Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars is getting a big fancy remaster in Broken Sword: Reforged, and it's currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter by Revolution Software. It will have full Linux support too, as confirmed by the developer.
Somehow I entirely missed the campaign had actually launched, with only 11 days left to go. Seems plenty of people are excited to replay one of the best point and click adventures around, in full 4K with the Kickstarter campaign noting a £50,000 base goal and it's currently on £404,303.
You can pledge to get a digital code (GOG / Steam), or go for two different special Collector's Edition Boxes that include things like a figurine, a USB-C key, a manuscript, game manual and so on.
Direct Link
Interestingly, they are using AI for the remaster. Here's what they said about their use of AI for it:
What parts of your project will use AI generated content? Please be as specific as possible.
Disclaimer: All training data comes from within Revolution Software. We wanted to use tools that were trained exclusively on our own data, and so we opted to write our own bespoke program in collaboration with The University Of York. Outputs from this tool have received significant intervention by our art team, ensuring that the final product receives the same level of attention to detail as any other artwork befitting the polished standards of a Broken Sword game.
Do you have the consent of owners of the works that were (or will be) used to produce the AI generated portion of your projects? Please explain.
Yes - the training data is comprised of sprites drawn by our animators.
Check it out on the Kickstarter.
You can also follow on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualThat's good to hear. A track record like that makes them trustworthy and gives that claim weight.Revolution is my favorite dev. They almost always do the right thing:
Worked together with ScummVM devs for the Broken Sword support.
Made FLOSS releases for older titles (Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky) game data and source code (when it was available. Lure I think was lost?)
Totally cool with fan fiction like the excellent Broken Sword 2.5.
Hired people from the community. (Don't recall if it was from ScummVM or BS2.5?)
Plus of course the Linux ports for their recent'ish games.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualVery interesting usage of LLM tooling. I wonder what the benefits are; it almost seems more costly and more work to do it the way they're doing it.XKCD sums this up, I reckon. At least, this is my programming life...
https://www.emstudios.co.uk/?page_id=212
...who worked on Broken Sword! What are the chances.
Linux_Rocks Mar 18
BISTRO! 🤡
Last edited by Linux_Rocks on 18 March 2024 at 6:39 pm UTC
rustybroomhandle Mar 18
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: NezchanInteresting that the "how do you specifically use AI" is entirely taken up by a disclaimer about how it's trained, and he doesn't actually say what it's used for.Well, I guess that's what people care about. I mean the questions he's really answering are "Are you arguably ripping off other artists' work?" and "Is the resulting art going to be crap because AI?" and he is taking pains to give a pretty convincing "no."
Indeed they trained the AI with drawings from the original artist so that it would generate convincing intraframes.
Actual artists are still used to do what the AI is unable to do, like hands and something else I cannot remember.
I'm okayish with that, letting the AI doing the boring task, while leaving the creative part to the humans.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 19 March 2024 at 10:51 am UTC
And slightly off topic, but the fact that I'm willing to buy a remake of a game I already have for free says a lot about how pointless anti-piracy measures are. If I hadn't already played it, I wouldn't have cared. And I never would have bought it in the first place.
pleasereadthemanual Mar 19
Quoting: whizseRevolution sounds like a great developer. While Kickstarter campaigns are infamous for not fulfilling their promises (Re: Sharin no Kuni for a visual novel example, and I've already linked the "nevermind we can't do Linux" examples), some really cool stuff has been funded. This seems like the latter.Quoting: pleasereadthemanualThat's good to hear. A track record like that makes them trustworthy and gives that claim weight.Revolution is my favorite dev. They almost always do the right thing:
Worked together with ScummVM devs for the Broken Sword support.
Made FLOSS releases for older titles (Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky) game data and source code (when it was available. Lure I think was lost?)
Totally cool with fan fiction like the excellent Broken Sword 2.5.
Hired people from the community. (Don't recall if it was from ScummVM or BS2.5?)
Plus of course the Linux ports for their recent'ish games.
Broken Sword may not be the sort of game I typically play, but as I said, it looks cool, and I might buy it when it's out on GOG.
Quoting: chuzzle44the fact that I'm willing to buy a remake of a game I already have for free says...that software houses needs to make remakes to fight piracy?
Quoting: kokoko3kQuoting: chuzzle44the fact that I'm willing to buy a remake of a game I already have for free says...that software houses needs to make remakes to fight piracy?
No, that anti-piracy measures are pointless. They already said that. Why you trying to rewrite their comment?
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