Q&A With the Team

[Threepwood4Life]

Was it ever planned to be in 2D or was 3D just the best option since all previous TellTale games are also in 3D as well

[Pantagruel's Friend]

Hey, just dropped in to say that this private forum as preorder perk is a brilliant idea!

Actually, I do have a question. It was already said that Ron Gilbert was involved in the design. How does his involvement compare to Aardman's on Wallace & Gromit? Less, similar, more? Thanks!

[jukeboxhero]

Originally Posted by Pantagruel's Friend

Actually, I do have a question. It was already said that Ron Gilbert was involved in the design. How does his involvement compare to Aardman's on Wallace & Gromit? Less, similar, more? Thanks!

I think this is a magnificent question and I, too would seek an answer to such an inquiry.

[LuigiHann]

Originally Posted by Bagge

Education will not help you solve those puzzles. It was a test of patience more than anything.

I think that's kind of the thing though. In that era, to actually set up a DOS computer and load up a game on it required a huge degree of patience and often trial-and-error.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Blondebeard2

The Monkey Island logo changed a little bit. Now it looks more like a vectorial illustration
Since both LucasArts and Telltale use the new logo, I'm curious to know who created the new Monkey Island logo?

LucasArts created the new "Monkey Island" text for their special edition, and asked that we adopt that text for our logo as well. I did the "Tales of" banner and text, expecting it to not be final and just for E3, but I guess it is, or is damn close Tried to get a little of the LeChuck's Revenge logo feeling in there.

[Blondebeard2]

Looks pretty cool. Somehow the color and style remind me the old logo of The Scummbar made by Bill Tiller a few(?) years ago.
Personally I would have preferred the banner and text aligned in the center, but I guess you wanted to do something different
Anyway, good job!

[Zomantic]

Originally Posted by Jake

Tried to get a little of the LeChuck's Revenge logo feeling in there.

Bearded Guybrush, Zombie LeChuck... LeChuck's Revenge really is the team's favourite episode? Or at least the main influence for ToMI?

[Toothless Gibbon]

Originally Posted by Zomantic

Bearded Guybrush, Zombie LeChuck... LeChuck's Revenge really is the team's favourite episode? Or at least the main influence for ToMI?

I hope so!

[Ry Guy]

Originally Posted by Zomantic

Bearded Guybrush, Zombie LeChuck... LeChuck's Revenge really is the team's favourite episode? Or at least the main influence for ToMI?

Well, zombies are just cool! But, the pox is different than zombies.. you'll see it affects people differently than just zombababifying them, more like a jaundice with one helluva fever. You'll also notice, Mr. Lechuck isn't decaying, he is actually quite pristine! Although, he probably stinks to high heavens.

[Secret Fawful]

Originally Posted by Ry Guy

Well, zombies are just cool! But, the pox is different than zombies.. you'll see it affects people differently than just zombababifying them, more like a jaundice with one helluva fever. You'll also notice, Mr. Lechuck isn't decaying, he is actually quite pristine! Although, he probably stinks to high heavens.

Perhaps...perhaps...*deep booming echoing voice* WITH THE VOODOO POX HE FEEDS ON THEIR VERY SOULS....*wide eye'd expression*

*laughs* Nah.....

[Kezmoo]

Rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle? Red Herrings? Gopher repellant?

On a serious note though, what about English subtitles? As I'm hearing impaired, it seriously affects my enjoyment of a game if it's speech only (and makes it unplayable for the Deaf!) Please tell me there will be a text option (which includes intro's, cut-scenes, etc...)

Now for more funny - MI the movie, anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_unbVaCe8a4

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by seanvanaman

This is the most sequential, interconnected story Telltale's ever told. Mike and Mark have a glorious plan for the arc of the entire season and we hope to be revealing as many questions as we do answers to the series' questions every month. I get psyched just thinking about it.

Telltale, I could kiss you. I'm glad I ended up buying SBCG4AP twice, knowing that it helped to fund your continued awesomeness.

[Zomantic]

Oh no! *Covers his ears* Lalalalalalala! (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here!)

(Yes, I know, spending all my days in these forums isn't the best way to do that... But how else could I bear the agony of waiting till July?)

Anyway, thanks for the answer, Ry! I really admire the work you're doing with TMI (or ToMI... I keep changing this helluvanacronym): all characters look great so far (no-one's commented on Voodo Lady's new make-up, very haunting), and I also love the few setting sketches we've seen.

[Impossible3144]

While I'm okay with ToMI being harder than S&M, I do have to say that it should not be as hard as, say, MI2. The puzzles should be similar in style, but not unfair or illogical. I think even Ron Gilbert has pointed out this problem at some point...

In general, it's like puzzles were made to defeat the player and satisfy the designer, rather than to make the player feel satisfied when they finally work it out. They tend to be based on the developer's logic, so that you could only follow their line of thinking from the method to the solution if you had made the game. This wouldn't be so bad if you already knew where point B was, and merely had to find the path from A to B, but sometimes you aren't even sure what you're trying to do or what your starting point is. There are too many gaps in the player's knowledge for clever thinking to be enough. When you have no idea if you're even on the right track, and the game gives you no indication, you can spend an hour doing the wrong thing, or you can spend an hour ALMOST doing the right thing, then give up and try a completely different (wrong) track. It stops being fun and off to the Internet for spoilers we go. I even noticed this more recently, when I played the almighty Grim Fandango. You're trying to work out both what your goal is, and a way of getting there. You have no pieces of the puzzle to start filling it in, and often a massive inventory with a billion time-wasting combinations to work with (this is why I want a MI2 remake) - but you don't even know if you have the item you need or if you're accomplishing nothing.

It wasn't until Telltale showed up with Sam & Max that Adventure games really became what they should be (although I loved the original S&M as well). You were far more likely to have a point B - or more often, C - to aim for, or a point A to start from, and it was possible to work it out with your OWN logic, not by reading the developer's mind. (Again, MI2 tended to make it worse because you had access to so many different places that you had no idea where you could currently make progress or if you were wasting time, or if you needed an item from a completely different place to progress in this one.) That's what makes a puzzle really fun. Maybe I'm just impatient, because I played the MI games in the era of the Internet, but I did need to check a FAQ and the result was often "I never would have gotten that", without endless trial and error and running around between five different places I was stuck at with no indication of how what I was doing even related to my quest.

Of course, the other way it could be done, to give the player some indication of what the hell they're trying to do so that they could work out how to do it, is a hint system, which we know Telltale are now using. I think that having one of those as an option is a good way of opening the genre up to people who have been wary of it for years (and I know many people like that). I don't personally intend to make much use of the hint system unless the puzzles ever become unfair again (which I doubt because it's Telltale), but just having that last point in the puzzle, a goal that the player still needs to work out how to get to themselves, is the perfect way to do it. Don't give me hints that tell me what to do and how to do it, give me hints that tell me what I want to achieve. Which ideally, the games should have done in some form in the first place, and some of the classic ones didn't.

[KB57]

Well, if you can't get Earl Boen... your replacement vocal artist should listen closely to what Boen does with a line like "Ooooooo, the lass has spirit!" in CMI.

That ain't no half-assed demon-pirate voice. That's Character.

[Melancton]

Oh, man. I can't even tell you how excited I am about this game.

I know it's too early to tell, but if the episodes sell well could there be an MI Season 2 in the future?

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Blondebeard2

Personally I would have preferred the banner and text aligned in the center, but I guess you wanted to do something different
Anyway, good job!

"Tales Of" was just amazingly short and looked really odd to my eye when centered. That was the first thing I tried

[Mromson]

The banner is perfect as it is. >_>

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by Jake

As of now it's all Michael Land. Jared's keeping busy full time doing the music for Wallace & Gromit episodes 3 and 4, and I think he'll be busy scoring something that rhymes with schmam and schmax schmeasson schmee, but who knows if he'll come in on the assist as we get further down the road.

Telltale, once again, I love you so much. If you guys ever need to move, I'll help you, no pizza or beer necessary.

[freewheel]

Originally Posted by Impossible3144

Of course, the other way it could be done, to give the player some indication of what the hell you were trying to do so that you could work out how to do it, is a hint system, which we know Telltale are now using. I think that having one of those as an option is a good way of opening the genre up to people who have been wary of it for years (and I know many people like that).

A fair point.

Still, TTG, could we pretty please with sugar on top have harder puzzles and then leave hints open for those who want it?