Q&A With the Team

[Molokov]

Originally Posted by nadir

I was wondering are there any members of the telltale team that have visited or are from Australia? Just the mention of Echidnas on the brainstorming forum got me thinking.

I loved the Perth day joke. wish that was a real holiday :P When you live in one of the most isolated cities in the world and it gets mentioned... anywhere, it makes your day

I think they like making jokes about Australia - such as the President being as crazy as a dingo in an Adelaide maternity ward It was quite a giddy moment to hear my not-very-well-known home city being mentioned. Same goes for Perth day, I guess

[Jake]

Originally Posted by OCKi

Question regarding the ToMI DVD release:

Are you guys planning on tailoring the different episodes together to one whole game so we can play the episodes back2back MI style from start to the end credits, or will it be separate episodes selectable at the main menu like S&M?


(Sorry if question has already been answered)

We've never done this before, so don't hold your breath. On both Sam & Max seasons' DVDs and on the Strong Bad DVD (and on the Wii and XBLA releases of Sam & Max) the episodes have remained separate, with a DVD-style launcher menu.

If we could bump the games up back to back in a way that wouldn't totally sabotage our QA and software build teams by effectively dumping a full length new untested game build on their plates (which that could be considered under many very real situations), it's definitely worth considering... but again, it's not something we've done before, so absolutely no promises. I'm just waving my arms around, here, saying "cool idea," without knowing the repercussions.

So again, don't hold your breath. Cool idea, though.

[OCKi]

Originally Posted by Jake

We've never done this before, so don't hold your breath. On both Sam & Max seasons' DVDs and on the Strong Bad DVD (and on the Wii and XBLA releases of Sam & Max) the episodes have remained separate, with a DVD-style launcher menu.

If we could bump the games up back to back in a way that wouldn't totally sabotage our QA and software build teams by effectively dumping a full length new untested game build on their plates (which that could be considered under many very real situations), it's definitely worth considering... but again, it's not something we've done before, so absolutely no promises. I'm just waving my arms around, here, saying "cool idea," without knowing the repercussions.

So again, don't hold your breath. Cool idea, though.

Thanks for considering it!
I love the way the fans are "influencing" the developement of this game!

[Candyghost]

Originally Posted by duate

yes yes yes yes pleaaaaase do this

+1
+1
+1
+100000 :d

[Gryffalio]

Yeah, I like a full game. Great as releasing in episodes is, I prefer to stick the DVD in and play the whole game instead of re-loading inbetween chapters. It just feels weird to me, then again I am a technophobe

It feels kinda like say CIV4, if you have to load a new chapter whenever you get to a new age

[Mysterysheep]

Originally Posted by Jake

We've never done this before, so don't hold your breath. On both Sam & Max seasons' DVDs and on the Strong Bad DVD (and on the Wii and XBLA releases of Sam & Max) the episodes have remained separate, with a DVD-style launcher menu.

If we could bump the games up back to back in a way that wouldn't totally sabotage our QA and software build teams by effectively dumping a full length new untested game build on their plates (which that could be considered under many very real situations), it's definitely worth considering... but again, it's not something we've done before, so absolutely no promises. I'm just waving my arms around, here, saying "cool idea," without knowing the repercussions.

So again, don't hold your breath. Cool idea, though.

Is it possible to trigger the selection of the next chapter from the main menu automatically rather than just combine all the chapters to make one large game? Like there would be a small load screen while the disc would run the next chapter?

[RussMac316]

Originally Posted by Jake

We've never done this before, so don't hold your breath. On both Sam & Max seasons' DVDs and on the Strong Bad DVD (and on the Wii and XBLA releases of Sam & Max) the episodes have remained separate, with a DVD-style launcher menu.

If we could bump the games up back to back in a way that wouldn't totally sabotage our QA and software build teams by effectively dumping a full length new untested game build on their plates (which that could be considered under many very real situations), it's definitely worth considering... but again, it's not something we've done before, so absolutely no promises. I'm just waving my arms around, here, saying "cool idea," without knowing the repercussions.

So again, don't hold your breath. Cool idea, though.

Wouldn't this create a situation where if you were to play the game in it's "episodic" form, you would have no access to the areas later on (i.e. you're playing episode one and cannot go to locations in ep. 5), but if you played the "full" game, you would have full range of travel? Essentially, what I'm saying is that you could theoretically visit areas at the end of the game before you're supposed to unless something were added in to prevent/trigger this.

Actually, I guess this brings up a question of my own...will any future episodes visit areas from previous ones (ex. Episode 3 goes back to area X that you started episode 2 at), or will they be entirely new locations?


Also, was there any specific event you guys would reference that made all of this possible? The brass at LucasArts seemed set against adventure games for (what seemed like) an eternity. Was it the switch to Darrell Rodriguez that got this all rolling or was something brewing beforehand?

[SurplusGamer]

Originally Posted by RussMac316

Wouldn't this create a situation where if you were to play the game in it's "episodic" form, you would have no access to the areas later on (i.e. you're playing episode one and cannot go to locations in ep. 5), but if you played the "full" game, you would have full range of travel? Essentially, what I'm saying is that you could theoretically visit areas at the end of the game before you're supposed to unless something were added in to prevent/trigger this.

Actually, I guess this brings up a question of my own...will any future episodes visit areas from previous ones (ex. Episode 3 goes back to area X that you started episode 2 at), or will they be entirely new locations?

Ah, I think they just meant that it could be an idea to have the next chapter start straight after the previous chapter, instead of going to menu. I think the episodes themselves would be identical.

From what I've heard they are focusing on new locations for each new game, with no central hub location (kind of like CMI where part 1 is on the ship, part 2 is on plunder, part 3 is on blood, part 4 is ship combat, and part 5 is at the carnival, except the chapters will be more similar in length)

They haven't said for sure old locations -won't- be revisited, but mostly it looks like it'll be new stuff every time.

[Romav]

Originally Posted by Mysterysheep

Is it possible to trigger the selection of the next chapter from the main menu automatically rather than just combine all the chapters to make one large game? Like there would be a small load screen while the disc would run the next chapter?

This would be great.

[Col_Shaggy]

I was reading the Sam N Max wiki listing their cameo appearances and inside jokes in other games and was wondering if there are such easter eggs in the new MI.

[yugge]

This would be great.

You mean something like this? http://vip.telltalegames.com/files/m.../chaptersc.jpg

[Zomantic]

Originally Posted by Jake

If we could bump the games up back to back in a way that wouldn't totally sabotage our QA and software build teams by effectively dumping a full length new untested game build on their plates (which that could be considered under many very real situations), it's definitely worth considering...

'Tis! Make this Monkey Odyssey come true! By the way, will Guybrush be called "Ulysses" again, as in EfMI? I found it perversely fitting (like many other things in that game...).

[cyreb7]

Originally Posted by Seg

If you didn't like the sound quality in Sam & Max Season 1 and 2, it's gotten a lot better!

Um… I have S&B and W&G both for the PC, and the voices sound really compressed to me, and about 70+ other people at the topic: “Please increase the sound quality for voices” and there are many more topics about sound quality then just the one. Could you kindly explain how the voices sound remotely uncompressed?

Originally Posted by Seg

I should note that we've changed how audio is done since and including Strong Bad. Before the audio was pre-compressed and fixed for all builds/platforms. Now the sound is re-compressed at build time with each platform having different compression ratios. While this increased the time it takes to make a build, we're in a lot more control of how little or much sound is compressed.

So does this mean that in the DVD version, the audio will be even less compressed than in the download version?

[Dave Grossman]

Originally Posted by OCKi

Question regarding the ToMI DVD release:

Are you guys planning on tailoring the different episodes together to one whole game so we can play the episodes back2back MI style from start to the end credits, or will it be separate episodes selectable at the main menu like S&M?


(Sorry if question has already been answered)

Originally Posted by seanvanaman

I don't think anything's been decided, but this is a good idea.

I, for one, disagree - I think it kind of messes up the cliffhangers by removing the mental space between the episodes. (Sometimes you notice a similar effect when you watch a TV show designed to have commercial breaks after those breaks have been removed.) The season is designed serially, and should be played that way for maximum enjoyment. In fact, I personally think that the folks who wait until the run is over to play the whole season at once (and some people will) are going to miss out on a cool part of the experience, that being the conversation that goes on in the intervening weeks between episodes.

Just my opinion, mind you.

[Mysterysheep]

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

I, for one, disagree - I think it kind of messes up the cliffhangers by removing the mental space between the episodes. (Sometimes you notice a similar effect when you watch a TV show designed to have commercial breaks after those breaks have been removed.) The season is designed serially, and should be played that way for maximum enjoyment. In fact, I personally think that the folks who wait until the run is over to play the whole season at once (and some people will) are going to miss out on a cool part of the experience, that being the conversation that goes on in the intervening weeks between episodes.

Just my opinion, mind you.

I never thought about it that way.. good point. In fact, you've just changed my mind on the whole subject.

[corruptbiggins]

regarding this whole joining the episodes thing, I'd like to add that I like it the way that Telltale have done it in the past but I wouldn't mind a launcher so instead of having 4/5/6 icons (depending on the series) you just get one from which you can choose the episode you want to play.

Probably would work best on the dvd versions (I know that the autorun for the Sam & Max dvd gives what I sorta said above already).

[Zomantic]

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

The season is designed serially, and should be played that way for maximum enjoyment. In fact, I personally think that the folks who wait until the run is over to play the whole season at once (and some people will) are going to miss out on a cool part of the experience, that being the conversation that goes on in the intervening weeks between episodes.

I agree, completely, and part of that cool part is just waiting. The second season of Sam & Max did all this quite well, building up great cliffhangers and then leaving you with wonder and expectation for weeks, accompanying the player not for hours but for months.
However, once the season is over, it seems natural to just play one episode after the other (and in the right order: would you play What's New Beelzebub? before playing Chariots of the Dogs?): interrupting the progression of the story to swap from one chapter to the following makes less sense then, and the player should be free to set his own rythm. Many 19th century novels (Oliver Twist, The Portrait of a Lady, Pinocchio...) were published in monthly installments on magazines: looking at them closely we can still find all the cliffhangers and wrap-ups which were peculiar to the genre, but we mustn't stop reading whenever a chapter ends. If installments are episodes, a DVD becomes the complete book we buy now: it's inevitably different from the original product, but - when the serialized experience has ended - it can give it new life.
You could always include both options, if it's possible...

[seanvanaman]

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

I, for one, disagree - I think it kind of messes up the cliffhangers by removing the mental space between the episodes. (Sometimes you notice a similar effect when you watch a TV show designed to have commercial breaks after those breaks have been removed.) The season is designed serially, and should be played that way for maximum enjoyment. In fact, I personally think that the folks who wait until the run is over to play the whole season at once (and some people will) are going to miss out on a cool part of the experience, that being the conversation that goes on in the intervening weeks between episodes.

Just my opinion, mind you.

I think I just got served by my boss. This is why he is the creative director. Listen to him.

[Diduz]

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

I, for one, disagree - I think it kind of messes up the cliffhangers by removing the mental space between the episodes. (Sometimes you notice a similar effect when you watch a TV show designed to have commercial breaks after those breaks have been removed.) The season is designed serially, and should be played that way for maximum enjoyment. In fact, I personally think that the folks who wait until the run is over to play the whole season at once (and some people will) are going to miss out on a cool part of the experience, that being the conversation that goes on in the intervening weeks between episodes.

Just my opinion, mind you.

You're right, but on the other hand keep in mind that a strong fraction of German/Italian/Spanish/French players will be forced to experience the whole TOMI in a complete translated package AFTER the series has wrapped.
I guess an option to link the episodes together would be welcome. Nothing mandatory, just an available option.

[Silverwolfpet]

It kind of seems like a whole lot of work for something that isn't so important, imho. I kind of like the episodic view over the game and Dave is right... It would take all that feeling away from us once we link them. I think that, beyond the common warm fuzzy feeling we get when we finish a chapter, we also will feel anxious to begin the next one (even when we will replay the game).
For me, it's important that I will play it, no matter in what "format" (episodes/linked).