Game improvement suggestions

[BigfootKC]

Seeing as this is an ongoing project, I would like some points to be taken into consideration. Feel free to add more if you have any.


First off - Keep up the good work! :)
Being able to close the game window without having to kill the process - The first one where you see the ads and can launch the game.
Difficulty should get a right good kick in the lunar direction.(yes it has been mentioned before)
The above could be acheived by getting more quests going at the same time so it wouldent be as obvious where you should use that item you just got.

[Kunkku-Antti]

-get rid of Bosco and Sybil.
-let Steve write stories that are really crazy like in the comics.
-get rid of the bugs. It´s very, very annoying when it seems like I don´t have enough (I don´t know what) memory and the game starts to skip frames and act like a frigging strobo light but not with lighting but with movement.The previous episodes didn´t have issues like that so it´s probably not my hardware/software/whatever.
-forget the whole frigging family friendly atmosphere.

[Jake]

Being able to close the game window without having to kill the process - The first one where you see the ads and can launch the game.


Believe me, we're very aware that this... is less than optimal. Unfortunately we don't have control over that limitation of the launcher/activation software. In earlier games it used to be worse, as there was a close button up there that didn't actually close anything - it just launched the game. We found out that while we couldn't prevent the game from launching when you close the window, we could at least hide the close box, and prevent people from getting the mistaken impression that that was possile. We figured at least getting rid of the illusion that you could close the window was better than nothing.

[octochan]

-get rid of Bosco and Sybil.


hey! some of us like Bosco, his deluded rantings and his ineffectual disguises!

[Tolle]

I vote:
-Keep Sybil and Bosco in!
-Keep the bug in!

-Fix the framerate/render problem introduced in ep3

[Kunkku-Antti]

hey! some of us like Bosco, his deluded rantings and his ineffectual disguises!

Maybe, but after a while it just gets boring. You know, "hey, I eagerly wait to see how Bosco will disguised in the next episode! Maybe he will be a German! Or a Finn, doesn´t talk but drinks way too much!", it´s just not my cup of tea. Boring and gets old soon. And, somehow I feel that Bosco takes us space and production time that could have been spent to actually clever things. On the other hand, I bet it doesn´t take too long to write and code Bosco.

Telltale´s imaginary Bosco checklist:
-Pick a nation which has some funny stereotypes.
-Write something clever about fear of authorities.
-Come up with some clever device that´s actually something quite common
-Think how the alarm devices have been fucked up this time.
-Write a bunch "do you have any" lines, preferably with references to LucasArts games.

[Kunkku-Antti]

-Keep the bug in!

-Fix the framerate/render problem introduced in ep3

Hopefully they will get rid of the bug I was talking about. I was talking about the framerate problem when I mentioned that bug. But, maybe the listening device should go also. It´s not like he´s that funny and he will get old soon enough, so he´s out.

[DoubtedEdwardo]

Wow, no mercy huh?

[Hero1]

Settle down Kunkku :D All this stuff is pretty minor..the games difficulty is the only major problem.. I think Telltale have done a lot of things right..lets not forget that.

[ShaggE]

If Bosco returns as a Frenchman again, PLEASE give him the obvious lines:

"I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

"I am french! Why do you think I have this OUTRAGEOUS accent!?"

"Go away, you silly English pigdogs!"

:D (for the ones who have lived under rocks, see Monty Python and The Holy Grail)

[LuigiHann]

I don't mind if they keep Bosco in, but I do agree it'd be nice if they broke from the formula a bit. He is getting quite predictable.

[DoubtedEdwardo]

Yeah, there are some things that keep turning up again and again. It's nice when there are some recurring themes but not when the whole structure is recycled each game. ie small puzzle to find main objectives followed by three non-related puzzles then a big boss to defeat.

[tim333]

Okay, finally a thread I feel like I can post in. There are plenty of threads criticizing the games all-around, which I'm not on board with - I'm having a great time. But I really want the chance to vent my opinion on improvements I think are necessary.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned about the interface is that it's sort of difficult to walk anywhere in a large setting. You have to click to go to a location, then click to go to another, etc... You can just click repeatedly, but then Sam walks in an annoying stutter. Please add something to the interface that allows a continuous movement simply, by a method such as holding down the mouse button.

At first I didn't like the episodic format, but I'm really starting to dig it with episode 3. The Bosco and Sybil gimmick, in my opinion, really works, at least in the short term. The episodic nature allows for these familiar characters to have little tweaks, which is great. For the second season, however, I think the series would really start to suffer unless some major changes were made. a new season is a great chance to change everything:

*establish a new setting. Maybe have Sam and Max lose their office.
*Introduce new main recurring characters.

I suspect something like this is what Telltale already has in the works. If it is, then the seasons could do a great job functioning as a whole unit.

I, for one, think you're doing a darn good job at being funny. Episode 3 is the best yet; the whole casino setting was very clever, and I LOVED Max's soliloquoy toward the end. Keep up the great work here; the only thing I'd like to see is a little more atrocity out of our favorite sociopathic lagomorph. By the way, the voices for Sam, Max, and Sybil are top-notch. The others vary a bit in quality, but none of it really falls flat. Good job there too.

I do have to join the "make it more difficult" chorus. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for a return to the headache-inducing difficulty of the old LucasArts days, but I really would enjoy more of a challenge. Episode 3 was a step in the right direction, as the solution to the "poker" puzzle wasn't as obvious as I expected. It's good to avoid "pixel hunts" and illogical puzzles, but to really feel the complete adventure game experience, I think we need more obstacles thrown in the way of obvious solutions, more red herring inventory, and if possible, an inventory-combining option would help a lot.

I'm enjoying the game and you've really won me over with the episodic thing, but major change would be necessary for a second season to work, as I noted above. On a final note, I think we'd all love to get the chance to control Max for a little while. Just a thought.

[sfox]

I think the games should have more interactive use of Max, he doesn't get enough "good cop, bad cop" dialogue options, and it would be cool to be able to play as him at times too. Maybe in puzzles where the two have to split up and do different things simultaneously?

[Col_Shaggy]

The puzzle solutions are pretty self evident, making them more complex would help this and raise the difficulty of the game a little.
What I really liked about Sam N Max Hit The Road was that many of the items you wind up reusing in different. The bigfoot suit is used to sneak into the party, to dupe the villians, and for the final sacrifice. The extender grip is not only necessary for retrieving the mood ring but for getting tar for the suit and you wind up going to several locations to get everything.

So I'd like to see more complexity and twisted logic to the puzzles, and more locations to visit.
I also loved the minigames, from HTR, particularly Car Bomb and highway surfing, coincidentally I love replaying Epi3 because of the Whack Da Rat game. More stuff like that would be cool.

I have run into the framerate stutter, but only intermittently, and I think it might because of my machine overheating a little. The unable close the game after the end of the game is annoying but it's not I a problem if I play the game windowed.

All in all it only takes about an hour to finish an episode, but they still make me laugh so keep it up!!!!!!

[Jake]

Unable to close after credits has also been fixed by the way!

[Kingsley]

I think you should keep Bosco and Sybil in but throw the dog and the rabbity thing out. They're kinda crap.

Also also! OMG! How about you make it so that every time you start the game, there is a dish of delicious ice cream at the office desk! And then Sam and Max fight for it, and then they eat it together! And it would be awesome if you could have, oh, I don't know, Eddie Murphy or Eddie Izzard voice Sam 'cause I think either would be able to do a better job! I am telling you my opinion because you care! Or at least it is your job to patiently respond!

[Maratanos]

I think you should keep Bosco and Sybil in but throw the dog and the rabbity thing out. They're kinda crap.

Also also! OMG! How about you make it so that every time you start the game, there is a dish of delicious ice cream at the office desk! And then Sam and Max fight for it, and then they eat it together! And it would be awesome if you could have, oh, I don't know, Eddie Murphy or Eddie Izzard voice Sam 'cause I think either would be able to do a better job! I am telling you my opinion because you care! Or at least it is your job to patiently respond!

LOL!

(obligatory extra letters)

[jannar85]

640x480 resolution, so that it'll load faster and play faster when on a computer that's one year or more..

[DoubtedEdwardo]

and 1440x900 for the widescreen user:D

[Kingsley]

And an 8bit VGA 320 x 200 pixel mode for us purists of legacy adventure formats!

BTW, the architecture of modern graphic cards is such that the resolution doesn't affect the speed drastically if at all.

[DoubtedEdwardo]

and a version of the game CD that comes in a great big cardboard box.

With a manual!

[footlight]

Hi,

first of all I'd like to say that getting to play Sam and Max again is a dream come true, and that so far, each episode has been brilliant, with each one improving over the last.

However, I have a couple of suggestions to improve things:

1. I think you should have a shortkey for leaving locations, for example, if you have travelled all the way back to Sybils, only to realise that you don't need to be there, you could hit a key and voila, you are back in the street without having to click on the door and watch the characters go through the motions to get outside again.

2. Also, there should be another shortkey to skip charcter dialogue that you have already heard, as it is frustraing to hear a repeated comment from a character the fifteenth time when you really just want to get to a point that is necessary in the conversation.

3. That's it for now!

Thanks,

Footlight

[MrSneeze]

2. Also, there should be another shortkey to skip charcter dialogue that you have already heard, as it is frustraing to hear a repeated comment from a character the fifteenth time when you really just want to get to a point that is necessary in the conversation.


Right click.

[Jake]

And an 8bit VGA 320 x 200 pixel mode for us purists of legacy adventure formats!

This has been discussed... (admittedly jokingly)

[DoubtedEdwardo]

admittedly jokingly

Nooooo! I'm sure you'll do it one day,filled with far to many verb icons and puzzles that'll make your brain run out your ears.

[ShaggE]

and a version of the game CD that comes in a great big cardboard box.

With a manual!

I miss the old boxes... much more satisfying than those dinky new ones.

Also miss the floppy disks in impossible-to-open plastic thingies :D

[Booboo]

I actually think that the driving sequences must be improved, because they're beginning to get old, in my opinion.

[Mother Superior]

Mix it up a bit with Sybil and Bosco. Move Sybil away from the desk and stop giving Bosco a new nationality stereotype each time. I don't mind either one, just not every single time.

[DoubtedEdwardo]

Mix it up a bit with Sybil and Bosco. Move Sybil away from the desk and stop giving Bosco a new nationality stereotype each time. I don't mind either one, just not every single time.


Do I hear wedding bells?

I really hope I don't.:p

[Mother Superior]

Do I hear wedding bells?

I really hope I don't.:p

In Soviet Russia, Wedding bells hear you!

[ShaggE]

Oh my various gods, what have I started? :P

[Smollie]

So, the puzzles should be a lot harder (it took me two weeks to figure out the monkeywrench puzzle in Monkey 2!), the characters a lot more interesting and gameplay a lot more extended. On that we all seem to agree.

But let's keep in mind that this is a first season, a heroic first attempt and certainly a very promising one! Furthermore, I honestly wonder if we're not asking the impossible from the chaps and chapettes at Telltale, by demanding the scope and grandeur of the classic adventures, which were developed over periods of a year or more, to be equalled in these episodes that have far less development time?
I think they are hard pressed to keep the release dates and that there just isn't enough time to explore a multitude of ideas, jokes and possible puzzles to the fullest.

Maybe that's a drawback of the episode format and maybe there should be more extensive research and development before churning out the next season. I don't mind waiting a while longer for a good game. God knows I have done so already.

But let me finish my monologue by saying that I really enjoy the comeback of my favourite dog-and-rabbit-crimefighting-duo and that I think that Telltale could be proving to the world that adventuregaming is a game-art far from being extinct.
(Boy, I miss the old days!)

[Kingsley]

In Soviet Russia, Wedding bells hear you!

Roflmao, little buddy.

[fhqwhgads]

Roflmao, little buddy.

In Soviet Russia, oamlfoR

[Smollie]

And let us consider the following:
What's gameplay like when all 6 episodes are played in a row?
The experience will be a lot longer and maybe a lot more satisfying, perhaps?
And yet, even then it will be a game played sequentially, where the different stages of the narrative don't mix 'n mojo.

I think the achilles heel of the games is the lack of trees in the forest.
When I think back of the classic adventures I think it was that lack of transparency that made the games so much fun to play, among many other things.
The collecting of stupendous amounts of stuff that had to be used one way or another in not all too obvious ways, and the many locations where all kinds of things were going on.

Perhaps Monkey Island sets a good example of how to cram as much proverbial trees into a given location. Those games also work on a sort of episodic basis, where you work in chapters, being restricted to certain locations and possibilities per chapter.
Although the chapters are more interlinked, whereas the episodes of Sam and Max are mainly selfcontained.

Hmmmm, maybe there should be a Master's degree in this adventuregamingimprovementsuggestion stuff!

Anyhoo, there's a lot of room for improvement, but I think we shouldn't forget that we're sort of riding shotgun with Telltale on this one and that we'll undoubtedly see things going very much the uppity way in the future.

So, keep up the good work, you whacky lot, you and that we may bash our heads in as many of your mighty trees as possible!
For bashing is good for the brain!:confused:

[FoboldFKY]

1. There should be a cake in the game.
2. Eating the cake should not remove it from your inventory.

[fajerkaos]

1. There should be a cake in the game.
2. Eating the cake should not remove it from your inventory.

That would be a dream come true! :D


But in sovjet russia, cakes eat y...

[MrSneeze]

That would be a dream come true! :D


But in sovjet russia, cakes eat y...

...in Soviet Russia, the truth becomes a dream. :o

[bambi]

Well the 3rd Episode was really good ... really !
A new minigame .. nice music funny puzzles.

Guess the lenght is something we have to bear with, since its episodic gaming.

My wish for the CD version is a map where you can visit the places. (Even those which are finished) and play the car minigame.
(Sure more minigames are welcome but I'd like to be realistic)


I guess what folks want are new characters.
Since its seems like the whole Sam and Max World
is Sybil, Bosco,Rat and those Soda Poppers. It's not that I don't like
them but they won't keep me laughing (over three episodes)
... same jokes ...

-------
Some bosco "must have tool"
Bosco in some disguise :/
Sybils new jobs is just coming in handy again -.-
-------

These jokes really work ! I love'em!
ONCE!


And it doesn't feel real yet ... with them reappearing that often ... Feels more like Neighbourhood Cops not Freelance Police cruising through the states ...

The next episode really looks cool ... like those openair sceneries hope sybil and bosco only have a "minor" part this time.

I guess its better to have more content (new content) than longer episodes.
So vote for more content !

Thanks