There are now 4 Loom Sequels!?

[Da_Duke2000]

So, after having a young kind from Argentina contact me, and chatting briefly on a GameFaqs.com messageboard, it seems there are currently four Loom fanmade sequels currently in progress.

1) Forge. Our own project.
2) Chaos. From Apeiron Studios.
3) Forge. Dezukez Software forum here:
http://www.dezukez.com.ar/foro/forumdisplay.php?f=8
4) And an unnamed game from an apparent group of college students whose teacher is non-other than Brian Moriarty. This was advertized here:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=564920&topic=52730578

This is very impressive to have so many projects overlapping all at once. I wish them all luck, they all seem to be going for a high resolution style, so ours seems to be the only low-res games. I personally prefer this style as a true homage to LOOM, but cant wait to see the work they are going to put out.

[abisso]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Da_Duke2000]

This personally doesn't shake me one bit. I feel that a true Loom sequel will be faithful to the emotional gameplay, art, and feel of the Game. While I am sure Brian Moriarty will help them create a wonderful title, 20 years has been a long time. The more modern they make the game, with 3D backgrounds, and effects, the less LOOM like it would feel.

I think if the Gaming industry has shown one thing, it that a great LOOKING game, will fall before great gameplay. Plus, our GUI rocks  .

[abisso]

Our guys rock. I agree.

[solarnoise]

This personally doesn't shake me one bit. I feel that a true Loom sequel will be faithful to the emotional gameplay, art, and feel of the Game. While I am sure Brian Moriarty will help them create a wonderful title, 20 years has been a long time. The more modern they make the game, with 3D backgrounds, and effects, the less LOOM like it would feel.

I think if the Gaming industry has shown one thing, it that a great LOOKING game, will fall before great gameplay. Plus, our GUI rocks  .

Hi everyone, I'm the lead designer and tech artist for the student project.

I'm thrilled to see so many people still devoted to the LOOM universe, I think more projects means more enjoyment for the fans of the original!

The truly awesome thing here is we all have complete freedom over how the sequels play out, since Brian never fleshed out the concepts.  This means that no two Forge or The Fold titles will be alike, making each one unique and fun in its own way.  

Having said that, I wouldn't sell us short on capturing the feel of the original game.  I would not have approached Brian had I not felt I would do LOOM justice, and it took me about 3 hours of sitting with him but something great came out of the meeting.  And yes, while our game most likely will obtain some form of 3D elements, it will be almost entirely digitally painted.  In order to remain faithful to LOOM, we are meeting with Brian regularly and actually watching the same movies and listening to the same music that he did when he was inspired to create LOOM twenty years ago... so we're sort of recreating the ideal atmosphere for creating a game in this universe.

To give you an idea of where Brian is thinking of going with this, he is a huge fan of how the Monkey Island enhancement was done, especially the feature to switch back and forth between the retro and updated graphics.

Oh!  And the working title for our project is "Chapters of Loom".  Though that is subject to change.  I just wanted to give it a more elegant name than LOOM 2, which we kept calling it and it was driving me crazy, haha.

[abisso]

I wish you the best for your project, solarnoise, and I confess that I envy you a little for being able to keep in touch with Mr.Moriarty.

I'm glad that our projects are so different, and I agree that our games will very unlikely be similar in any way, since we use different plots, different techniques and have different goals. The Loom fan-community should be thrilled by the raised chances to see an actual sequel, at last, and the more we are to work on one, the better it is.

And, yes, Chapters of Loom sounds SOOO much better than Loom 2!  

[Da_Duke2000]

Oh yes, please no Loom 2, we've already been punished enough as Loom Fans, we dont need another Loom 2.

On a side note, welcome to the boards! I really hope we can converse and share our progresses together.

[ylvaon]

Hello, guys! Just wanted to let you all know my team, Apeiron Games, is not working on a Loom sequel, but is instead working on an independent game inspired by Loom.

We've made this decision realizing our storyline is already very distant from the original Loom look and feel, not to mention the different atmosphere and the desire to push some of our own ideas forward.

Our game (unnamed, as of yet) will still feature a distaff interface, though much more complex than the one used in Loom, accompanied with standard inventory, and a lot of myst-like mechanical puzzles (though the game will not rely heavily on these and will still be in third person, hand drawn), so, I guess Loom fans will have something to look forward to.

Thanks for your time, all the best to all the other guys, especially to Da_Duke2000 for showing interest in our work. Best regards!

[solarnoise]

Hello, guys! Just wanted to let you all know my team, Apeiron Games, is not working on a Loom sequel, but is instead working on an independent game inspired by Loom.

We've made this decision realizing our storyline is already very distant from the original Loom look and feel, not to mention the different atmosphere and the desire to push some of our own ideas forward.

Our game (unnamed, as of yet) will still feature a distaff interface, though much more complex than the one used in Loom, accompanied with standard inventory, and a lot of myst-like mechanical puzzles (though the game will not rely heavily on these and will still be in third person, hand drawn), so, I guess Loom fans will have something to look forward to.

Thanks for your time, all the best to all the other guys, especially to Da_Duke2000 for showing interest in our work. Best regards!

Very cool!  Even more diversity in the Loom projects... it sounds like there will one day be a whole compilation of awesome Loom adventures =)

[abisso]

Ylvaon: for what it matters, I strongly approve your decision to proclaim the independence of your game from Loom, since the differences where far too great in my opinion. The story and cosmology behind your game always amazed me by the way... really impressive and fascinating, so I suppose it will be a great game, even if it won't be a Loom sequel.

P.S. Hey, I want to have your regards too! I also showed interest in your work!!!  

@solarnoise: Diversity is good indeed! Can't wait to see all of these projects becoming reality!

[ylvaon]

Thanks for the support guys!

I must say my perception of Loom pretty much differs from the rest of the fans, because, for me, the original game was not a strong canon-type thing I would like (or even could, for that matter) to follow to the letter, thus producing the Forge and the Fold games, but was instead a stimulus to make my own creative juices flowing and contribute to the scene in the best and most productive manner I possibly can. Our work simply outgrew Loom, not for the worst, or the best of it, it's just a simple fact. I also think it's a pretty good idea, because the market these days is experiencing an adventure games renaissance, but the fact is that many of the games look alike or do not bring much innovation to the genre. Because of that, we have made our goal a game that is the mix of the best of the tradition, but which also has a fair amount of the surprises and cliche-breakers.

I am also happy to announce that our game's playable demo, which actually a Prologue of the game, will be available by the Summer 2010. Our plan is to use the demo to recruit more people and then hopefully speed up the process.

Thank you for your interest once again!

[Da_Duke2000]

I am very antsy to hear all about your story. To see how you manage to make tie ins. Loom is just as much about history and the past, so that sounds very exciting. Weill you be posting a teaser synopsis on your forums?

[ylvaon]

Of course. A synopsis will follow this weekend or so (once I am done with drawing of the scenes for the prologue - drinks all around!).

[Da_Duke2000]

We all look forward to it.

[selmiak]

that's great to hear about all the Loom sequels and inspired games =)