David Jason as Rincewind has stopped me from watching that adaptation... perhaps I'll go for it eventually.
  • edited August 2009
    What if Terry Pratchett wrote the storyline? Which is a rare but not unheard of undertaking.

    I'm pretty sure he wrote the storyline for Discworld Noir.

    I don't think there's anyway it would happen. Considering his health he's going to want to focus all of his attention to writing as many books as he can before he's no longer able to.

    It'll be a sad day when he realises (if he realises) that he's passed that point.
  • edited August 2009
    Considering his health he's going to want to focus all of his attention to writing as many books as he can before he's no longer able to.
    Probably, but on the other hand, he may consider using his writing talent for something new before it ceases. And Discworld's atmosphere seems suitable for the Telltale.
  • edited August 2009
    I'm pretty sure he wrote the storyline for Discworld Noir.
    Nope! I was an original story by Perfect Entertainment. They consulted with Pratchett though, and he did write some of the dialogue, but it wasn't all him.
  • edited August 2009
    In my opinion, I think the closest Telltale (or anyone else, for that matter) would get to making a Discworld series would be to hire Rhianna Pratchett. I think that Terry Pratchett would focus on get as many books done before his Alzheimer's calls time on them. Of course, he may be secretly working with a company, but personally I doubt it.
  • edited August 2009
    In my opinion, I think the closest Telltale (or anyone else, for that matter) would get to making a Discworld series would be to hire Rhianna Pratchett. I think that Terry Pratchett would focus on get as many books done before his Alzheimer's calls time on them. Of course, he may be secretly working with a company, but personally I doubt it.

    I doubt she has the same writing style as her father though.
  • edited August 2009
    In my opinion, I think the closest Telltale (or anyone else, for that matter) would get to making a Discworld series would be to hire Rhianna Pratchett

    I was just about to suggest the same thing (having read some quotes from on Gamespot regarding narrative in videogames)

    She must be very familiar with the stories.
  • edited August 2009
    I doubt she has the same writing style as her father though.

    Hmm... true. She is experienced in the field of writing scripts for video games, however.
  • edited August 2009
    I think I've read Discworld at a rate of 4 or 5 novels per 11.5 years. I really liked them, but I couldn't get into anything not featuring Rincewind simply because I assumed he was the main character of the series.

    ...because I first played (and loved) Discworld 1 and 2 as games.

    After anyone passes, interest in that person generally flares up to an extreme level. I would not be surprised if a new Discworld game came out after the horribly unfortunate disease runs its toll. I think virtually anything can be done right with enough time, effort, talent and money. Even if it's without the original creator, they just have to pay tribute to his vision and his creation. And Terry's vision was brilliant.
  • edited August 2009
    I think that a Discworld game could work in the Telltale format if it divides it's chapters between the expansive cast of the book series.
    One chapter could carry Rincewind through a brief adventure in the Unseen University, the next could be a Witches story set in Lancre, then a Watch story in the streets of Ankh Morpork, and then perhaps Susan Sto Helit and Death, which could take place practically anywhere (death's domain, any number of folklore-related locales). It shouldnt be difficult to imagine a layered plot to tie all the characters individual 'chapters' together.

    The only problems I forsee with that sort of format are
    a) new player characters each chapter = less time spent with a single protagonist and b) new location models/character models each episode. That might be a bit much, given how quickely Telltale whips these games up.
  • edited August 2009
    I don't think Telltale would be the one to make a new Discworld game, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
  • edited August 2009
    PariahKing wrote: »
    I don't think Telltale would be the one to make a new Discworld game, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

    Oh sure, but it's fun to dream~
  • edited October 2009
    I could actually imagine a Good Omen point-n-click.
  • edited October 2009
    PariahKing wrote: »
    I think I've read Discworld at a rate of 4 or 5 novels per 11.5 years. I really liked them, but I couldn't get into anything not featuring Rincewind simply because I assumed he was the main character of the series.

    This Discworld has no one main character. The books are typically split into: Death, the Witches, the Watch, Rincewind and "other". The Watch are far and away my favourite, Sam Vimes has also become a beautiful parody of Clint Eastwood.
    1128292253Vimes.jpg

    The Discworld games did a lot of things well (Eric Idle as Rewind remains a defining moment), it was just a shame the puzzles were often completely illogical(which Monkey Island suffered from upon occasion). I did feel that Noir was a step in the right direction though.
  • edited October 2009
    I'd buy that on PlayStation 3! Whether it be a remake or sequel/follow-up.
  • edited October 2009
    You all make it sound like every single puzzle in the original games were completely illogical. That's simply not true. I've not completed Discworld 1, but I got quite far without a walkthrough. And while it took some time (on-and-off playing for a year or so), I completed Discworld 2 with no help whatsoever on the PS1. Almost every adventure game consists of some wacky puzzles, and maybe the Discworld games were a bigger offender than most, it certainly wasn't as bad as it seems. They were hard as nails to complete, no more no less. Besides, they were great games with great atmosphere. Discworld Noir was in a class of its own, but it was also very different from the first two games in both style and humour.

    So I say yes, I want a new Discworld game/series. Much more so than a Sam and Max episode 3, in fact.
  • edited October 2009
    Heh, I bought Discworld - the 20 floppy disc version - when it first came out (I didn't have CD drive on my computer back then) and managed to finish it in the days before the internet was in our house (or many/any houses). Then again, I was (and still am) a big Discworld fan, so stuff that didn't seem that logical probably was to those who know the books :)

    I did eventually get the CD version with character voices (floppy version only had midi music, no voices) and DW2 and DW:Noir. All decent games in their own right, but still, I think the era of DW games is in the past...
  • edited October 2009
    this has just reminded me that I can now play the Discworld (and Discworld 2) through the latest version of ScummVM. Been waiting ages to be able to play them again!
  • edited May 2010
    Bumping this because seriously, the world needs new discworld games.
  • I played the original Discworld game on either my Amiga 500 or our first Windows 95 machine, I can't remember which. However, I do remember loving it and I would be so happy to see a HD remake of this.

    Please Telltale, find a way!

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