Léto s Oskarem
A Czech comedy adventure with professional dubbing and dated graphics.
Léto s Oskarem (English: Summer with Oscar) is a 1998 Czech adventure game authored by Pavel Širůček and distributed by Vochozka Trading. It was the last title released by Vochozka Trading before most of its staff moved to Illusion Softworks. The game is notable as one of the few Czech adventure games of the era to feature professional dubbing by actors from the Goose on a String Theater.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Illusion Softworks
- Publisher
- Vochozka Trading
- Released
- 1998
- Genre
- Adventure game
Facts from the source article.
Production
The game was developed by a four-person team. Petr Vochozka and Jan Kudera had founded Illusion Softworks in Brno, but Vochozka Trading, which published Léto s Oskarem, was Vochozka's own publishing business focused on localising Polish games and publishing titles from other developers; this game was one of the few he developed in his own office. The team was inspired by the tone of earlier Vochozka humor games such as 7 days and 7 nights. Initial sketches were drawn on paper by Tomáš Svoboda and then scanned into a computer. The game was originally intended for MS-DOS at a VGA resolution of 640×480, and later a Windows version was begun. Floppy disk editions lacked sound, while a CD-ROM edition included full dubbing. The game had background music but no sound effects. The characters were performed by professional actors from the Goose on a String Theater (Husa na provázku). The game was delayed several times; Excalibur argued the delay was due to promises of many never-before-seen features that were never fulfilled, and Databaze-her noted that many announced improvements were not implemented. After this title, most of Vochozka Trading's staff went to work for Illusion Softworks.
Plot and gameplay
The player controls Oskar Sláma, a student so poor at school that his parents send him to live with his grandparents in the rural village of Kotěhůlkách. He reluctantly accepts in order to receive his inheritance. The game is a classic point-and-click adventure with an inventory at the top of the screen. Dialogue offers three response types: charming, rude, or altruistic. The humour is in the vein of Leisure Suit Larry. The game contains eight locations, 80 screens, and around 30 characters, with an average of five animations per screen, including idle animations.
Reception
Reception was largely negative. Bonusweb.cz called the game ever-stagnant. Excalibur noted it was obscure compared to contemporary Czech adventures and less commercially successful, and argued it was a failure due to failing to deliver promised features and being graphically outdated at release. The magazine also criticised outdated humour targeting women and homosexuals. Databaze-her described the game as characterised by lower difficulty and technological obsolescence. Vision Game compared Oskar Sláma to Leisure Suit Larry and Polish character Agent Mlíčňák. Shark called it a total flop. Gamifique argued the game was Petr Vochozka's way of supporting Czech production. Level felt the graphic design was at the level of games several years old, concluding it was a typical Czech product that needed better investment. Various magazines compared it unfavourably to Horké léto, with Score calling that game a good plaster for wounds caused by Léto s Oskarem. Bonusweb regretted the title was released unfinished. Doupe, however, considered it a cult classic still fondly remembered. Vizuálny štýl českých a slovenských adventúr noted the game sometimes slipped into cartoony graphics in the style of 7 dní a 7 nocí and that its mechanics were far from foreign titles like Broken Sword 2 or Monkey Island 3.
More in Point-and-Click Adventure Games of the 1990s
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