Q&A With the Team

[seanvanaman]

Originally Posted by MarkDarin

Oh, is name is Bonobo?!? I've been calling him Brendan all these years!

BURN!

I highly recommend everyone do reading on the social behaviors of Bonobos by the way.

Bow-chicka-bow-wow...

[Chevluh]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

Hi, I know I'm in kinda late. This may be off topic but, I don't get why people hated Monkey Kombat so much.

Oh, there's two obvious factors.

First, it required you to write down a lot of stuff because the relationships between "insults" were abstract and weren't even partly memorized by the game and were too complex for most people to just keep in their heads. Contrast this to the insult systems of MI and COMI, which weren't abstract but instead worded sentences that were thus easy to memorize and had intuitive relationships to each other (thus enabling the real puzzle, which is to figure out how they similarly relate to Carla/Rottingham's insults), and half the memorization was offloaded to the game (even if you didn't remember the sentences you would find them in your list and could instinctively rebuild the relationships). Also makes them lack the fun, the smile on your face each time you utter them. Ook ook eek gets old much faster than you fight like a cow.

Second, all those nifty notes and memorizations you made on one playthrough were utterly useless on the next because the insult relationships were randomized on each playthrough. Which by that point in time had already been a cardinal gameplay sin for quite a while: if you make players take a lot of notes, then you'd better make sure these notes will not lose their values in the next playthrough.

[Will]

Originally Posted by seanvanaman

BURN!

I highly recommend everyone do reading on the social behaviors of Bonobos by the way.

Bow-chicka-bow-wow...

Just think of all the wars we could end if we just followed their ways!

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by MarkDarin

Oh, his name is Bonobo?!? I've been calling him Brendan all these years!

So that's why he was listed under "pets" in Season One! Here I was thinking there had been an incident with an overzealous fan.

Originally Posted by Will

Just think of all the wars we could end if we just followed their ways!

Exactly. If women ruled the world everything would be immediately better and there would never be any problems ever again. That's what you meant, right?

[Dave Grossman]

The world should be ruled by asparagus. THEN things would be peaceful.

[Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Chevluh

Oh, there's two obvious factors.

First, it required you to write down a lot of stuff because the relationships between "insults" were abstract and weren't even partly memorized by the game and were too complex for most people to just keep in their heads. Contrast this to the insult systems of MI and COMI, which weren't abstract but instead worded sentences that were thus easy to memorize and had intuitive relationships to each other (thus ...(text cut short by me to save space).

I see your point but it just seems to me that that's what Loom was all about (what with chalking all the notes down which were also random each time).
But then again I guess you don't have to like Loom to like Monkey

[Secret Fawful]

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

The world should be ruled by asparagus. THEN things would be peaceful.

You mean we'd all be forced to eat vegetables only! AIIEEE!! *jumps out of a window*

*meat lovers all over the world declare war...mass panic ensues*

[Chevluh]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

I see your point but it just seems to me that that's what Loom was all about (what with chalking all the notes down which were also random each time).
But then again I guess you don't have to like Loom to like Monkey

Loom's a bit different, because in Loom the formulas have to be written down, but they're still tied to very concrete stuff, the spell effects. ie the bit actually required for advancing through is, for example, that you use the hay-to-gold spell in your cell or whatever, so the problem just becomes to remember what the hay to gold spell is. It's a very linear relationship, not a fivefold rock-paper-scissor game triggered by combinations of ooks. Plus in Loom it was a central mechanic.

Also notice the "by that point in time" bit. Eleven years of gameplay evolution happened between Loom and EMI. If Loom were to be made today or even in 2001 I'm pretty sure it'd write down the spells for you, like the Zelda Wind Waker or Ocarina of Time games, which have somewhat similar magic systems, do. Or, well, like Monkey Island 2 did with the bone song.

In fact it's pretty interesting to see in the first 3 MI games they always ensure you have what you need to remember written down, and the puzzles that could be about memorization are instead about lateral thinking (the dances, shopkeeper and parrot are really the maps you need and when you complete the path once there's always a shortcut for the next trips, you have to complete recipes with the next best things, the core insult puzzles require you to answer to never-before-seen sets of insults, etc). EMI breaks that trend with Monkey kombat and to a lesser extent that bit with meeting yourself in the marshes of time.

[AndyBundy]

Originally Posted by Secret Fawful

You mean we'd all be forced to eat vegetables only! AIIEEE!! *jumps out of a window*

*meat lovers all over the world declare war...mass panic ensues*

Your meat is eating my food. If you don't stop it, then I'm gonna shoot at you with dried peas until you get a flesh wound. This is my last warning... I may also eat the peas and create a huge Furz (just using one German word) that blows your nose... now I get hungry.

[shawnomatic]

So it's agreed.
The Secret of Monkey Island is bonobos.
Next question...
How many heads does the office bonobo have?

[Pantagruel's Friend]

Originally Posted by Lena_P

Exactly. If women ruled the world everything would be immediately better and there would never be any problems ever again. That's what you meant, right?

Well, if we're talking about women with a similar social approach to the bonobos,
then this possibility is quite attractive

[CalBearRJ]

Originally Posted by AndyBundy

Your meat is eating my food. If you don't stop it, then I'm gonna shoot at you with dried peas until you get a flesh wound. This is my last warning... I may also eat the peas and create a huge Furz (just using one German word) that blows your nose... now I get hungry.

How Appropriate. You fight like a cow.

[mintfresh]

First, thanks to Telltale for bringing back my most loved of all computer games.

A question for everyone/anyone working on the game. What do you think is the most important aspect of a Monkey Island game? What one thing really makes it special for you?

I know alot of people allways mention the humour in the game. For me, I was young when I first played, and I think the humour mostly passed me by. I still found bits fun/funny, but not laugh out loud funny. For me, Monkey Island is special because of the world it created, the atmosphere and real sense of adventure. Its the places, characters and situations that Guybrush ended up in that I remember the most.

So, what do the developers think? And how have you tried to keep the spirt of the old games alive in your new version?

[Cez]

Originally Posted by mintfresh

A question for everyone/anyone working on the game. What do you think is the most important aspect of a Monkey Island game? What one thing really makes it special for you?

When I played this game my engrish was really bad.

<---born and raised in Venezuela.

But I still remember laughing to no end with the games. I'll be honest and say I never found SoMI that good, but Revenge and Curse were phenomenal and two of my fav adventure games. I still remember spinning the wheel in Revenge to get past the code protection -which for some reason got me thinking that the dials in Fate of Atlantis were some kind of protection code I did not have, but I'm drifting...

Anyhow, I replayed the monkeys before I joined Telltale, and I was still so happy when I played Revenge and Curse. The puzzles, the settings, the silly humor --Dying in Curse and then finding Stan after what you did to him in Revenge? I laughed so HARD at that and I still smile remembering it. Pure genius!

I don't think I really answered the question, or made much sense, but I just get all excited when I remember how lucky I am to be able to help on a Monkey game!

*dances*

[Cez]

Originally Posted by jukeboxhero

Are there any plans for any more gameplay/ demo videos prior to the release date?

If there are, I'll be capturing them :P

I haven't heard anything so far, but I'm sure there'll be something.

[HoboStew]

Originally Posted by mintfresh

A question for everyone/anyone working on the game. What do you think is the most important aspect of a Monkey Island game? What one thing really makes it special for you?

The thing that I am spending most of my free brain cycles on is striking the nice balance between challenging and frustrating. It is very hard, because challenging for one person can be frustrating for another, and there has been a lot of internal debate on how we should approach certain aspects of the game to make it a satisfying experience.

[nadir]

I recently played the Wallace and Gromit demo and second episode which were great, but I noticed that you haven't included an option to adjust the music and voice volume seperately. I think this is a very handy option for people who have trouble hearing or are forced to play in a noisy environment. Please inlcude this option in The Monkey Island games.

[figmentPez]

A technical question: Has Telltale discovered the benefits of Anisotropic Filtering yet?

For those who don't know what AF is, in short it makes textures look better when they're angled away from the game "camera". Here is a quick comparison of the special rug in Sam & Max's office, at the start of Season Two (possible spoilers, I guess, for those who don't want even a clue about what happens in Season One):
With no Anisotropic Filtering
With 16x Anisotropic Filtering
(Screenshots are a roughly 860x350 cropped portion of an originally 1920x1080 screenshot.)

I remember how puzzled I was when even the DVD video of the Season One extras showed distinct signs that no AF was used. (I haven't studied the Season Two video yet). Is there some compatibility issue that keeps AF from being a standard part of the high quality graphics option? I know ATI and nVidia chipsets have had very low performance hits, almost zero, from AF for quite a while, are Intel chipsets the hold-up?

[Mike Haley]

Originally Posted by nadir

I recently played the Wallace and Gromit demo and second episode which were great, but I noticed that you haven't included an option to adjust the music and voice volume seperately. I think this is a very handy option for people who have trouble hearing or are forced to play in a noisy environment. Please inlcude this option in The Monkey Island games.

This was confirmed a few pages back. There will be three volume sliders in the menu.

http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/...&postcount=509

[Cloudbusting]

Just a quick thank you to Telltale for all the hard work you're obviously putting into this game!!
I can't wait to play it.
3D Guybrush looks great! If only LucasArts put as much effort into their Guybrush sprite for the Special Edition...