Monkey Island-like Foolish Mortals moved to 2024, improvements inbound
Chimp and pin.
Upcoming point-and-click adventure Foolish Mortals will now release in 2024.
Foolish Mortals is a "merry and macabre" Monkey Island-inspired adventure that takes place on the exotic locale of Devil's Rock. Players take on the role of Murphy McCallan, as he seeks the treasure of Bellemore Manor. Of course, it won't be easy, and McCallan will come across ghosts, voodoo and more during his adventures.
Originally slated to release this year, creator David Younger of Inklingwood Studios shared news of the delay as part of a recent blog update. Here, Younger also teased some improvements coming to the game's final release.
Younger stated the Foolish Mortals team decided to do an assessment of its project in September, in a bid to tie down a specific release date. In its mind, Inklingwood Studios had envisioned a launch to coincide with Halloween, but ultimately this was not a goal it could hit.
"Missing Halloween means that, if we rushed to complete, it would be around Christmas, but releasing then simply isn't a good idea because we'll be washed over by the big game releases and holiday season," Younger said, adding the team's new plan is to release the game some time next year.
This will allow the studio to "further hone the game, really test it well, and ideally begin on porting to narrow the gap between initial release and console release," Younger explained.
"There's no-one who wants the game released more than us, but we know that rushing it isn't something that's smart to do. Apart from time, the game is in a really healthy position as we continue implementing animations, bug-fixing, and commissioning the final assets we need."
In addition to this update, Younger shared more on the studio's game design philosophy, and what it means for the future.
"Although it's definitely our hope that we can continue making adventure games after Foolish Mortals, my philosophy with this game has always been 'This might be the only adventure game I get to make in my life. If it is, I want to make it so I'm proud of every single bit'. And I'm really happy to say that is true... almost," Younger started.
The developer said at the start of the project, the team was conscious of taking a 'budget-smart' approach to production, as it was unsure how the Kickstarter would be received.
Younger admitted some of these decisions haven't sat all that well, and while certain aspects of the project "worked well enough", they "always poked away at me as not being as good as they could be". Therefore, Younger is going to go back and "fix those things" ahead of the game's release next year.
This includes swapping out what were "previously plain sprite switches" to "actual animation" and a new approach to music. This new musical approach is similar to the way "Barrington Pheloung approached the music of Broken Sword," Younger said. It means Foolish Mortals will have 250 'moments', each of which will be custom scored.
"The majority of these tracks are going to be custom-synced to the action and dialogue so can't begin until the voice recording is complete, but the ones that aren't are already underway - from an incredibly epic pirate theme, to the amusing theme of Doris the chicken," said Younger.
Last, but not least, Younger said team is redoing some of Foolish Mortals' backgrounds.
"One of the best examples of this is the Music Room inside Bellemore Manor," Younger said. "Originally this room held two key elements: Ezra the pianist, and the Tallagoula Twins having a pistol duel, as seen in the trailer. I pushed these two actions together into the same room because I was originally limited by budget in how many backgrounds I could commission, but they weren't actually linked."
Now, these two rooms will be split, with a dedicated Music Room and a separate Smoking Room for the aforementioned duel. "This has also necessitated a complete reorganisation of Bellemore Manor's layout - which should be even more interesting to explore," Younger closed.
If you are interested in Foolish Mortals, there is currently a demo available on Steam. I had a little play around with it last year - you can read my thoughts on it all here.