Vapourware Twinsen's Little Big Adventure - reboot from original creators

[oasis789]

classics are updated on GOG now

 

[Infinitron]

Remaster store pages:


https://af.gog.com/game/twinsens_little_big_adventure_remastered?as=1649904300
https://af.gog.com/game/twinsens_little_big_adventure_remastered_2?as=1649904300

https://twinsenslittlebigadventure.com/twinsens-little-big-adventure-remastered/

Surprise...​

Dear community,

Thank you for your enthusiasm following the revelation of the concept arts for the Twinsen reboot project. Our studio is at a turning point: we finished the prototype, and are currently in discussion with several publishers to make the game possible. As you know, the road to a project of this magnitude is long and full of unknowns! We believe in the potential of the Twinsen's universe and want to keep it alive. But we also have to prove to publishers that 30 years later, these games deserve to exist in a modernized version. This is a real challenge. We believe in it... and we know you do too!

Our team - without forgetting Natasha our 3D artist who is currently in Brazil!
The future of the reboot project will depend on the answers of the publishers. Such an ambitious and demanding game requires important financial resources. We have no control over the response delay, but one thing is certain: the more time passes, the more inevitable it becomes that we will have to push back the release date of the game. Of course, we knew it was a possibility. But don't worry: this postponement is also a great opportunity to offer you a big surprise.

There's no way we're not going to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Twinsen in 2024.

During this time of submission, our team obviously continues to dive into the Twinsen's universe. For a long time, the community has been talking about a remaster of the original games. We decided from the beginning to do a reboot because we feel that in order to reach a new generation of players, this redesign work is fundamental. But during this in-between period, we also want to experiment, to progress and obviously... to please you. So we thought: why not take advantage of the months ahead to offer a remastered version of Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure 1 and 2 Classic? While discussing this idea, Paulo Torinno proposed us some first visuals which conquered us all. Passion spoke and... a new project was born.

First concept of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Remastered
So it's official... Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure 1&2 Remastered are underway! A demo of Twinsen’s Little Big Adventure 1 Remastered will be available during the next Steam Neo Fest, from June 19th to 26th 2023.

So what to expect from these two remastered versions?

Each game will benefit from a graphical and technical overhaul with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. This means that we will faithfully rebuild both games from scratch. In order to improve the experience, we will also rework Twinsen's controls and adding new features. The option to use the original game controls will of course remain available for those who wish to play as in the original games. This work will also be the occasion to remaster the original music of the composer Philippe Vachey, to guarantee you the best possible experience.

We hope you are as happy as we are! And of course, the development of the reboot continues, but in a time frame that matches the ambition we have built.

We have created Steam pages for Twinsen's Little Big Adventure 1 and 2 Remastered: please pledge your support by adding the games to your wishlist!

In order to answer all your questions about this great news, we are organizing a Q&A on our discord, on a dedicated channel (you need to join the Discord server first). Don't hesitate to talk with us, our team will be happy to answer you.

Thanks again to you for following us in this big adventure!

 

[luj1]

Cult game. I remember the world was weird af. And it had RPG elements

Probably more of an RPG than Disco Elysium

 

[lightbane]

The cel-shading style is a bit odd, but that's good as that's how it was in the OG games. As expected, Twinsen went from being white to now suddenly being black, even though he was clearly white in gameplay AND cutscenes. In before the justification will be that Twinsen looked brownish in some posters, but that was due the lightning or the author's choice.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I'll totally fucking get these.

 

[Terra]

Looks good aside the snowy area in the screenshot; the snow looks pretty bad tbh. Twinsen's new tan makes me suspect that Disney's involved. Those things aside, not bad.

Personally, I would have rather seen them rework the 3D areas of LBA2 into proper isometric as not only did the 3D exterior areas look shite in the original LBA2, replete with terrible camera, it just felt pretty jarring in comparison to the cohesiveness of the first game's visuals. Still, the 3D exterior sections in the screenshots look a hell of a lot better than the original's so maybe it'll all blend together better this time. We'll see.

 

[luj1]

oh yeah that tan is fucked up

more cultural engineering i guess

 

[Cyberarmy]

Don't think there was realeased anything like them later on.

Yeah, death of the action-adventure genre and birth of the cutscene heavy corridor shooter genre.

 

[Infinitron]

https://twinsenslittlebigadventure.com/what-do-you-want-to-see-in-the-remaster/

What do you want to see in the remaster?​

Hello everyone,

In case you missed our recent update, we are excited to announce that we are in the process of remastering Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Classic! Your feedback is invaluable to us, so we'd like to hear your thoughts on the following aspects of the game:

1. What additions would you like to see?
2. What elements would you prefer to be removed?
3. For those who played the iOS/Android version, are there any updates you'd like to see retained in the remaster?

Feel free to share your responses in the comments section or join the conversation on our Discord server. To show your support for this project, please add the game to your wishlist!

 

[lightbane]

"I want to see Twinsen recover his white skin!"

Probably not an option.

 

[oasis789]

Is there even any point to remastering? The original game is already a timeless classic.

 

[lightbane]

Look at this, a trailer with a pre-alpha that looks like Unity garbage, making the whole thing look very bad. Funnily enough Twinsen is still white here, while the official screenshots he's got the "Netflix treatment".

 

[RobotSquirrel]

Is there even any point to remastering? The original game is already a timeless classic.

Only relentless needed remastering because it could've used the 3d worlds from the sequel. I didn't like Relentlesses outdoor scenes because it was too much copy paste, LBA2 looks so much better.
That alpha footage makes it look like they ripped the animations from the original games but just slapped them on a higher resolution model. It looks so bad, the originals worked because they were low poly primitives so the snaps in the movement doesn't matter your brain fills in the rest, having it as an up to date low poly model you can see the animations are janky af.

 

[Faarbaute]

I have a feeling that gameplay will be streamlined for the modern player's convenience to the point of being reduced to a mere formality. They did say, however, that the old control scheme will remain as an option, so I remain cautiously optimistic.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

It's dead on hold.

https://twinsenslittlebigadventure....?ref=twinsens-little-big-adventure-newsletter

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Today, I'm tasked with sharing a disappointing update. Despite our earnest efforts, we were unsuccessful in securing a publisher for the reboot of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure.

Why did this happen? Allow me to distill the key reasons:

• Genre Constraints: The market for standalone action-adventure games presents substantial challenges. With fierce competition and a lack of community-oriented features, publishers tend to shy away from this genre.
• IP Recognition: Despite a passionate, albeit small, community of fans, Twinsen's Little Big Adventure isn't globally recognized, which added to the hesitations of potential publishers.
• Cost and Scale: While indie game studios can often deliver remarkable games with lean teams (as we've seen with Death's Door and Tunic), our vision for this project involved a team of 15 to 20 people, echoing the original game's size. This considerable investment, juxtaposed with the risk inherent to the genre and IP, was a factor in the decision.

What's the path forward? With a heavy heart, we've halted our work on the reboot and, for the moment, regard the project as canceled. This allows us to channel our focus and energy into the remastered version of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure (TLBA Remastered). We will explore whether we can reincorporate the reboot's ideas into the remaster, but that's a conversation for another time.

What does this mean for our team? Regrettably, we are reducing our team size. Letting dedicated members go is a tough and painful part of this process, but it's a decision driven by our current circumstances.
:
So, what's the next step? We're exploring two main avenues for TLBA Remastered: finding a suitable publisher or self-publishing. The rationale for seeking a publisher for the remaster aligns with that of the reboot, but the substantially lower cost offers a compelling difference. We will know more in the coming weeks. For the self-publishing route, we will need additional funds (Patreon?) and are considering collaboration with another studio.

You may wonder if these challenges have dampened our spirits or diminished our motivation. I assure you, it's quite the opposite! Our confidence is buoyed by the phenomenal feedback from our recent playtest. With 4000 participants and 2000 detailed feedback forms, we're immensely grateful. A remarkable 33% of you rated the experience a 9 or 10/10, and 80% scored us a 7 or higher. We're excited to improve and grow from this constructive feedback.

The future of Twinsen hangs in the balance over the next few weeks. Rest assured, we are wholly committed to turning the tide.

Thank you for your understanding and unwavering support.

 

[BrotherFrank]

Probably for the best, i just don’t see this game getting much from traction from people who didn’t grow up with this series.
For the remasters the controls and general gameplay alone will push zoomers away.

 

[lightbane]

They should have invested in the game more rather than blackening the MC.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Liked LBA a lot as a kid, died every 1-5 minutes and generally had no idea wtf was going on, good times.

 

[luj1]

https://twinsenslittlebigadventure.com/what-do-you-want-to-see-in-the-remaster/

What do you want to see in the remaster?​

Hello everyone,

In case you missed our recent update, we are excited to announce that we are in the process of remastering Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Classic! Your feedback is invaluable to us, so we'd like to hear your thoughts on the following aspects of the game:

1. What additions would you like to see?
2. What elements would you prefer to be removed?
3. For those who played the iOS/Android version, are there any updates you'd like to see retained in the remaster?

Feel free to share your responses in the comments section or join the conversation on our Discord server. To show your support for this project, please add the game to your wishlist!

this is usually written by clueless devs who dont have the balls to follow their vision

"what do you want removed?"

lol

same happened with MMX

 

[RobotSquirrel]

It's dead on hold.

https://twinsenslittlebigadventure....?ref=twinsens-little-big-adventure-newsletter

This has Ken Williams styled arrogance and ignorance written all over it. What did they think was going to happen. Its not 1995 anymore, Adeline isn't a leading technologies business like they were back then. They were never going to make this work. The problem they have is that this is a remake of a remake, the mobile ports were as far as you needed to go, this one is totally un-necessary and is an obvious cash grab.

You're remaking a set of games that were fine as is, its not like they needed remastering apart from as I said just changing Relentless to a similar format of Twinsen's Odyssey with a 3d world etc, and I'd argue that could have been done relatively cheaply considering all you really had to do was port the art from LBA2 and give it a Relentless theme very cheap and easy - and don't give me that crap about the art can't be ripped, I've done it! the model information from LBA2 can be opened very easily. Honestly the geo in LBA2 is so damn impressive, very optimised meshes even though they lack details but for the time period there's a reason it ran as well as it did even on lower end systems. Also we know they still have the original source otherwise the mobile ports wouldn't have been possible. All of what they've done so far was un-necessary and a waste of resources.

As for LBA3, you lost me the second you announced it was a reboot and not the original LBA3 that was planned, the announcement also reeked of woke whereas the original idea didn't, we wanted to play as Arthur damn it, the idea of being a hover boarding kid in a world that had slowly turned from Medieval Villages to Futuristic Space Port was cool and then having the ability to switch to Zoe and Twinsen as well was also cool and I wish we got to see it.

 

[AdamReith]

At least this is one classic series that can remain untarnished by a puke worthy 20XX remake.

 

[lightbane]

The remake may still make it to the finish line. On the plus side, Twinsen is white again, or at least whiter than the first screens of the remake showed:

 

[Viata]

Why is it so ugly???

 

[Infinitron]

https://twinsenslittlebigadventure.com/en/behind-the-scenes-of-the-remake/

Behind the Scenes of the Remake​

Dear Community,

Today, we invite you on an exclusive journey behind the scenes of our remake. Let’s start with a look back:

In June 2023, you experienced an initial prototype on Proxima Island, developed in a short time by a small team. Despite its imperfections, this prototype was a crucial springboard for engaging with you and understanding your expectations.

This prototype was built using Unreal Engine 5, with an almost manual reconstruction of the island. Faced with the challenge of replicating this method for a larger world in a limited time, we opted for a complete overhaul of the game, based on new foundations. But what is the nature of these new foundations?

The answer lies in the work of Sébastien Viannay, a developer on the original games, as well as the mobile port. It was during the work on the latter that Seb developed a small tool to setup the pathfinding – that is, the ability to tap a point on the screen and have Twinsen follow that direction. This tool interprets the original game’s data to reconstruct the level and identify obstacles.

This tool opened a new world for us: using the original game’s data in a modern game engine. In practice, all the game logic (quests, dialogues, levels, even animations) is in the form of data. By importing it into a new engine, we can not only faithfully reproduce the game but also reinvent it.

The only hiccup in this story? Seb developed this tool on Unity . After attempting to transfer this tool to Unreal, we made the strategic decision to migrate to Unity.

How We Are Developing the Remake

Our adventure thus continues on Unity, leveraging the original data. Here are the key steps of our project:

1. Transposition of the Original Game into Unity: Our goal is to preserve the essence and logic of the original game. One of the major challenges lies in adapting the original scenes to geographical continuity, an aspect we will detail in a dedicated article.
2. Drawing Inspiration from the Unreal Prototype to Perfect Twinsen’s Movements and Controls: We aim to enhance the gameplay experience while remaining true to the original.
3. Enriching the Narrative: We plan to adjust certain sequences of the game, such as reducing the repetitive back-and-forth between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
4. Reconstruction of the Islands in 3D with a New Art Direction: We are reimagining the islands to offer a unique visual experience.
5. Recreation of All Characters and Animations: Each character and animation will be redone to meet our current quality standards.

Importing Original Data into Unity

In the video below, you will discover how the import of a scene from the original game is reproduced in Unity.

In our next article, we will explain the challenge of geographical continuity.

See you soon!

 

[gabel]

Why is it so ugly???

Current year.