Double Fine is making Grim Fandango Remastered!

[JenniBee]

Amazing news! Double Fine is going to be releasing Grim Fandango Remastered. It will be published by Sony for PS4 and Vita. More platforms will be announced soon, so hopefully they'll include Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[noize]

Awesome!

[ultraneonoirantihero]

Check this video and skip to 11 min to see Tim Schafer talk about GF Deluxe and how he is gonna incoorporate some of the enhancements into the GF Remaster version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNhE7zxJymE

[Fuj]

I kinda feel bad for Residual devs. Countless hours poured into coding, years of lingering in alpha... and now that Residual has reached maturity and established itself as THE way to play Grim Fandango - blam! - it's history. Well, not just yet but soon enough. It wasn't in vain, far from that, and ultimately i'm sure they rejoice over seeing GF remastered just like the rest of us. Still, i know if i was on the team, there'd be a part of me saying: **** you Tim Schaffer! At least they'll have the satisfaction of knowing that his decision was undoubtedly influenced by the rekindled interest in the game - something that Residual is to be thanked for.

[Graxer]

I kinda feel bad for Residual devs. Countless hours poured into coding, years of lingering in alpha... and now that Residual has reached maturity and established itself as THE way to play Grim Fandango - blam! - it's history. Well, not just yet but soon enough. It wasn't in vain, far from that, and ultimately i'm sure they rejoice over seeing GF remastered just like the rest of us. Still, i know if i was on the team, there'd be a part of me saying: **** you Tim Schaffer! At least they'll have the satisfaction of knowing that his decision was undoubtedly influenced by the rekindled interest in the game - something that Residual is to be thanked for.

Its worth remembering that Residual will still be THE way of playing Grim Fandango for anyone who doesnt have a PS4 or Vita. (Me for instance)

[Stheo]

Its worth remembering that Residual will still be THE way of playing Grim Fandango for anyone who doesnt have a PS4 or Vita. (Me for instance)

Not really, Tim basically confirmed on Twitter that it will be released for PC as well. The "exclusivity" just means it won't come out on any non-Sony consoles. And considering nearly all Double Fine games eventually got offical Mac and Linux ports I'd say Grim HD has a good chance of getting ported too.

That said there's no telling how much will be changed for the new version. I doubt they still have the original art assets so there will definitly still be a historical value in ResidualVM keeping the original playable!

[Raziel]

Its worth remembering that Residual will still be THE way of playing Grim Fandango for anyone who doesnt have a PS4 or Vita. (Me for instance)

Not really, Tim basically confirmed on Twitter that it will be released for PC as well. The "exclusivity" just means it won't come out on any non-Sony consoles. And considering nearly all Double Fine games eventually got offical Mac and Linux ports I'd say Grim HD has a good chance of getting ported too.

That said there's no telling how much will be changed for the new version. I doubt they still have the original art assets so there will definitly still be a historical value in ResidualVM keeping the original playable!

It wasn't and won't be released for the platform i'm using, so i don't care about the-release/update/enhanced version.

I'll stick with ResidualVM

[JohnnyWalker2001]

The fact that ResidualVM even exists is a testament to the longevity and love surround the game. I'm sure DF used that fact to help sell the idea of a remastered Grim Fandango -- so in some ways the guys who worked so hard on Residual are partially responsible for this version existing!

Plus, after the travesty that was Monkey Island: Special Edition (and countless other terrible modern remakes -- like The Chaos Engine and Speedball II), it's very possible that many people will still want to play the original. I hope I'm wrong, of course, and that DF will do nothing more than simply make GF shine even brighter, but you never know...

[JenniBee]

Plus, after the travesty that was Monkey Island: Special Edition (and countless other terrible modern remakes -- like The Chaos Engine and Speedball II), it's very possible that many people will still want to play the original. I hope I'm wrong, of course, and that DF will do nothing more than simply make GF shine even brighter, but you never know...

What was so bad about the Monkey Island Special Edition? I thought it was one of the better remakes because it actually ran on top of the original code. Sure, the hair style of Guybrush was annoying, as was the few stray pixels in the artwork, but that was fixed by fan patches. Other than those small issues and the fact that you can't play with voices in classic mode (which was also solved by fan patches to the original game to add a monster.sou for use with ScummVM), I think the remake is great. I love the orchestrated versions of the music and the voice work (I use both of those in the original non-Special Edition now when I play them), and I think I might prefer the iOS version of the Special Edition over the VGA version since that version of the Special Edition has a really slick interface.

[somaen]

Well, MI:SE was a bit weird for me, the new artwork did change the "feel" of i.e. Mel├®e Island for me (for instance the Scumm Bar suddenly wasn't as dark a place, with the added moonlight and such outside. But all of that was just a bit of nostalgia I guess. The only REAL problem with it, was that it had a really clunky interface in the PC/Mac-version (picking up the herring was hard enough with the verbs ON-screen, handling the grog was made even harder with the new interface too). People complain about the tank-controls of Grim (although I'm siding with Tim Sch├ñfer here as I never saw the problem with those), but the MI:SE controls were worse.

[JohnnyWalker2001]

I thought the MI:SE was a travesty (although the MI2:SE was rather good). Yes, technically Oliver Franzke did a great job with the code. The ability to switch between old and new was awesome -- but that's only a cool gimmick and not something that makes a game fun to play. Plus, of course, the music was great.

It's been a while, but I recall not liking the following:

- Guybrush looked terrible. It was like recasting Michael Cera as Indiana Jones. Your lead character is very important, and they ruined Guybrush like no other version did before.
- The background artwork was incredibly sloppily done, and didn't respect the original artwork. It sometimes didn't line up correctly with the animations, or didn't capture the same feeling as the original.
- They left old bugs in the game (like the clock-tower one), while introducing NEW bugs -- like when Guybrush is supposed to have the word "LOVE" written across his face. In the SE he just turns to the camera and says "love" out loud(!).
- As somaen pointed out: The new interface was just about the worst interface of any LucasArts adventure -- it actually hindered you playing the game! (Why they didn't just use the excellent interface from COMI, I don't know.)
- Worst of all, the voice acting was ATROCIOUS. Just beyond terrible. There were a couple of gems (Guybrush, LeChuck, the Storekeeper, etc.) but most of the characters sounded like amateur voice artists trying to put on silly voices. ("This is a comedy game, right? I can do a silly voice!")

The MI:SE was incredibly rushed, and done very cheaply. The team did the best they could, but I personally found it sacrilegious. I know that sounds extreme. I could have lived with the shoddy backgrounds; but I couldn't live with the amateur, soulless voice acting, the awful interface, or Guybrush's face and haircut.

I was very glad that they learned from their mistakes with MI2:SE, though. That genuinely was very true to the original (some of the artwork was flawless) and did a great job overall.

[JohnnyWalker2001]

Still no news. This wait is killing me!

[ultraneonoirantihero]

Here you go Johnny, the wait is over, new info:

"Double Fine is going to be holding a panel at this year's Penny Arcade Expo, entitled Grim Fandango: Bringing the Dead Back to Life! They will discuss development of both the original game and the new remastered version."

http://mixnmojo.com/news/Grim-Fandango-PAX-Panel

http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments ... pax_panel/

http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule/panel ... ck-to-life

[JohnnyWalker2001]

Here you go Johnny, the wait is over...

The wait is over, now I just have to... wait. Argh!

(Thanks.)

[ultraneonoirantihero]

Well Johnny, here's Grim @ PAX



The Making of Grim Fandango Remastered: Episode 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-LSMCYjHow

Tim Schafer Stage Interview Gamespot - Pax Prime 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6XXazj3us

Grim Fandango remaster will feature live orchestra soundtrack, original art assets
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/08/31/grim- ... rt-assets/

The first video is the best.
- They brought Tobias Pfaff to the DF studio! And they have no idea how his magic works
- They found the source files on 130 CDs... which all now fit nicely on one SSD
- Uncompressed stuff... but not all source files? They open raw videos but no 3D animations from which they were made of.
- They also talk about polishing existing 640x480 backgrounds in the image form and not rendering them again for HD!?!
- Orchestral music
- No widescreen? They composed the scenes for 4:3 and they shall remain that way? Tim makes a reference to Wes Anderson's 2014 movie 'Grand Budapest Hotel' which was partially shot in 4:3.

That's it for now...

Double Fine is working on bunch of projects simultaneously, I really don't know when Broken Age or Grim Fandango Remastered will come out.