Tex Murphy Returns!... To RetroNick Radio

I was wondering if you'd ask us again. Thanks!

Q: Tex himself is as much a mystery as the things he investigates. Will The Tesla Effect explore him a bit?

Q: So, how have things been at TruGolf with all this Texy stuff going on?

Q: What can you tell us about Bruce Carver [directed first Tex game, FYI], and his role in the Tex Murphy series?

Q: I visited Salt Lake City on business this year and was taken aback by its beauty. So what has kept you in Utah, rather than, say, moving to LA years ago after all your success?

Q: I can't help but notice how many young people are involved in the making of this game. Is that an accurate perception, and if so, has that made the experience different than it was in the 90s?

Q: You're related to at least a few of the people working at Big Finish, plus others you've known since they were small. Did that happen out of necessity, an intent to make it a family business, both... etc...? What do they think of you being the boss?

Q: Non-question: I'm excited for Project Fedora less for playing the game itself, and more because it shows that dreams really, actually, can come true.

(of course, I do not intend to ask anything he's uncomfortable talking about!)

Over the years we've been promised answers to all our questions - Tex's real name, Chelsee's mutation etc. Will they all be revealed or will we still have a lot of mystery remaining? (I prefer things to be kept a mystery here but see the viewpoint of those who want answers)

Oh, and who are/were Whiteshark entertainment, who at one point posted a synopsis of the Pandora movie 'Black Sun Ascending'?

I have a few questions.

1) (This is my big question) How much does Tesla Effect resemble the Tex games that were planned way back when? Are there a lot of common plot points?

2) You mentioned the possibility of one more Tex game if Tesla Effect does well. What about after that? Are you guys interested in doing any non-Tex adventures in a similar vein?

3) Can you talk about the process of showing the game to publishers? What kind of reactions have you been getting? Is it hard to combat people's preconceived notions about live-action FMV?

4) From the outsider's perspective it seems like things have been mostly on-schedule and going according to plan, but development always has it's challenges. What are some of the unexpected challenges you've had to face in development so far?

Is there going to be a demo of the new game?

1. Any telling of the system requirements?

2. Although Android has been announced, are there any plans to bring the game to iPad?

3. Is a 2013 release still likely or is it more of a 2014 release?

4. Will the characters feature within the actual environment as they did in UKAM and PD?

I'm thrilled about the opportunity, but I can't really think of a question to ask, so I was wondering if you could pass along a message for me. If it doesn't disrupt the flow, tell Chris I said thanks for all his hard work on TE and that I wish him the best.

Joel wrote:4. Will the characters feature within the actual environment as they did in UKAM and PD?

Oh, yeah, this is a good question, and if I might ask a follow-up/variant:

If there are characters that appear in the actual environment during gameplay, how are you going about making them feel integrated into the scene? What new technology is being employed?

This question has already been answered in Cub's interview, actually.

-Fred

As for an original question, though: Will there be paid attention to detail vis-a-vis the environments from the previous games? I'm talking about Chandler Avenue, and Tex's office in particular. Will they have all the old trimmings, as well as a few new ones?

-Fred

Interesting point. I wonder how many times Chandler Ave. can be done with it still being fresh.

Fred Buer wrote:This question has already been answered in Cub's interview, actually.

-Fred

No, I don't think it has. In that interview they discussed integrating live-action keyed scenes into game environments for the purpose of cut-scenes, but they never addressed how characters would be scene during actual gameplay/navigation.

Joel wrote:3. Is a 2013 release still likely or is it more of a 2014 release?

The official line from BFG right now is the end of this year or Q1 2014. This is according to Steve on the BFG forums just a few days ago.

With regards to the characters during navigation, this is something I've been wondering about for a while now. I agree with Frogacuda (which my phone autocorrects as "frog acids" ). Cubase was talking about the cutscenes integrating into the game environments, as opposed to how, for instance, Chelsee stands at her newsstand in UAKM and Pandora. This is a much trickier problem to solve, because you certainly don't want to see flat sprites in a modern game. So what will happen when we look into the Brew and Stew? Will we see Louie standing there, and if so, how have they dealt with perspective shifts as you move your viewpoint?

and questions sprouted from the head of Joliet_Jane

lol

My question would be

1) Coming back to "being Tex" after all that time, what would you say you have enjoyed the most about him and about the process of producing the game?

2) Is there anything about making this installment that surprised you - positive or negative?