ADVENTURE POINT
Dicky Mint was a sailor. A sailor with a very, very big nose. His name was Dicky Mint because once upon a time he got his dicky bow stuck in a bowl of very very sticky mint ice cream. Spyglass Guides has some great information on this game.
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Interview with Doug TenNapel
by Gelert
March 31st, 2013
..
How utterly wonderful, and occasionally invaluable, modern day
technology can be . . . . . .
It was around about the midnight hour on an extremely chilly
31st of March, early Spring evening that, shivering in my inadequately
heated Welsh back-of-beyond little cottage, I happened to check my
mobile handset for any interesting news snippets or messages from
one of the equally insomniacal Adventurers who must be out there.
You can imagine my unbridled delight when, who should have dropped
me a line but the greatly talented, greatly famous, greatly, indeed VERY
greatly revered in old skool gaming circles, Mr Doug TenNapel, himself,
graphic novellist extraordinaire and creator of one of, if not THE, best
loved animated point and click Adventures of all time. Yes the brains and
talent behind The Neverhood was ... cough! cough! ... upon me so
to speak. In fact, had the midnight hour already been and gone, I would
have probably been rather cautious about the legitimacy of what would
have then been an almost out of the blue All Fool's Day
text communication.
But, no, this was no April Fool's spoof or prank. Here was I, up
until then fighting off the torporific influence of Mister Sandman
and who should contact me but 'the man' himself.
Had my wits been about me in my usual exemplary fashion, I'm sure
I could have probed the genius' brain even deeper for clues and
his still evolving concept ideas regarding his latest, new and very exciting,
project. As it was, I still I think managed to gain a little valuable insight
into his, and his team's plans for many an Adventurer's dream, a successor
to the wonderful Neverhood and Klaymen's exploits therein.
Anyway, on with the 'heads-up', as they say. This is what Doug had
to say about his forthcoming game.
* * *
Hi ! Good to speak with you.
Hi Doug. Great to hear from you too. What's the latest news
regarding plans for your new and very exciting claymation project?
Well, we just had a 3 day binge of designing at my Colorado
Springs house. Ellis Goodson (Skullmonkeys), and Mark Lorenzen, artist
on the Earth Worm Jim games, Skullmonkeys and The Neverhood and
programmer of Lord of the Rings and The Sims, were there and we hit
it hard. We got most of the buildings figured out and also the
basic game rules.
[ AP note : Ellis Goodson is an accomplished illustrator and one of
the lead storyboard sketch artists on Skullmonkeys, Ratatouille,
BoomBots amongst other titles. Mark Lorenzen is also well
known for his work with Doug TenNapel (they were at college
together), and is an experienced and talented game designer. ]
Three days ! That's quite a session. It sounds as though things are
really moving apace. How close to the old and wonderful Neverhood
look and feel do you envisage it being ?
The traditionalists shouldn't be too disappointed. The new tech is
definitely helping us figure some difficult things out that in the old
days would just be instantly jettisoned from the game.
Are you going back to its roots and aiming to make something very
familiar to Neverhood fans or do you see it as a grasp-the-new-
technology-at-hand opportunity and therefore aim to make it look and
feel more modern day ? Weird questions perhaps, but us traditionalists
are very excited and yet also just wondering what delights you
clever chaps may have in store for us. I promise any other future
questions I ever have for you will be a little easier on the palate. LOL !
The look and style of the game is all me, as The Neverhood was
in 95... but my tastes have evolved a bit, so the game will reflect
that too. In many ways, we're going back to the art that originally
inspired The Neverhood from my late 80s work. So I guess I've
progressed to the 80s now. Ha-ha !
This all sounds like excellent news, and I'm sure all Neverhood
fans will be licking their lips at the prospect of another
Neverhood-type Adventure. I know I've probably asked this,
but can you give us an idea of exactly how the gameplay will
feel to those of us with fond memories of Klaymen's adventures ?
Well, we're certainly not trying to copy the first game. We're
just freely repeating what worked and moving on from what didn't. It
will be an old school feeling point and click adventure, though
I think most fans will become fans of this work too. I got a lot of
flack for jumping off of Earth Worm Jim to create The Neverhood
and lost a lot of EWJ fans on Neverhood because of it. But this
is nowhere near the departure from Neverhood that Neverhood was
from EWJ, mostly because we're hitting the exact same genre with the
same stop motion technique and the same team.
That's excellent Doug. Thankyou ever so much for getting in
touch to share this latest news of your exciting new project. Before
you go though - and I realise I may be pushing my luck a bit as
I imagine you'll want to keep much of this under wraps until a
later date perhaps - but one of the things I'm dying to know, as
will I'm sure the vast majority of other Neverhood fans, is have you
and your team come to a decision on who will be doing the music
this time around ? Terry Scott Taylor is obviously the name on
my lips. Any thoughts as yet ?
Well, you're certainly right in that we'll be pretty hush hush
about everything until the Kickstarter launches. Then we'll be dumping a
lot of stuff out, and I mean finished stuff too ! But, yes, I can tell you
this . . . Terry Taylor will will be doing the music.
The news gets better and better . . . That's fabulous news indeed ! :)
All that remains is for me to say thankyou once again Doug. This
is one Neverhood fan who's level of eager anticipation has gone up
at least Ten(Napel) notches this chilly Welsh Spring evening. I can
promise you one thing in return . . . Everyone with fond memories of
Neverhood will be champing at the bit and we will all be following
developments with a very keen eye indeed.
* * *
Neverhood's 'Successor'