BEDA #12 - R.I.P. LucasArts

Well, I’m going to talk about a topic that’s relevant for me (and I hope to someone else in this blog “crew”. By the way, if there’s an actual person who cares about this, let’s be best friends please).

Last April 3rd, Disney announced that they were closing the Lucasarts Game Developing Studio. This hit me awfully hard, considering that it’s one of the most iconic adventure games developers (if not THE most). Also, it means a lot to me. Adventure games sorta made me the kind of person I am today.

 Lucasarts produced some of the most beautiful pieces of code I have seen in my entire life, they strewed my love for puzzles, they taught me how to appreciate a good story and how to tell it, and how to apply my sense of humor at any situation.

The Secret of Monkey Island was the first game I’ve ever won. I was 7 years old; I still can remember mocking my brother, who was 13 at the time, because I was able to solve some puzzles that he couldn’t.  It was a wonderful experience. What’s better for a kid than swordfights with “insults” and pirates?! God knows I’ve always loved pirates...

Anyway, from then on my love for graphic adventure games never stopped growing. I can’t pick favourites without turning this into a game catalogue but I’d like to name a few, such as the Indiana Jones ones. An archeologist who fights nazis equals awesomeness. Another one is Day of the tentacle, a bunch of “freaks” trying to stop an evil mutant tentacle from conquering the world BY TRAVELING THROUGHT TIME. Or Full Throttle! A badass biker fighting against a malicious business while listening to the most kickass soundtrack ever made.

And let’s not forget The Dig, a really scary and beautiful sci-fi masterpiece written by non-other than Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Loom, a wonderful fairytale mixed with a revolutionary interface based on music notes.  Grim Fandango, their first 3D game, in which a “parka” goes on an epic quest to save an innocent soul in hell-world, based on Mexican folklore and full of pop culture references.

I know I said I wouldn’t turn this into a summary list of Lucasfilms’ games, but I’m actually falling short.  There are a lot more games to talk about and a lot more to say about the ones I have mentioned. But I don’t want to bore you; I just want you to understand how epic they are.

OK, let’s wrap up this nostalgia trip. Even though they aren’t completely closing the studio, they are “just” changing to a “licensing model”, and that the company hadn’t published an adventure game in a very long time, it stills feels like the death of a very important member of my life. When you used to spend endless afternoons playing in incredible scenarios, having the most wonderous adventures beyond imagination, the people who made it possible kinda become your friends. Well, more than friends, I mean friends don’t take you to fight nazis and evil mutants (unfortunately).

 I just really hope that some of the original developers could take a grip of their licenses. Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman (who have been doing some really good work with those licenses on the last years)… my bets are on you, guys.

To conclude this post, let's listen to this beautiful piece of midi music:

Also an special thanks to Mumi, who helped me to avoid some awful spanglish mistakes.