Grim Fandango [SEP] developer
Grim Fandango


"next decade". Ultimately the studio stopped developing video games in 2013 after The Walt Disney Company acquisition of Lucasfilm, and was dissolved shortly thereafter. Tim Schafer left LucasArts shortly after "Grim Fandango" release, and created his own company, Double Fine Productions, in 2000 along with many of those involved in the development of "Grim Fandango". The company has found similar critical success with their first title, "Psychonauts". Schafer stated that while there is strong interest from fans and that he "would love
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Grim Fandango


and was selected as the 10th "Best PC Ending" by their readership. In 1999, "Grim Fandango" won "Computer Adventure Game of the Year" for the 1999 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. It was also nominated for "Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics", "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development" and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music" that same year. "Grim Fandango" has been included in several publishers' "
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Grim Fandango


to go back and spend time with the characters from any game [he] worked on", a sequel to "Grim Fandango" or his other previous games is unlikely as "I always want to make something new." With the help of developers such as Double Fine and Telltale Games, adventure games saw a resurgence in the 2010s, with financially successful titles such as "Broken Age", "The Walking Dead", and "The Wolf Among Us". "Grim Fandango Remastered" has received similar positive
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Grim Fandango


Grim Fandango is an adventure game, directed by Tim Schafer, developed and published by LucasArts in 1998 for Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with characters and examine, collect, and use objects to solve puzzles. "Grim Fandango" is set in the Land of the Dead, through which recently departed souls, represented as "calaca"-like figures, travel before they reach their final destination
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Grim Fandango


breeze" because of Schafer's earlier success, despite the new project's unusual theme. Development began soon after the completion of "Full Throttle" in June 1995. "Grim Fandango" was an attempt by LucasArts to rejuvenate the graphic adventure genre, in decline by 1998. According to Schafer, the game was developed on a $3 million budget. It was the first LucasArts adventure since "" not to use the SCUMM engine, instead using the Sith engine, pioneered by "", as the basis of the
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Grim Fandango


transition of LucasArts from a developer and publisher into a licensor and publisher in 2013 shortly after its acquisition by Disney. Under new management, LucasArts licensed several of its intellectual properties (IP), including "Grim Fandango", to outside developers. Schafer was able to acquire the rights to the game with financial assistance from Sony, and started the process of building out the remaster within Double Fine Productions. Schafer said that the sale of LucasArts to Disney had reminded them of the past efforts of former LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez to
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Grim Fandango


with a wide array of developers for the PlayStation 4, and was also inspired to seek "Grim Fandango" after seeing developers like Capcom and Midway Games revive older properties. Boyes' determination was supported by John Vignocchi, VP of Production for Disney Interactive, who also shared memories of the game, and was able to bring in contacts to track down the game's assets. After discovering they were vying for the same property, Schafer and Boyes agreed to work together to acquire the IP and subsequent funding, planning to make
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Grim Fandango


Double Fine, but the company had no drives to read the tapes. Former LucasArts sound engineer Jory Prum had managed to save a DLT drive and was able to extract all of the game's audio development data from the tapes. Schafer noted at the time of "Grim Fandango" original development, retention of code was not as rigorous as present-day standards, and in some cases, Schafer believes the only copies of some files were unintentionally taken by employees when they had left LucasArts. As such, Schafer and his
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Grim Fandango


Fandango", within the exhibition section called "Game Changers", crediting him along a few other visionary game designers for having "pushed the boundaries of game design and storytelling, introducing new genres, creating our best-loved characters and revolutionising the way we understand and play games" "Grim Fandango" has been the centerpiece of a large fan community for the game that has continued to be active more than 10 years after the game's release. Such fan communities include the Grim Fandango Network and the Department of Death,
3150008
List of commercial failures in video gaming


Metal Gear Solid" and "". Based on data provided by PC Data (now owned by NPD Group), the game sold about 95,000 copies up to 2003 in North America, excluding online sales. Worldwide sales are estimated between 100,000 and 500,000 units. Developer Tim Schafer along with others of the "Grim Fandango" development team would leave LucasArts after this project to begin a new studio (Double Fine Productions). "Grim Fandango"s relatively modest sales are often cited as a contributing factor to the decline of the adventure
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Grim Fandango


time. However, it was a commercial failure and contributed towards LucasArts' decision to end adventure game development and the decline of the adventure game genre. In 2014, with help from Sony, Schafer's studio Double Fine Productions acquired the "Grim Fandango" license following Disney's acquisition and closure of LucasArts the previous year. On January 27, 2015, Double Fine released a remastered version of the game, featuring improved character graphics, controls (including point and click), an orchestrated score, and directors' commentary.
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Grim Fandango


and creator of "Full Throttle" and the more recent "Psychonauts" and "Brütal Legend". Schafer had conceived a Day of the Dead-themed adventure before production of "Full Throttle" began, and he submitted both concepts to LucasArts for approval at the same time. "Full Throttle" was accepted instead because of its greater mainstream appeal; it became a hit and opened the way for Schafer to create "Grim Fandango". "" noted that the pitching process for "Grim Fandango" was "a
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Grim Fandango


and Meche are able to find the real Double N tickets, including the one that Meche should have received. Manny makes sure the rest of the tickets are given to their rightful owners; in turn, he is granted his own for his good deeds. Together, Manny and Meche board the Number Nine for their happy journey to the Ninth Underworld while Glottis who can't join them waves tearfully goodbye. "Grim Fandango" development was led by project leader Tim Schafer, co-designer of "Day of the Tentacle"
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LucasArts


released. This was followed by "Grim Fandango" in 1998, LucasArts' first attempt to convert a 2D adventure to a 3D environment. The highly stylised visuals, superb voice acting and sophisticated writing earned Grim Fandango many plaudits, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award. "Escape from Monkey Island" (2000), the fourth installment in the "Monkey Island" series, featured the same control scheme as Grim Fandango, and was generally well received. It is the last original adventure game the company has released
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Grim Fandango


to two more years to implement their original designs. A remastered release of "Grim Fandango" was announced in June 2014 during Sony Computer Entertainment's press event of the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, with a simultaneous release for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms on January 27, 2015. It was later released for Android and iOS on May 5, 2015. On November 1, 2018 Grim Fandango was released on the Nintendo Switch. The remastered version was predicated on the
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Grim Fandango


version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that ""Grim Fandango" is a smart, beautiful, and enjoyable adventure game that will leave you holding your breath waiting for "Grim Fandango 2"." The game also received criticisms from the media. Several reviewers noted that there were difficulties experienced with the interface, requiring a certain learning curve to get used to, and selected camera angles for some puzzles were poorly chosen. The use of elevators in the game was particularly noted as
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Grim Fandango


exploit franchises." "Eurogamer" Jeffrey Matulef, in a 2012 retrospective look, believed that "Grim Fandango"'s combination of film noir and the adventure game genre was the first of its kind and a natural fit due to the script-heavy nature of both, and would later help influence games with similar themes like the "Ace Attorney" series and "L.A. Noire". "Grim Fandango" has been considered a representative title demonstrating video games as an art form; the game was selected in 2012 as a
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Grim Fandango


Top Games" lists well after its release. GameSpot inducted the game into their "Greatest Games of All Time" in 2003 citing, "Ask just about anyone who has played Grim Fandango, and he or she will agree that it's one of the greatest games of all time." GameSpy also added the game to their Hall of Fame in 2004, further describing it as the seventh "Most Underrated Game of All Time" in 2003. Adventure Gamers listed "Grim Fandango" as the seventh "Top Adventure Game
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Grim Fandango


Top 25 PC Games in IGN's 2009 list. Initial estimates suggested that "Grim Fandango" sold well during the 1998 holiday season. It debuted at #6 for the first week of November on PC Data's computer game sales charts, at an average retail price of $35. It was absent by its second week. In the United Kingdom, "Grim Fandango" claimed first place on Chart-Track's weekly sales chart in December, before falling to ninth place. It secured 12th after four weeks, and
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Tank controls


tank controls" comes from the steering mechanisms of old tanks, which had to stop completely before turning. Tank controls were common in 3D games in the late 1990s, such as "Grim Fandango" and the early "Resident Evil" and "Tomb Raider" games. Tank controls allow players to maintain a direction when the camera angle changes. "Grim Fandango" designer Tim Schafer chose the system as it allowed the developers to create "cinematic" camera cuts without disrupting the controls. Tank controls have received criticism for feeling
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Grim Fandango


between the PS4 and Vita versions. During the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018, during a 20th anniversary live-reading event with several "Grim Fandango" actors, Schafer announced that the remastered version will also be ported to the Nintendo Switch sometime later that year. The Switch port was released on November 1, 2018. "Grim Fandango" has an original soundtrack that combines orchestral score, South American folk music, jazz, bebop, swing, and big band music. It also has various influences from traditional Russian, Celtic,
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Grim Fandango


had achieved. It is commonly considered a commercial failure, even though LucasArts stated that "Grim Fandango met domestic expectations and exceeded them worldwide". The game had become profitable by 2000, although Dave Grossman has said, "It was pretty ambitious and expensive, and I don't think it made very much money back." A writer for "Edge" summarized in 2009, "While its reputation as a flop isn't entirely accurate, "Grim"s sales were either an indication that people preferred motorbikes to Gitanes-smoking
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Grim Fandango


of All Time" in 2004; in their 2011 list of "Top 100 All-Time Adventures" it was listed as #1. In 2007, IGN included the game in the "Top 25 PC Games" (as 15th) and "Top 100 Games of All Time" (at 36th), citing that "LucasArts' second-to-last stab at the classic adventure genre may very well be the most original and brilliant one ever made." "Grim Fandango" remained as the 20th in the
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Grim Fandango


to solve the puzzles or to progress the plot. As in most LucasArts adventure games, the player can never die or otherwise get into a no-win situation (that prevents completion of the game). "Grim Fandango" takes place in the Land of the Dead (the Eighth Underworld), where recently departed souls aim to make their way to the Land of Eternal Rest (the Ninth Underworld). Good deeds in life are rewarded by access to better travel packages to assist in making the journey of the soul
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Grim Fandango


Adventure Game of the Year". The game won IGN's "Best Adventure Game of the Year" in 1998, while GameSpot awarded it their "Best of E3 1998", "PC Adventure Game of the Year", "PC Game of the Year", "Best PC Graphics for Artistic Design", and "Best PC Music awards". GameSpot named "Grim Fandango" its Game of the Year for 1998, and in the following year included the game in their "Ten Best PC Game Soundtracks"
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Grim Fandango


. The story follows travel agent Manuel "Manny" Calavera as he attempts to save new arrival Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, a virtuous soul, on her journey. The game combines elements of the Aztec belief of afterlife with "film noir" style, with influences including "The Maltese Falcon", "On the Waterfront" and "Casablanca." "Grim Fandango" received praise for its art design and direction. It was selected for several awards and is often listed as one of the greatest video games of all
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Grim Fandango


movies were also inspiration for much of the game's plot and characters. Tim Schafer stated that the true inspiration was drawn from films like "Double Indemnity", in which a weak and undistinguished insurance salesman finds himself entangled in a murder plot. The design and early plot are fashioned after films such as "Chinatown" and "Glengarry Glen Ross". Several scenes in "Grim Fandango" are directly inspired by the genre's films such as "The Maltese Falcon", "The Third Man", "Key Largo
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King's Quest: Mask of Eternity


sales). In 2002, Louis Castle of Westwood Studios estimated total sales of 750,000 units for the game. "Mask of Eternity" was a finalist for "Computer Gaming World"s 1998 "Best Adventure" prize, which ultimately went to "Grim Fandango" and "Sanitarium" (tie). It was likewise nominated in this category by CNET Gamecenter, GameSpot, "Computer Games Strategy Plus" and the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, but lost all of these awards of "Grim Fandango". The Academy also
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Grim Fandango


reception as the original release, with many critics continuing to praise the game's story, characters, and soundtrack. They also found the developer's commentary to be very insightful to the history of the game. Reviewers were disappointed at the lack of an auto-save system, as well as the game not receiving a full high-definition upgrade, leaving the higher-resolution characters somewhat out of place with the original 3D backgrounds. Many reviewers also noted that the puzzles, though a staple of the day when "Grim
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Grim Fandango


It was initially released for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, OS X, and Linux platforms. Mobile versions for Android and iOS devices were released on May 5, 2015. A Nintendo Switch port of the remastered version was also released on November 1, 2018. "Grim Fandango" is an adventure game, in which the player controls Manuel "Manny" Calavera ("calavera" being Spanish for 'skull') as he follows Mercedes "Meche" Colomar in the Underworld. The game uses the GrimE engine
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Grim Fandango


new GrimE engine. The GrimE engine was built using the scripting language Lua. This design decision was due to LucasArts programmer Bret Mogilefsky's interest in the language, and is considered one of the first uses of Lua in gaming applications. The game's success led to the language's use in many other games and applications, including "Escape from Monkey Island" and "Baldur's Gate". "Grim Fandango" mixed static pre-rendered background images with 3D characters and objects. Part of this decision was based on
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Grim Fandango


potential titles included "The Long Siesta" and "Dirt Nap", before he came up with the title "Grim Fandango". The game featured a large cast for voice acting in the game's dialog and cutscenes, employing many Latino actors to help with the Spanish slang. Voice actors included Tony Plana as Manny, Maria Canals-Barrera as Meche, Alan Blumenfeld as Glottis, and Jim Ward as Hector. Schafer credits Plana for helping to deepen the character of Manny, as the voice actor was a native Spanish
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Grim Fandango


acclaimed Grim Fandango for including "one of the best soundtracks in PC gaming history". In 2017 Fact magazine also listed it as one of the "100 best video game soundtracks of all time". In 1999's Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the soundtrack was nominated in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music". It was also lauded by GameSpot, which awarded it the "Best PC Music awards", and included it in the "Ten Best PC Game Soundtracks"
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Grim Fandango


a score of 94/100. Critics lauded the art direction in particular, with GameSpot rating the visual design as "consistently great". "PC Zone" emphasized the production as a whole calling the direction, costumes, characters, music, and atmosphere expertly done. They also commented the game would make a "superb film". The "San Francisco Chronicle" stated ""Grim Fandango" feels like a wild dance through a cartoonish film-noir adventure. Its wacky characters, seductive puzzle-filled plot and a nearly
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Grim Fandango


invisible interface allow players to lose themselves in the game just as cinemagoers might get lost in a movie." The "Houston Chronicle", in naming "Grim Fandango" the best game of 1998 along with "Half-Life", complimented the graphics calling them "jaw-dropping" and commented that the game "is full of both dark and light humor." IGN summed its review up by saying the game was the "best adventure game" it had ever seen. "Next Generation" reviewed the PC
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Grim Fandango


troublesome. The review from Adventure Gamers expressed dislike of the soundtrack, and, at times, "found it too heavy and not well suited to the game's theme". A "Computer and Video Games" review also noted that the game had continuous and long data loading from the CD-ROM that interrupted the game and "spoils the fluidity of some sequences and causes niggling delays". "Grim Fandango" won several awards after its release in 1998. "PC Gamer" selected the game as the 1998 "
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Grim Fandango


adventure games, some of whom went on to set up Telltale Games, creating an episodic series of "Sam & Max" games. These events, along with other changes in the video game market towards action-based games, are seen as primary causes in the decline of the adventure game genre. "Grim Fandango"'s underperformance was seen as a sign that the genre was commercially "dead" to rival Sierra, as well. LucasArts stated in 2006 that they do not plan on returning to adventure games until the
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Grim Fandango


both of which include fan art and fiction in addition to other original content. In an interview with "Kotaku" after the announcement of the remaster, Schafer stated that he has long considered the aspect of a "Grim Fandango" sequel to further expand on the setting that was created for the game. He felt the story would be a difficult component, as either they would have to figure a means to bring Manny back from his final reward, or otherwise build the story around a new character. However, one option
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Day of the Tentacle


with a Linux version released at July 11 together with a mobile port for iOS. Schafer credited both LucasArts and Disney for help in creating the remaster, which follows from a similar remastering of "Grim Fandango", as well by Double Fine, in January 2015. Schafer said when they originally were about to secure the rights to "Grim Fandango" from LucasArts to make the remaster, they did not originally have plans to redo the other LucasArts adventure games, but with the passionate response they got on the news of the
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Grim Fandango


In 2005 "The Guardian" characterized the game as "The last genuine classic to come from LucasArts, the company that helped define adventure games, Tim Schafer's noir-pastiche follows skull-faced Manny Calavera through a bureaucratic parody of the Land of the Dead. With a look that takes from both Mexican mythology and art deco, "Grim Fandango" is as unique an artistic statement as mainstream gaming has managed to offer. While loved by devotees, its limited sales prompted LucasArts to back away from original adventures to simply
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Grim Fandango


Director’s Cut with 14 extra tracks (the latter sold exclusively through Sumthing Else). It included the original score from the LucasArts archives, new compositions by Peter McConnell and new orchestral arrangements, as well as new extended versions of jazz pieces re-mixed at Sony Computer Entertainment America. In 2018, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the original release of the game, the soundtrack was released for the first time in vinyl format. "Grim Fandango" gained critical acclaim upon its release. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the game
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Grim Fandango


24th at the 13-week mark. The game sold 58,617 copies and earned $2.33 million in the United States by the end of 1998, and rose to 95,000 sales there by March 2000, according to PC Data. "Grim Fandango" sold another 16,157 units in the region during 2001, and 8,032 in the first six months of 2002; its jewel case SKU reached 5,621 sales during 2003. According to Tim Schafer, the game achieved sales of approximately 500,000 units by 2012, around 50% fewer than "Full Throttle"
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Psychonauts


4.5 years to complete — though that without all the complications the real development time was closer to 2 years — with a team of 42 full-time developers and additional contractors, with a final budget of $11.5 million. The soundtrack to "Psychonauts" was composed by Peter McConnell, known for his work on LucasArts titles such as "Grim Fandango" and "Day of the Tentacle". Schafer's familiarity with McConnell, having worked with him on numerous projects in the past, led Schafer to select him for the
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ScummVM


-dimensional adventure games, such as "Grim Fandango" and "", named as such as these games reflect the residual of those not already covered by "ScummVM". With increased attention, "ScummVM" has entered into favorable agreements with adventure game developers to help bring their titles into the engine, or in some cases, being given source code and other assets to work from. Notably, Revolution Software helped the developers with source code and technical advice for their games, and once "ScummVM" supported their engine
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Broken Age


Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. "Broken Age" was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's "Grim Fandango", and was released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014 (two weeks earlier for Kickstarter backers), and the second was
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Broken Age


year, alongside the remastered version of "Grim Fandango". The development process of "Broken Age" was recorded by 2 Player Productions as part of the Kickstarter project. In 2011, Paul Owens of 2 Player Productions wrote an e-mail to Greg Rice and Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions with a proposition of making a documentary series charting the development of a game from beginning to end. A part of the Kickstarter money was set aside for the documentary. The documentary was originally only available to backers, but as
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Psychonauts


included several others that worked alongside him on "Grim Fandango". The backstory for "Psychonauts" was originally conceived during the development of "Full Throttle", where Tim Schafer envisioned a sequence where the protagonist Ben goes under a peyote-induced psychedelic experience. While this was eventually ejected from the original game (for not being family friendly enough), Schafer kept the idea and eventually developed it into "Psychonauts". While still working at LucasArts, Tim Schafer decided to use the name "Raz" for a main
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Full Throttle (1995 video game)


creating a sequel himself. A remastered version of "Full Throttle", titled "Full Throttle Remastered", was developed by Schafer's Double Fine Productions for release on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The remastered was announced on December 5, 2015, and was released on April 18, 2017. Like "Day of the Tentacle Remastered" and "Grim Fandango Remastered", the remastered version of "Full Throttle" includes updated graphics and sound, improved controls, and developer commentary
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LucasArts adventure games


the game is the fourth installment in the "Monkey Island" series. The game's development was led by Sean Clark and Michael Stemmle. The GrimE technology was slightly modified for the game, although "Escape from Monkey Island" was in most respects similar to "Grim Fandango" in both graphics and gameplay. "Escape from Monkey" again follows Guybrush Threepwood, this time attempting to deal with an Australian land developer attempting to eradicate piracy through a voodoo talisman. The game's music was created by five different composers:
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LucasArts adventure games


Inventory, released in 2010, and its sequel, Poker Night 2, released in 2013. The company has gone on to develop other episodic adventure games from licensed properties, reaching critical success with their series of "The Walking Dead" games. Tim Schafer, the creator of "Full Throttle" and "Grim Fandango", left LucasArts at the beginning of 2000 to found Double Fine Productions. Among their games include "The Cave", a game designed by Gilbert and developed by Double Fine, inspired by the multiple
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Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption


while a duo called Youth Engine provided the modern-day sections' score. Some artwork was outsourced; Peter Chan ("Day of the Tentacle" (1993) and "Grim Fandango") developed concept art to establish the look of the game's environments, and Patrick Lambert developed character concepts and full-color drawings for the modelers and animators to use. Huebner considered the most important external relationship was with a small start-up company called Oholoko, which produced cinematic movies for the game's story elements and endings
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Tim Schafer


Los Muertos. "Grim Fandango" won many awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award of 1998. Schafer worked on an unannounced PlayStation 2 action-adventure game at LucasArts, but it never entered production. Prior to his departure, a number of other developers were leaving LucasArts as the studio shifted away from adventure games. Schafer was approached by his colleagues with the idea of leaving the company to develop PlayStation 2 games on their own; Schafer was initially wary of this believing he felt secure in his position at
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Double Fine


help other, smaller independent developers through its clout, including becoming a video game publisher for these titles. Double Fine has also been able to acquire rights to remaster some of the earlier LucasArts adventure games, including "Grim Fandango", "Day of the Tentacle", and "Full Throttle". The Double Fine website is also host to seven webcomics, which are created by members of Double Fine's art team and are collectively referred to as the Double Fine Comics. Double Fine was founded by former LucasArts developer Tim
8191903
Double Fine


Schafer, together with some colleagues from LucasArts, in July 2000. In the years prior, LucasArts had started to shift development away from adventure games into more action-oriented ones as part of the general trend in the gaming industry. Schafer, who had just finished producing the adventure game "Grim Fandango", a title met with critical praise but was a commercial disappointment, saw others leaving LucasArts and was unsure of his own position there. He was approached by colleagues suggesting they launch their own studio to develop their own
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Sith (game engine)


The Sith engine is a game engine developed by LucasArts, named after the in-lore dark side organization. The game "" is based on this engine, and its expansion, "", is based on a slightly updated version. The engine was used in "Grim Fandango" as a basis for the GrimE engine. A modified third-person view version of the code with dramatically rewritten lighting, collision, rendering and tools was renamed to Jones engine and used in "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine".
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Grim Fandango


scheme developed by Pfaff's patch and other alternate control schemes in addition to the original tank like controls, including analogue controls for console versions and point-and-click controls for computer versions. The game's soundtrack was fully orchestrated through performances of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (who also performed the soundtrack for Double Fine's "Broken Age"). The remastered version also includes developer commentary, which can be activated via the options menu and listened to at various points in the game. The PlayStation version also features cloud saving
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ResidualVM


release "Myst III: Exile" on digital platforms. The digital storefront GOG.com which specializes in selling digital copies of older games, sells "Myst III: Exile"' with the "ResidualVM" engine as part of its distribution. The stable release supports "Grim Fandango" and "", which are completable with a few minor glitches. In the development branch, there is also support for "Escape from Monkey Island", which is completable with a few glitches, and The Longest Journey, which is completable with
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Sanitarium (video game)


Sciences (AIAS) all nominated "Sanitarium" as the best adventure game of 1998, but it lost these awards to "Grim Fandango". "PC Gamer US"s editors remarked that "Sanitarium" is "full of beautiful graphics, interesting characters, and well-designed puzzles, and is a must-play for any true adventurer." The game was also a nominee for GameSpot's "Best Story" and the AIAS's "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development" awards, which went to "StarCraft"
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LucasArts adventure games


-character approach of "Maniac Mansion", and "Broken Age", a point-and-click adventure game financed by crowdfunding through Kickstarter, one of the first games demonstrating this as a viable mechanism for game development. Double Fine has been able to engage in acquiring the rights to the LucasArts games for making remasters. To date, they have released "Grim Fandango Remastered" (2015), "Day of the Tentacle Remastered" (2016), and "Full Throttle Remastered' (2017). Gilbert
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Grim Fandango


corpses, or a sign of the times: adventure games were simply on their way out." While LucasArts proceeded to produce "Escape from Monkey Island" in 2000, they canceled development of sequels to "Sam & Max Hit the Road" and "Full Throttle" stating that "After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC." Subsequently, the studio dismissed many of the people involved with their
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Grim Fandango


Fandango" was first released, remain somewhat obtuse with solutions that are not clear even after the player solves them, and that a hint system, as was added to the "Monkey Island" remake, would have been very helpful. The game's pacing, also unchanged from the original version, was also found harder to grasp considering the direction taken in modern games, in both the pacing within the game's four acts, and the time taken to move around and between rooms. In his review for Eurogamer, Richard
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George Lucas


wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s and during this same period Lucas' LucasArts developed high-impact video games, including "Maniac Mansion" (1987), "The Secret of Monkey Island" (1990) and "Grim Fandango" (1998) alongside many video games based on the Star Wars universe. In 1997, Lucas rereleased the "Star Wars" trilogy as part of a Special Edition, featuring several alterations; home media versions with further changes were released in 2004 and 2011.
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Broken Age


Costume Quest" and "Stacking", as well as his earlier LucasArts game, "Grim Fandango". The Kickstarter page was updated with the promise that additional funds would go to increased production values for the game and film, and deployment on additional platforms. A later update by Schafer affirmed that the additional funding will support development for the Mac OS X and Linux platforms and select iOS and Android devices. Additionally, the game will have voice acting for the English version, and include text localization for French, German,
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Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans


called this event "the beginning of a trend" at the developer, citing its 1996 cancellation of "" for failing to meet internal quality standards. In retrospect, Roper considered Blizzard's conservative design plan for "Warcraft Adventures" to be its greatest mistake, and called it "the only thing I would have changed". He felt that the company's lack of forward thinking on the project left it outpaced by more ambitious games like "Grim Fandango". Following the game's cancellation, he told GameSpot, The
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LucasArts


Expo, Sony Computer Entertainment announced "Grim Fandango Remastered", developed by Double Fine Productions as a console exclusive for PlayStation platforms. It was released in 2015 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, and iOS. During Sony's new PlayStation Experience convention in 2014, another remaster by Double Fine, "Day of the Tentacle Remastered", was announced. It was released in March 2016 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. At
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Grim Fandango


Cobbett warned players to "be careful of rose-tinted memories", that while the remastered version is faithful to the original, it does show aspects of the original game that have become outdated in more modern video game development. "Wired" Laura Hudson considered the remastered version highlighted how the original game was "an artifact of its time, an exceptional piece of interactive art wrapped inextricably around the technology and conventions of its time in a way that reveals both their limitations and the brilliance they were capable of producing".
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LucasArts adventure games


the first special edition. Double Fine Productions has released remasters of Grim Fandango in 2015, Day of the Tentacle in 2016, and Full Throttle in 2017. Following the release of "Escape from Monkey Island" in 2000, LucasArts put three further adventure games into development. However, all three were later canceled. The first of these was "", a sequel to "Full Throttle" that began production in early 2000. Tim Schafer, the original creator of "Full Throttle", was not involved in the project
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SCUMM


put them through "SCUMM University", a week-long period where they were taught how to use the SCUMM engine. These new hires, called "scummlets", then were given the opportunity to explore and expand on example work to help identify where they would best fit into the development team. LucasArts finally abandoned the SCUMM engine in 1998, when they switched to GrimE, using the free software scripting language Lua, for the games "Grim Fandango" and "Escape from Monkey Island". In March 2016 Wilmunder
16106031
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption


time. "Redemption"s story was developed with input from Wolf; it was co-written by Daniel Greenberg, a writer for the source pen-and-paper RPG. The small size of the team led to Nihilistic relying on eight external contractors to provide elements the team could not supply. Nick Peck was chosen to provide sounds effects, ambient loops, and additional voice recordings based on his previous work on "Grim Fandango" (1998). Kevin Manthei provided the musical score for the game's 12th century sections,
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Adventure game


to offer strong, story-driven games within an action setting. This slump in popularity led many publishers and developers to see adventure games as financially unfeasible in comparison. Notably, Sierra was sold to CUC International in 1998, and while still a separate studio, attempted to recreate an adventure game using 3D graphics, "", as well as "Gabriel Knight 3", both of which fared poorly; the studio was subsequently closed in 1999. Similarly, LucasArts released "Grim Fandango" in 1998 to many positive reviews
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Grim Fandango


how the "calaca" figures would appear in three dimensions. There were more than 90 sets and 50 characters in the game to be created and rendered; Manny's character alone comprised 250 polygons. The development team found that by utilizing three-dimensional models to pre-render the backgrounds, they could alter the camera shot to achieve more effective or dramatic angles for certain scenes simply by re-rendering the background, instead of having to have an artist redraw the background for a traditional 2D adventure game. The team adapted
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Grim Fandango


release the older LucasArts titles as Legacy Properties, such as the 2009 rerelease of "The Secret of Monkey Island". Schafer also noted that they had tried to acquire the property from Lucasarts in the years prior, but the frequent change in management stalled progress. When they began to inquire about the rights with Disney and LucasArts following its acquisition, they found that Sony, through their vice president of publisher and developer relations Adam Boyes, was also looking to acquire the rights. Boyes stated that Sony had been interested in working
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Grim Fandango


Double Fine worked to improve the overall look for modern computers. The textures and lighting models for the characters were improved, in particular for Manny. Schafer has likened the remastering approach to The Criterion Collection film releases in providing a high-fidelity version of the game without changing the story or the characters. In addition to his own developers, Schafer reached out to players who had created unofficial patches and graphical improvements on the original game, and modifications needed to keep it running in ResidualVM, and gained their help to improve the
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Tim Schafer


). At the 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards, Tim Schafer and Erik Wolpaw won the award for Best Writing for "Psychonauts". Tim Schafer and Double Fine Executive Producer & COO Caroline Esmurdoc also won the award for Best New Studio. In October 2006, Tim Schafer received a BAFTA video game Best Screenplay award for "Psychonauts". In 2012, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) organized the "Game Masters" exhibition, where Tim Schafer was featured as the creator of "Grim Fandango",
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Peter Chan (artist)


backgrounds, emulating those of Chuck Jones and Maurice Nobel. LucasArts had had Jones visit their studio during development, and Jones was impressed with Chan's work and suggested he come work for Warner Bros., but Chan decided to remain at LucasArts. Chan continued as the lead artist for "Full Throttle". At this point, around 1995, Chan decided to become a freelance artist, and moved from San Francisco to San Juan Island, Washington, but worked remotely with LucasArts as the backgrounds artist for "Grim Fandango",
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Grim Fandango


, the best of which is the Number Nine, a train that takes four minutes to reach the gate to the Ninth Underworld. Souls who did not lead a kind life are left to travel through the Land of the Dead on foot, which would take around four years. Such souls often lose faith in the existence of the Ninth Underworld and instead find jobs in the Land of the Dead. The travel agents of the Department of Death act as the Grim Reaper to escort the souls from the mortal world to the Land
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Grim Fandango


candidate for public voting for inclusion within the Smithsonian Institution's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit, while the Museum of Modern Art seeks to install the game as an exhibit as part of its permanent collection within the Department of Architecture and Design. The game was included in the "Game Masters" exhibition, organized in 2012 by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI); an event devoted to explore the faces and the history behind computer games. Tim Schafer was featured as the creative force behind "Grim
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LucasArts adventure games


a voodoo curse. Michael Land once again composed the game's score. "The Curse of Monkey Island" would mark the end of support for DOS; the game was released on CD-ROM solely for Windows. For the 1998 title "Grim Fandango", LucasArts retired the SCUMM engine in favor of a new 3D engine. The GrimE (Grim Engine) technology was created, using the Sith engine as a base and coded using Lua. The new engine resulted in a redesign in control and gameplay: instead of
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Grim Fandango


the re-release a remastered version. Sony did not ask for any of IP rights for the game, instead only asking Double Fine to give the PlayStation platforms console exclusivity in exchange for funding support, similar to their Pub Fund scheme they use to support independent developers. A major complication in remastering the original work was having many of the critical game files go missing or on archaic formats. A large number of backup files were made on Digital Linear Tape (DLT) which Disney/LucasArts had been able to recover for
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Double Fine


titles. Schafer departed LucasArts in January 2000, co-founding Double Fine later that year. Schafer started Double Fine with programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies in what was once a clog shop in San Francisco. After several months of working on the demo for what would become "Psychonauts", a mixture of personnel from the "Grim Fandango" development team and other new employees were slowly added to begin production. After the implementation of Amnesia Fortnights in 2011 as a means to find new titles to publish, the company is
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Grim Fandango


scenario? You'd want to be the grim reaper himself. That's how Manny got his job. Then I imagined him picking up people in the land of the living and bringing them to the land of the dead, like he's really just a glorified limo or taxi driver. So the idea came of Manny having this really mundane job that looks glamorous because he has the robe and the scythe, but really, he's just punching the clock." Schafer recounted a Mexican folklore about how the dead were buried
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Fandango


. The current pattern of the fandango, its distinctive progression (i–iv–V) lyrics with octosyllabic verses and the use of castanets and guitars are well-documented from the 18th century. The "fandangos grandes" (big fandangos) are normally danced by couples, which start out slowly with gradually increasing tempo. Many varieties are derived from this one. The "fandanguillos" (little fandangos) are livelier, more festive derivations of fandangos. Some regions of Spain have developed their own style of fandangos, such
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Calaca


Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride", Neil Gaiman's movie "Coraline", the PlayStation 3 games "LittleBigPlanet" (2008) and "Guacamelee!" (2013), and the 1998 Tim Schafer computer game "Grim Fandango." Calacas are prominently featured as representations of the deceased in "The Book of Life". In "Monster High", Skelita Calaveras is a calaca and is the daughter of Los Esklitos (The Skeletons). In "", the villain Sartana of the Dead is
20059524
A Golden Wake


of edutainment. He said "At its heart this is an adventure game. I’m not trying to hit people over the head with history". Gonzalez listed "The Dagger of Amon Ra" (1992), "" (1993), "Grim Fandango" (1998), "L.A. Noire" (2011), and "" (2011) as influences for the game. Explaining the context of this game within the industry, IndieHaven wrote: "A Golden Wake explores a slice of both real and
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Barry Dennen


1994). He also did voice work on cartoons such as "DuckTales", "", "The Pirates of Dark Water", "Animaniacs", "" and "". He also did voices for many video games, including Fatman in "", Master Li in "Jade Empire", Police Chief Bogen in "Grim Fandango", Mimir in the video game "Too Human", Dean Domino in "" expansion ""Dead Money"", "The Dark One" in "The
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Tony Plana


, "Three Amigos," "Goal!," "Lone Star," and others. He is known to PC gamers as the voice of Manny Calavera in the LucasArts 1998 adventure game "Grim Fandango." In 2011, Plana guest starred in "Desperate Housewives" as Gabrielle Solis's abusive stepfather, Alejandro Perez. He also directed "Witch's Lament", a "Desperate Housewives" episode in the show's "eighth season". In 2011, he appeared in "Body of Proof", in
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Grim Fandango


with two bags of gold to be used in the afterlife, one on their chest and one hidden in their coffin, such that if the spirits in the afterlife stole the one on the chest, they would still have the hidden bag of gold; this idea of a criminal element in the afterlife led to the idea of a crime-ridden, film noir style to the world, triggered too many ideas that they had to then trim down. The division of the game into four years was a way of breaking the
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The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard


for free download, via the official website. The main character Cyrus is referenced in "": in a song sung by the first mate of the ship, the "Marie Elena". According to Stephan Janicki of "Computer Gaming World", "Redguard" and the related title "" were both "commercial failures." "Redguard" was a finalist for "Computer Gaming World"s 1998 "Best Adventure" award, but lost it to "Grim Fandango" and "Sanitarium" (tie). Likewise,
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Alan Blumenfeld


, "JAG", "Gilmore Girls", "", "Without a Trace", and "Judging Amy". He has also appeared in movies, including "The Ring", "In Her Shoes", and "". He was also the voice of Glottis and Boyd Cooper on the cult video-games "Grim Fandango" and "Psychonauts" respectively. Blumenfeld currently lives in L.A. and is still active in theater, film and television acting. He also teaches acting at Pomona College in Claremont
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Video game graphics


interaction with the gameworld remains mostly "point-and-click". Further examples include the PlayStation-era titles in the "Final Fantasy" series (Square); the role-playing games "Parasite Eve" and "Parasite Eve II" (Square); the action-adventure games "Ecstatica" and "Ecstatica 2" (Andrew Spencer/Psygnosis), as well as "Little Big Adventure" (Adeline Software International); the graphic adventure "Grim Fandango" (LucasArts); and "3D
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Grim Fandango


of the Dead, and then determine which mode of transport the soul has merited. Each year on the Day of the Dead, these souls are allowed to visit their families in the Land of the Living. The souls in the Land of the Dead appear as skeletal "calaca" figures. Alongside them are demons that have been summoned to help with the more mundane tasks of day-to-day life, such as vehicle maintenance. The souls themselves can suffer death-within-death by being "sprouted",
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Starship Titanic


and graphics, although he wrote the story is "a little shortsighted". The game received two nominations for the BAFTA Interactive Awards in the categories of Comedy and Interactive Treatment in October 1998, and was nominated for Computer Adventure Game of the Year at the 1999 Interactive Achievement Awards. Likewise, the editors of "The Electric Playground" nominated "Starship Titanic" for their 1998 "Best Adventure Game" award, which ultimately went to "Grim Fandango". However, it was given a Codie award in 1999 for "
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Dead Head Fred


, "Dead Head Fred" stands 'head and shoulders' above the rest." IGN said "The tale of revenge in a dark world is twisted [and] unapologetically humorous". Other publications were not as impressed, however, with one reviewer stating "...the overused profanity just makes it feel like it's been designed by teenagers desperately trying to be edgy." The game's supernatural themes elicited comparisons to "The Darkness" and "Grim Fandango". GamesRadar included it in their list of the 100
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Grim Fandango


a CD in 1998. Originally, the game was to be shipped in the first half of 1998 but was delayed; as a result, the game was released on October 28, 1998, the Friday before November 2, the actual date of the Day of the Dead celebration. Even with the delay, the team had to drop several of the puzzles and characters from the game, including a climactic five-step puzzle against Hector LeMans at the conclusion of the game; Schafer later noted that they would have needed one
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Escape from Monkey Island


Max Hit the Road". Sean Clark also worked on "Loom" and "The Dig". "Escape" uses a slightly improved version of the GrimE engine introduced by "Grim Fandango". Compared to the rest of the series, the SCUMM scripting language was replaced by the Lua programming language (This is referenced in-game; the SCUMM Bar, which first appeared in "The Secret of Monkey Island", has been replaced in "Escape" with the tropical-themed Lua Bar). A new
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Sam & Max: Freelance Police


Rock", "" and "". Graphical features such as shaders, bump maps and lightmaps were used to give a 3D effect to 2D textures in the game. Little was revealed of the gameplay, other than that "Freelance Police" would not follow the same control scheme used in 3D LucasArts adventures "Grim Fandango" and "Escape from Monkey Island", but would return to point-and-click mechanics used in the 2D LucasArts games. As in "Sam & Max Hit the Road", "
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Hello, sailor


the game "Tales of Monkey Island", a character named Anemone is introduced as one of the sexually ambiguous mer-people. She constantly greets the main character, Guybrush Threepwood, with "Hello, sailor!", until he asks her to stop. In the adventure game "Grim Fandango" the protagonist Manny can say "Hey, sailor" to Captain Velasco. In "", clicking on a Naga Siren unit will often prompt them to say "Hey, Sailor". In "Strong Bad's Cool
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Dracula: Resurrection


've been waiting for a respectable point and click adventure since "Grim Fandango" came along, and although "Dracula: Resurrection" is a quick ride, it's well worth the price of admission." Marc Saltzman of "PC Gamer US" likewise wrote that it "proves there's plenty of blood left in this genre." GameSpot's Ron Dulin scored the game 6 out of 10. He too criticised the fact that Dracula's resurrection is never explained, and was also critical of the core gameplay; "
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Escape from Monkey Island


by his nemesis LeChuck and an Australian conspirator Ozzie Mandrill. "Escape" was the last of LucasArts' adventure games to be released. It was also the second and last game to use the GrimE engine, which was upgraded from its first use in "Grim Fandango". The game is now available on GOG.com and Steam. "Escape from Monkey Island" is an adventure game that consists of dialogue with characters and solving puzzles. The game is controlled entirely with the keyboard or alternatively with a joystick, making it the
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LucasArts adventure games


using point-and-click mechanics, the player uses the keyboard or a gamepad to interact with the game. Full-motion video cut scenes are used to advance the plot, stylized to be nearly indistinguishable from the in-game backgrounds. GrimE was also a true 3D engine: characters are collections of 3D-rendered polygons. "Grim Fandango" was created by Tim Schafer, his final work for LucasArts. The game follows the tale of Manny Calavera, a travel agent in the Land of the Dead, as
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