pekoe212

This is a great interview by Philip Kollar of The Verge/Polygon with Jane Jensen (creator of the Gabriel Knight series) about her new game studio, Pinkerton Road, and their kickstarter to create a community supported gaming business model. I posted a link to this in my previous post about her kickstarter (which is in its final 35 hours), but I wanted to highlight this interview in case anyone interested hadn't read it. It's the most in depth and well-written article on her new venture and the concept of CSG (community supported gaming) I've seen so far.

@Cathryn said:

I've always preferred the darker tone in Persona 3 to Persona 4, so I would definitely prefer that the tone of Persona 5 more closely resemble 3 than 4.

@ArbitraryWater said:

The thing is, I don't feel like the doom and gloom of most of Persona 3's main story quite meshed with the whole High School Social Link Dating Sim type thing. Persona 4 isn't all sunshine and J-Pop, there is some pretty messed up stuff at the end of that game, but I think that its lighter tone is more cohesive to what the gameplay actually entails.

I actually feel like the stark contrast between the Social Link elements and the srs bznz of the story in Persona 3 is part of what makes the game so awesome. I think in Persona 3 they tried their best to play up the fact that there was some crazy crazy shit going on in a fairly normal world. The only place where this really failed was in the team-member S.links which were all pretty shallow, especially given what the protagonist and the party members were going through. They did a lot to fix that in the Female character route in Persona 3, I think.

Though the everyone's an orphan or has only one parent and a super weird upbringing aspect of all the party members goes a little overboard.

During my playthrough of P3 Portable (around my 3rd time going through the story) it really hit me that the huge, overarching theme of the game is death. I guess that is obvious, but I realized that all the characters had been touched by death already at some point in their life or in the in the course of the game: losing a loved one, killing someone or wanting to kill themselves. Maybe it's because after previous playthroughs I knew the characters so well, but I really felt for these guys. For the first time, the fact that they were high schoolers dealing with so much, having worked so so hard to get through their trial by fire in the tower...just to face death again....it was heartbreaking. That is the only game where i can say I really felt sad about the world ending. It felt real and it felt sad because I had a sense of how hard I/they had worked to stop it. I think the "ordinariness" of the world actually enhanced the feeling that this awful stuff is happening and nobody knows...I dunno, those characters felt more "real" to me than the ones in P4.

I loved P4, but I did not connect to the characters nearly as much, even though they all had their own color-coded outfits and dungeons with their inner fears. I only connected with Nanako and Dojima and that was because they were the most "realistic" people in the game, with the most realistic problems. Everyone else was like a cartoon character. The world didn't have a sense of menace or creepiness. I never felt the world was in jeopardy. I really loved P4 but as far as emotional connection and atmosphere, it didn't do it for me. However, I am glad it was made that way. It was refreshing. I loved the colors and the different feel. I think alternating lighter/darker tones in this series could work well.

4 days left on the Kickstarter if anyone would like to pitch in and get some games in return. When the Kickstarter is done, Jane will reveal what "Mystery Game X" is. That is the 2nd game lined up after Moebius and she hinted they had gotten publisher support for it. From her other hints it sounds an awful lot like a Gabriel Knight game...

Jane Jensen, the creator of the Gabriel Knight series and Gray Matter, is starting her own game studio and wants our help. This is more than a one-game thing! Read about Pinkerton Road Studios and the business model behind their Kickstarter campaign. Double Fine gave her a shout out because they are playing GK1 this afternoon. If this CSG model is successful we may see a new Gabriel Knight game. That is listed as one of their goals with this venture! The first game they are working on (as voted for by the fans) is Moebius. I'm already impressed by how personally engaged Jane and Robert have been with their fans via Kickstarter videos, their website, chats, etc. The tier rewards are generous, you get a year of games and much, much more if you pledge more. The best part? Knowing a brilliant game designer will have complete creative control over her work.

Here are their stretch goals as described by Jane: " If we get to $350K: We’ll add an additional area (3 screens) and puzzle set I have in mind for Venice that would look awesome and extend gameplay. If we get to $400K: We’ll add a longer, fully cinematic opening sequence / trailer that will blow you away and help us get people lining up to buy the game, setting the tone for this new Pinkerton Road series. PLUS Moebius on LINUX! If we get to $450K: All the above, plus an extra 1000 lines of dialogue to flush out the game and we’ll record the main theme with a live orchestra (Bob is drooling over that one)." Remember, this is a Jane Jensen game. More dialogue is a good thing!

If you love GK or adventure games, please, please support Pinkerton Road Studios and join them on this adventure!

My condolences, Claude. My grandmother has lupus so I have seen the effects first hand, it's no joke. Your wife must have been a very strong-willed woman to live with it as she did for most of her life. I wish you all the best in this new phase of your life. And thank you for writing this, it was really beautiful. :-)

Forgiven, Ryan! In moments of frustration the brain finds the worst words it can think of to hurl at the cause of said frustration. The fact that your brain came up with this particular word at such a point simply shows that you're aware that's it's hurtful and it's locked in your "do not use" arsenal. I've always appreciated the fact that you guys don't throw around those type of insults when you are displeased with something, so although I did not watch the video, I DID see previous lantern runs and understand the primal rage that may have overridden the brain locks to find stronger language for your frustration. Your apology was damn well-written, too. Thank you for being such a stand-up guy.

@AdzPearson: Oh, wow, I didn't know about Koudelka! Thanks for mentioning it, I will check that out if I can find it.

Oooh, Shadow Hearts. Love that game! I've just never encountered something quite like it, even among Japanese games. An odd, creepy, romantic mix of Asia and Europe in pre-WW1, with a supernatural/horror atmosphere and a bizarre sense of humor. Still need to complete SH2 and 3, but I definitely can recommend the first one.

@demonknightinuyasha said:

Just saw an email from Atlus that lists Fall 2012 for NA release :D

Just got the email. Guess I'll have to get a Vita at some point now...

I think this issue of how attractive women are treated because of their looks is part of a larger subject: the disproportionate importance placed on the physical appearance of women. We/society/whatever assess their character, value and how they are to be treated in so many subtle ways based on that one thing.