At least in germany we have many big companies beside SAP. We have the Software AG for example. IBM, Google and Microsoft are here (even with some research centers). And in Israel Intel developed the well known Core processor. 
Ron, I beg you, can you tell us if the new UI you have in mind is something that could be applied to MI1 and MI2, or requires a specific design? Just that. Curiosity is killing me. 
Yes, it would have worked fine for MI1 and MI2, as well as TWP. I don’t want to describe it because I haven’t implemented or tried it yet, and it might be fail after using it for 5 minutes.
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Thank you! Now I can sleep at night.
Would you do it in hi-res or low-res?
(please tell us, so we can start a flame war on a game that does not yet exist)
Hand drawn, hires blocky pixel art rendered in 3D then scanned in and touched up in Photoshop.
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that sounds like a mess 
I would need to see example 
I suggest doing scanned polaroids of 3D printed guybrush dolls.
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I thought Germany had universal health care paid for by taxes?
You have public and private insurance. Most people who are self employed have private insurance, it´s more expensive but gives you more benefits in some cases.
@milanfahrnholz has explained the health insurance system. As a self employed you can chose between the public and private insurance. And you have to tell the insurance company each year what you have earned.
But there are several other insurances. (For example an unemployment insurance, indemnity insurances, etc.) As a employee the employer takes care for this insurances. But if you are self employed, you have to make sure that you have the right insurances for your job.
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That’s in Italy. Not sure if Germany does.
First of all: We have a good and working health care system in Germany. It is not paid by taxes but it is very similar to this:
First, we have the public health care system. Everyone pays X percent from his income to a health insurancy company (So it is similar to a tax :)). You can chose your company and the company has to insure you. If you are an employee, the employer has to pay a part of the fee.
Under some circumstances - for example if you are self-employed - you can change to a private health care system. For the pros and cons between the two systems see milans post above. But if you have left the public health care system, you can’t get back.
And there is a third method: You can pay the doctors in cash (if the doctor agrees to this payment method :))
So it’s like The Simpsons (of today), but with pixel art?
hopefully not 
I wonder out of the classic adventure games, which one was the cheapest to make…
Apparently Flight of the Amazon Queen was “made by 3 people with a minuscule budget” according to this article and I rate that as one of the best P’n’C games…
Though I guess if a game like that doesn’t have the marketing/publicity budget (or the creators don’t have the time to do all the promotion themselves) then the game is unable to take off even if it’s a great game.
Would be interesting to know how much the Wadjet Eye games cost to make too… I haven’t played them yet, but I’ve heard great things.
Quoting Dave Gilbert (source):
“Basically I started small with the Shivah and grew up from there. Budgets are usually in the $20-40k range. Shardlight is the first game we made with a full time staff, so the budget was significantly higher.”
Both the entire Blackwell series and Gemini Rue are extremely good examples of storytelling.
There was a moment in Gemini Rue that blew my mind and that’s not something that has happened to me very often when playing adventure games.
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I don’t think Dave’s budget numbers are including his (and his wife’s) cost. It’s a common “mistake” when doing indie budgets. You end up working for nothing in the hopes of backend, but it’s unfair to not include your fair cost in the budget, since it’s very misleading, or it at least needs to be called out. Thimbleweed Park cost just over $1M, and that was paying most of the team far less than they could make. That also includes Gary and I making almost nothing for 2 years. It also includes ports to Xbox, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android. Plus marketing.
Once we’re done with all the ports (i.e. expenses), I’ll post a full budget for the game.
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I began playing Gemini Rue and was enjoying it, but then they started teaching me how to use a gun and go behind cover, etc. and I was like eeeeeehhhh, I don’t really want to be shooting stuff in an adventure game, so I stopped playing. Maybe I was too hasty.
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I completely understand you. I dislike both timed events and any kind of action that requires dexterity. I also hate adventure games in which it’s possible to die, like the old Sierra games.
When I realized that Gemini Rue was that kind of adventure game, I immediately stopped playing it. But since I was quite attracted by the style and the story I forced myself to give it a second chance and I played those ugly action sequences just to see what happens next. In my opinion what happens next fully deserved playing those brief unpleasant action sequences.
Gemini Rue has been the only exception to my strict no-action rule. The game is that good.
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