Racy Subject Matter

[GuJiaXian]

My wife and I are currently playing through Al Emmo. I have one question for the developers: why was the game made so racy? Every other line is packed with innuendo. My understanding was that Al Emmo was created to harken back to "ye old days" of adventure gaming. I have great memories of playing through Space Quest II and III with my father, but there's no way I'd play through Al Emmo with one of my children.

Perhaps I'm coming across as a prude, but that's not my intention. Please, consider the "Hospitality House." Without dropping any spoilers, the entire building isn't kid-safe. There's not a chance I'd even play through said parts of the game if there was a chance my daughter might come into the room.

I'd really like to understand why Al Emmo was made to be so racy. I've never played any of the Leisure Suit Larry games, but I'd imagine Al Emmo has more in common with them than with the King's Quest or Space Quest series. This question is really nagging at me, especially since this is a commercial venture for Himalaya Studios, and by including this stuff they've effectively limited their audience.

[GuJiaXian]

No response? I'd really like to hear from the developers. This isn't a "complaint" thread, nor is it me simply bashing the game or anything. I'd really like to understand why the developers made this particular design decision.

[Erpy]

I guess most of us were waiting for Brit to answer since she's the one who came up with the game's foundation ideas, but she's extremely busy as of late, so I'm not surprised she didn't answer immediately.

My guess as to the "mature" subject matter would be that the people who "grew up on the adventure classics" are all well over 13 already and that was our primary audience. There's a great variation of different comedy-styles in the game and comedy based on suggestion and innuendo didn't really seem that out of place in a setting where "hospitality houses" were typically quite common. We didn't want to become raunchy, so we tried limiting those particular jokes to mere suggestion. (so we could always say it was the player's dirty mind, rather than anything WE wanted to suggest )

[GameDevChris]

Personally speaking, I don't think the content of Al Emmo is any more racy than that which you might find in The Simpsons. Of course, some people will also find The Simpsons to be over-the-top in the innuendo department, while others would consider it tame in comparison to something like South Park.

As to the question, the only answer I can think to give is... well, why not?  We didn't really set out to make an exact replica of a Sierra game, we wanted to put our own spin on it so that it was unique to our own company as well. Although, that's not to say that all of Sierra's titles were child-friendly either (e.g. Larry, Gabriel Knight, Phantasmagoria).  The game's not really intended for young kids

Additionally, most adventure gamers who grew up with these 2D type of point & click games of the 80's and 90's now range from their mid-late 20's to people their 80's. So the majority of the intended target audience are, most likely, mature enough to deal with the subject matter contained in Al Emmo.  Of course, this kind of humor may not be to everyone's tastes, but there will probably be other opportunities in the future for us to try our hand at tamer games (not to mention even darker ones). I see no valid reason to put a limitation on how creative one can be when designing a game or writing a story. Variety is the spice of life!

[GuJiaXian]

Heh, I probably wouldn't let a younger child watch The Simpsons, either. Maybe I am a prude.  

Anyway, I really appreciate your answer. I understand and can appreciate your rationale. So, is there a chance that Himalaya Studios' next project might be slanted toward the whole family? You make a compelling argument about the rising age of adventure gamers. However, doesn't that just mean that we should make games targeted toward a younger audience and "indoctrinate" a whole new generation? Let's face it: without games like this and your King's Quest remakes, my children would have to be raised on "adventure games" like Dreamfall and such.

[GuJiaXian]

Oh, and for the record, I realize that I could have my children play the old classic Sierra titles. Then again, I can already hear by daughter speaking: "You had to use the *keyboard* to play games? Dad, you're so old!"

[MusicallyInspired]

Well, once all the remakes get done that won't be a problem .

[GuJiaXian]

Well, once all the remakes get done that won't be a problem .

Is there another remake planned after Trial by Fire? My understanding was that nothing has been announced after that.

[Erpy]

I don't think MI is referring to AGDI remakes specifically.

[rich]

Am I the only person who actually much prefered the text parser system over the point and click system? (which is why all my games will have it, even if they also have point and click).

Actually, I found the game to be racy too. But, that could be that I have a very dirty mind. I quite liked all the innuendo!

[MusicallyInspired]

No, Erpy's right. I didn't mean AGDI specifically. I meant sooner or later all the games will be remade SOMETIME and then it won't be a problem. I have no idea what AGDI plans on doing after QFG2. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't include them in my statement either (here's hoping!).

[GameDevChris]

I have no idea what AGDI plans on doing after QFG2.

Probably booking some appointments with a shrink!

So, is there a chance that Himalaya Studios' next project might be slanted toward the whole family? You make a compelling argument about the rising age of adventure gamers.

Funnily enough, the first build of Al Emmo was nothing like how the finished game actually turned out. We still have an early alpha demo floating around someplace from when the game was still in 320x200 resolution.

Back then, it was just a plain vanilla Western with the same basic "mail-order bride concept" in place. Originally, the game was supposed to be a quick project that was intended to be finished within several short weeks. But it got shelved.  Only after several months had passed, did we reconsider it and decide to take it seriously as a game we could release commercially. We realized it would need a lot of fleshing-out from the initial concept and that's where the 'racy' side of things started to develop.

I'm not sure exactly how it worked out that way, suffice to say that the original script we rewrote was a lot worse than the version of the game you're playing now. Many of the innuendo jokes that exist were formerly just crude lines which weren't that funny at all. It took Daniel's writing skills to rework them into clever jokes that had double meanings (and for which we could blame the players' own dirty mind for the way they interpreted it instead of having them blame it on our own writing).    But, yeah, the whole game went through several 'sanitization' processes to ensure that it wouldn't filter out too many people.

However, doesn't that just mean that we should make games targeted toward a younger audience and "indoctrinate" a whole new generation? Let's face it: without games like this and your King's Quest remakes, my children would have to be raised on "adventure games" like Dreamfall and such.

The problem, as I see it, is that in order to impress most kids these days you need to have a huge budget so that you can produce games with impressive 3D graphics including all the trimmings. This costs millions of dollars. Not to mention that action games tend to provide instant gratification whereas standard adventure games require thinking and operate at a much slower pace. It'd be a big challenge to hook the 'gotta-have-it-now' generation on adventure games, even if said adventure games rivalled games like HL2 and Doom 3 in terms of graphics. It's also difficult to make any kind of mainstream impact in the midst of companies like Xbox, iD software, Rockstar Games etc.

Trying to 'win kids over' would also be a very risky move from a marketing standpoint since you'd basically have to do something immense to revolutionize the adventure genre. Something so different that it would turn heads with its innovation and spark a series of copycats trying to cash in on the craze. Unfortunately, a lot of money would be required to set a new standard like that. Not necessarily to implement the innovation, but more so to make the graphics sensational enough to impress the majority of young gamers out there... and also enough money to cover you in the event that it doesn't work out as planned.

That said, I'm not sure what kind of game we might do next. It depends on Al Emmo's sales. That will determine how much time and money we could afford to spend making another title.

[GuJiaXian]

I completely understand your concerns about money and such, given the scope of what I've proposed. I would like to suggest, however, that not all of the rising generation will be "instant gratification" junkies. For example, my daughter is being raised by two people who extensively played the classic Sierra titles. She is likely to enjoy the types of games that we do.

To put it another way, my daughter likes curry--hot curry. This isn't normal for an American kid. In fact, she eats curry and the like (we had tikka marsala with home-made naan bread last night), but she's never had a hot dog (nasty stuff).

Yes, my daughter is not the average American consumer, whether with food or video games. However, I really think that kids like her can be raised to enjoy both the newer "instant gratification" titles as well as the old-school slower ones.

Hope that made sense. Granted, that still doesn't address the money issues...hum. Well, whatever happens, I'm here rooting for you. Racy or not, I'm glad *someone* is trying to bring back old-school adventure gaming. It's a big step in the right direction.

[Tom Lewandowski]

I wholeheartidly agree with GuJiaXian's point-of-view with the racy content of Al Emmo in terms of its not being a "family game".  It is not, as far as I'm concerned.  I wouldn't want children to play it.  But then, I AM a confirmed prude.  Societal changes have evolved at different paces around the globe, however.  And my generation and its attitudes are far, FAR different than those of today's youth -- which make up the writing and programming staff for Al Emmo.