What does it take to remaster a classic PC adventure game for modern audiences — and devices?
At GDC 2016, Double Fine’s Oliver Franzke and Shiny Shoe’s Mark Cooke explained what it took to do just that for the classic LucasArts games Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. The pair spoke to the history of each game before diving into the details of some of the most interesting improvements and challenges encountered while remastering both for PS4, PS Vita, PC, and mobile.
Together they dug into the internals of the classic SCUMM engine, how the lighting of Grim Fandango was improved without any 3D source data to work from, the art of debugging and fixing classic bugs when original source code access is not available, and more.
It was a fantastic talk that shed more light on some key pieces of game development history, so don’t miss your chance to go back and watch it for free via the GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas