Yes, and they did their engine themselves. Today you can easily license a capable 3D-engine for a very small amount of money - for instance, Garagegames' Torque 3D seems to work well and a "full source professional studio license" for that will cost you just $179.

Of course, an engine is only part of the equation and the development of 3D-models, textures and so on can potentially cost a lot of time and money. But I think that a Tex Murphy game could live with some rather basic stuff in that department. Just look at some of the adventure games from Telltale Games. I think they're great and they certainly seem to have been selling fairly well, and they have some very basic models, textures and effects. I don't think more is needed for an adventure game. Of course Tex Murphy would need less of a cartoony style, but gritty can be made on a small budget too.

That said, I don't personally know much about how important the 3D was for exploration in the later Tex Murphy games - so far I've only played the first two. But I loved the 3D in the first one, just for the nostalgia. Hugely impressive, if rather dull, flight simulator for such an old game.

Good job on the interviewer, it was a great read -it really caught Conners' voice. Kudos!Looking forward to pt2.

I'm not saying that it's impossible, but Amnesia was really short.

I stand by what I said. It's not just the engine, the models and the textures, it's the testing and the amount of resources available to make things smooth.
I think Mr. Connors knew what he was talking about when he made the big-budget/3D environment connection in the interview, and I am positive that he is speaking from experience.

And I stand by my assertion that it's relatively cheap these days to create a decent looking 3D environment. I'm not talking Bioshock quality or anything, but something like the Nancy Drew games do or Telltale games, as mentioned above. If they budget for about 200,000 sales I think it's very doable and they would likely sell much more than that and make a good profit if the game is good.

I wouldn't really be interested in a straight-up interactive movie.

Great post, thanks GOG and AC!

I'd be interested in Mr. Conners input on some of the currentish but still rather traditional adventure games like that Siberia (or whatever it's called). But I guess the Q&A has happened already…

Looking back at older games I enjoyed, one thing I really hated was the "Take one wrong step & you're dead" set-up (Sierra, I'm looking at you -- or, I would be, if you were still around) -- so you gotta save (to a slow floppy) every couple of moves. Sucked.

Sorry, started just rambling...

I'd still play it, but I'd be gutted if they took out the 3D. One of the charms of the FMV games was peering under desks, behind cabinets etc - it's a much more involving experience than simply seeking out hotspots with a mouse cursor.

There are some really cool memorable moments that used the free movement - remember sneaking across the rooftops in Pandora Directive, to catch the killer? Or hiding from that freaking security robot in Under a Killer Moon? (that thing almost gave me about 20 coronaries back in the day!)

Hmm thanks for mentioning Amnesia I'd not heard of it before, I might have to take a better look at it.

Thanks Aaron for taking part in the Q&A. Just looking through the forum posts would have taken a lot of time.

Good stuff! Thanks, Aaron.

As for recreating the Tex Murphy games today - I simply don't think you could. They were largely defined by the FMV and now those sequences would be a part of the 3D world. It would ultimately wind up being like LA Noire. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But it's not a Tex Murphy thing.

Yeah, I'd actually probably prefer a new Tex game done with the Overseer engine, with the FMV characters intact. Sure it looks shonky in places, but the game was so great that you barely even notice. Good bit of old school charm, you can't beat it :)

Dear Mr. Conners,

A while back we had an exchange of emails. I am a published software author and I offered a potential idea, a sort of "in between Tex Murphy". You politely declined (and I understood and accepted your explanation) and I didn't bother you ever since. Now reading that the Tex concept is not completely gone, I am again offering the idea (which was NOT described).
If by any chance you would be ever remoteoly interested, contact me on docobgyn@yahoo.com (GOG staff, please don't delete this email address, I have no problem leaving it public).

Gabor

I don't see the point in keeping the old engine. But yeah, you could keep the FMV in tact. It's just that it would create a much more fragmented experience than most developers or publishers would be happy with these days.