Q&A With the Team

[AndyBundy]

Originally Posted by hplikelike

Wow, an Italian criticizing a German on his English? Man, you foreign people are critical. [/joking]

We help each other out to make you understand us. Capisci? Verstanden?

[Impossible3144]

So, as the release draws near, I have to make sure... When exactly will the first episode be available for download? Since I'm in Australia, it will be quite a bit later for me, and I'd love to still actually be playing on July 7 and not have to wait until the next day due to the difference or something. I haven't gotten a Telltale game on release day before, so I don't really know how you do it. Are the releases at midnight, and in what time zone?

[Romav]

Originally Posted by Impossible3144

So, as the release draws near, I have to make sure... When exactly will the first episode be available for download? Since I'm in Australia, it will be quite a bit later for me, and I'd love to still actually be playing on July 7 and not have to wait until the next day due to the difference or something. I haven't gotten a Telltale game on release day before, so I don't really know how you do it. Are the releases at midnight, and in what time zone?

From what I've read about releases from TTGs, it's most likely going to be released at roughly 4am on July 8th for us (I imagine AEST).

[Zomantic]

Originally Posted by Shmeh

When replaying the game, watching the credits and "previously" bits can be tedious and repetitive when you just want to continue the story. The cliffhanger that has been presented at this moment, doesn't have the same effect, as you know how the situation is resolved. A ten second (plus any additional loading time that is required) chapter screen is a more reasonable way of adding a pause to break these two parts of the story.

Yep, I totally agree. We all know and love episodic gaming as it is, but when all the chapters will be collected on a single disc their fruition will by necessity be different (whether you have played them previously or not). I hope Telltale will seriously consider adopting this feature for ToMI.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Majus

Dear Telltalers, now I have a question!
About the title »Tales of Monkey Island«.

Are these »Tales« adventures of/from/about the island or of the game »Monkey Island«? I was wondering, because the island itself made sense in every game-title.
Part 1: The Secret of Monkey Island was about the secret of Monkey Island.
Part 2: Monkey Island 2 was nothing about the island, therefor the main title was »LeChuck’s Revenge«.
Part 3: The Curse came from LeChuck, but you can see him metaphoric to the island, so »The Curse of Monkey Island« fits.
Part 4: And in the fourth game Guybrush has to escape from the island.

Probably the tales are just tales of the game Monkey Island, it makes sense in a way, because it’s episodic and from TellTale Games. But I was so happy when I finally found a question in my brain, so I had to ask!

It's definitely tales in the world of Monkey Island, not tales of the island itself (though that would be cool!). For me it's about trying to bring out all of the different swirling stories the series' characters have found themselves in, and see what happens when their lives and goals collide in new and interesting ways, against a pastiche of classic pirate and sea-type stories. Tales all 'round! I don't know how other people on the team see it, but as a fan of the legacy of Monkey Island and of good pirate stories in general, that's what interests me!

Originally Posted by Cyphox

How will the game controls be like? Will they be like Sam & Max (completely controlled with mouse) or will they be like Wallace & Gromit (Keyboard & Mouse)??

I definitely prefer the first method, so which kind of control will TMI have?

As discussed in recent previews, there's a mouse-only option as well as keyboard and mouse. Both exist The mouse controls are a bit different than Sam & Max's but definitely brings back the relaxing "slouch back into your chair" comfortable controls you get from mouse-only. Final controls are still being tweaked and cleaned up, even as I write this, but cool stuff is afoot.

[Gryffalio]

I've got a question for Dave Grossman (or anyone else could probably answer I guess)
In the Facebook Q&A he did, he said about LeChuck's voice actor being a she, and I took it as a joke, but then in this thread people seem a little confused.

Is LeChuck really a girl?

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Jake

As discussed in recent previews, there's a mouse-only option as well as keyboard and mouse. Both exist

I noticed you didn't mention a keyboard-only option a la Wallace and Gromit. Is that off the table for this game, then?

[PariahKing]

Originally Posted by Gryffalio

Is LeChuck really a girl?

You just discovered the Secret of Monkey Island.

[Erlec]

As I have read in diffrent news outlet, the game is controlled with a mix of Keyboard and mouse (E3 build), Will the option to control the game with only the mouse (sam & max way), keyboard (Wallace and Gromit) and both be optional?
I would like it to be chosen in the options menu, however I know it's hard implementing the choices so late in the development. I would prefer only mouse, as I've stood by it since the 1990s (the year I was born)

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Erlec

As I have read in diffrent news outlet, the game is controlled with a mix of Keyboard and mouse (E3 build), Will the option to control the game with only the mouse (sam & max way), keyboard (Wallace and Gromit) and both be optional?
I would like it to be chosen in the options menu, however I know it's hard implementing the choices so late in the development. I would prefer only mouse, as I've stood by it since the 1990s (the year I was born)

You should read Jake's post one page back. I even quoted part of it at the top of this page.

From the post, we have Keyboard+Mouse and Just Mouse control. The Just Mouse control isn't Sam and Max. There's two ways to do mouse control, click and drag to walk and click to activate "Walk", drag the mouse without having to hold down the button, and then click to "Deactivate Walk".

[thin029]

Originally Posted by Gryffalio

Is LeChuck really a girl?

Originally Posted by PariahKing

You just discovered the Secret of Monkey Island.

HAHA
But I'm actually shocked the Voice Actor for Le Chuck is a girl. He doesn't sound as a girl AT ALL

[Gryffalio]

Originally Posted by thin029

HAHA
But I'm actually shocked the Voice Actor for Le Chuck is a girl. He doesn't sound as a girl AT ALL

You've never met Yorkshire lasses, clearly :-)

[Erlec]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

You should read Jake's post one page back. I even quoted part of it at the top of this page.

From the post, we have Keyboard+Mouse and Just Mouse control. The Just Mouse control isn't Sam and Max. There's two ways to do mouse control, click and drag to walk and click to activate "Walk", drag the mouse without having to hold down the button, and then click to "Deactivate Walk".

Yeah, sorry. My excitement to finnaly getting the money to preorder the item and reading through all this stuff made me ask my question before checking if had been asked before (Can you really blame me? )

[corruptbiggins]

I would like to ask more general questions about the games industry, specifically getting into it.

First off, I would like to know if age is a major factor when considering a possible recruit for a games company. I ask because I'm currently a 2nd year university student in England (just finished my 2nd year actually) and if everything goes according to plan I will graduate when I'm around 30 (a small point to consider for myself is that if everything does go to plan I will have already have a year's experience in working at a games company before I graduate and if that doesn't happen I'll be graduating near my 29th birthday - of course there's always the possibility I'll fail my degree course but that's not an option I'm considering).

Secondly, what sort of skills does the average games company (I know there probably isn't any such thing as an average games company but that's the best description I can think of) look for in potential employees, specifically in programmers.

And finally are there any tips that anyone can give me about trying to get a placement position (I believe internship is the terminology used in America) for a year at a games company and what sort of programs I should look into developing in my final year at university which would be useful in getting myself full time employment as a games progammer (in the final year of the course I'm doing students are expected to create something which shows off their skills for their practical project which commands a fairly high percentage of their final grade in most cases).

I'd also like to apologise for the length of this post (I tend to ramble a bit when I'm uncertain I should do something) and I understand if my questions remain unanswered.

[CalBearRJ]

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.

Will it help at all if I just wave my arms around saying "cool game designer?"





.....no. Really? It won't?




So I'm just sitting here at my computer flailing wildly and shouting at the screen for nothing? Bummer.

Sigh...oh well. Cool game designer.

[genuineparts]

Please Discworld next.

I'd preorder 2 seasons ^^

[Nacholabs]

Here's a question that I don't recall it's been asked:

Does the title Tales of Monkey Island make any sense with the plot? It would obviously fit like a glove if the episodes were separate stories, but you've ruled this out.
That means either that somewhere in the game you come across some Tales about Monkey Island (and they are vital to the plot), or you just thought the name sounded cool and there are no significant tales whatsoever.

Which is it?

Love you. Keep being awesome.

[PariahKing]

I think someone said way earlier in the thread the actual episodes themselves are the "Tales of" Monkey Island.

[Rather Dashing]

Each episode is supposed to have its own beginning and end. But more than their previous episodic games, they're working to make each "Tale" fit more into a large, epic story that makes sense rather than tying mostly separate stories together at the end(or, in the case of SBCG4AP, sort of partially linking a couple of them together a bit).

At least, that's the way I've always understood it.

[Thespis]

The way I was looking at it is that the door is being left open for future seasons. Season 1 is a Tale of Monkey Island, then if there's a second season that's another Tale of Monkey Island, and so on.

That's what I got out of it anyway.