Q&A With the Design Team [Archive] - Telltale Games Forums

Chuck

03/15/2010, 12:13 pm

What is everyone's favorite puzzle/segment from the past seasons? Maybe there could also be a tease about their favorite puzzle from The Penal Zone?
My favorite puzzle from previous episodes is either Tic Tac Doom from 106, which was just plain clever; or the puzzle in 203 where you have to make Jurgen unpopular by manipulating "Midtown Cowboys."

In 301 I think some of the teleportation puzzles are really neat.

In previous seasons of Sam and Max, the Street has featured as a sort of hub linking together the game's many varied locations. With the new series seemingly venturing away from our world and out into space, is the Street going to be left behind? And, if not, in what ways has it changed/expanded since the last season?
The new season is going to be centered around New York, not outer space! Sam & Max's street is still a major location in the game, but we're using it a little differently than in previous seasons. We wanted to use more of New York City, instead of seeing little glimpses of places from all over the world. And we wanted to make sure that the street was just one of the locations you'd visit, and the action was more spread out all over the city.

The biggest changes to the street happen in the first episode, when General Skun-ka'pe arrives.

I know Telltale considers the comic as the main inspiration of their games, and the new game seems to take the comic roots to a whole new level. Is there any comic (or, of course, cartoon episode or (cancelled) game) in particular that serves as a main inspiration for any of the episodes? Anything that you feel wasn't really present (or even possible) in Telltale's previous episodes?
I think "Beast from the Cereal Aisle" and "Bad Day on the Moon" are the two main influences on the story this season, but I've read the comics so many times that they all kind of run together for me. The visual influence is to make the city seem dirtier and more realistic than past seasons; the comics always seemed more like Sam & Max were cartoon characters in the real world, instead of existing in a big cartoon where everything is simple and brightly-colored. Plus, Steve always crams in tons of detail into the comics -- rats, pigeons, roaches, and whatever else -- so we wanted more stuff always going on in the background.

Max's new powers bring a whole new dynamic to the game, making the gameplay feel all fresh. It reminds me a bit of Loom. Was that an inspiration behind the choice to do it this way (or if it wasn't, what was?)? Will we see more weird new gameplay choices in future Telltale titles (which I'm very much in favor of!)?
I've actually never played "Loom," so it wasn't a conscious influence. (My first LEC game was "The Secret of Monkey Island.") It was more a result of looking at what worked best in previous episodes -- "Chariots of the Dogs" and "Moai Better Blues" in particular -- as well as what's going on in independent games and other puzzle games. In the indies, they usually take one core concept and do a bunch of variations on it: turning negative space into positive space, making clones of yourself, or, of course, using a portal gun to move from one place to another. I really liked that "Moai Better Blues" (which was designed before anybody here knew about Portal!) took the one concept of the Bermuda Triangles and built a bunch of puzzles around that. So the idea is that instead of having a bunch of inventory items, and you have to figure out what each one's specific purpose is; you have a smaller set of psychic powers and we tell you exactly how they work. Then, you have to figure out how to use those to fit the situation.

As for whether that kind of thing shows up in the future, it depends on the designers of future games, and of course the feedback we get from season 3.

Season 2 very directly adressed some of the biggest issues people had with the first season. What are the biggest differences this time? What is it that this game does better than Season 2 (or Season 1)?
I'm hoping that the world ends up feeling bigger and more detailed. We're also more conscious about changing up the formula -- we want to build up a big world over time, with characters and places that you get to know in greater detail, but also keep it from feeling that you're doing the same thing over and over again.

Where does Max keep his gun?
In his holster, of course.

Joop

03/15/2010, 12:23 pm

I was reading the comics yesterday (On the Road, to be specific) and the funny thing is that every time I've read the comics, I've noticed something new. (This time it was a guy being squashed between two buildings.)
I like it that you're trying to bring more detail into the world, this is one of the only things that was a major difference for me between the comics and the telltale games.
Hmmm... Not really a question I guess... ehmmm... Oh, i know:
Will there be a guy who's squashed between buildings in this game? :D

And maybe:
How much is Steve Purcell still contributing to the writing? Is he still coming up with story ideas and jokes? And what's his take on the Max' psychic powers thing?

CannonMan

03/15/2010, 12:26 pm

Will there be a Wii version of The Devil's Playhouse?

Zeek

03/15/2010, 12:27 pm

Has there ever been a puzzle where the testers couldn't figure it out on their own and needed to be taken out as a result of this, but for some storytelling element you really wanted to keep it in the game?

The reason I ask this is because of the whole "Red Portal in Stinky's" puzzle...

Tjibbbe

03/15/2010, 12:39 pm

Hey, thanks for answering my questions! I just thought of another one:

In the GiantBomb quicklook you mention that there were several stories the team was considering, but everyone always seemed to like the Psychic Max-storyline the best. The gameplay seems to be centered around Max's powers. Did the new gameplay decisions follow the story decisions here, or did you want to do something different with the gameplay this time anyway?

And I know you probably can't answer this, but what are some of the different storylines you guys considered that didn't make it? Or perhaps something that was cut from one of the older seasons, like the infamous spin-the-bottle scene that was cut from 204?

Chuck

03/15/2010, 12:45 pm

What does the role of "designer" actually cover? How much do they collaborate on what actually gets into the episode with programmers, graphics artists, et cetera?
It changes from season to season and from designer to designer, but the designer is basically responsible for everything that goes into an episode. It's most like the writing credit in TV production; you come up with the basics of a story (and in our case, puzzles) in a "writer's room," and then one person is responsible for coming up with the game design doc. Sometimes the same person goes on to write the script; other times, it can be a different person.

We're starting to have a separate "director" role, who takes the design and script and then collaborates with the content programmers, animators, chore artists, etc. through the course of the episode's production. And that's in collaboration with the art director, animation director, lead chore artist, etc. It's a little like the designer is in charge of the "game" side of things, and the director is in charge of the visual/presentation/storytelling side of things. On "The Penal Zone," Nick Herman handled much of the direction, with lead choreographer Dennis Lenart and of course Jake, who does a little bit of everything.

My only Question, how many forms did Sal go through before Cockroach.
We knew we wanted a giant cockroach in the game from day one, since Steve likes drawing them.

By any chance, the doors of DeSoto DO work?
The doors of the DeSoto have always worked; Sam & Max just prefer not to use them. They're big fans of the Dukes of Hazzard.

Is that Narrator dude with the rose and spiffy accent really the devil returning in another form or is The Devil's Playhouse just a catchy title.
The Narrator is just there because most of the TV shows and movies influencing the season have a narrator. There's Criswell from Plan 9 from Outer Space and Rod Serling from "Night Gallery" and "The Twilight Zone", plus the voice-over at the beginning of "The Outer Limits." Also, there's a great werewolf movie from the 70s called The Beast Must Die! with an opening narration. It was a great way to fit the tone, plus introduce people to Sam & Max if they'd never heard of them before, without just dropping them into a big weird story. Also, I didn't want people thinking they couldn't understand Sam & Max if they hadn't read the comics or played the previous two seasons.

To find out what "The Devil's Playhouse" means, you'll have to stay through the last episode.

Will this season be like the previous sam & max seasons, with seemingly separate cases, being linked together in the end, or will it be more like ToMI, where one episode starts where the one before it left off?
It's more like Tales of Monkey Island, with each episode being a chapter in a larger story. People seemed to like that a lot in Monkey Island, and also the final couple of episode in season 2 of Sam & Max.

When planning season 3, did you use TomI kind of like a stepping stone to see what you could do with season 3?
All of the series build on each other, but since Monkey Island was the most recent series, it had the most direct influence. From the story side, again, the episodes are a lot more closely linked than they were in previous seasons. And of course, it's building off all the great visual work the studio learned how to do in Wallace & Gromit as well as Monkey Island.

How much more demanding on computer will this be for PC's compared to Monkey Island?
You'd have to check the system specs and possibly try out a demo to know for sure. We still have the "quality" setting, so you can turn off stuff like depth-of-field and real-time shadows if it's not performing well on your computer. Season 3's requirements are going to be higher than Tales of Monkey Island, though, since we've got bigger environments with more stuff going on.

I have a question, are you planning a season 4?
Not yet, we've got to finish season 3 first!

seanparkerfilms

03/15/2010, 12:46 pm

When would you say that work on the new season truly began (how long has the game been in development)?

I remember several articles at IGN, 1UP, etc., that mentioned season three coming in early 2009. The general consensus seems to be that it was delayed because of the opportunity of Monkey Island popping up for you guys. So is The Devil's Playhouse the result of a year (or more) of planning and programming?

joseppey

03/15/2010, 12:48 pm

1. Besides New York City and General Skunka'pe's ship, what other locations are there going to be in the first episode?

2. We saw in several videos that there was six slots for psychic powers. Does that mean that there will be six powers in the entire series or does it mean that we will be able to hold a maximum six powers at a time and there will be morethan six?

Chuck

03/15/2010, 01:21 pm

Do you guy ever plan to do any reference or bring back any characters from Hit the Road?
Nope. It's more like Hit the Road, the cartoon series, and Telltale's games all exist in their own pocket universe, each one based on the comics. Fans here on the forums have speculated that that's for legal reasons, that everything introduced in Hit the Road still belongs to LucasArts and everything in the cartoons still belongs to Nelvana or Shout! Factory. I honestly can't tell you whether that's the case or not, because I've never bothered to check. The simpler reason is that it's just more interesting to come up with new stuff instead of bringing back the old.

2-3PM which timezone? Because it's 9PM here.
Sorry, I should've said 2-3PM Pacific Daylight Time, AKA right now!

Is the entire storyline for the season already set in stone, or is the entire arc still up for some modification at this point?
Maybe not stone, but maybe like reasonably hard clay. Obviously the entire arc can't change, since we're releasing the first episode in a few weeks! But the story has stayed relatively intact for a while now, so it's unlikely to change significantly.

Will there be a guy who's squashed between buildings in this game?
Well now there has to be, it sounds like.

How much is Steve Purcell still contributing to the writing? Is he still coming up with story ideas and jokes? And what's his take on the Max' psychic powers thing?
Steve's got a full-time job at Pixar, so he doesn't have a lot of time to be working on an episodic game series in addition to that. We had a series of brainstorming meetings with Steve, Mike Stemmle, Dave Grossman, and me at the beginning of the project, and I went to make a season pitch that incorporated as many of Steve's ideas as we could fit in. He approved the season story and the individual episode concepts and recommended changes. He approves & gives feedback on all the character and environment designs, and we run puzzle ideas and some gags by him to make sure that they fit in with the characters.

JedExodus

03/15/2010, 01:22 pm

EDIT: My one real question was answered :)

Icedhope

03/15/2010, 01:32 pm

Okay, I do have a third question...What was the hardest part about designing this season...I probably will have another question later.

Shauntron

03/15/2010, 01:33 pm

dear mr. Chuck,
what is everyone's favorite puzzle/segment from the past seasons? Maybe there could also be a tease about their favorite puzzle from the penal zone?

Thank you kindly,
mr. Huggernaut

the huggernaut!!!

Tjibbbe

03/15/2010, 02:00 pm

Oh man, I almost feel bad for asking so many questions, but I figured I'd ask one last question before going to bed. Is there any chance we'll be playing (a psychic version of) Fizzball this season? The power-granting tools are all based on forgotten childhood toys, and if they are Max's childhood toys there has to be an axe in there somewhere.

Chuck

03/15/2010, 02:04 pm

Will there be a Wii version of The Devil's Playhouse?
Not in the initial launch, which is for PC, Mac, and PS3 only. Our engine runs on the Wii and the Xbox 360, though, so releasing them on other platforms in the future is a definite possibility.

Has there ever been a puzzle where the testers couldn't figure it out on their own and needed to be taken out as a result of this, but for some storytelling element you really wanted to keep it in the game?

The reason I ask this is because of the whole "Red Portal in Stinky's" puzzle...
No, we tend to cut puzzles only if they're not working for the storytelling, or if they're more complicated to produce than fun. (There was a puzzle in 202 where you had to take the babies' food orders that just wasn't that much fun). If the testers run into readability/difficulty problems with a puzzle, we try to fix it instead of cut it.

And Will or somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall any of the QA team or playtesters having an unreasonably hard time with that puzzle in Stinky's. That's the thing about adventure games: there's no real "science" to puzzle design, and what's incredibly hard or obscure for one person can be stone simple to another.

In the GiantBomb quicklook you mention that there were several stories the team was considering, but everyone always seemed to like the Psychic Max-storyline the best. The gameplay seems to be centered around Max's powers. Did the new gameplay decisions follow the story decisions here, or did you want to do something different with the gameplay this time anyway?
Both, actually. I'd been wanting to experiment with more systematic puzzles for a while, especially after hearing Brendan explain the Bermuda Triangles in 202. And when we first started brainstorming season 3, Mike Stemmle mentioned "Max's latent psychic powers." The two ideas fit together well, so it seemed like a natural.

And I know you probably can't answer this, but what are some of the different storylines you guys considered that didn't make it? Or perhaps something that was cut from one of the older seasons, like the infamous spin-the-bottle scene that was cut from 204?
Not a lot gets cut, actually. I can't mention anything for season 3 without spoiling it. In season 2, there was the spin-the-bottle puzzle (which was really just a horrific idea, in retrospect), and that food orders puzzle I just mentioned. I can't really think of anything else that's been cut without eventually showing up somewhere else.

I remember several articles at IGN, 1UP, etc., that mentioned season three coming in early 2009. The general consensus seems to be that it was delayed because of the opportunity of Monkey Island popping up for you guys. So is The Devil's Playhouse the result of a year (or more) of planning and programming?
Brainstorming started towards the end of Strong Bad. Monkey Island did, obviously, become a huge priority for the studio as soon as it became available, but there are always multiple things going on in the studio. Production on the new season of Sam & Max started around last September.

unknownrightnow

03/15/2010, 02:23 pm

I just have 3 quick questions.

So is it true that Bosco is not needed for this Season or is it a lie so that no one knows what's coming?

I noticed Max's voice in this Season, did Andrew return to play Max?

From the beginning of the teaser, I've wondered to myself "Why psychic powers?" how did this brilliant idea get formed and why wasn't it used sooner?

-splash1

Chuck

03/15/2010, 02:45 pm

Besides New York City and General Skunka'pe's ship, what other locations are there going to be in the first episode?
It's a surprise! If you're not afraid of spoilers, though, you can watch the Quick Look currently up at GiantBomb.com (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-ex-sam-max-the-devils-playhouse/17-2141/), and you'll see one of the new locations on the map.

We saw in several videos that there was six slots for psychic powers. Does that mean that there will be six powers in the entire series or does it mean that we will be able to hold a maximum six powers at a time and there will be more than six?
You'll have a maximum of six at one time. We're not saying what all the powers are yet, so it'll be a surprise as the season goes on. The first episode focuses on future vision and teleportation.

What was the hardest part about designing this season...I probably will have another question later.
The hardest part is waiting to find out what your next question is going to be.

Is there any chance we'll be playing (a psychic version of) Fizzball this season? The power-granting tools are all based on forgotten childhood toys, and if they are Max's childhood toys there has to be an axe in there somewhere.
No, no Fizzball this season. The idea comes up all the time (I think I remember Mike mentioning it coming up when they were doing Hit the Road, even), but if you're going to do it, you want to really do it justice. To do it really well, you'd want fancy physics and effects, the kind which don't really make sense in an adventure game engine.

So is it true that Bosco is not needed for this Season or is it a lie so that no one knows what's coming?
It's true. Unless it's a lie, in which case I'm still lying right now.

I noticed Max's voice in this Season, did Andrew return to play Max?
Andrew Chaikin is doing several voices for this season, but not Max.

From the beginning of the teaser, I've wondered to myself "Why psychic powers?" how did this brilliant idea get formed and why wasn't it used sooner?
I partly answered this earlier -- Mike mentioned Max's psychic powers, and it fit really well with the kinds of puzzles we wanted to experiment with this season. As for why it wasn't used sooner, I'd guess that's because Mike hadn't started working here yet.

Joop

03/15/2010, 02:47 pm

Well now there has to be, it sounds like.

Cool, can't wait! :D

I noticed Max's voice in this Season, did Andrew return to play Max?

I've just replayed Culture Shock, and after that I checked the intro video to Season 3. You can here it's definitely not Andrew Chaikin, it's good ol' William Kasten. (I actually like his Max better.)

EDIT: Chuck beat me to it. He's a fast one. ;)

Remolay

03/15/2010, 02:51 pm

My questions are mainly 'how did you get to this form' questions so

Were you going for any other strange animals before Skun Ka'pe

Is there any chance of an appearance by Mack Salmon?

Hassat Hunter

03/15/2010, 02:54 pm

Sorry, I should've said 2-3PM Pacific Daylight Time, AKA right now!
Gaaah... I missed it?

Questions:
1) Apparently I am not keeping up with TTG too much. What's this horrible puzzle in 204 you guys were talking about?
2) What locations of NYC will we get to see? Famous ones too?
3) Does the writer already include some puzzles, or get all of them added in afterwards? Or does the writer actually write story around puzzles already designed in the spinning session mentioned before?

BenjaminHayden

03/15/2010, 02:55 pm

I know that this is a very long ways off, but have you guys thought of doing a "Make-Up an Episode" contest for season 4 of Sam & Max? I only ask because some of the fans of the series might have some very weird/funny ideas for future episode that you guys might like to use. ;)

pwblaine

03/15/2010, 03:44 pm

My favorite puzzle segment from last season was definately the time machine puzzle chain, being able to change things in the past to affect the present was way out here and worked out perfectly.

I've read on some previews that you're slightly changing the way we go about solving puzzles in this season over last, any chance of a little enlightenment on what that could mean? I've also seen that we have more control over max in this version does that mean we'll possibly be seeing a switch character control button in the regular environment vs just in dialog?

And of course, thank you guys for all the fantastic games you've brought us, you've truly been the gaming highlight of the last decade for me. And TTG finally coming to mac will probably take the cake for the next ten years.

Gman5852

03/15/2010, 04:19 pm

1.What all old characters will we see, like will sybil, abe, Bosco, etc... be in, or will some of the characters not return?

2. Will we get to combine items like in tales.

3.Will we get to use max's powers on sams items.

4. because of the computer trying ot move maxes inventory istems, will he have an inventory/be a playable character.

Secret Fawful

03/15/2010, 04:20 pm

So I notice some plain references to Howard Lovecraft in the image and title of the final episode. Without giving any spoilers away, how much inspiration from Lovecraft or references to him has actually been used in this season?

And since this season is based on spookier stuff, and is in New York City, will we see any Ghostbusters references? :D

pwblaine

03/15/2010, 04:21 pm

Oops! Too late

lombre

03/15/2010, 04:23 pm

Are any of the villains from the previous seasons going to return to get their revenge on Sam and Max?

Sp0tted

03/15/2010, 04:30 pm

How difficult is it to program for PC and Mac at the same time? I seem to remember someone saying back when TTG first started that it was like making the same game twice.

What changed?

GinnyN

03/15/2010, 04:39 pm

Which are the most annoying question you recieved from a fan? This one? =P

Now seriously, what do you first in designing? The Puzzles or the story or everything at the same time?

S@bre

03/15/2010, 05:22 pm

Chuck, you were one of the main guys involved in the lesser known ill-fated project that was Sam & Max Plunge Through Space (for those unfamiliar read this (http://www.telltalegames.com/summerofsamandmax/history/history4)). Have you been able to integrate any of the ideas from Plunge Through Space you never had a chance to realise but wanted to explore further in The Devil's Playhouse?

light_rises

03/15/2010, 06:10 pm

All right! Here goes ...

1) If you could choose one episode from the previous seasons to revisit/recreate using the resources Telltale currently has at its disposal, which would it be? Why?

2) The animation student/hobbyist in me is curious: As far as you can answer, how much of what's involved in creating an animated short or feature film translates into how you create games? Especially now that you're able to use a more cinematic approach?

3) From what we know so far, The Devil's Playhouse is continuing a pattern we've seen in all of Sam & Max's incarnations -- Max gets to stumble onto and wield great power while Sam maintains something of a Badass Normal status (all minor deviations from which notwithstanding). If you could think of a good enough plot- or character-related reason to buck that trend in a major if non-permanent way, would you do it? Or do you guys think this particular dynamic is too important or intregal to tamper with?

Ben

03/15/2010, 06:23 pm

How difficult is it to program for PC and Mac at the same time? I seem to remember someone saying back when TTG first started that it was like making the same game twice.

What changed?

Hey a question for me! As we've done games on the Wii and Xbox, our engine has gotten better and better about keeping platform specific code isolated. The Mac port definitely builds on the architectural work we've done for past platforms. I wasn't at Telltale at the time, but I hear the first non-PC game we did was quite painful.

Chuck

03/15/2010, 08:12 pm

Were you going for any other strange animals before Skun Ka'pe
Telltale tries to be species-blind and cast whoever's best for the part, whether they're human or animal. General Skun-ka'pe is an evil intergalactic warlord who just happens to be a gorilla.

Is there any chance of an appearance by Mack Salmon?
There is if you truly believe in him!

Actually, it's unlikely. Mack Salmon (and Commander Blip and the Rubber Pants Commandos, too) is a great character, but he kind of works best as a one-shot. They did a pretty good job bringing him back for an episode of the cartoon series, but in the games we're trying to hit a balance between hitting all the stuff you like from the comics and also introducing new stuff.

Apparently I am not keeping up with TTG too much. What's this horrible puzzle in 204 you guys were talking about?
I believe it's mentioned in one of the commentary tracks. The puzzle where you had to make young Max not like girls was originally intended to involve a game of spin-the-bottle. It was changed into a much better idea.

What locations of NYC will we get to see? Famous ones too?
Sam & Max avoid the touristy spots, but you can't have a game set in New York without running across some familiar locations.

Does the writer already include some puzzles, or get all of them added in afterwards? Or does the writer actually write story around puzzles already designed in the spinning session mentioned before?
Writing and design are more closely tied together at Telltale than a lot of other companies, since the games are so heavily story-based. Usually the writer and designer are the same person, or the writer is at least involved in the design meetings. We always (so far anyway) start with the story, and then try to figure out how the big story moments could break down into obstacles that the player can get solve.

I know that this is a very long ways off, but have you guys thought of doing a "Make-Up an Episode" contest for season 4 of Sam & Max? I only ask because some of the fans of the series might have some very weird/funny ideas for future episode that you guys might like to use.
Episode 1 of season 3 isn't due out for a while, so we haven't even begun to think of season 4. We'll probably think up some way to get the forums involved in season 3, although it can't be as huge as an entire episode since we've got the storyline pretty much wrapped up.

ubuntu_tyler

03/15/2010, 08:13 pm

Playing on this last post, are there any plans to do linux ports of any of your games?

Chuck

03/15/2010, 08:28 pm

I've read on some previews that you're slightly changing the way we go about solving puzzles in this season over last, any chance of a little enlightenment on what that could mean?
It's probably in reference to Max's psychic powers. The idea is that a lot of adventure games work by having you collect a ton of stuff in your inventory and then making you figure out what each item's specific purpose is. In the new season, we're putting more emphasis on Max's powers -- there are fewer of them, but you know exactly how they work, and you can use them in multiple different ways.

One example is Max's future vision power. He can use it on most characters and some objects to get a short scene showing their future. The idea is how does it change traditional adventure game puzzles if you get the solution first, and then have to work backwards from that?

I've also seen that we have more control over max in this version does that mean we'll possibly be seeing a switch character control button in the regular environment vs just in dialog?
At just about any point of the game, you can hit a button and switch control from Sam to Max (and vice versa). In Max mode, you enter Max's mind and can look around through his eyes. Max mode is where you use Max's psychic powers. Sam mode works pretty much like it always has -- you can walk around, look at things, add stuff to your inventory, start dialogues, etc.

What all old characters will we see, like will sybil, abe, Bosco, etc... be in, or will some of the characters not return?
I can't tell you all the characters that'll show up, or it'd ruin the surprises later on. I will say that some of the characters from previous seasons will be back, and several won't. Some of the characters' stories were pretty much finished in season 2, so there's not much point bringing them back.

Will we get to combine items like in tales.
Nope, still no inventory combination in Sam & Max. It's something that's inherent to Monkey Island games, so it would've felt odd if it hadn't made it into those. But the Sam & Max games never really seem to need it.

Will we get to use max's powers on sams items.
No, most of the powers work on characters or objects in the world, or Sam & Max themselves. The stuff in Sam's inventory is usually pretty straightforward and just works on its own.

because of the computer trying ot move maxes inventory istems, will he have an inventory/be a playable character.
I may be misunderstanding your question, but: Max's "inventory" is his psychic powers. He is a playable character, but you don't use him to walk around and look at/use things around the world, because that would be overkill. Sam already does that, and Max already chimes in whenever he has something to say.

So I notice some plain references to Howard Lovecraft in the image and title of the final episode. Without giving any spoilers away, how much inspiration from Lovecraft or references to him has actually been used in this season?
This season mashes together a bunch of stuff we (and Sam & Max) think is cool, so the references are all over the place. There's some science fiction, horror, film noir, mystery, pulp adventures, and some more stuff that I'm probably forgetting right now. Lovecraft is one of the influences, so good catch just from the title.

Are any of the villains from the previous seasons going to return to get their revenge on Sam and Max?
Some characters are definitely going to be back, including some of the villains.

Now seriously, what do you first in designing? The Puzzles or the story or everything at the same time?
Because Telltale's games are so story-heavy, you can't do puzzle design without story, and vice versa. So it's all done at the same time, and the goal is that the obstacles fall naturally out of the story without feeling like "puzzles."

Jake

03/15/2010, 08:30 pm

From the beginning of the teaser, I've wondered to myself "Why psychic powers?" how did this brilliant idea get formed and why wasn't it used sooner?

-splash1

To elaborate on what Chuck said, in the comics it's been hinted/insinuated that Max has latent psychic abilities, and they made a very public appearance in the comic "Beast from the Cereal Aisle," wherein Max does weird psychic battle with... a beast from the cereal aisle of a local grocery store.

Here's a panel:

http://www.meltwizard.com/crap/MaxPowers.jpg

So not only is it weird, but it's canon as well :) ... if there's such a thing as "canon" in Sam & Max.

(PS: If you're a Sam & Max fan but haven't yet read the comics, you definitely should. And yes, in fact, we do sell the comic collection right here in our store (http://www.telltalegames.com/store/samandmax-highway).)

Rather Dashing

03/15/2010, 08:42 pm

Sam & Max avoid the touristy spots, but you can't have a game set in New York without running across some familiar locations.
Excuse me, but I'm pretty sure Telltale has made two episodic seasons' worth.

Chuck

03/15/2010, 08:53 pm

Have you been able to integrate any of the ideas from Plunge Through Space you never had a chance to realise but wanted to explore further in The Devil's Playhouse?
Not really, partly because that game would've taken Sam & Max way into science fiction territory, and this season is a little more grounded. Besides, it's always more fun to come up with new stuff than cling to an idea that's a decade old at this point. Plus, the story for Plunge Through Space came from Steve, so it'd be better to let him do what he wants with it, if anything.

If you could choose one episode from the previous seasons to revisit/recreate using the resources Telltale currently has at its disposal, which would it be? Why?
Some of the other guys may have a different answer, but I wouldn't really redo anything. I think the new environments and characters look fantastic, and it's great to see everybody's hard work paying off and the chore guys' having more tools at their disposal. But I'm not an art guy, so the appeal of the other episodes was always the stories and the characters, which worked fine with the "old-style" environments.

I saw a comment somewhere saying that the models hadn't been improved in season 3, which is disappointing since they got bumped up exactly where it counts: in the faces. They can do a lot of the expressions from the comics now, and it makes a world of difference. It would be interesting to see how the old scenes play out with the new facial animation, but I think the jokes carried about as well as they could even with the old models.

(While I'm thinking of it: I've actually seen some people online complaining that Sam & Max should've been made "furry". That's just wrong!)

As far as you can answer, how much of what's involved in creating an animated short or feature film translates into how you create games? Especially now that you're able to use a more cinematic approach?
A lot more than I'd be able to tell you, since I don't really come from that background. The chore artists have a lot more power now to use more interesting camera angles and make more interesting camera movements, especially since we've switched over to direct control. And there's a lot more power on the lighting side of things as well, so Derek Sakai's been able to do some fantastic things with lighting the scenes and using dynamic lights. You'd think it's subtle until you see it in action, and it makes a huge difference. (We don't use pre-rendered screenshots anymore!)

It's gotten sophisticated enough that there's now a separate "cinematic director" role at the studio, to look at the game as if it were an animated film and make sure all the scenes and setups work cinematically. Nick Herman handled that on 301, along with Dennis Lenart as lead chore artist.

From what we know so far, The Devil's Playhouse is continuing a pattern we've seen in all of Sam & Max's incarnations -- Max gets to stumble onto and wield great power while Sam maintains something of a Badass Normal status (all minor deviations from which notwithstanding). If you could think of a good enough plot- or character-related reason to buck that trend in a major if non-permanent way, would you do it? Or do you guys think this particular dynamic is too important or integral to tamper with?
Well, the comics treat Sam & Max as roughly equal in terms of insanity, but we have a harder time doing that in videogames. You can't have your "main" character be as completely unpredictable as Max, or you wouldn't be able to have any control over the story. So we've had to rein Sam in a little, and make him a little more Guybrush-y. We've been looking for ways to bring back a little of Sam's mania, though, and give him some more jokes instead of just handing them all over to Max. Over the course of the season, you should see Sam's character getting more interesting.

But you know, Max just is, and that's half the fun of the characters.

Playing on this last post, are there any plans to do linux ports of any of your games?
No plans at the moment. I think some people on the forum have had some success with WINE.

Chuck

03/15/2010, 08:56 pm

Excuse me, but I'm pretty sure Telltale has made two episodic seasons' worth.
Do season 1 and 2 ever explicitly say they're in New York? In any case, in the past Sam & Max's street has been the focus. In the new season, we're making an effort to acknowledge that their street is part of a bigger city and let them do a little more exploring close to home.

Rather Dashing

03/15/2010, 09:08 pm

Do season 1 and 2 ever explicitly say they're in New York?
No, I was just being snarky. :cool:

You mentioned above that Plunge Through Space would take them far into Sci-Fi territory, while this is more "grounded". Is deep space the next logical step, though? For the story to get "bigger", do we have to...well, plunge through space? Or can we be content to have Sam and Max just drive to Mars once while globe-trotting?

Jake

03/15/2010, 09:35 pm

Is deep space the next logical step, though? For the story to get "bigger", do we have to...well, plunge through space? Or can we be content to have Sam and Max just drive to Mars once while globe-trotting?

Does the story have to get bigger? I think it can get different. Sam & Max isn't like Lost where each season we zoom out to an even more macro view. It could take a hard right turn and spend half the season in a pocket dimension found in Jimmy Two-Teeth's rathole, and would be alright.

light_rises

03/15/2010, 10:29 pm

Some of the other guys may have a different answer, but I wouldn't really redo anything. I think the new environments and characters look fantastic, and it's great to see everybody's hard work paying off and the chore guys' having more tools at their disposal. But I'm not an art guy, so the appeal of the other episodes was always the stories and the characters, which worked fine with the "old-style" environments.

The writing and characters is what I fell in love with in the earlier games, and I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe I was getting more of that along with the snazzy new visuals. So a definite "agreed" on that point.

I saw a comment somewhere saying that the models hadn't been improved in season 3, which is disappointing since they got bumped up exactly where it counts: in the faces. They can do a lot of the expressions from the comics now, and it makes a world of difference. It would be interesting to see how the old scenes play out with the new facial animation, but I think the jokes carried about as well as they could even with the old models.

The improved facial animations were one of the aspects of ToMI I got the most excited about. I'll take expressiveness over superfluous polygons any day. On that note ...

(While I'm thinking of it: I've actually seen some people online complaining that Sam & Max should've been made "furry". That's just wrong!)

... Yeah. No comment. Well, except for this (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=52965&postcount=1), which is awesome mostly because it's a one-shot deal, not in spite of it.

Well, the comics treat Sam & Max as roughly equal in terms of insanity, but we have a harder time doing that in videogames. You can't have your "main" character be as completely unpredictable as Max, or you wouldn't be able to have any control over the story. So we've had to rein Sam in a little, and make him a little more Guybrush-y. We've been looking for ways to bring back a little of Sam's mania, though, and give him some more jokes instead of just handing them all over to Max. Over the course of the season, you should see Sam's character getting more interesting.

Makes sense, and that's actually something I appreciate about the games. I enjoy the larger gulf between Sam and Max because it turns them into kinda-sorta-but-not-quite foils for each other, which we don't really get in the comics. Not at all a slight against the comics, though -- I love them too much for that. It's more a matter of personal preference, of what gives me more of a kick when it comes to interplay between "dynamic duos."

That said, I do agree that giving Sam more to do than solve puzzles and volley jokes to Max can only be a good thing. I look forward to finding out what you mean by "Sam's character getting more interesting" during the season.

(Oh, and, um, my question was referring more to Max getting to become president, a priest, and having his latent psychic powers realized while Sam apparently Can't Have Nice Things, so to speak. I'm not sure if I got that across before, or if I'm just missing something. It's pretty late right now, after all ... :o )

But you know, Max just is, and that's half the fun of the characters.

But of course!

stevens

03/15/2010, 10:41 pm

So who is designing each of the remaining season 3 episodes?

Jake

03/15/2010, 10:57 pm

So who is designing each of the remaining season 3 episodes?

To the best of my knowledge (I am possibly incorrect here, but...):

1 is Chuck

2 is Andy Hartzell (W&G: Fright of the Bumblebees, W&G: The Bogey Man) with Brendan Ferguson (Sam & Max Season One, Sam & Max Season Two) doing some early work with the design as well.

3 is Joe Pinney (Tales of MI: Lair of the Leviathan, W&G: The Last Resort) design, and Mike Stemmle (Tales of MI: Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, Sam & Max Hit the Road) writing

4 is basically the reverse of that, from what I hear -- Mike designing, Joe writing

5 is Chuck

The Highway

03/16/2010, 01:16 am

What influenced you to change the overall FEEL of The Street? I love how grimy it looks!

Avistew

03/16/2010, 01:30 am

What influenced you to change the overall FEEL of The Street? I love how grimy it looks!

They wanted it to be closer to the feel of the comics.

Winther

03/16/2010, 01:33 am

Okay, first of all, SO! EXCITED! And thanks for coming here and answering all our questions.

Right. Said questions:

The control scheme - Is it similar to ToMI, straight-up point'n'click like previous seasons, or something else? For the record, I really liked the controls in ToMI.

Also, new dialogue system! Very nice, very... Mass Effect-y. Speaking of, will there be any more dialogue-puzzles featuring direct control of Max's big mouth? I've really enjoyed the two (I think? Culture Shock and Ice Station Santa? Missing anything?) occasions where we've been able to switch back and forth between them in dialogue.

And finally, with all the new wacky stuff going on, will there still be a driving mini-game in every episode?

Avistew

03/16/2010, 01:42 am

The control scheme - Is it similar to ToMI, straight-up point'n'click like previous seasons, or something else? For the record, I really liked the controls in ToMI.

Actually, there is a thread about that in the Sam & Max forum. Possible controls are Click&Drag, WASD, arrows, numpad and gamepad. I don't think I forgot any.

The Highway

03/16/2010, 01:43 am

I didn't like the new way of making Sam talk. I preferred the old way, with the list, but i suppose I'll get used to it. Did you originally consider just keeping the old way for PC and changing it for PS3, or was it one way the whole way?

Tjibbbe

03/16/2010, 02:08 am

OzzieMonkey

03/16/2010, 02:10 am

Hey Chuck,
my question is, after what happened to the Soda Poppers in Season 2, do you know if they will come back? And if not, what Soda Popper-like characters would pop up over the course of this series?

Kroms

03/16/2010, 02:13 am

You like the Poppers?

Frumyfrenzy

03/16/2010, 02:58 am

Hi Chuck!

Sam and Max Season 2 and espacially Tales of Monkey Island clearly was comparable to animation films. Cutscenes, camera angles, storyline - a big step up in my opinion. On the other hand there is Heavy Rain with its dramatic, more realistic story (from what I read, don't own a console).

What is Telltale's account on episodic dramatic stories? Is this something Telltale like to/will try in the future? And would there be enough manpower to make such a game without abandoning your other franchises?

OzzieMonkey

03/16/2010, 03:14 am

You like the Poppers?

That's a tough one. I'm not sure how I feel about them. They do seem a bit annoying, and Wizzer's voice drives me nuts, but it is funny to see them randomly pop up.

GinnyN

03/16/2010, 03:51 am

To elaborate on what Chuck said, in the comics it's been hinted/insinuated that Max has latent psychic abilities, and they made a very public appearance in the comic "Beast from the Cereal Aisle," wherein Max does weird psychic battle with... a beast from the cereal aisle of a local grocery store.

Here's a panel:

http://www.meltwizard.com/crap/MaxPowers.jpg

I always believed that were more "Spiritual" powers than Psychic powers, which is totally diferent in my book. Now, if he has latent psychic powers at well, I'm not really surprised. He has to compensate the lack of atention span and long term memory with something.

So not only is it weird, but it's canon as well :) ... if there's such a thing as "canon" in Sam & Max.

Agree

Well, the comics treat Sam & Max as roughly equal in terms of insanity, but we have a harder time doing that in videogames. You can't have your "main" character be as completely unpredictable as Max, or you wouldn't be able to have any control over the story. So we've had to rein Sam in a little, and make him a little more Guybrush-y. We've been looking for ways to bring back a little of Sam's mania, though, and give him some more jokes instead of just handing them all over to Max. Over the course of the season, you should see Sam's character getting more interesting.

You just made a Fan Girl really happy.

Icedhope

03/16/2010, 04:41 am

I know you've been waiting for my next question so here it is.

I noticed you said earlier, that this season will story heavy, what made you change your mind from going to case by case and then wrapping it up from the last few episodes, to having every episode more connected?

Amaterasu

03/16/2010, 05:04 am

Ooh! I must ask questions as well!

1. Around how many items would we be able to fill our inventory with during a single episode? Cuz in S&M season 1 it was like 4-5, and in ToMI it was more like 14-15.
I really like more items, it makes our brain work harder...

2. Around how much time each episode will take? TT episodes usually takes 4-6 hours each... Will the episodes be longer this time? More puzzles?

3. Will there be any BIGFOOTS?! S&M must have bigfoots!

indiana_helge

03/16/2010, 05:05 am

1. Is Max still president in Season 3?

2. Is the giant stone head of Abe Lincoln also in Season 3? (I don't hope so. For me this head was the most annoying character in Season 2.)

Winther

03/16/2010, 05:18 am

lombre

03/16/2010, 05:22 am

Will Season 3 still have the occasional musical features like the Soda Poppers' Theme and the War Song?

Avistew

03/16/2010, 05:26 am

I hope so. Season 2 didn't have enough of them, only the mariachis and the friendly demon song. Season one had like one per episode.

Joop

03/16/2010, 05:32 am

I hope so. Season 2 didn't have enough of them, only the mariachis and the friendly demon song. Season one had like one per episode.

While this is true, I do like the way Season 2's songs complemented the story.
In Season 1 I kinda got the idea that they were just trying to fit a song in there somewhere.

Avistew

03/16/2010, 05:40 am

While this is true, I do like the way Season 2's songs complemented the story.
In Season 1 I kinda got the idea that they were just trying to fit a song in there somewhere.

Even if that's the case, it's Sam and Max. Randomness isn't a problem.
Not that I have a problem with it being tied to the story I guess.

Rather Dashing

03/16/2010, 05:56 am

Does the story have to get bigger? I think it can get different. Sam & Max isn't like Lost where each season we zoom out to an even more macro view. It could take a hard right turn and spend half the season in a pocket dimension found in Jimmy Two-Teeth's rathole, and would be alright.
Obviously you've thought this through more than I have. Also, now I want to see that game made!

You like the Poppers?
I liked them. :D

lombre

03/16/2010, 06:10 am

You like the Poppers?
From the three episodes I've played so far (Culture Shock, Situation: Comedy, and Abe Lincoln Must Die!), I've liked them. Then again, I also can't seem to figure out why people hate Brady Culture, so to each his own.

Nojh

03/16/2010, 06:31 am

Questions!

1. So you've stated that story and design come first. Then puzzles. When you finally get to puzzles to you keep in mind technical limitations or do you design the puzzles and then see how much you're going to have to expand the engine? Does this lead to a lot of delays or frustration?

2. Are there any easter eggs in any of the seasons?

Chuck Specific Question:
1. Cajun Zombie?

Ben Specific Question:
1. Is engine development done separately from game development? Like are you constantly trying to improve the engine and add neat features independent of any feature requests that may come out of a particular game's needs?

Shauntron Specific Question:
1. Hi there! What do you do at TellTale?

Jake Specific Question:
1. Hi Jake. I think I remember you from the TMI pre-order forum. You do web stuff right? Is there going to be any fun web integration in DPH like the treasure hunting game from TMI?

light_rises

03/16/2010, 06:38 am

From the three episodes I've played so far (Culture Shock, Situation: Comedy, and Abe Lincoln Must Die!), I've liked them. Then again, I also can't seem to figure out why people hate Brady Culture, so to each his own.

I can think of a few other people who've mentioned they don't hate the Soda Poppers (myself included, incidentally). But since most of the fandom would go into a conniption fit if they ever returned, it's probably for the best they don't.

Rather Dashing

03/16/2010, 06:42 am

I can think of a few other people who've mentioned they don't hate the Soda Poppers (myself included, incidentally). But since most of the fandom would go into a conniption fit if they ever returned, it's probably for the best they don't.
Oh, I liked them for their run, but it feels like their "arc" is over. They've really served their purpose by the end of the last episode of Season 2. Maybe it's better that most people didn't like them along with Sam and Max, so that they could have a satisfying story arc that ENDS.

Nojh

03/16/2010, 06:56 am

Oh, I liked them for their run, but it feels like their "arc" is over. They've really served their purpose by the end of the last episode of Season 2. Maybe it's better that most people didn't like them along with Sam and Max, so that they could have a satisfying story arc that ENDS.

I admit they weren't my favorite side characters. Actually in the list of side characters they're in the bottom five of characters I could do with out. But they definitely had redeeming value int he later episodes when they got away from their initial concept of 'amusingly annoying' and more 'making fun of the fact that they are amusingly annoying'. I admit the whole Dakota war made me laugh the first time.

Astro Gnocci

03/16/2010, 07:05 am

Nope, still no inventory combination in Sam & Max. It's something that's inherent to Monkey Island games, so it would've felt odd if it hadn't made it into those. But the Sam & Max games never really seem to need it.

I don't really get it. I never associated inventory combination with Monkey Island any more than with any other of the old lucasart games. Seems to me it's just part of adventure gaming as a whole, not of any specific game or franchise.
Not that i really care if there IS or not some item combination in season three, especially since the whole psychic powers thing seems more than enough to mess with and improve gameplay, and i sure agree with the "if it's not needed, why use it ?" approach, but i just don't really understand why it felt more "necessary" to you in MI than here.

light_rises

03/16/2010, 07:11 am

Oh, I liked them for their run, but it feels like their "arc" is over. They've really served their purpose by the end of the last episode of Season 2. Maybe it's better that most people didn't like them along with Sam and Max, so that they could have a satisfying story arc that ENDS.

Agreed. I'd only be interested in having them back if there was a damn good reason for it. Otherwise, it's as you said -- their story is over. I may bear no ill will towards them, but I didn't shed a tear upon their demise either. It was a fitting exit.

Okay, a question for Jake: What has been the biggest challenge (and conversely, the biggest reward) you've encountered now that you wear more hats at Telltale than ever before?

SHODANFreeman

03/16/2010, 07:14 am

Will there be special secret cameos by any voice actors?

Hassat Hunter

03/16/2010, 07:35 am

I didn't like the new way of making Sam talk. I preferred the old way, with the list, but i suppose I'll get used to it.
Ah, yes. Same here. I already gave my whole speech why I prefer list over a pointers.
Good example of this is Fahrenheit, where when I was playing English I never talked like I would have wanted, while I did when playing German, because I had no idea what convo option I picked because I can barely read German :p.

So the question is... why did you guys vote for using this conversation system instead. What are the pro's that made you pick it over the con's?

light_rises

03/16/2010, 07:38 am

I don't really get it. I never associated inventory combination with Monkey Island any more than with any other of the old lucasart games. Seems to me it's just part of adventure gaming as a whole, not of any specific game or franchise.
Not that i really care if there IS or not some item combination in season three, especially since the whole psychic powers thing seems more than enough to mess with and improve gameplay, and i sure agree with the "if it's not needed, why use it ?" approach, but i just don't really understand why it felt more "necessary" to you in MI than here.

I think the difference is that Sam & Max don't have the same long history with item combination puzzles as other adventure franchises do. There had only been one Sam & Max game before Telltale came along, whereas every single Monkey Island prior to ToMI had item combining. And now after two seasons (and soon enough, three) without item combination, it doesn't necessarily seem like an essential element of what makes Sam & Max games what they are anymore.

LittleBuddy

03/16/2010, 07:42 am

I've just read the whole thing, some very interesting stuff here :D Man, if feels good to have the dog and rabbit back!

Avistew

03/16/2010, 07:49 am

I don't really get it. I never associated inventory combination with Monkey Island any more than with any other of the old lucasart games. Seems to me it's just part of adventure gaming as a whole, not of any specific game or franchise.

That's exactly how I feel. Items combinations seems as much part of adventure games as using items in the first place. I never felt it was specific to Monkey Island any more than "you have to solve puzzles" is specific to Monkey Island.

This being said I didn't like the way combining items worked in Tales so I'm not going to miss that.

SHODANFreeman

03/16/2010, 08:23 am

Ah, yes. Same here. I already gave my whole speech why I prefer list over a pointers.
Good example of this is Fahrenheit, where when I was playing English I never talked like I would have wanted, while I did when playing German, because I had no idea what convo option I picked because I can barely read German :p.

So the question is... why did you guys vote for using this conversation system instead. What are the pro's that made you pick it over the con's?

I believe the reasoning behind it was that they wanted the jokes to be more of a surprise, rather than just reading the joke in advance and waiting for Sam to say it.

GinnyN

03/16/2010, 08:27 am

I think the difference is that Sam & Max don't have the same long history with item combination puzzles as other adventure franchises do. There had only been one Sam & Max game before Telltale came along, whereas every single Monkey Island prior to ToMI had item combining. And now after two seasons (and soon enough, three) without item combination, it doesn't necessarily seem like an essential element of what makes Sam & Max games what they are anymore.

I think this is a good explanation. But, I must admit, while watching the Giant Bomb Video I was totally, in my mind, trying to use the Gun with the Beacon =P.

Joop

03/16/2010, 08:28 am

I believe the reasoning behind it was that they wanted the jokes to be more of a surprise, rather than just reading the joke in advance and waiting for Sam to say it.

This is a good explanation, though Sam never precisely says what's in the text you click.

TheHutt

03/16/2010, 08:37 am

Can we hope for more constant subtitling? For instance, in Season I the songs were not subtitled. In Season 2, Episode I the subtitles for some dialogue were absent at the end after the fadeout, and also at the setup wizard with the COPS.
It'd be more user-friendly for non-English-native players. :)

The Highway

03/16/2010, 08:59 am

Questions!

Jake Specific Question:
1. Hi Jake. I think I remember you...

You THINK you remember Jake?! Jake is unforgettable! And I bet he... wait, who?:D

Jake

03/16/2010, 09:41 am

Jake Specific Question:
1. Hi Jake. I think I remember you from the TMI pre-order forum. You do web stuff right? Is there going to be any fun web integration in DPH like the treasure hunting game from TMI?
I actually haven't done web stuff in a while, so I can only pretend to answer this. There will surely be some web/game integration but it will be different than treasure hunting. I'm not sure how it works or when it will be announced, though :)

I really, really liked the opening credits for S&M season 2. They really set the tone, and got you geared up for the episode. I hope the cold-open-to-opening-credits style has been retained for season 3? I didn't miss it in ToMI, because that's a different type of story, but a Sam & Max episode just showing credits at the bottom of the screen without great fanfare just doesn't seem right.
If you liked that stuff about the opening credits' style, and the structure of the opening in season two, think you will be pleased with the way we handled it in the Devil's Playhouse. Nick Herman and I came in for a weekend and basically killed ourselves to churn out what is, I think, a pretty sweet title sequence. Speaking of...

Okay, a question for Jake: What has been the biggest challenge (and conversely, the biggest reward) you've encountered now that you wear more hats at Telltale than ever before?
The biggest challenge is getting everything done, since I now have my hands in a disgusting number the pies. On a few of the Monkey episodes (notably the finale) I was one of the first people on the game and then was the second to last person off it at the end. The coolest part is that I get to be involved in a gigantic amount of things here at TTG. I go to design meetings and help come up with puzzles and develop story ideas, and then I go back to my desk and make artwork and effects and cutscene type things on the games, and I still occasionally get to design a piece of packaging or something. It's probably too much work, but it's all very rewarding and is the exact type of stuff I've always wanted to do. So hey!

Chuck

03/16/2010, 09:46 am

3 is Joe Pinney (Tales of MI: Lair of the Leviathan, W&G: The Last Resort) design, and Mike Stemmle (Tales of MI: Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, Sam & Max Hit the Road) writing

4 is basically the reverse of that, from what I hear -- Mike designing, Joe writing
Actually, it's a little more (or less?) complicated than that: Joe is doing puzzle design for both 3 & 4, and Mike is writing the script for both. They're swapping off on the lead designer role, with Joe heading 3 and Mike in charge of 4.

What influenced you to change the overall FEEL of The Street? I love how grimy it looks!
To make it closer to the feel of the comics, as avistew said, and also we were going for a "70s New York" feel instead of the more brightly-lit cartoony feel of seasons 1 and 2. One of the goals was to make the environments a little more detailed, so it's like Sam & Max exist in the real world instead of some cartoon reality.

The control scheme - Is it similar to ToMI, straight-up point'n'click like previous seasons, or something else? For the record, I really liked the controls in ToMI.
So you're the one!

Yes, on PC and Mac,the controls are almost identical to Tales of Monkey Island. On the PS3 (and if you plug in an Xbox360-compatible gamepad on the PC), there's a new control system designed specifically for the controller.

Speaking of, will there be any more dialogue-puzzles featuring direct control of Max's big mouth? I've really enjoyed the two (I think? Culture Shock and Ice Station Santa? Missing anything?) occasions where we've been able to switch back and forth between them in dialogue.
I liked those a lot, too, but there's not as much room for them in the new season. Since you can switch control to Max anywhere in the game, it seemed weird to switch in dialogues as well. Don't worry that the idea is completely gone, though -- we'll be playing around with the systems throughout the season, and you will have a chance to make Max talk.

And finally, with all the new wacky stuff going on, will there still be a driving mini-game in every episode?
No, there are no driving minigames this season. They were fun to come up with for season two, but they always felt like minigames instead of being integrated fully into the rest of the game. We decided pretty early on not to do the driving, and as we focused on psychic powers and city map and all the other stuff that you end up doing in the game, it turned out that the new season doesn't really need a separate driving mode. The DeSoto is still a big part of Sam & Max, though, almost a character.

I didn't like the new way of making Sam talk. I preferred the old way, with the list, but i suppose I'll get used to it. Did you originally consider just keeping the old way for PC and changing it for PS3, or was it one way the whole way?
The dialogue went through a lot of revisions over the course of developing the first episode, but we'd always intended to have it work the same on PC/Mac as it did on PS3, and we always intended to use short topics instead of full dialogue lines.

Part of that was from the Chapman brothers, actually: when we started Strong Bad, they really wanted to use icon-based dialogues. The reason is that if you read the sentence and then hear the main character deliver the sentence, it slows down the dialogue and makes it feel like you're hearing everything twice (even if it's slightly changed from the text).

It's also fitting in with the license: like the inventory combination, text-based dialogues seem to me like a fundamental part of the Monkey Island series, one of the ways those games tell jokes. In Hit the Road, you just got icons of the topics you could ask about. It made it less predictable what Sam & Max were going to say, it made the dialogues flow differently, and it made it feel a little bit more like detective work: you were asking people about a set of topics, instead of just launching into random conversations.

One of the things we noticed about Strong Bad dialogues is that some of the icons could be hard to decipher on their own, so we went with short topic phrases. As the season goes on, there will be some occasions where you want to decide exactly what to say, and in those cases we'll have an interface that's more like the previous Sam & Max seasons and Monkey Island.

Another new thing, while I'm talking (a lot) about the dialogue system: the dialogue interface now shows you which topics still have new stuff left to hear, and which ones you've "exhausted" and will repeat.

Winther

03/16/2010, 09:58 am

So you're the one!

Well, I thought it was a pretty perfect combination of the benefits of direct control - freedom in camera angles, and to do stuff like having the entire ground in one location be a hotspot - and still keeping the controls pretty much mouse-centric. I'm used to having one hand free when playing adventure games.

...

Get your mind out of the gutter! I've just developed a habit of assuming a rather relaxed, leaned back posture when playing those games, maybe eating or drinking something while I'm playing. That's easier when you're not hunched over the keyboard.

Also,
the dialogue interface now shows you which topics still have new stuff left to hear, and which ones you've "exhausted" and will repeat.
THIS. YES. Thank you.

ETA:

Re: The driving minigames, probably a good thing. While they were fun enough, I felt like I was well done with them at the end of the season, and you didn't really miss it in Chariots of the Dogs. I do still think the Paperboy-style game in Raving Dead was brilliant, though.

E(further)TA:

@Jake: Yay!

doodinthemood

03/16/2010, 10:01 am

Will the guy trapped between buildings have a significant role?

Nojh

03/16/2010, 10:04 am

[QUOTE=Jake;273558]I actually haven't done web stuff in a while, so I can only pretend to answer this. There will surely be some web/game integration but it will be different than treasure hunting. I'm not sure how it works or when it will be announced, though :)

Oooh. You're profile says you're still the web guru. ;) So what is it that you do now?

light_rises

03/16/2010, 10:12 am

Another new thing, while I'm talking (a lot) about the dialogue system: the dialogue interface now shows you which topics still have new stuff left to hear, and which ones you've "exhausted" and will repeat.

I was totally going to ask you about that before I read this last bit. I couldn't be happier with the answer. :D

Chuck

03/16/2010, 10:14 am

You mentioned stuff like Plan 9 from Outer Space and the Twilight Zone as being an influence on this series. Any other movies or any particular Twilight Zone episodes that I could watch to get in the mood for some freelance policing?
In addition to Plan 9 and The Twilight Zone, here's a list of stuff that influenced the season overall and episode one in particular:

"Night Gallery", "The Outer Limits", The Beast Must Die!, Zardoz, Logan's Run, "Space: 1999", "Star Trek" (the original series), The Flash comics, Scanners, The Fury, Carrie, Flash Gordon (the movie), Murder on the Orient Express, Superman, The Shining, The Manitou, "Battlestar Galactica" (the original series), Pom Poko, "Challenge of the Superfriends", "UFO" (the TV series), The Third Man, Gangs of New York, The Mummy, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Warriors, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Plus more I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's up to you guys to figure out what came from where.

my question is, after what happened to the Soda Poppers in Season 2, do you know if they will come back? And if not, what Soda Popper-like characters would pop up over the course of this series?
Yes, I do know if they will come back.

And I can't think of what you mean by "Soda Popper-like," whether you mean villains or child stars or really really annoying characters. I can promise that we'll have two of those three things.

What is Telltale's account on episodic dramatic stories? Is this something Telltale like to/will try in the future? And would there be enough manpower to make such a game without abandoning your other franchises?
I think Telltale's always been open to doing a dramatic series; the trick is finding the right one. It's very likely that you'll see a non-comedy (intentionally) series at some point in the future. (The studio already makes CSI games, which depending on your attitude towards grisly murder, aren't all that funny). It wouldn't mean "abandoning" a franchise, on its own -- there are only so many games the studio can make at once, so it's not as if we can have series based on all the active licenses happening at the same time, anyway.

I noticed you said earlier, that this season will story heavy, what made you change your mind from going to case by case and then wrapping it up from the last few episodes, to having every episode more connected?
Dan, Kevin, and Dave made me change my mind. But it was mostly based on the response we got from the end of season 2 -- people commented a lot that they loved how those two episodes flowed right into each other -- and from the overall structure of Tales of Monkey Island.

Around how many items would we be able to fill our inventory with during a single episode? Cuz in S&M season 1 it was like 4-5, and in ToMI it was more like 14-15.
It's going to vary from episode to episode, but it will be between those two -- definitely less than Monkey Island. Again, the general idea is that there's a little less focus on inventory and more focus on psychic powers. Instead of having a bunch of single-purpose items where "you have to read the designer's mind" to figure out what the use of it is, you've got psychic powers and we tell you exactly how they're supposed to work. It's the player's job to figure out how to use the powers to solve a problem.

Around how much time each episode will take? TT episodes usually takes 4-6 hours each... Will the episodes be longer this time? More puzzles?
No, the episodes are going to be roughly the same length as season 2's earlier episodes.

Will there be any BIGFOOTS?! S&M must have bigfoots!
MAYBE!? Sam & Max had kind of a falling out with the Bigfoots after Hit the Road, and Max in particular refused to ever work with them again. We'll have to see if we can change their minds.

Is Max still president in Season 3?
Yes. How long he stays President, you'll have to play the games to find out.

Is the giant stone head of Abe Lincoln also in Season 3?
He will show up, in one form or another.

bubbledncr

03/16/2010, 10:24 am

All right! Here goes ...

2) The animation student/hobbyist in me is curious: As far as you can answer, how much of what's involved in creating an animated short or feature film translates into how you create games? Especially now that you're able to use a more cinematic approach?

Animated shorts have a lot more planning. Someone generally storyboards the whole thing out before hand, then everything gets blocked in 3d, and then the animator animates that shot to final. Time doesn't always allow for that process games. For cutscenes, the animators usually work with whichever chore guy is setting up the scene to figure out cameras and character positions and then create a rough layout, which gets approved, and then we move on to final animation.

V_Ben

03/16/2010, 10:43 am

Don't know if this has been asked yet, so here goes :-)

was it tricky getting Sam's pockets to work like you wanted them too? with him putting his hands in them and everything.

Chuck

03/16/2010, 10:49 am

I really, really liked the opening credits for S&M season 2. They really set the tone, and got you geared up for the episode. I hope the cold-open-to-opening-credits style has been retained for season 3? I didn't miss it in ToMI, because that's a different type of story, but a Sam & Max episode just showing credits at the bottom of the screen without great fanfare just doesn't seem right.
You should be happy with the credits for season 3. Jake always does a good job with those sequences, to the point that it's kind of boring now, but he and Nick outdid themselves with the one for the new season.

Will Season 3 still have the occasional musical features like the Soda Poppers' Theme and the War Song?
That's kind of played-out at this point, don't you think? We'll have to see if we can sneak something in somewhere.

So you've stated that story and design come first. Then puzzles. When you finally get to puzzles to you keep in mind technical limitations or do you design the puzzles and then see how much you're going to have to expand the engine?
It's a little of both. With any game engine -- whether it's designed for adventure games or RTS games or first-person shooters -- there are some things it does really well and other things you have to account for. Telltale's games handle cinematic sequences better than most FPS engines, and their engines handle physics-based and movement-oriented puzzles better than ours.

So the rough sequence is: come up with a story moment, think of a way to turn that story moment into an obstacle that the player has to solve, and then figure out how the player would solve it. Sometimes that turns into a "minigame" or a "set piece" or a special game mode, like for instance the opening puzzle of Wallace & Gromit episode 2. When that happens, we talk to the content programmers and chore artists about how we'd go about implementing that sequence. Then we decide if it's a ton of work without adding that much coolness to the game or even more importantly, overwhelming the story. If it is, we'll either simplify it or find some other way to get the story moment across.

Are there any easter eggs in any of the seasons?
Did you mean "episodes" instead of "seasons?" There are some cool moments that are off the critical path of the game; we usually cover them with the "Did you try?" walkthroughs we release after the game. On the PS3, each episode will have a set of trophies for doing different things. (Before anyone asks, the trophies aren't in the PC/Mac versions). And the chore guys crammed a lot weird stuff into Max mode; I still haven't seen all of it.

Chuck Specific Question:
1. Cajun Zombie?
I like Solomon Grundy. Nojh?

I don't really get it. I never associated inventory combination with Monkey Island any more than with any other of the old lucasart games. Seems to me it's just part of adventure gaming as a whole, not of any specific game or franchise.
Everybody's going to have his own interpretation of the games and what's most memorable, of course, but to me the inventory combination always seemed uniquely Monkey Island. I remember the other games as having a different main focus: in Hit the Road, it was minigames and using Max; in Day of the Tentacle, it was the chrono-johns; etc. I'd thought it was inherent to adventure games before I played (and then worked on) the first two seasons of Sam & Max, which made it clear that they worked fine without it, and it was in fact kind of silly trying to find a way to shoehorn it into a game that didn't need it. But a Monkey Island game that doesn't have you making a compass out of a cork, or filling a mug up with grog, just seems weird to me.

Will there be special secret cameos by any voice actors?
Not secret, but over the years we've built up an amazing cast of voice actors, and we're using most of them for multiple parts. There was going to be a secret cameo in the first episode of the new season, but I'll just go ahead and spoil it for you: it turns out that I am a very lousy voice actor. Luckily Jared was able to come in and re-record the voice at the last minute.

Can we hope for more constant subtitling? For instance, in Season I the songs were not subtitled. In Season 2, Episode I the subtitles for some dialogue were absent at the end after the fadeout, and also at the setup wizard with the COPS.
The song sequences are extremely difficult to subtitle, since the timing in a song is so much different from in normal dialogue. In season 2, they were only included because the song was integral to the plot and had so much Spanish in it.

Our QA team is always keeping an eye out for subtitle issues; if you run into something please report it on the support forum and we'll see if we can fix it.

Icedhope

03/16/2010, 10:58 am

This may have been allready asked if not then I'll ask.

Why the Ps3? Was it something new you wanted telltalegames to try out and get a fan base with sony?

Nojh

03/16/2010, 11:16 am

I like Solomon Grundy. Nojh?

Nojh Livic in total. Its an anagram of John Civil, who was the author of a book, the title of which I've forgotten, that was on the book shelf next the computer I was using when I first signed onto a Star Wars BBS RPG. They asked for a character name and my friend, who's parents owned the computer, told me that Star Wars names were made by taking real names and re-arranging the letters. I wasn't much of a Star Wars fan at the time, just the idea of controlling giant battleships in space was really cool. The name kinda stuck for the last decade or so...

*Wikis Solomon Grundy* Huh. I knew he was a DC villain. Totally didn't know he was a zombie. Cool.

Did you mean "episodes" instead of "seasons?" There are some cool moments that are off the critical path of the game; we usually cover them with the "Did you try?" walkthroughs we release after the game. On the PS3, each episode will have a set of trophies for doing different things. (Before anyone asks, the trophies aren't in the PC/Mac versions). And the chore guys crammed a lot weird stuff into Max mode; I still haven't seen all of it.

Ahh. I totally didn't know about the "Did you try?" stuff. Serves me right for not keeping up with the forums. Is there anybody who is collecting the Did you try stuff somewhere nicely archived? I mean now I'm going to go Google diving into the forums for 'em all of course but if someone has already done the work...

TheHutt

03/16/2010, 11:16 am

The song sequences are extremely difficult to subtitle, since the timing in a song is so much different from in normal dialogue.
That's true. But they are also harder to understand WITHOUT subtitles. That's why they need them even more. ;)

GinnyN

03/16/2010, 11:26 am

Ahh. I totally didn't know about the "Did you try?" stuff. Serves me right for not keeping up with the forums. Is there anybody who is collecting the Did you try stuff somewhere nicely archived? I mean now I'm going to go Google diving into the forums for 'em all of course but if someone has already done the work...

Those are in the Games's Page (http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax). If you click in a episode, you will see the option for the "Did you try?"

Nojh

03/16/2010, 11:28 am

Those are in the Games's Page (http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax). If you click in a episode, you will see the option for the "Did you try?"

Awesome! Thanks. My free time just shrunk even further!

Winther

03/16/2010, 11:37 am

For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?

Regarding the graphical advancements, the first thing I noticed was that the textures and shading have really been kicked up a notch. It's amazing how much that sort of thing adds to the depth and... realness of the characters and world. Just look at Sam's suit! It's all... cloth-like.

Rather Dashing

03/16/2010, 11:41 am

Why Sam and Max for the PS3? Was it a platform you wanted to work on, and Sam and Max was the next on the list? Or did you think that what you wanted to do with Sam and Max required the bump up in terms of hardware tech? Why not Monkey Island?

I'm not sure if any of that is your guys' decision at all, but it's something I'd like to know.

Tjibbbe

03/16/2010, 12:45 pm

There was going to be a secret cameo in the first episode of the new season, but I'll just go ahead and spoil it for you: it turns out that I am a very lousy voice actor. Luckily Jared was able to come in and re-record the voice at the last minute.

Wow, I would like to know more about this. What kind of character was it? When I listen to your voice on the GiantBomb quicklook, I can imagine you doing a voice for a character like the crazy rat-scientist who takes care of Max's regeneration in Bad Day on the Moon.

Another question; you've written for quite a lot of games by now, and I know from your blog that you're very interested in how movies and tv-shows are written. Have you ever considered doing some writing for anything other than videogames? What if Steve Purcell gave you the chance to work on another animated Sam & Max series, or even a movie?

Oh, and please make Steve finish another Sam & Max comic. I know he's a busy man, but there are few things sweeter in life than a brand new Sam & Max comic.

Rather Dashing

03/16/2010, 01:17 pm

Wow, I would like to know more about this. What kind of character was it? When I listen to your voice on the GiantBomb quicklook, I can imagine you doing a voice for a character like the crazy rat-scientist who takes care of Max's regeneration in Bad Day on the Moon.
Also, just a suggestion, but I'd love to hear Chuck's apparently bad voice take as an extra on the Season Three DVD. With optional Chuck commentary! :cool:

Tjibbbe

03/16/2010, 01:41 pm

Also, just a suggestion, but I'd love to hear Chuck's apparently bad voice take as an extra on the Season Three DVD. With optional Chuck commentary! :cool:

On the DVD? That's exactly what this pre-order forum is for!

Rather Dashing

03/16/2010, 01:45 pm

On the DVD? That's exactly what this pre-order forum is for!
Oh, is it?

I want pre-order only voice acting bloopers! Design documents! Office pranks! A liive webcam feed! And I want to know what Jake had for lunch or something! Also, get me ice cream! And a pony!

pwblaine

03/16/2010, 01:54 pm

Sam and max showed machinima potential with Sam And Max Nearly Save Xmas, it was an gaming episode perfectly turned into a watchable machinima. In fact, I'm not too proud to admit that I regularly watch the cutscenes, and pretend like they're a television sitcom, any chance of seeing another machinima episode? or god forbid, a little text to fill in the blanks between cutscenes on the dvd? Some days i'm just too tired to actually play the game. Have you guys thought about taking the whole sitcom gaming thing to the next level, actually let us watch sam and max like a sitcom if we don't feel like playing?

Amaterasu

03/16/2010, 01:58 pm

How many of the annoying characters will return?
Cuz I know a lot of people didn't really like Sybil for example...

Oh! Oh! And will there be any Guybrush remarks?

Diduz

03/16/2010, 02:30 pm

Hey Chuck, did you take a good look at Psychonauts when designing Max's powers?
I'm saying this because Raz' psychic powers always felt very "adventuregames-like" to me. They gave the gameplay a unique and fresh twist I really liked, something far from the usual interaction.

zmally

03/16/2010, 02:49 pm

I've been reading a lot recently about how TTG originally wanted to carry on production of the cancelled "Freelance Police". My question is, of all the Sam & Max games you've done, have you come close to the original plot of this mysterious game? Or will you ever consider maybe even having a crack at it now you're on good terms with LucasArts?

Cheers for all the great work, it is all very muchly appreciated!!

Edgy_McSpoon

03/16/2010, 03:12 pm

I'm not sure if I can ask this here, considering it's the design team Q&A. I'm awfully curious to know what a Telltale animator's expected output is within a daily and weekly basis? With the added enhancements that have been made to the facial rigs and possible poly-count on the head, does this get taken into account for expected output?

I'm unfamiliar of how the TTG cinematic engine works, but does everything still get animated in Maya (or similar 3d program) and inputted into the engine? What, if any, are the limitations to this system?

Also, do the Sam & Max cartoons influence the style of animation within the games? I know we're talking 2d vs. 3d but what are the choices in regards to personality through poses?

I've probably asked one too many questions, but I'm an avid animation student and would love to learn more about TTG's process.

Thanks!

Joop

03/16/2010, 03:46 pm

I have another question, but maybe I shouldn't ask this to the design team:

When voicing the narrator, where did Andrew Chaikin find the inspiration for the voice?
Because I could swear it was an imitation of Orson Welles' voice over for the Tales of Mystery and Imagination; Edgar Allen Poe album by The Alan Parsons Project.
Have you got any idea if this was an inspration for him?

This is a clip from the Orson Welles voice over. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZyNKrYo9I4)
The likeness is uncanny don't you think?

rabbity

03/16/2010, 04:15 pm

It's probably in reference to Max's psychic powers. The idea is that a lot of adventure games work by having you collect a ton of stuff in your inventory and then making you figure out what each item's specific purpose is. In the new season, we're putting more emphasis on Max's powers -- there are fewer of them, but you know exactly how they work, and you can use them in multiple different ways.

One example is Max's future vision power. He can use it on most characters and some objects to get a short scene showing their future. The idea is how does it change traditional adventure game puzzles if you get the solution first, and then have to work backwards from that?

At just about any point of the game, you can hit a button and switch control from Sam to Max (and vice versa). In Max mode, you enter Max's mind and can look around through his eyes. Max mode is where you use Max's psychic powers. Sam mode works pretty much like it always has -- you can walk around, look at things, add stuff to your inventory, start dialogues, etc.

This sounds excellent. One major problem with many of today's adventures is that puzzles basically serve as roadblocks between parts of the story, but have no storytelling purpose of their own. Here's your broken motorcycle - fix it so you can advance to the next cutscene. Creative incorporation of puzzles (and violence, as it were) into the flow of the story as well as different puzzle mechanics is where it's at. The previous seasons already had good, uncommon puzzles, and I'm really looking forward to this.

I can't tell you all the characters that'll show up, or it'd ruin the surprises later on. I will say that some of the characters from previous seasons will be back, and several won't. Some of the characters' stories were pretty much finished in season 2, so there's not much point bringing them back.

I, for one, am glad that we are free from the yoke of our soda-popping overlords.

Remolay

03/16/2010, 04:23 pm

did someone just say yolk? Where's the egg? I like eggs

rabbity

03/16/2010, 04:29 pm

I said 'yoke'. You don't want egg-yoke, trust me.

Winther

03/16/2010, 04:51 pm

Actually, eggs are usually very benevolent evil overlords. Y'know, as evil overlords go. 'Course, once they turn into chickens, then the tyranny really starts.

*flails desperately for some semblance of topicality*

So... Is the DeSoto still possessed?

Remolay

03/16/2010, 05:14 pm

dude, spoilers. I didn't know that one, I've played like 2 games in season 2

Jake

03/16/2010, 05:24 pm

For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?

Definitely in the pages of The Adventurer, LucasArts' old quarterly-ish newsletter. Then the game, then Surfin the Highway, then the t-shirt.

Chuck

03/16/2010, 06:31 pm

was it tricky getting Sam's pockets to work like you wanted them too? with him putting his hands in them and everything.
I'm not sure if I can ask this here, considering it's the design team Q&A. [...]
When voicing the narrator, where did Andrew Chaikin find the inspiration for the voice?
Hey, we're going to do as many of these Q&A threads as we can manage and people have time for. We'll try to get the art team and the sound guys (it's difficult because they're always extremely busy), and see if we can manage some of the voice actors (it's difficult because they're off-site). Please remember your questions and look for the new threads to open up, because I don't think the rest of us would be qualified to answer!

Why the Ps3? Was it something new you wanted telltalegames to try out and get a fan base with sony?
Why Sam and Max for the PS3? Was it a platform you wanted to work on, and Sam and Max was the next on the list? Or did you think that what you wanted to do with Sam and Max required the bump up in terms of hardware tech? Why not Monkey Island? I'm not sure if any of that is your guys' decision at all, but it's something I'd like to know.
No, it wasn't the design team's decision, but Telltale's been trying to expand onto as many platforms as possible, and the PS3 and the PlayStation store seemed like a good fit for episodic content. As I understand it, the question was what would be the best title to debut on the PS3, and since Sam & Max is getting so much focus in the studio right now, it seemed like the best fit. Taking any of the other games over would feel just like a console port. Plus, it lets PS3 people jump into the Sam & Max series and, hopefully, get interested in the previous seasons.

What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Mine was through the Adventurer magazines, like Jake, and I got to be a bigger fan of Sam & Max than anything else from LucasArts. There was a really cool comic book store in Athens that had all of Steve's Sam & Max comics (this was before Surfin' the Highway), so I was already a scary fan by the time LEC announced they were doing Hit the Road. So basically I've wanted to work on a Sam & Max game since I was in college, and finally got the chance halfway through season 1.

Have you ever considered doing some writing for anything other than videogames? What if Steve Purcell gave you the chance to work on another animated Sam & Max series, or even a movie?
Well sure, if Steve asked! But if there were a Sam & Max series I'd hope that Steve would be the one writing it; nobody other than him can make the characters really sound like Sam & Max, so we're all just doing our best interpretation and our own spin on it. And I wouldn't rule out writing for anything else, but I feel like videogames are what I know best, and they're also where all the most interesting stuff is going on right now. It's pretty much solidified how TV and movies and even most comic books "work" in terms of storytelling, but in games it's all still experimental.

Oh, and please make Steve finish another Sam & Max comic. I know he's a busy man, but there are few things sweeter in life than a brand new Sam & Max comic.
In that AV Club interview (http://www.avclub.com/articles/avc-at-gdc-10-an-interview-with-former-lucasarts-a,39139/), he mentions the still-in-progress Sam & Max story, so he's still aware of it.

any chance of seeing another machinima episode? or god forbid, a little text to fill in the blanks between cutscenes on the dvd? Some days i'm just too tired to actually play the game. Have you guys thought about taking the whole sitcom gaming thing to the next level, actually let us watch sam and max like a sitcom if we don't feel like playing?
I get the impression that the machinima ended up being a lot of work for little pay-off. It got to the point where everyone was wondering why we'd put effort into something that was essentially marketing material, instead of actually putting it into the games? I actually miss the per-episode trailers from season 2 (especially after seeing all the stuff Shauntron was able to cram into the season-wide trailer) more than the machinima, but it's better that all that effort goes into the game itself.

I wouldn't rule out the idea of more machinima-type stuff in the future, and the Christmas thing was an attempt to do exactly what you're talking about. But the current focus is on interactive storytelling -- there are plenty of studios that do animated cartoons, but comparatively few working on story-focused games.

I've been reading a lot recently about how TTG originally wanted to carry on production of the cancelled "Freelance Police". My question is, of all the Sam & Max games you've done, have you come close to the original plot of this mysterious game? Or will you ever consider maybe even having a crack at it now you're on good terms with LucasArts?
I suppose it's not absolutely impossible, now that we have Mike and Derek here along with most of the rest of the Freelance Police team. (I didn't start full-time at Telltale until season 2, so I wasn't aware of any of the Freelance Police stuff). I get the impression that after Telltale made the Bone games and started experimenting with Sam & Max, the type of games went off in a different direction from the game that was being made at LEC.

And, again, it's usually more fun to make new stuff instead of bringing back the old stuff. I've asked Mike about a couple of aspects of the old game, just to make sure we're not repeating anything, but he hasn't gone into a ton of detail for good reason: it's better that it doesn't color anything that's being made here.

Hey Chuck, did you take a good look at Psychonauts when designing Max's powers?
I actually never played more than 20 minutes or so of Psychonauts, back when I was at EA (and too busy to play much of anything). It didn't even occur to me that people would think they were similar until somebody here mentioned that game a few months ago. Sean's played it, and I've asked him to warn us if we come up with anything that seems too similar. From what I've heard, I get the impression that what they're calling "psychic powers" and what we're calling "psychic powers" are pretty different, though.

Cheri

03/16/2010, 06:37 pm

I was actually kinda expecting a sort of Psychonauts reference in The Devil's Playhouse, but I guess not, huh?

BiggerJ

03/16/2010, 07:10 pm

Will another classic Sam and Max character be returning this season? Season 1 had Bosco from Hit the Road, and Season 2 had Flint Paper. I'm thinking either Mack Salmon or the Slothmart clerk from 'Beast from the Cereal Aisle' and the Glazed MacGuffins episode of the animated series.

lombre

03/16/2010, 07:14 pm

Hassat Hunter

03/16/2010, 07:25 pm

His store was (and so was stinky's restaurant IIRC).

Ben

03/16/2010, 07:31 pm

Ben Specific Question:
1. Is engine development done separately from game development? Like are you constantly trying to improve the engine and add neat features independent of any feature requests that may come out of a particular game's needs?
Generally we add features to suit the needs of a particular game. Of course, once the feature is in, it's available for all of our games moving forward. There are exceptions of course. Our graphics programmer has been wanting to do real time shadows for a long time. Season 3 is when they happened to be ready.

Also, things like optimizing, or fixing bugs (or creating bugs, not that we ever do that...) of course help all of our games across all platforms.

What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Hit the road for me. I'm just a programmer so I don't actually work on the game proper, but being a fan of the characters is certainly good for my morale :)

Why the Ps3? Was it something new you wanted telltalegames to try out and get a fan base with sony?
Because programming the PS3 is fun ;)

SHODANFreeman

03/16/2010, 07:36 pm

Will Kid Beyond beat-box as Max in an episode?

lombre

03/16/2010, 07:49 pm

His store was (and so was stinky's restaurant IIRC).

Oh. Well, it's a good thing I said "Don't take my word for it." Phew. Close one there.

SushiGummy

03/16/2010, 08:03 pm

Don't take my word for it, but I'm pretty sure Bosco wasn't in Hit the Road.

You never actually see him, but his store is there and you do talk to him.
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/wolf/images/Sam_and_Max.JPG
Edit: I was beat to it!

Well, here are my questions:

How's the music, in your opinion? Better? Worse? Does it mostly follow a space theme? Can we expect some more random musical numbers like the Mariachi song or the War song?

One thing that intrigues me is the final boss for Season 2, and its relevance to Season 1. Don't take this the wrong way, because I loved the idea of the Soda Poppers being the final enemies, but it kinda seemed to me like there were no plans for having the Soda Poppers become evil before Season 2. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I'm just curious, do you guys make the games with future seasons in mind?

What's with the ice cream trucks? If I remember correctly, there were more and more appearing near the end of Season 1, and one randomly crashes through the window before the final battle in Season 2. Will this ever be explained, or do you guys just really like ice cream?

You say Abe Lincoln will appear in one form or another in Season 3. By chance, does that mean the possessed DeSoto's gonna wreck him some way or another?

Were there any alternative level ideas for the previous seasons that got dumped for lack of interest or anything like that? Were there any characters that were going to become evil (like the Soda Poppers and Hugh Bliss) but ultimately didn't?

Do you have any... weasels on a stick? Do you have any... vegetables in the shape of famous naturalists? Do you have any... complimentary fresh garlic? Do you have any... Pez dispensers with the head of infamous Mexican Revolutionary Poncho Villa? Do you have any... hats in the shape of a cow udder?

mateo360

03/16/2010, 08:40 pm

Don't take my word for it, but I'm pretty sure Bosco wasn't in Hit the Road.

I went into his store in my Hit the Road let's play but I beat a thief, not talk to Bosco.

BiggerJ

03/16/2010, 09:43 pm

I went into his store in my Hit the Road let's play but I beat a thief, not talk to Bosco.

Sam does say something to him if you enter the store a second time, although he doesn't reply.

BiggerJ

03/16/2010, 10:20 pm

I find it interesting that when the player takes control of Max, the camera switches to first-person mode. It makes sense that Max can only use psychic powers in this mode, since in-story, Max Mode only happens when Max decides to use his powers (which the player can make happen at any time). But can the player walk around freely in Max's first-person mode? Also, it's good to see that the future-sight power will be usuable on practically anything, regardless of usefulness - will any other powers be like that?

Also, another couple of questions: will the DeSoto still be evil, like it was at the end of Season 2? And what's this I hear about a map?

Edit: Holy crap. HOLY CRAP. I think I know how many powers there are. The plot revolves around a bunch of mystical toys (each granting a psychic power to whoever posesses it), and to have them all is to become all-powerful. That's why there's only six power slots - there's seven of them. Perhaps there's one for every major chakra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra#The_seven_major_chakras). The 3-D Viewmaster, for example, would be Ajna, the Brow Chakra, since it (the Viewmaster) grants precognition.

Edit 2: Is the mysterious Shadow Man who introduces the stories going to turn out to be relevant to the plot in any way?

Kroms

03/17/2010, 01:50 am

Bah, this thread's answered every good question I wrote for an interview Mixnmojo's doing. Time to write new questions - again (this is take three, now). I hate you guys.

Winther

03/17/2010, 02:21 am

I know many of the current developers, including Chuck, weren't here from the very beginning, so I guess answer if applicable/you feel like it:

Back when you started Season 1 of S&M, you faced inevitable comparison with a very beloved game that's considered a classic in its genre.
Now, the series is very much its own thing, and the bar you have to clear is the (extremely high) one you've set yourselves over two very well-regarded seasons. Which is more daunting? Living up to the classic, or topping your own work?

Besides the move towards more over-arcing storylines, is there anything that's changed in your approach to episodic game development over the years? Plot, tech, art, whatever your area; is your way of doing things now different from when you started?

zmally

03/17/2010, 03:29 am

how much crossover is there between the developers and the designers? Do any of the designers ever get involved in the programming aspects of the game, and vice versa?

I know in movies and tv shows during production stuff is added as they just sort of try stuff out, and I'm wondering, in your games, Sam & Max especially, do the programmers ever think "oooh but wouldn't it be funny if...?" and something gets added in well after pre-production?

And lastly at what stage are the voices recorded? I guess if everything's set in stone as to what happens it can be one of the first things done, and it'll be much easier to animate characters' faces to their voices. But on the other hand usually voices are done right near the end of the dev cycle so any changes can be incorporated into the script.

Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions!!

bubbledncr

03/17/2010, 08:11 am

For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?

Going to Telltale's website when I was job-hunting out of college. I downloaded the demo to 205 before my interview and thought it was hilarious.

Nojh

03/17/2010, 11:04 am

Because programming the PS3 is fun ;)

I'm insanely curious how much "fun" the PS3 is to code for. Can you give examples of how the development for porting the engine to the PS3 went/is going without giving away too many insider telltale programing secrets (or give 'em away, I won't tell anyone, promise!).

Ben

03/17/2010, 11:28 am

I'm insanely curious how much "fun" the PS3 is to code for. Can you give examples of how the development for porting the engine to the PS3 went/is going without giving away too many insider telltale programing secrets (or give 'em away, I won't tell anyone, promise!).
The Telltale engine is definitely not as fancy as the tech you see in current AAA games, so we're not trying to squeeze every last cycle out of the PS3 or anything (yet!). There are a few places were we offload some work to the SPUs, and it was fun getting that all working. A big part of the PS3 (and Mac) port was getting a framework in place for compiling our shaders for non-direct3d platforms. This isn't the most exciting thing in the world maybe, but it's something I enjoy working on, and I'm happy with the results. And of course there's lots of busy work implementing all the boring stuff, like the trophies, controller, save game, error reporting, etc.

Anyway, new platforms are always fun. It's only a matter of time before you can play Sam and Max on your toaster ;)

Icedhope

03/17/2010, 11:33 am

It's only a matter of time before you can play Sam and Max on your toaster ;)

Are you giving us hints about season 4 being able to be played on the Itoaster? Hmmm..?

Nojh

03/17/2010, 11:33 am

Anyway, new platforms are always fun. It's only a matter of time before you can play Sam and Max on your toaster ;)

Dangit. I'm going to have to go buy a toaster now...

Rather Dashing

03/17/2010, 12:09 pm

Anyway, new platforms are always fun. It's only a matter of time before you can play Sam and Max on your toaster ;)
Toaster port CONFIRMED by Telltale employee!

Ben

03/17/2010, 12:21 pm

Toaster port CONFIRMED by Telltale employee!

Heh...it's all fun and games until someone from destructoid.com decides to run with it. We still make fun of Yare over the whole "iPhone vs Wii" scandal from time to time. Maybe it's my turn now :rolleyes:

Icedhope

03/17/2010, 12:37 pm

Heh...it's all fun and games until someone from destructoid.com decides to run with it. We still make fun of Yare over the whole "iPhone vs Wii" scandal from time to time. Maybe it's my turn now :rolleyes:

Good thing this is a Q&A forum, so now I'm going to ask about this scandal?

Ben

03/17/2010, 01:37 pm

Good thing this is a Q&A forum, so now I'm going to ask about this scandal?

A little bit of googling should find the information in question. This has already been discussed in previous topics, so lets try to get back to Sam and Max questions in this thread.

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 01:47 pm

For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?

Despite my immense comic book collection, I was only vaguely aware of Sam and Max before starting at Lucasfilm games in June of... 1990? (Wait, that can't be right... that'd mean I've been making video games for nearly 2 frakkin' decades... IEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!)

Ahem. Well.

In any event, as soon as I joined Lucasfilm Games (whenever that was), I was pretty instantly given a full dose of Sam & Max, as the two characters (and their office) were heavily featured in the "SCUMMU" training ground that taught new hires how to use SCUMM, SPUTM, FLEM, BYLE, MUCUS, and all the other funky tools that we used to build adventure games back then.

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 01:57 pm

How many of the annoying characters will return?
Cuz I know a lot of people didn't really like Sybil for example...

You know, if Sybil does return, it's all your fault now, right?

Anyone wanna dare us to bring back the Soda Poppers?

Mike "easily goaded into foolish actions" Stemmle

Pantagruel's Friend

03/17/2010, 02:00 pm

I actually never played more than 20 minutes or so of Psychonauts, back when I was at EA (and too busy to play much of anything). It didn't even occur to me that people would think they were similar until somebody here mentioned that game a few months ago.

That's surprising, when I watched the trailer, parallels with Psychonauts immediately occurred to me, too. Not only the psychic powers, but also the change in the control approach towards something more action friendly (see Sam poising on the flagpole at 1:30 in the trailer), and as I read in the forums, the change of focus in the puzzles - from items towards the use of abilities. I thought it was a deliberate step into a similar direction - these changes worked very well in Psychonauts, after all.

Winther

03/17/2010, 02:08 pm

Hey everybody, it's Mike! Hi, Mike!

As far as I can tell, Hit the Road was your first lead designer gig? If nothing else, having joined Lucasarts in 1990, it must have been one of the first things you worked on (Ah. Wikipedia claims it was the second thing, after Fate of Atlantis). How does it feel to be back working with the characters who started it all?

And for Mike and Chuck (and anyone else who feels like answering, I guess):

What would you say is the biggest difference between how you approach writing an episode of Sam & Max, versus an ep. of Monkey Island?

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 03:15 pm

I partly answered this earlier -- Mike mentioned Max's psychic powers, and it fit really well with the kinds of puzzles we wanted to experiment with this season. As for why it wasn't used sooner, I'd guess that's because Mike hadn't started working here yet.

Just to pig-pile on this a bit more... my recollection is that "Max's Latent Psychic Powers" is an idea that Steve used to toss out from time to time (usually accompanied by a phrase that I won't repeat here due to its spoliery-ness), and I just kinda glommed onto it.

In fact I kinda wonder why we never considered using them for the Freelance Police game... hurm.

Mike "It's Amazing How Little I Remember" Stemmle

Joop

03/17/2010, 03:20 pm

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 03:28 pm

Hey everybody, it's Mike! Hi, Mike!
<Doctor Nick>
Hello, everybody!
</Doctor Nick>

As far as I can tell, Hit the Road was your first lead designer gig? If nothing else, having joined Lucasarts in 1990, it must have been one of the first things you worked on (Ah. Wikipedia claims it was the second thing, after Fate of Atlantis). How does it feel to be back working with the characters who started it all?

Yup, Hit the Road was my first (co) lead designing gig. Before that I worked with Hal Barwood on Fate, which was definitely a case of being thrown into the deep end. That game was ginormous.

Curiously, in between Fate and Sam & Max, Sean Clark and I were briefly helping out on a sequel to Loom.

What would you say is the biggest difference between how you approach writing an episode of Sam & Max, versus an ep. of Monkey Island?

The world of Sam & Max is about eleventy billion times more absurd. At least, it should be. When writing for Monkey, I get ulcerettes fretting about staying "true" to the character. With Sam and Max, I worry a LOT more about bringing the whacky*.

Mike "And with Strongbad, I just tried to keep up" Stemmle

* I apologize for my straining-to-be-hip Whedonization of the language.

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 03:38 pm

Hey Mike, good to have you here.
Question for you.

How big is the difference in working on the Telltale Sam and Max series and working on Hit the Road or Freelance Police? I know Telltale has put down a whole world with lots of characters around Sam and Max. Do you feel limited by this or do you see it as an extra challenge?

Now that I think about it, there's actually not THAT much difference between working on the Telltale S&M series and Hit the Road. Both projects are being put together by talented teams using mature tools with a well-understood development cycle. The biggest difference is, of course, the episodic production schedule which (theoretically) keeps us from getting burned out by working on the same dang project for over a year.

As for the extended cast of Telltale's Sam and Max, I love it. They give us the opportunity to play with long-running story arcs for characters other than the leads, something I never really got to try in the previous game(s).

Mike "And Wait'll You See What Happens To XXXXXX" Stemmle

Lackey

03/17/2010, 03:40 pm

How do you guys come up with puzzles? Do you start with what S&M need to do and make a puzzle to fit or is it the other way around where someone just says "I want to do something with wire hangers"?

Chuck

03/17/2010, 04:38 pm

How's the music, in your opinion? Better? Worse? Does it mostly follow a space theme? Can we expect some more random musical numbers like the Mariachi song or the War song?
The music is great, which isn't surprising since Jared's music has always been one of the best things about the series. Some of my favorite music Jared's done is in the new series, and you can hear some of it in the trailer.

As for the musical numbers: if you can expect them, they're not "random" anymore! They probably won't be done the same way, since we've already gone to that well twice now.

it kinda seemed to me like there were no plans for having the Soda Poppers become evil before Season 2. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I'm just curious, do you guys make the games with future seasons in mind?
Generally, no. We plan for continuity within a season, but leave it open after that. (It's especially true of Sam & Max, who pretty much ignore continuity). Some of my favorite parts of the design meetings for the end of season 2 came when we started to put the pieces together in ways that weren't intended -- hey, we've still got that ink ribbon! Hey, we've got three characters that share the same birthday!

The end of season 2 was really just a wacky misunderstanding. We thought the Soda Poppers were widely loved characters, and we'd be making the game edgier by turning them evil. It was a big surprise that a lot of people didn't like them, since they were so popular on the forums.

What's with the ice cream trucks? If I remember correctly, there were more and more appearing near the end of Season 1, and one randomly crashes through the window before the final battle in Season 2. Will this ever be explained, or do you guys just really like ice cream?
I'm not sure there's much to be "explained," since the end of season 2 was an example of putting the pieces together. We already had the ice cream truck for the "Secret Serv-ice" pun, and we had birthday mariachis, and we had three characters that had had their birthdays ruined in a previous episode, and we had a character that was turned into a cake. So ice cream seemed like a natural.

Were there any alternative level ideas for the previous seasons that got dumped for lack of interest or anything like that? Were there any characters that were going to become evil but ultimately didn't?
The character progressions are usually planned out from the beginning of the season, so no surprises for us. We're always coming up with different ideas for locations though, and working with the art guys (and by "working with" I mean "being yelled at by") to make sure they fit into the schedule. I can't think of anything major that got axed in previous seasons; usually it's incorporated into something else. For the new season, I can't mention what got axed because it'd spoil things.

Hero1

03/17/2010, 04:39 pm

Questions for Mike. March 3rd 2004. Did you ever see that coming? What did you think of the reaction from the fans? Can you believe you are working on a new Sam & Max game 6 years later? Has your puzzle design changed at all since it is coming out on the PS3?

Also I just have to take this opportunity to thank you for Hit the Road. I played it when it first came out when I was 13. I have never played a video game that was as funny as HTR. I think it shaped my sense of humour. I had such fond memories of it, I always followed Sam & Max years later. That's why I'm still here and excited the franchise is still going.

Joop

03/17/2010, 04:46 pm

Questions for Mike. March 3rd 2004. Did you ever see that coming? What did you think of the reaction from the fans?

That's a really good question!

Hit the Road was really great, and my introduction to Sam and Max too!
So, yeah, thanks for that!

One more:
Mike, what takes up more time, coming up with answers to our questions or figuring out what to put between the quotation marks in your name? :D

Chuck

03/17/2010, 04:48 pm

But can the player walk around freely in Max's first-person mode? Also, it's good to see that the future-sight power will be usuable on practically anything, regardless of usefulness - will any other powers be like that?
You can't walk around in Max mode, but you can look around. The main reason for that is pretty simple: it wasn't necessary. Max already wanders around and comments on stuff when you're in Sam mode; it'd be boring to just see and hear the same stuff, and we wanted it to feel different. There are also technical reasons -- our environments aren't designed to walk around in first person mode, but shot from third-person cameras.

And all the powers work a little differently from each other, but for the most part: you choose a power, then choose a target. The available targets change from power to power -- the things you can use Rhinoplasty on are different from the things you can mind-read, for example.

Also, another couple of questions: will the DeSoto still be evil, like it was at the end of Season 2? And what's this I hear about a map?
The DeSoto is still possessed by demons. (But don't expect that to make much difference with Sam & Max driving). What you hear about maps is that they're a great way to navigate around a city, so the new season has a city map to let you drive from location to location. Someday we'll get that open-world free-roaming Sam & Max game!

Edit 2: Is the mysterious Shadow Man who introduces the stories going to turn out to be relevant to the plot in any way?
He's the narrator; he narrates. We needed a good way to drop players (on a new platform) into a weird game even if they hadn't played the previous seasons, and since "Twilight Zone" and Plan 9 both start out with a narrator, it seemed a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 04:58 pm

Questions for Mike. March 3rd 2004. Did you ever see that coming? What did you think of the reaction from the fans?
Wait, did something bad happen in 2004? I've kinda blotted that out, what with the re-election of W 'n' all...

Can you believe you are working on a new Sam & Max game 6 years later?
Nope. I keep asking people to pinch me, which is getting a) painful, and b) potentially litigious.

Has your puzzle design changed at all since it is coming out on the PS3?
Nope, but we've added a few jokes.

Also I just have to take this opportunity to thank you for Hit the Road. I played it when it first came out when I was 13. I have never played a video game that was as funny as HTR. I think it shaped my sense of humour. I had such fond memories of it, I always followed Sam & Max years later. That's why I'm still here and excited the franchise is still going.
Aw, shucks. Now you've made me blush like a schoolgirl.

ttg_Stemmle

03/17/2010, 05:00 pm

Mike, what takes up more time, coming up with answers to our questions or figuring out what to put between the quotation marks in your name? :D

The quotes thing is easy... it's one step removed from putting up Facebook statuses....

Mike "Going Home to Give Charlie and Max a Bath" Stemmle

PS See?

Chuck

03/17/2010, 05:19 pm

Now, the series is very much its own thing, and the bar you have to clear is the (extremely high) one you've set yourselves over two very well-regarded seasons. Which is more daunting? Living up to the classic, or topping your own work?
I dunno about anybody else, but I got over all my "reverence for previous classics" over the course of Monkey Island 3. (And made the process miserable by being an annoyingly possessive Monkey Island fan the whole time). Just like MI2, Hit the Road is one of my favorite games, but it was still just made by a bunch of talented guys trying to a good job, no different from anybody else. If you over-think it -- whether it's trying to live up to somebody else's work or trying to live up to your own previous work -- then you'll just make yourself miserable and most likely end up with a worse result. Better just to trust that you know what you're doing, rest assured that some people will love it and others will hate it, and the world will keep spinning either way.

Besides the move towards more over-arcing storylines, is there anything that's changed in your approach to episodic game development over the years? Plot, tech, art, whatever your area; is your way of doing things now different from when you started?
Yes.

It's harder to jump in and do simple chores or scripting because the games have gotten a lot more sophisticated. And you have to take a lot into account designing the episodes and writing the scripts, based on what you've learned from doing a dozen other games and getting feedback about what worked and didn't work from each one.

Chuck

03/17/2010, 05:30 pm

how much crossover is there between the developers and the designers? Do any of the designers ever get involved in the programming aspects of the game, and vice versa?
There's less of that now than there used to be, since the content programmers and chore artists are doing a lot more complex stuff in the game. But the teams are still small enough so that everybody can do what he's good at doing. If you've got some programming background, or know the chore tool, you can find places to pitch in. On the Strong Bad games, for instance, Mark Darin and I programmed & did the art for the Videlectrix mini-games in the episodes that we directed. And I scripted the "strategy game" at the end of the Strong Badia episode.

And the vice-versa part is true, too: we try to get as many people as are interested involved in the brainstorming process for the designs.

I know in movies and tv shows during production stuff is added as they just sort of try stuff out, and I'm wondering, in your games, Sam & Max especially, do the programmers ever think "oooh but wouldn't it be funny if...?" and something gets added in well after pre-production?
Yeah, all the time. Some of the best gags are put in by the chore guys or the environment modelers. The games are always improved when people are contributing to a game instead of just checking off a list of assigned tasks.

And lastly at what stage are the voices recorded? I guess if everything's set in stone as to what happens it can be one of the first things done, and it'll be much easier to animate characters' faces to their voices. But on the other hand usually voices are done right near the end of the dev cycle so any changes can be incorporated into the script.
Voices are recorded immediately after the script is finished, which is the second thing to get done (after the game design). All the choreography and content programming, and much of the animation, is done afterwards.

Chuck

03/17/2010, 05:36 pm

How do you guys come up with puzzles? Do you start with what S&M need to do and make a puzzle to fit or is it the other way around where someone just says "I want to do something with wire hangers"?
A little of both, but mostly the first one. You try to start out with a story and then figure out ways to make it feel like the player's putting the story together, instead of just solving some obscure puzzle to get to the next cutscene.

Sometimes, though, you just want to see something funny happen, so you try to find a way to shoehorn it in.

BiggerJ

03/17/2010, 05:40 pm

Remolay

03/17/2010, 05:58 pm

speaking of Rhinoplasty, Max turning into a Rocket Launcher. As far as I know Rhinoplasty can only copy pictures/paintings. Why would you add a random picture of a rocket launcher?

Avistew

03/17/2010, 06:28 pm

Yeah, all the time. Some of the best gags are put in by the chore guys or the environment modelers. The games are always improved when people are contributing to a game instead of just checking off a list of assigned tasks.

Voices are recorded immediately after the script is finished, which is the second thing to get done (after the game design). All the choreography and content programming, and much of the animation, is done afterwards.

I have a bit of trouble conciling these two things. I mean, you're saying that the voices are recorded pretty much at the beginning, but that programmers or animators suggest things which are added to the game... Wouldn't you have to record additional bits, then? Or are all the things they add voiceless?

Hyperkinetic_Martian

03/17/2010, 06:37 pm

A related question to the one above: how long does it usually take to complete the voice recordings?

The Highway

03/18/2010, 01:03 am

Is it hard to get the voices and animation to sync?

Secret Fawful

03/18/2010, 03:37 am

Anyone wanna dare us to bring back the Soda Poppers?

Mike "easily goaded into foolish actions" Stemmle

So you're saying most of Escape From Monkey Island came about after one long game of "I dare you"? Just kidding; after all these years it must be nice to finally Escape From Escape From Monkey Island.

Seriously, you must be absolutely thrilled having so much freedom in designing adventure games now without blood-crazed fans peering wild-eyed over your shaking shoulders, and without executives with cold, vacant expressions threatening you with a rather large pair of rusty scissors poised precariously over your honeysuckle-scented employment contract. (Aren't I a master of using adjectives to create images with words?)

So just for fun, describe the wackiest, zaniest, craziest thing from Season 3 in one obscure arcane spoiler-free word that will keep fans guessing for months.

TheHutt

03/18/2010, 05:28 am

Question: Why the logo change?

From

http://s46.radikal.ru/i112/1003/b0/ad343770e51b.jpg

to

http://s58.radikal.ru/i161/1003/eb/114b4403ae6b.jpg

The original logo was sleek, elegant, cool. Personally, I find the added serifs at the bottom ends of "A" quite distracting and falling out of style.

Nojh

03/18/2010, 05:33 am

Question: Why the logo change?

The original logo was sleek, elegant, cool. Personally, I find the added serifs at the bottom ends of "A" quite distracting and falling out of style.

I like it. Gives the entire logo a kind of ethereal feel, especially with the vague fog stroking on the ampersand. It also jives well with the font style used for the subtitle: The Devil's Playhouse.

TheHutt

03/18/2010, 05:45 am

the vague fog stroking on the ampersand
That's just a glow from Photoshop. ;)

However, considering the ampersand specifically - the left side of it looks like it was cut off inaccurately.

The Rat

03/18/2010, 06:49 am

Question: Why the logo change?

It looks more Twilight Zone-y.

Winther

03/18/2010, 07:57 am

So, I'm curious about the development schedule for episodic gaming.

I'm pretty sure multiple episodes are developed concurrently, but to what extent?
How far would you say you are with each episode right now?
Is prioritizing (with time, crew, etc) solely based on which episode is closest to release, or does the complexity of each episode count as well? If, for example, there was a technically very difficult sequence in 305, would you possibly be working on that right from the beginning?

Those questions are more examples than anything, and you shouldn't feel chained to them. Basically, I guess I'm looking for a rough outline of how this whole episodic game development works, from beginning of development to the end of the season.

Will

03/18/2010, 09:04 am

I have a bit of trouble conciling these two things. I mean, you're saying that the voices are recorded pretty much at the beginning, but that programmers or animators suggest things which are added to the game... Wouldn't you have to record additional bits, then? Or are all the things they add voiceless?

Probably the most classic example of this would be the "banang" joke from 204. All that was recorded was Sam saying "banang!" and it was going to be a one-off throw away line. Then Nick Herman went through and made like 3 different chores out of that one voice line making for one of the more memorable gags.

But there are lots of more subtle things. Adding pauses for comedic timing, an expression on a character, weird stuff going on in the background. None of that is strictly affected by the script. Some of it is planned out in the beginning but a lot of it is the chore guys making things better.

Hassat Hunter

03/18/2010, 11:23 am

Q. Playing through the older Sam&Maxes and reading the "Have you tried?" lists, have you ever thought about putting those in the game (PC too) as some sort of pseudo-'achievements' (hidden until you finished your first playthrough of course) to give the player some visual representation of their thoroughness (or stimulate a second playthrough to find the missing stuff for those who didn't know of these lists (or knew, like me before I joined here))?

pwblaine

03/18/2010, 12:35 pm

Someday we'll get that open-world free-roaming Sam & Max game!

i don't know how to feel right now... excited, or put off...
definately curious to see how that translates though

this raises some questions about your opinions on technology and your game development though. Was the point and click genre simply a matter of the development technology available at the time? or is it a more deeply rooted stylistic choice? I must say, I've stayed such a true fan over all these years because it seem your team has stayed loyal to it's fans. As graphics and rendering power has increased, so far you haven't let that change how the gameplay feels. What would an open world sam and max game play like? What's your opinion on changing gameplay between games in a series?

pwblaine

03/18/2010, 12:37 pm

Oh and, are there any games in you've developed that you feel you were a mistake? or that weren't what you wanted when you thought them up?

pwblaine

03/18/2010, 12:39 pm

Huggernaut

03/18/2010, 02:11 pm

the huggernaut!!!

Unstoppable hugging force, etc.

My next question is more general, but I am curious. What sorts of games to the designers tend to play? Is it a pretty mixed bag, or do one or two genres come up most of the time?

Remolay

03/18/2010, 02:31 pm

how long do we have to wait for a freelance police MMOG.

Zeek

03/18/2010, 03:02 pm

Probably the most classic example of this would be the "banang" joke from 204. All that was recorded was Sam saying "banang!" and it was going to be a one-off throw away line. Then Nick Herman went through and made like 3 different chores out of that one voice line making for one of the more memorable gags.Speaking of which, on YouTube, someone claimed that the Banag! gag will be a company running gag since it appeared in Monkey Island's last chapter. Any truth to this?

You can be vauge if you want. I'm just looking for a "yes" or "no" at the least.

lombre

03/18/2010, 03:14 pm

I noticed today that my Ice Station Santa desktop icon is a hair smaller than my Season 1 icons. This can of course lead to only one question: Will The Devil's Playhouse feature micro icons?

bubbledncr

03/18/2010, 03:18 pm

Is it hard to get the voices and animation to sync?

The lip sync is all auto-generated. There is one shot in episode 3 where I hand-animated the lip sync, and I think there's some parts of episode 1 where someone else did, but its few and far between.

Chuck

03/18/2010, 03:43 pm

Are you deliberately designing power-related puzzles to be as creative as possible, exploring the full range of possibilities for each power? I'm especially interested in the Rhinoplasty power (if it wasn't just a joke by Chuck - if it was, it's still a good example). [...]
speaking of Rhinoplasty, Max turning into a Rocket Launcher. As far as I know Rhinoplasty can only copy pictures/paintings. Why would you add a random picture of a rocket launcher?
Heh, it's a good thing you guys pre-ordered the game, so all your questions can get answered in a few weeks!

The Rhinoplasty is a real power, by the way. The powers all have rules saying when and where they can be used, for obvious reasons. (In case they're not so obvious: these are still puzzle-based adventure games, not free-roaming platformers!)

A related question to the one above: how long does it usually take to complete the voice recordings?
It varies, but usually around a week and a half.

I'm pretty sure multiple episodes are developed concurrently, but to what extent?
How far would you say you are with each episode right now?
Is prioritizing (with time, crew, etc) solely based on which episode is closest to release, or does the complexity of each episode count as well? If, for example, there was a technically very difficult sequence in 305, would you possibly be working on that right from the beginning?
The answers to some of those questions are semi-proprietary or private -- the same reason we don't detail everything about our development process, and why we don't announce release dates until they're absolutely confirmed. The answers to the others are pretty boring.

In general, they're done as concurrently as possible, with the most lead time given to the first episode, obviously. For example, there's work being done on every episode in the season right now. As for working on something for 305 right from the beginning of the season: that's a recipe for disaster, since you'd basically be stealing time from all the other episodes. So we tend to keep the first episode as a proving ground for everything we'll want to do for the rest of the season, and keep the drastic changes in later episodes to a minimum. If there were a "technically very difficult sequence" in a later episode, we'd try as hard as we could to make it not so technically very difficult.

Playing through the older Sam&Maxes and reading the "Have you tried?" lists, have you ever thought about putting those in the game (PC too) as some sort of pseudo-'achievements'
We did basically that for the Strong Bad games; they had "awesomeness" that worked the same on PC and consoles. For the new season, we've got trophies on the PS3 but no equivalent on the PC/Mac, simply because we don't get a huge win out of doing them in game. The PC players most interested in those would be you guys on the forum, who seem to prefer the detailed "Did you try?" lists over achievements anyway, since there's a little bit more info and y'all can discuss them on the message boards. Maybe Steam's popularity will eventually make achievements more popular on the PC side, but for now there just doesn't seem to be much interest in them.

Icedhope

03/18/2010, 03:44 pm

What's biggest problem with synching the voices?

Also I own a ps3, and some of my friends are not so old school Adventure game players, so when developing it for the PS3 what are some of the things we can look forward to besides trophies for the Ps3?

Diduz

03/18/2010, 03:49 pm

Do you know if there will be a PS3 demo of the season? I would be curious to try the game on my console. Unfortunately, I had to buy the PC version because I wanted the dvd and the case at the end of the season. I got pretty accustomed to pure digital delivery, but I want the "full Telltale experience" with all the extras and a nice cover by Steve (I assume Steve will handle the cover) . :)

Chuck

03/18/2010, 03:56 pm

Was the point and click genre simply a matter of the development technology available at the time? or is it a more deeply rooted stylistic choice? I must say, I've stayed such a true fan over all these years because it seem your team has stayed loyal to it's fans. As graphics and rendering power has increased, so far you haven't let that change how the gameplay feels. What would an open world sam and max game play like? What's your opinion on changing gameplay between games in a series?
To be clear: there are no plans for an open-world Sam & Max game; that was a joke.

Dave could talk about the overall design focus better than I could, but basically the appeal of graphic adventures (not just point and click!) to TTG is that they're best suited to storytelling and character development, which is the company's focus. I don't believe the company is as attached to the "graphic adventure" label as much as "how do you use a game to tell a story?" The adventure game format is one that usually works well, though, and is one that most of the people in the company are familiar with and like playing.

Oh and, are there any games in you've developed that you feel you were a mistake? or that weren't what you wanted when you thought them up?
No, no game is perfect but they all end up telling you something valuable about what works and what doesn't.

What sorts of games to the designers tend to play? Is it a pretty mixed bag, or do one or two genres come up most of the time?
Almost half the office plays Team Fortress 2, and that got my vote for game of the year whenever it came out (2 years ago? Longer?) I can't speak for the other designers, but my favorite games tend to be RPGs, city-building or world-building games, or whenever a big story-based shooter comes out like BioShock or Half-Life 2. And Final Fantasy Tactics is the best videogame ever made.

Rather Dashing

03/18/2010, 04:00 pm

a nice cover by Steve (I assume Steve will handle the cover) . :)
I really hope they don't give us a cover that's like the Wii or retail PC releases. I was really not impressed with Save the World, and while Beyond Time and Space was a good deal better...it just doesn't compare to the Steve Purcell cover.

BoneFreak

03/18/2010, 04:03 pm

DrRocketGenius

03/18/2010, 04:04 pm

What's your favorite of Bosco's disguises from Season 1?

Hassat Hunter

03/18/2010, 04:13 pm

The PC players most interested in those would be you guys on the forum, who seem to prefer the detailed "Did you try?" lists over achievements anyway, since there's a little bit more info and y'all can discuss them on the message boards.
Maybe my experience with Anno 1404 influenced me, but even if that's a PC SP title it seems to be popular amongst folks getting all achievements. And they can get pretty detailed (more so than the lists on the site). Not to mention be talked about on forums (true, mostly the bugged ones, but still :p)
Or maybe I just try to convince you guys because I find it more convient to see it all ingame, instead of going our here browsing to the site.

Anyway, enough rambling from me, on to some more questionaries:
* Are there 'sets' from previous seasons that return, the restaurant and office (and modified street) excluded?
* With the talk of 'one game' ToMI have you guys dedicated effort into making S&M 3 possible to be played as one streamlined game in the end, or would we still be required to end the game and start the new one manually, even having all 5?

Winther

03/18/2010, 04:28 pm

Many filmmakers have said that they can't watch the movies they've made. Could you ever sit down and play a game you've worked on? Or does the process of making them kind of burn you out on that prospect? Especially with adventure games, which are mostly very linear experiences?

Molokov

03/18/2010, 04:49 pm

Ok, I have a quick question: Will the basic movement and control and movement be the same for all consoles? Because I wasn't really a fan on ToMI's click and hold movement that was meant more for the Wii.

Hi Bone Freak,

If you've got questions about the control system for S&M:TDP, check out this thread (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15372) first, and if you still have questions, post them there.

Molokov

03/18/2010, 04:52 pm

Maybe my experience with Anno 1404 influenced me, but even if that's a PC SP title it seems to be popular amongst folks getting all achievements. And they can get pretty detailed (more so than the lists on the site). Not to mention be talked about on forums (true, mostly the bugged ones, but still :p)
Or maybe I just try to convince you guys because I find it more convient to see it all ingame, instead of going our here browsing to the site.

Isn't the main achievement in an adventure game is that you finished it, solved all the puzzles and completed the story?

Everything else that is an "achievement" are really just Easter eggs that give a story based game some level of re-playability. The second time around you already know how to solve the puzzles, so you can go off and do anything but solve the puzzles until you've explored all the dialog options you can. That's how you're supposed to find Easter Eggs.

The "Did You Try?" lists here just give some of the pointers to things that are funny in the games that aren't required to complete the puzzles, but they're worth doing for the humour value. They're not really 'achievements' as such, and don't change the outcome of the story, they're just cool little things the designers, writers etc put in the game to make it a richer world, funnier and worthwhile playing the games for a second or third time.

Avistew

03/18/2010, 05:42 pm

Probably the most classic example of this would be the "banang" joke from 204. All that was recorded was Sam saying "banang!" and it was going to be a one-off throw away line. Then Nick Herman went through and made like 3 different chores out of that one voice line making for one of the more memorable gags.

That makes sense! I should have thought about it: I did wonder why Max wasn't saying anything.
But I get the point. There are lots of visual jokes, timing jokes, or jokes that can use the voices that have already been recorded (possibly modifying them like the banang thing) that can be made. It has to be smaller things, I guess, but sometimes these can be the best.

Jake

03/18/2010, 05:53 pm

Question: Why the logo change?

The original logo was sleek, elegant, cool. Personally, I find the added serifs at the bottom ends of "A" quite distracting and falling out of style.

We wanted it to be a bit more angular and chunky to go with the Devils Playhouse logo.

However, considering the ampersand specifically - the left side of it looks like it was cut off inaccurately.

That's just bad resizing/antialiasing. In real life there is a curve there.

I really hope they don't give us a cover that's like the Wii or retail PC releases. I was really not impressed with Save the World, and while Beyond Time and Space was a good deal better...it just doesn't compare to the Steve Purcell cover.

We put some work into making sure you in particular wouldn't like those covers, so job well done on us I guess.

The 3D rendered covers are usually done at the request of our retail publisher (The Adventure Company and Atari both passed on using Steve's box paintings for the retail versions, preferring upres'd, re-lit game art renders), but we love the painted covers, so expect Steve's art to continue to grace the Telltale Store DVDs.

borgtrek7

03/18/2010, 06:33 pm

hello im wondering if its going to be open world and how sick is the humor im:confused:

Remolay

03/18/2010, 06:49 pm

Not open world, no plans for an open world sam and max game as stated earlier.

It will likely be just as bad as the other 2 seasons, so hopefully nothing worse than "Would you like to rub my unicorn?"

Hassat Hunter

03/18/2010, 07:14 pm

The "Did You Try?" lists here just give some of the pointers to things that are funny in the games that aren't required to complete the puzzles, but they're worth doing for the humour value. They're not really 'achievements' as such, and don't change the outcome of the story, they're just cool little things the designers, writers etc put in the game to make it a richer world, funnier and worthwhile playing the games for a second or third time.
Yeah... I agree. But have you take a look at "achievements" for most games nowadays. Would easily fit in, not to mention I used the intentionally vague "pseudo-achievements". :p
Reasoning behind it is if it's ingame, it would be a lot more 'open' to gamers, not all of them finding those lists and stuff on the site here. Get the broadest audience for the effort spend and such. Atleast, that's what I would think it's a good for. Get them to know they missed out on stuff and replay it once again. And then, maybe, purchase more games and stuff too if they notice the amount of detail that went into the game!
And most games spoil parts by just telling clearly what to do for some achievements, even if they are spoilery in nature, so obviously they would be hidden for your first game, unlocked as you gain them, and unhidden after first completion, so you can nicely see how you did in thoroughness the first game and what you should look out for 2nd/3rd game.
And yeah... I thought all that up just yesterday playing the first 2 episodes of Sam and Max and reading the lists of "did you try"...
The Adventure Company and Atari both passed on using Steve's box paintings for the retail versions, preferring upres'd, re-lit game art renders
...

Secret Fawful

03/18/2010, 08:03 pm

...

I had basically the same reaction. It's like what were they thinking!?

pwblaine

03/18/2010, 08:05 pm

Thank you guys for keeping up the responses long after my questions have stopped being interesting, truly. Speaking of which, I was a big fan of the old point and click mechanic of seasons one and two, any specific reason the old mouse driven control has been switched to a more keyboard driven approach for moving the character? Every now and then in TOMI, I'll find myself still clickin the edge of the screen.

LittleRena

03/18/2010, 08:07 pm

What are the odds of a Bosco spin off series? :p

Is Jurgen the cutest villian, if not, who is?

Also, how many doors will Agent Superball be guarding this time?

freelancehero

03/18/2010, 09:24 pm

I try not to spoil the board here (even though this is an exclusive Freelance Police Dispatch and I not know how to cover up spoilers but pretty much this board is like a spoiler in a way), but ask the strongest question that may relate to season 2 foreshadow events.

1. Sal was not real?! Why did Girl Stinky stated in the final episode saying who Sal when she kept calling his name. Is it some twisted plot twist that we not foresee that would disturb our mind (because when Sam talk to Girl Stinky about Sal and there that dramatic scene movement where something is stroke of mystery and creepy horror stuff do in a shadowy event) or just some joke there. One thing must be clear first, are both Stinky (or Stinkies) are major enemies that our Freelance duos must face?

2. Is it really Sam and Max future in Chariots of the Dogs where they finally put their career to rest? I don't believe much of it unless their something your not telling us and could relate to this season 3? After all, the animated series show one episode where Sam and Max got turned to old geezers after a failed attempt to work out the two Greek entities to work out which surprising work out in the end after giving Zeus the medusa ring and manage to escape from his rage after Max made an bad comment and turn to a Scottish golf statue. Matter of fact how did Sam got Max back to normal?

3. Is Satan involved with season 3 oh wait he spoiled it in the end of season 2.

4. Is it painful where Max put his stuff? ...............Wait why am I'm answering that question?

5. *Magical* (Hugh Bliss style and saying)

6. Will there be trophy for the PS3 version? And so, will our preorder can be pick from either side?

7.*staring around* ............................huh wait what?! I lost track there.

8. So how the graphic is revamp

9. Is the Desoto still possess? I am still trying to get rid of my phobia with it since my previous encounter with it. I still have the roach stain, snake goo, and burn rubber smell from the last time.

10. Is there the "Do you have any....." joke in season 3

11. Did the mechanical monkey from Sam and Max season 1 Machinima Short #3 - A Painstaking Search, have any involvement to season 3. I swear that monkey is puuuuureee eeeeeeevvillllllllll. I know as Bosco paranoid mind.

12 (and last). Can you ask Max to help promote Krispy Cream doughnut shop since there glaze doughnut is like tasting heaven in a good way. He is still president right?

Sciz

03/18/2010, 10:20 pm

Almost half the office plays Team Fortress 2, and that got my vote for game of the year whenever it came out (2 years ago? Longer?)
So my dream of Valve and Telltale collaborating on a TF2 series is more plausible than I expected? :O

freelancehero

03/18/2010, 10:48 pm

13 PS. What will happen to Bluster Blaster? will he survive his death clock since with the experiment with SOL? I hope he pop out somewhere in the season since he's a funny arcade who make us laugh of danger................ That made no sense at all, but acceptable. And any cross over characters?

PS again: oh wait the DeSoto still possess huh? Well I guess I could get some fancy sports car from Germany so it will be distracted by it sexy look (it's a female right?).

Amaterasu

03/18/2010, 11:04 pm

You know, if Sybil does return, it's all your fault now, right?

Anyone wanna dare us to bring back the Soda Poppers?

Mike "easily goaded into foolish actions" Stemmle

OMGOD! Now there's a chance Sybil will be 3rd season's main BAD GUY!?

WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!

I'm so sorry everyone... T,T!

Andorxor

03/18/2010, 11:10 pm

Darth Sybil :)
Will season4 show us how Max ended in Jedi Knight?

SHODANFreeman

03/18/2010, 11:14 pm

We put some work into making sure you in particular wouldn't like those covers, so job well done on us I guess.

I have a suggestion for a cover that Rather Dashing would dislike. The retail releases of TMI should feature character art similar to Curse of Monkey Island with a little button you can push on the front that will feature a sales pitch from Stan, as voiced by Patrick Pinney. Also, a big cartoony version of LeChuck smiling and hugging a teddy bear.

I believe this to be the perfect formula to cause Rather Dashing to dislike the TMI cover the most of all.

Avistew

03/18/2010, 11:25 pm

Also, a big cartoony version of LeChuck smiling and hugging a teddy bear while slipping on a banana peel.

Here, I improved it.

Icedhope

03/18/2010, 11:40 pm

So my dream of Valve and Telltale collaborating on a TF2 series is more plausible than I expected? :O

Use heavy with sammich

Use spy with scouts mother.

Rather Dashing

03/18/2010, 11:52 pm

We put some work into making sure you in particular wouldn't like those covers, so job well done on us I guess.
Ouch.

TheHutt

03/19/2010, 02:21 am

The lip sync is all auto-generated.
Some more of the technical stuff that fascinates me:

So you're saying that the lip sync is auto generated depending on the voices, thus playing a game in a localized version would cause the animation to change?
How are the changes in emotions of characters controlled in the middle of a line?

Vainamoinen

03/19/2010, 03:21 am

1.) I loved the music in previous seasons. Come "Tales of Monkey Island", I was disappointed that MZL's music bits were so incredibly short, while JEJ could create such wonderful, lengthy cues even exceeding five minutes. Will we get such long pieces again? Hopefully, it's all-new and none of the older pieces, although awesome, will be reused!

2.) The new inventory looks very fancy - it also looks as if not much stuff fits in. That's OK, I gather the puzzles center more on psychic powers, nonetheless: What's the maximum inventory items on one page?

3.) Is Majus somehow involved in the design of this game? If yes, what should I look for in the final episodes? How can the "I wonder what happens"-series continue if Majus has so much insight into the games?

...oh, and I for one would really WANT Sybil to return. Liked her!! :D

Kroms

03/19/2010, 03:56 am

Aiyee. Why bring back someone if they're not necessary to what you're doing?

I'm personally a little more excited about meeting new characters. Crazy Sam and Max could be as big and diverse and cool as The Simpsons, if they wanted to be - except without the second half of The Simpsons, which sucked like a hungry calf at his momma cow's belly.

light_rises

03/19/2010, 06:47 am

Yeah. I actually like Sybil quite a bit, but if her presence wouldn't serve a real purpose in whatever the season's story happens to be, why bring her back? Just look at Murray in EMI.

Besides, the way Beyond Time and Space ended left Sybil's story at a good stopping point. I'll miss her if she doesn't show up this season, but I can more than live with where Telltale left her off. ( ... Weeeeell, except for the whole Sybil/Abe coupling, but, eh, de gustibus non est disputandum and all that.)

EDIT to add a question for Telltale while we're on the subject: When it comes to deciding which characters you are or aren't going to bring back for a new season, have you ever felt constrained -- or at least pressured -- by fan response to any of them, despite your own plans? For example, do you feel you have more freedom to use (or not use, as it were) characters whose fan feedback was more tepid than not? And, conversely, less freedom if the characters were widely popular or disliked?

Lackey

03/19/2010, 08:58 am

So my dream of Valve and Telltale collaborating on a TF2 series is more plausible than I expected? :O

That is INCREDIBLE. Best idea I've heard in a long time.

That said, are you guys interested in any new properties to work with?

Like TF2...

bubbledncr

03/19/2010, 09:06 am

4. Is it painful where Max put his stuff? ...............Wait why am I'm answering that question?

I had the wonderful privilege of animating a possible answer to this question for season 3.

Astro Gnocci

03/19/2010, 09:12 am

I had the wonderful privilege of animating a possible answer to this question for season 3.

Now THIS is scary :eek:

Jake

03/19/2010, 09:24 am

So you're saying that the lip sync is auto generated depending on the voices, thus playing a game in a localized version would cause the animation to change?

Yep, we re-run the lip sync system when we get a batch of localized voices. Note that part way through Wallace & Gromit we re-did our lip sync system, and it's way better now. The results are hopefully apparent in Tales of MI, where the characters look a lot less wobbly-mouthed than old Sam & Max stuff. The Devil's Playhouse is the first Sam & Max game to use the new tech, and I think it shows. With the new lip sync, higher res faces, and some light blend shapes going on, Max's mouth and face finally hits a lot more shapes and poses from the comics. It looks nice.

How are the changes in emotions of characters controlled in the middle of a line?

When we localize the game, those either end up working out nicely, or they don't. Depends. The system tries to adjust for time if a localized dialog line is longer or shorter, but doesn't always hit perfectly. I think we tend to do better at it than most, but I'm biased.

3.) Is Majus somehow involved in the design of this game? If yes, what should I look for in the final episodes? How can the "I wonder what happens"-series continue if Majus has so much insight into the games?

Majus and Suro aren't involved in the design work, but they're doing cutscene stuff in the games. Their first task was to fill the streets of 301 with boozing pigeons and scampering rats and things, but they have since moved on to more technical art and cutscene work. You'll be able to see a Majus cutscene at a climactic point in 302, for instance.

light_rises

03/19/2010, 09:26 am

I had the wonderful privilege of animating a possible answer to this question for season 3.

... I'm torn between a simple "wat" or "DEAR GOD WHY?!"

Both of which would be my round-about way of saying: "Bring it." :cool:

Bloody Eugene

03/19/2010, 10:02 am

Hi guys!
I really appreciate your work... I think Telltale is the greatest adventure company at the moment! I really like your philosophy on making games, on telling stories and on the relations with players! ;)

Just one thing: it was already answered that the game will be english only, but what for other languages? Will they ever be available? I know people here in Italy who would have bought Tales of Monkey if only it was in Italian! I know that multi-language in a episode production could be difficult, but you can reach more and more people with it! You can release patch, or make different versions of the game, but please don't do distribution like Atari did: Season 2 (TWO!!!) will be available in Italian in may, after 2.5 years of waiting and only with subtitles. I prefer much more to download patches from your site and buy directly from you. So, any plans about translations?

S@bre

03/19/2010, 11:02 am

That is INCREDIBLE. Best idea I've heard in a long time.

That said, are you guys interested in any new properties to work with?

Like TF2...

Use minigun with scout
Use minigun with soldier
Use minigun with pyro
Talk to 'self': "Bwahahahaha! What coward sends babies to fight me!"
Use minigun with demoman
Use minigun with heavy
Use minigun with engineer
Talk to 'self': "Cry some more!"
Use minigun with medic
Use minigun with sniper
Talk to 'friendly-looking medic': "Medic!"
*switch characters*
Use knife with heavy's back.
Talk to 'dead heavy': You died as you lived: morbidly obese!"

You know, I don't think TF2 lends itself to adventure gaming.

Tjibbbe

03/19/2010, 11:04 am

...boozing pigeons...

Woo!

murr4y

03/19/2010, 11:29 am

No, no game is perfect (...)Except the ones you guys make of course

seanparkerfilms

03/19/2010, 11:34 am

Will

03/19/2010, 11:44 am

Ratings systems are weird. I don't feel like this season is any more or less mature than previous ones. Take that how you will.

sascha23

03/19/2010, 12:09 pm

Anyone wanna dare us to bring back the Soda Poppers?

No sir.

*drops everything and backs away slowly*

Hassat Hunter

03/19/2010, 12:21 pm

I had the wonderful privilege of animating a possible answer to this question for season 3.
Does it make me a sick person if I look forward to what the result has been?
Season 2 (TWO!!!) will be available in Italian in may, after 2.5 years of waiting and only with subtitles.
Ah... the blessings of living in the Netherlands, where any developer who TRIES dubbing gets horribly crucified :D.

Talking about Ratings and bleeped out words: I once heard somewhere, in a dev commentary on some TV-show how they would actually swear to properly make the bleeps the correct time, but the Rating Board would get the episodes before this process was done (and thus, with full profanity). How is that at TTG?

Rather Dashing

03/19/2010, 12:22 pm

Was the E10+ rating even available when the first two seasons were released? I can't remember when it came in, but it's a relatively recent addition.

Remolay

03/19/2010, 12:25 pm

yes it was.

ttg_Stemmle

03/19/2010, 12:33 pm

The new season (or first episode, at least) seems to be rated E10+, rather than T. Were you guys surprised to get a lower rating, unsurprised (due to it being less edgy, perhaps?), or was it a conscious decision to aim for the rating?

Basically, should we expect the same levels of subversive naughty humor laced with mild profanity in the past, or has language been toned down a bit (maybe it was the severe amount of bleeped-out four-letter words throughout the first two seasons that netted it a T)?

Either way, I trust you guys in the fullest to continue delivering on amazing, hilarious games, no matter what rating it has, just curious.

As Will said, the ratings system is a constant source of bemusement :)

Me, I'm a big fan of subversivity (particularly with regards to the manglement of languagisms), and less of a fan of profanity (unless it's really frellin' funny). Make of that what thou willst.

In other words, there may be some veiled naughtiness in 303 and 304,
Mike "I get PAID to destroy the Queen's English, SCORE!" Stemmle

Kroms

03/19/2010, 12:36 pm

Joop

03/19/2010, 12:41 pm

Ah... the blessings of living in the Netherlands, where any developer who TRIES dubbing gets horribly crucified :D.

Not entirely true.
I bought Beyond Good and Evil on Gamecube, there was no English version.
At first I wanted to trade it in, but after realising how good the dub was, I didn't even bother. It was well dubbed ánd really funny.

Tjibbbe

03/19/2010, 12:57 pm

Ah... the blessings of living in the Netherlands, where any developer who TRIES dubbing gets horribly crucified :D.

The Dutch version of Heavy Rain is one of the most hilariously bad things I ever experienced. Why in the world they chose to hire A-list actors like Carice van Houten is beyond me. They'll never get their money's worth for that. The Dutch market isn't that big, and most people will still choose to play the English version. Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_09eH_EERg
Believe me, it gets even worse. Carice sounds like she's terribly ashamed to be in a videogame. The voice of the guy behind the counter in that video sets the quality-level for most of the voices in the game. I've been crying my eyes out from laughter with my friends with this game - not really what the game sets out to do.

So yeah, Telltale, never even start thinking about a Dutch voice over for any of your games. Just don't. It'll all just end in tears.

Another question for the design team: How do you decide who gets to do which episode (of which series)? Is it just random, or based on personality? Was it just coincidence that Jordan got to do the Trogdor-episode and that Stemmle got to do the episodes that were set on Flotsam?

Leak

03/19/2010, 01:02 pm

I had the wonderful privilege of animating a possible answer to this question for season 3.
Do not want! :eek:
You'll be able to see a Majus cutscene at a climactic point in 302, for instance.
Hand drawn in Flash, using Majus' unmistakable style? WANT!

Will

03/19/2010, 01:08 pm

Talking about Ratings and bleeped out words: I once heard somewhere, in a dev commentary on some TV-show how they would actually swear to properly make the bleeps the correct time, but the Rating Board would get the episodes before this process was done (and thus, with full profanity). How is that at TTG?

We certainly aren't about to send any unbleeped swears off to the ESRB. They don't take too kindly to that sort of shenanigans.

As for actual swears, it depends on the voice actor. Usually they are just written into the dialog as "*censored*" and the actors have to infer the meaning. William Casten used to have fun with that, particularly when the word "soda" was bleeped out at the end of 205. I've never heard David Nowlin swear on the other hand. There was a particularly memorable sequence where his pre-bleeped swears were "button" and "donut button."

Joey Camen however created streams of profanity so foul that the unbleeped version never even left the recording studio for fear that someone would get their hands on them.

sascha23

03/19/2010, 01:29 pm

We certainly aren't about to send any unbleeped swears off to the ESRB. They don't take too kindly to that sort of shenanigans.

Too bad these can't be included as bloopers in the upcoming DVD version that Telltale sends out to the pre-orders.

ttg_Stemmle

03/19/2010, 01:43 pm

Hmmm...I keep wanting to ask things about the writing, as I feel that Telltale's packed with great writers, and they're never asked about it.

Okay, uh,...howww do you make sure something is funny or not?

Do youuu ever write backstories for your characters?

Yeah, I suck at asking questions. It's worth noting that those question marks at the end are related to whether or not this is a decent question, and not for grammatical purposes.

Those aren't bad questions in the slightest.

There's no way to be absolutely sure that something's funny*. But in our experience, if 3 out of 4 guys in the office think something's funny, a lot of other people will probably think it's funny. Also, when in doubt, I check with the wife - if I can't get at least a wry smile out of her, the joke's probably doomed.

Now that we're doing more and more season-long arcs, we'll probably be getting in the habit of writing quick-n-dirty backstories for our original characters. I cobbled together one for De Singe in Tales, some of which crept its way into the game. With the Sam and Max characters, they haven't needed as much backstory... yet.

Mike "If it bends, it's funny... if it breaks, it's hilarious" Stemmle

* Unless it's a baby in sunglasses... that's always funny.