Grim fandango remastered itunce update#
Grim fandango remastered itunce code#
Grim fandango remastered itunce license#

Only the most brutal of the businessmen of the industry are viewing things in this light, while the actual artists, programmers, testers, and everyone else are (usually) trying to make something good.

This is a truth that is often ignored because we view games – rightly – as an artform. Nothing is released when it’s done, it’s released when the return on investment for more development isn’t going to be positive. The game needs to be delayed – that’s another $20,000 for the level designers to refine their work and the writers to bridge the gaps created by cut content, please. Features are harder to design and implement than expected, bugs are more prevalent than they’re meant to be, there is a global pandemic. It becomes more complicated when plans change. The numbers are pulled out of thin air, but that’s the simple truth of how these things are laid out in scoping documents when pitching to publishers. Do the same for gameplay design, cutscenes, character models, sound, animation, general art etc. Those people cost $20,000 a month combined, so that will be $480,000 please. Need a vast open world filled with characters, quests, voiced dialogue, secrets, enemies, and so on? Okay, that will take ten level designers working for 24 months, supported by three writers, just to do the basics. It is basically possible to make a video game do anything you want it to, it just takes time. Eventually you need to make a profit, of course, which is where the problems come in. Take whatever you assume the game is going to make over its release period, remove ancillary costs like store cuts, production of physical copies, and so on, and that’s your maximum budget.

Grim fandango remastered itunce license#

However much those rights cost to license from LucasArts-cum-Disney, they had to be factored into the game budget. It’s bringing a previously PC-only game to modern consoles, and done by the relatively small – especially at the time – team at Double Fine with some support from PlayStation to get the rights.

Grim fandango remastered itunce code#

Grim Fandango Remastered was, at the very least, working with a very old game, for which source code and assets were either difficult/impossible to obtain or not in a format that was easy to update. There are a couple of asterisks that left me disappointed rather than enraged. I enjoyed replaying the game, I didn’t like the missed potential.

Grim fandango remastered itunce update#

Bugs went unfixed, the visual upgrade was minimal, and the most significant new features such as a control scheme update and 16:9 resolution were taken from fanworks from over the years. Which is fine when they actually are a significant improvement over digging out the original disks and installing fan patches. That said, a few games mean enough to me that I’m happy to see them up-rezzed, bug-fixed, and otherwise improved without necessarily including complete reinvention. Generally I skew new rather than old and heavy remake or sequel over remaster – the originals exist, they’re usually perfectly playable through emulation if nothing else, and I’d rather something flawed but intriguing than the exact same ground re-trod. It started with Grim Fandango, the first remaster I was properly excited for.

After playing a few new takes on some of my favorite games I have a message for everyone: we have to stop accepting the cheap remaster. Nowhere is it more obvious than the murky world of re-releases, remasters, remakes, and reimaginings.

The lazy developer is a myth, but the cheap executive is as blatant in this industry as it is everywhere else. They want more for less, they overscope projects (accidentally or otherwise) to fit in more features that almost certainly won’t be ready in time, they force crunch on employees to get things done. Game development studios as a whole, their bosses who make the decisions, and their publishers or owners who provide some or all of the money are as cheap as possible. It’s not exactly brain surgery, but it is a complex, demanding job – from QA testing right up to game directing – that has little room for off-days or rest.