Unofficial Tex Murphy

If I might bring the discussion round to a familiar PI currently enjoying a lengthy vapourware sabbatacle...

I happen to have swallowed my pride and recently purchased an iPad. Yes it has its limitations and tbh, I can't defend many of them. However, I recently downloaded the new NCIS game for iPad. The gameplay is curiously similar to that of mean streets and Martian memorandum. With its interactive dialogue and interrogation sequences interspersed with hard-boiled humour, puzzles and point-and-click evidence gathering scenes it's actually like Tex is back! And believe me, I do not say that lightly.

A new Tex game, IMHO would require a different graphical style though. While simple image based games are enjoying somewhat of a comeback at the moment, due in fact to mobile devices such as the Ipad itself, I would feel a little cheated if the long awaited overseer conclusion wasn't either fmv or at least some form of cg animation.

In fact, comic strip cutscenes with stylised gameplay with high end graphics could work very well for a new Tex game. Especially on the iPad. Just check out the iPad version of GTA Chinatown wars released this week. A Tex game that looked like that would make me extremely happy. Of course I'd rather see chris jones' familiar face on my beautiful ipad display, but cg would definitely be an acceptable and exciting medium to see Tex reborn in.

Thoughts?

Ps. Here's to breaking radio silence after lurking on the boards for 2 years. I missed you guys x

I see that the innovative thinking of this community never dies! As you've probably read, Adaemon, since the early 2000s, many concepts for the return of Tex have been proposed and attempted ranging from radio theatre, flash episodes up to designing engines for the game (according to AC on the latter point). As a community, we've never stopped thinking of ways for Tex to come back in a manner that would produce a quality game that was financially viable.

It's an interesting suggestion, but i'm sure it is one that has already been considered along with dozens of others. For instance, ever since the release of Deus Ex, I was constantly posting an idea where the next TM game could be built on an FPS engine minus the shooter elements. It was only in about 2008 or 2009 where Aaron finally came out to declare this as not an option. During the period leading up to him saying this, I honestly felt that it had never crossed his mind (being the naive optimist I was ).

But, Adaemon, I do share a similar idea with you that the future of Tex could be in episodic, digital distribution, kind of like the iPad exclusive title, 1112: http://www.1112game.com/1112_US.html

It's an episodic point and click adventure. Personally, I hope to see a lot more of these down the track. This would be a worthy avenue for a number of reasons:

- Small, bite size portions means it will require less time and patience of the player so the really good stuff is applied sparingly across episodes and thus establishing some really good pacing.

- We get to play the game as it's being made rather than wait 2 or 3 years and risk the project getting shut down due to limited funding (this is possible given AC's hints that Big Finish hasn't quite met the financial expectations they had hoped for).

- By releasing it to a popular medium like the iPad, it could open up the player base, especially given the popularity of adventures games on the iPad.

- Small installments means less taxing on the wallet = happier consumer

- Financing for the project can be established as it moves along from each installment rather than having one HUGE sum to fund a massive project

As Joel said, there have been many ideas of Tex thrown around... It would be great to see him return in any fashion... True enough we would all love it to be in a FMV Computer Game, but just having him back would be a great pleasure...

I've been playing Gabriel Knight 3 and have decided that if Tex wanted to come back as an animated game, rather than FMV, I'd be okay with that. Who am I kidding? I'd be fine with Tex returning in just about any form or fashion.

First, good to see you posting again, AD.

Second, in my early days (before fire), if I said IPAD everyone would think that I, 1) was speaking bad English and, 2) was talking about my house. (sigh) One of these days I'll get around to buying some device or other that can handle games other than my PC.