Telltale's production schedule needs a change?

[Kroms]

I don't know if anyone is thinking this, but --

Does anyone else think that Telltale's schedule is maybe a little bit...Well, it works for Sam and Max, that whole monthly thing. It's just I get the feeling that some bits of TMI could have been better with a little bit of time on everyone's hands. Maybe it's just me?

Anyways, just a thought. I love Telltale's works, so I only want them to be better. I love what they did with TMI, don't get me wrong. I just think that some bits would have been better if the designers had been given enough time to work on them. And that can only be a good thing.

Can anyone think of examples when time forced things to not be properly polished? The forest in Spinner Cay comes to mind.

[Friar]

Originally Posted by Kroms

I don't know if anyone is thinking this, but --

Does anyone else think that Telltale's schedule is maybe a little bit...Well, it works for Sam and Max, that whole monthly thing. It's just I get the feeling that some bits of TMI could have been better with a little bit of time on everyone's hands. Maybe it's just me?

Anyways, just a thought. I love Telltale's works, so I only want them to be better. I love what they did with TMI, don't get me wrong. I just think that some bits would have been better if the designers had been given enough time to work on them. And that can only be a good thing.

Can anyone think of examples when time forced things to not be properly polished? The forest in Spinner Cay comes to mind.

What was wrong with the forest in Spinner cay?


Anyway, the only things that i've seen that have felt unpolished are the occasional glitches, but they are unavoidable, and the team seem eager to fix them, and provide solutions. And the wiiware version, though i think the fault lies alot with Nintendo and there 40MB file size limit.

[Haggis]

I think Kroms means the jungle on Spoon Isle, which was basically the Flotsam jungle recycled.

Personally, I think with a little more time, some of the backtracking in chapter 5 might have been eliminated, and the whole thing would have been fleshed out a bit more, puzzle-wise. And the story could have been wrapped up a little better perhaps, if only with an additional cutscene or two.

[puzzlebox]

In parts of Chapter 5 the music felt too ambient, lacking change in pace, tone or volume to match exciting events. Maybe that's because they didn't have time to write/match music to the cutscenes.

I'd be very happy to see the next MI game have chapters released every 2 months. The wait between chapters is really not a problem for me, although a release schedule spread over a whole year might be too much buy-in for some people.

[Mermaid]

Yeah, maybe a simple "one new episode every two months" would have done the trick, simple as that. It's a bit masochistic on one side, but the quality of the games would have been increased, plus, we would have been in the Monkey Island fever for almost a YEAR...now think of that. I feel so completely empty now that it's completed.

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by Mermaid

I feel so completely empty now that it's completed.

Aw, we'll get through it together.

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by Mermaid

Yeah, maybe a simple "one new episode every two months" would have done the trick

I fully agree... as impressive as the games are for that schedule, I wouldn't mind them coming out every two months for the sake of less character- and set-reusage, plus maybe a bit of more playtime per episode.

[Kroms]

I think a more open release schedule would be great, yeah. Monthly is great, but I do think that developers need a bit of room to breathe, sometimes. You'll end up disappointing less people. (Not to say I didn't loooove Tales.)

I wanted to point out the story thing. It got a bit too convoluted towards the end, and I wouldn't have understood the story if it weren't for ATMachine. That's a bit too close into PotC for me to be happy. PotC 2 + 3, namely.

Still adored the game, though.

[SHODANFreeman]

I think it's less that they don't want to spend time polishing and more that it doesn't make any kind of business sense to spend twice as much time on development and get only marginally higher (if at all) profits. (In fact, they're far more likely to make less money, or even lose money on the games in this situation)

They of course want to make games that are well-polished and well-received, but they aren't about to do that at a loss.

[Kroms]

Of course. But it'd be nice. I don't have statistics, but extra polish that'll gain them extra praise, which might translate to better word of mouth...well. Maybe.

I wish they would, that's all. It'd make the games more interesting, and better.

[TheHutt]

Actually, I suppose a bi-monthly schedule wouldn't help. In IT, the common rule is - no matter how much time you have, you will keep working on it till the last minute and it'll never get 100% ready.

So I'm quite content with the 1-month-rule. This is the right rhythm to keep audiences interested and focused.

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by Pale Man

it doesn't make any kind of business sense to spend twice as much time on development and get only marginally higher (if at all) profits.

That's very true. I guess it's about striking the right balance.

Perhaps the answer is to start releasing episodes later in the development cycle? e.g. if they are currently releasing episode 1 when episode 2 is 50% done, instead release episode 1 when episode 2 is 80% done. Then stick to a monthly schedule, but each episode will be further along the road to completion (i.e. less work to do within the month before release).

But as TheHutt says... the amount of work you have to do tends to expand to fill the time available.

[Kroms]

No, see, since they very intentionally want to make 3 hour games, extra time working on a three hour game would help would make it better...That's just theory, of course, but there's a possibility I'm right.

[Novotnus]

Originally Posted by Pale Man

I think it's less that they don't want to spend time polishing and more that it doesn't make any kind of business sense to spend twice as much time on development and get only marginally higher (if at all) profits. (In fact, they're far more likely to make less money, or even lose money on the games in this situation)

They of course want to make games that are well-polished and well-received, but they aren't about to do that at a loss.

I'd buy it if they make one episode of S'n'M one month and go to Tales next month : ) Make sense - as you get pre-order money twice and then keep people interested in the series for longer time while still giving them something every month...

[Rather Dashing]

Perhaps more work front-end before starting the release of a new series is what's necessary. Or perhaps a lot of the trouble we've noted is a shift in trying to both have more locations while still in a practical sense needing to recycle things on that time schedule. And some of the issues with polish are likely due to the Wiiware size limitation.

I don't think extending the time between releases is necessarily a good idea. It may be, mind you, but I don't know any of the real numbers, logistics, and practical realities of game development, or Telltale productions in particular. I'm not in that office every day, they are.