Tex Murphy Dons Fedora Once Again
[b]Adventure Gamers:[/b] As hard as it is to believe for longtime adventure gamers, there are probably a great many people who have never played a Tex Murphy game at this point. Can you give us some background about the man and this bizarre, futuristic mishmash of humans and mutants?
[b]Aaron Conners:[/b] Tex Murphy lives in post-apocalyptic New San Francisco. When we last saw him, it was 2043 and he had just turned 40 years old. The fallout of World War III has created a generation of mutants, who have become the lowest caste of American society. Tex is a “norm” – unmutated – but lives among mutants in an older, rundown part of town. He is the last of the old-style P.I.’s, wearing a fedora and trench coat, using old-fashioned, outdated electronics and weapons, but traveling in a flying car (“speeder”).
Fans respond to him because he’s a generally good-hearted guy who does things for the right reasons. He’s just smart enough, fairly charming (though not as charming as he thinks) and impulsive to a fault, often getting himself into situations that are way over his head (which we can all relate to) but, through a combination of inspiration, perspiration, good fortune or blind luck, he manages to come out more or less intact.
[b]Chris Jones:[/b] Another thing that was pretty unique to our series was in The Pandora Directive, where we introduced narrative pathing and players had a chance to influence Tex’s personality, as well as his actions, guiding him to be a totally upstanding boy scout, or exploring his dark side and letting him go places he hadn’t gone before. This is something we plan to do again in the new game.
Aaron Conners discusses gameplay in Project Fedora
[b]AG:[/b] Like several other high-profile designers of late, you’ve opted to fund the game through Kickstarter. Why go that route?
[b]Chris:[/b] It’s pretty simple. We don’t have the money required to make a Tex Murphy game at the level we would like (and many fans would expect). Getting an influx of development money up front would enable us to make the game we want to make.
[b]AG:[/b] Have you approached publishers about funding options directly? What’s the response to that?
[b]Chris:[/b] We approached a few publishers, including Microsoft. However, it was difficult to convince the traditional channels that there was even a market for adventure games. The Kickstarter initiatives are definitely showing that there are fans of adventure games out there who want these games. We want to show that not all projects have to cost $100 million to be a successful venture.
[b]AG:[/b] As much as Tex’s many fans want to see it succeed, what happens to Project Fedora if the fundraising goal isn’t met?
[b]Chris:[/b] At the end of last year, my intention was to make as good a game as I could with the very limited resources we had. But after Tim Schafer’s success with Kickstarter, I decided that this could be the answer we’d been looking for. If the Kickstarter promotion fails, it’s going to be hard to get the enthusiasm to do the game. Kickstarter serves as a barometer for interest, and if there is no interest in the game it’s going to be difficult to justify doing a project.
[b]AG:[/b] More optimistically, what happens if you exceed your target with room to spare?
[b]Chris:[/b] We’ll make the new game as good as it can be. As we said in our video that announced the Kickstarter date, we will use all funds earned through Kickstarter to make this game as epic and awesome as we can.
[b]AG:[/b] Now operating under the label Big Finish Games, you’ve dabbled in casual games over the past few years. Tell us about that experience.
[b]Aaron:[/b] Do I have to? OK… Actually, we really enjoyed creating the first Big Finish game, 3 Cards to Midnight. We thought it had a great story, neatly woven into the gameplay. We made it with a handful of people for well under $200k. It wasn’t the fanciest, but it was well-designed and fun – a game I’m very proud to have my name on. It was moderately successful (in large part due to support from our Tex Murphy fans) and got nominated for some awards, but seemed to be too casual for many adventure gamers and too complex for most casual gamers. We made a sequel that was less successful, then partnered with PlayFirst to do another casual game.
[b]Chris:[/b] When we started Big Finish, we had hopes that a fair number of casual gamers might “convert” to adventure games, but the gap is wider than we’d anticipated. That being said, there is a big market for casual games, which is why we’ve continued on with the two new “Rita James” games. But classic adventure games are our true passion.
[b]AG:[/b] Do you plan to “casualize” the new Tex at all, or is this an unapologetic return to your old-school adventuring roots?
[b]Aaron:[/b] I promise to fall on my sword before I would be involved with a casual Tex Murphy game.
[b]AG:[/b] You’d probably get lots of volunteers to hold the sword if you did. Will you be developing the game entirely in-house at Big Finish, or will you be outsourcing various elements to other studios?
[b]Chris:[/b] If we do any outsourcing, it will be minimal.
[b]AG:[/b] What do you think it is about Tex, and the series overall, that’s made the franchise so enduring?
[b]Aaron:[/b] I think we tapped into a unique combination of mystery, humor and romance with a main character that people could relate to. Chris had already created Tex and given him a unique personality; my contribution was to give him a bit more history – an ex-wife, a falling out with his mentor, relating to mutants more than norms – and flaws – naiveté, impulsiveness, math. I think this made him much more “human” and sympathetic than typical protagonists.
[b]Chris:[/b] I think the character of Tex is unique and fun. He’s not a typical videogame hero – he has some very obvious flaws. We affectionately refer to him as the idiot savant of crime solvers.
[b]AG:[/b] If Project Fedora is a success, will there be more Tex adventures to come?
[b]Aaron:[/b] Absolutely! For those who’ve been following along, there are three full untold stories in the Tex Murphy mythos, all of which have been hinted at the previous games. We would love to tell those stories. If this game is successful, Chris and I would love to carry on and keep Tex Murphy games coming for the next few years at least.
With that, Chris Jones and Aaron Conners were off to resume preparations for the upcoming game. We appreciate their insights, anecdotes, and observations about this much beloved series, and thanks to the Kickstarter campaign, the future is at long last looking bright once again for Tex Murphy. But as fans we still can’t help turning a nostalgic eye back to the glory years of old. To help us do that, Chris and Aaron have generously provided some never-before-seen photos and concept work from Tex’s earlier games. (Click images for larger versions.) Enjoy.
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