GOG.com continues bringing LucasArts games to their platform, with the newest batch of games, in celebration of the upcoming Star Wars Day celebrations on May 4th. So, of course, that means that all of the games in this batch are of the Star Wars variety.
The Humble Weekly Bundle is an adventure bundle this week. Pay whatever you like for Detective Grimoire, Broken Sword 1 & 2, and The Whispered World Special Edition. If you pay more than the average, you'll also get The Detail: Episode 1, A Golden Wake, and Cognition: Game of the Year Edition. If you pay $10 or more, you'll also get Broken Sword 5.
There's also a Star Wars bundle going on. There are 9 Star Wars games if you pay $12 or more, and the site says that there's more yet to be announced.
Update January 22: The second part of wave two is here, and they too are all Star Wars games: Star Wars: Empire at War Gold, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D, and Star Wars Rebellion. We won't know for sure until the final part of wave two hits in a few days, but it looks like we might have to wait for wave three for LucasArts games that aren't Star Wars.
That's right, the SCUMM games are actually using ScummVM! The lawyers who used to work for Lucas legal probably nearly had a heart attack when they read this news. Around two dozen more LucasArts games will be released for the service soon.
Update 2 (October 28th): The news is now official, so the link has been changed to the correct working one. Update: The news release has been pulled from the site, as it was never intended to be revealed so early. The news will be made once the countdown timer on the GOG.com site reaches zero.
The new publisher on GOG.com has been officially revealed to be LucasArts. GOG.com has made a deal with Disney to release about 30 LucasArts games on the service. These first six games will be made available starting tomorrow:
Star Wars™: X-Wing Special Edition - digital distribution debut, on GOG.com!
Star Wars™: TIE Fighter Special Edition - digital distribution debut, on GOG.com!
Sam & Max Hit the Road - digital distribution debut, on GOG.com!
The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition
Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™
Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic
There might be some weight to the rumor that the publisher is LucasArts this time, as a GOG.com user has reportedly found three countdown images on the GOG.com website that use well known LucasArts fonts. Of course, if it does end up being LucasArts, it's uncertain if any games that aren't already released digitally will be released on GOG.com, as the three franchises represented (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Monkey Island) already have games available digitally on Steam. But, at least this time signs do seem to point towards DRM-free versions of LucasArts games finally being available soon.
Disney has closed the LucasArts development studio, and all in-house projects have been canceled. LucasArts licensing remains and will only be licensing out the properties to external developers from here on out. Only Star Wars is mentioned, there is no word on whether the classic LucasArts original properties will be licensed as well.
“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games," LucasArts parent company LucasFilm said in a statement. "As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”
The LucasArts development studio has given me many great memories over the years, and I'm sorry to see it go. I give my best wishes to those who have lost their jobs due to the closure.
Update January 14, 2014: The game's website is
now dead, but the game is not. Stacy Davidson clarified that he killed
the website because he'd rather have the game fly under the radar by
developing it quietly and then releasing it when it's done, in order to
avoid the legal department of Disney. The new link to the demo can be
found at this link on his game development company's website.
D'oh! I posted this on Mixnmojo, but forgot to post about this here. With all of the hullabaloo about LucasArts recently, now is as good a time to post about this as any (although it's unclear what the fate of this game will be now that LucasArts is owned by Disney, which likes to keep its intellectual property on a tight leash).
This summer, Han Solo Adventures, the Star Wars fan game that is being created to emulate the style of LucasArts adventure games (in particular Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis), received its first playable demo. It's a short three room demo made with Adventure Game Studio that contains many references to the Star Wars films and LucasArts adventure games.
Disney has acquired Lucasfilm, and by extension LucasArts. The famed former adventure game developer is now under the House of Mouse, specifically Disney Interactive Studios. But, according to a LucasArts spokesperson, things aren't likely to change at LucasArts, at least not in the foreseeable future. "For the time being, all projects are business as usual". So, LucasArts' meager selection of their adventure game classics is likely to remain on Steam, at least for now.
The word is still out on what this means for the licensing of LucasArts properties, however. Disney CEO Robert Iger has stated an intent to license the LucasArts properties out on consoles. "We'll look opportunistically at console, most likely in licensing rather than publishing, but we think that given the nature of these characters and how well known they are, and the storytelling, that they lend themselves quite nicely, as they've already demonstrated to the other platforms." He was referring to the Lucasfilm licenses rather than the original LucasArts intellectual property, but it's possible companies like Telltale might now be able to work up a dialog with studio heads in terms of licensing their adventure properties.
Update January 14, 2014: The game's website is
now dead, but the game is not. Stacy Davidson clarified that he killed
the website because he'd rather have the game fly under the radar by
developing it quietly and then releasing it when it's done, in order to
avoid the legal department of Disney. The game can now be followed (and a demo can be
downloaded) at this thread on his game development company's forums.
With LucasArts having me so excited about them getting back into the business of adventure games, I'm starting to get into the giddy fan girl mode over them again. :)
Part of being a giddy fan girl revolves around creating and enjoying fan creations that center around the company's creations. I'll admit, I've never been a big Star Wars fan. I just watched part two of the original three all the way through last year, and I've watched bits and pieces of part one and part three. I've also only watched bits and pieces of the new three, and I've never played a Star Wars video game.
The bit about me never playing a Star Wars game will change in the near future, however, if Stacy Davidson releases Han Solo Adventures. The game stars Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford in the first three Star Wars movies), and it is set before the events of the original Star Wars movie.
There is a clip on YouTube that Stacy created for the Star Wars Uncut project (which gives fans a chance to film 15 seconds of a scene from the original movie, and then the movie will be pieced together from those scenes). The scene in the video below includes voices (because it is a scene from the movie). Voice acting will not be included in Han Solo Adventures, it will be purely text like the "non-talkie versions" of LucasArts adventure games from the early 1990s.
Stacy has said that the first game will merely be the first chapter of the Han Solo Adventures. This is definitely one Star Wars fan project that I will be keeping an eye on. :)
Tinternet's largest and last surviving Zak McKracken fan page is back. I'm reviving all my old Mega Monkey sites - and building new ones so that I can finally accomplish my goal set forth at the last update on February 12, 1999: to have a fan page for every LucasArtsadventure game.
