Bring back the case files

[EeK]

Not sure if this is the right place, but the fact is I'm mad at you, Telltale. Really mad. Why? Because of this.

I'm gonna quote Banjo, who said it best:

I have to agree with giant_frying_pan, Eek and several others here.

Until now, I'd been impressed with TellTale and was more than happy to give them my money! I'd bought the whole of season one, and never had a problem downloading, activating and such. As someone who sorely misses the days of physical game box content, I was keen to get the whole season on disc too (I wouldn't have gone the download route without the promise of a "free" disc at the end), however being in Australia meant I wasn't going to order one and pay $10 shipping until I wanted to get more from the store. I knew Surfing the Highway was coming out and planned to get that and the disc, and the soundtrack and case file all at once.

Come Christmas time, I decided STH wasn't coming out soon, but I could live without it (or wait until the end of season two), and would just get the S1 disc, OST and case file... but then of course the S1 disc option vanished from the store!!!

Sooooo... I waited until now, dropped by to find the S1 disc was back and I could get one (still no STH, but like I said, I could deal with that), but NOW there were no CASE FILES!!!

I know it's just a few bits of cardboard, but it's stuff like this that keeps collectors, fans and gamers able to easily argue against all those leeches that say "just pirate it"... whatever else you think of piracy, one thing you'll NEVER get is all the neat manuals, bonus stuff, box and extras.

Frankly, I am very annoyed about this. When I wander into my local game store and see S&M S1 on the shelf, I start to wonder what the advantage was of going the whole 'download and then get a disc' option in the first place, beyond getting it "early", after the hassle of actually GETTING a disc ended up costing me the case file.

Maybe it's just because I feel "limited editions" of games and such are so frequent now, and usually include what I think you should get for paying full price for a game anyway. Or maybe it's because I feel the idea of "limited bonus" stuff like the case file is something us full-season purchasers should have been entitled to buy (heck, a little email about it being taken off the market would have been nice, if nothing else).

I will still buy S&M episodes, but I have to say that aside from getting the season discs, I can't see myself being eager to make any more store purchases, as I am now anticipating STH to be another "limited run" item, that I won't be able to wait for S2 to end before buying.

So, yeah, you let us down. Your loyal, ninja trained and very vindictive fans. A mistake you could have avoided.

Now I suppose you're gonna have to produce more of those lovely case files, if you don't want to get shuriken'ed. C'mon, it can't be that difficult. You could order monkeys to assemble them! Monkeys can do that, right? Right?!

[xChri5x]

They ran out and it's too big of a thing to make some more. It happens.

[splash1]

don't worry they'll bring em back, or they'll make a Season 2 Case File who knows you can only hope and wait for it

[Dangerzone]

since they are rather complicated and take a lot of hand time to make... i think it was a good decision on their part to just make a large batch and wait for them to run out, rather than just keep them as a permanent item in the store.. and i know they may do *something* for season 2... yes

But maybe not a casefile

i have also noticed how my S1 casefile smells like a hotel room... anyone from telltale care to explain this

[wisp]

a good or a bad hotel room?

[Emily]

It's not something we did to piss people off. When they ran low, we had to take them out of the store. It was simply too complicated a product for us to restock -- and I say this as someone who spent about 40 hours of my free time assembling the case files by hand in the evenings last summer. My boyfriend almost broke up with me over it. (It's also worth noting that we didn't make any money off these things. They were purely a cool thing we did for our fans.)

I am sorry that some people missed out. I wish there was an easy way for us to fix it, but there isn't. If we do one for Season Two, we will hopefully be able to order more and have them last a bit longer, but case files will probably always be limited edition items.

[doom saber]

Where these all made in-house as in you guys made these at the office/personal PC or were some of these made by other companies that handles custom print napkins and such?

I can imagine it being hard either way since I don't imagine a printting company making buttons, napkins and magnets. I mean, I can see you guys ordering magnets at one company and napkins at another.

[Jake]

We did the designs in house and then found different vendors for most of the different manufacturing required. The Moon postcards were printed by a place in San Francisco, the Alien Love Triangle Times was printed by a local independent newspaper press in San Rafael, we found the 3D glasses manufacturer as well as the pin, napkin, and magnet manufacturers online. The "Sam & Max case file" stamp is something I designed based off of one of Steve's illustrations of Max, and we had it manufactured at a shop that made stamps which was conveniently located just blocks from our old office. The envelopes we found from a bulk stationary provider. Once all of the different elements got shipped back to the office, we (mostly Nick) hand-stamped all the envelopes, and then we (mostly Emily) hand-stuffed all the case file evidence into them. It wasn't an easy task. We did them entirely because we wanted to, and thought that you guys would like them. We'd do another one an instant (and hopefully will, for season two), but we're not going to go through the ordeal of a reprint of the exact same case file -- for a collection of useless junk its assembly was really more akin to some crazy boutique collectible. The case files were never designed to make us much money -- it was more for fun / a labor of love than anything -- the $5 we charged for them barely covered the cost of manufacturing and shipping them to you, so it's not as if they are some huge cash cow either. Despite the amount of work involved, it was an awesome thing to make and I hope to do another, but I wouldn't want to repeat it for an exact repeat of the same old thing.

[Emily]

(Also we somehow ended up about 200 magnets short -- not sure if we received 200 less than we ordered, or if some got lost in the office move -- but as a result we had to make 200 fewer case files than we wanted to.)

[Jake]

There's probably still a box of magnets somewhere, in an unopened box in a dank corner of the office.

[tabacco]

That's funny, I must have 200 of the things all over my fridge at home. Weird coincidence.

[NickTTG]

how else was i supposed to cover my fridge?

[NickTTG]

Originally Posted by tabacco

That's funny, I must have 200 of the things all over my fridge at home. Weird coincidence.

you son of a bitch....

[Jake]

youre like twins!!!

[mumbojumbo21]

Since this thread is already here. The S&M Soundtrack page still features the case file as a product recommendation.

I hope the second season brings something else than another case file. Each season should bring their own unique merchandise.

[Emily]

Originally Posted by mumbojumbo21

Since this thread is already here. The S&M Soundtrack page still features the case file as a product recommendation.

Fixed, thanks. The cross sells were supposed to disappear when the product was turned off, but apparently they didn't, and we didn't notice.

[Kedri]

From what I hear, the trinkets in old computer games ran out of print quickly, too. Isn't that so nostalgiac?

[doom saber]

Originally Posted by Jake

We did the designs in house and then found different vendors for most of the different manufacturing required. The Moon postcards were printed by a place in San Francisco, the Alien Love Triangle Times was printed by a local independent newspaper press in San Rafael, we found the 3D glasses manufacturer as well as the pin, napkin, and magnet manufacturers online. The "Sam & Max case file" stamp is something I designed based off of one of Steve's illustrations of Max, and we had it manufactured at a shop that made stamps which was conveniently located just blocks from our old office. The envelopes we found from a bulk stationary provider. Once all of the different elements got shipped back to the office, we (mostly Nick) hand-stamped all the envelopes, and then we (mostly Emily) hand-stuffed all the case file evidence into them. It wasn't an easy task. We did them entirely because we wanted to, and thought that you guys would like them. We'd do another one an instant (and hopefully will, for season two), but we're not going to go through the ordeal of a reprint of the exact same case file -- for a collection of useless junk its assembly was really more akin to some crazy boutique collectible. The case files were never designed to make us much money -- it was more for fun / a labor of love than anything -- the $5 we charged for them barely covered the cost of manufacturing and shipping them to you, so it's not as if they are some huge cash cow either. Despite the amount of work involved, it was an awesome thing to make and I hope to do another, but I wouldn't want to repeat it for an exact repeat of the same old thing.

Wow. That is a lot of work! I completely understand why you guys don't want to release the same thing over and over again. I think some ppl have the misconception that it is an easier thing to do since they think stuff like that are all done by a factory in China or where ever.

For those who missed out, one can try to check ebay or see if someone has an extra that would sell them at cost

[xChri5x]

With this post I'm surpised no one has put any up on ebay for $100

[wisp]

Originally Posted by Jake

There's probably still a box of magnets somewhere, in an unopened box in a dank corner of the office.

you have to see the possitive in that: someone had to stuff 200 envelopes less than what was originally planned..

..wouldn't there be the possibility to reorder the individual parts from the different manufacturers and sell sort of loose case files? of course only if there is still demand. okay, someone had to stamp the envelopes, but this could easily be solved by ordering some copies of the stamp and selling them as well. how much would such a thing cost, because i just realised i totally want one?

anyway, i really appreciate all the work you put into those case files and i don't want to see you take that burden another time...until the end of the year.

even if there won't be more season 1 case files, think about the stamp..no really...it's a heck of an idea. maybe have it slightly altered to make it more multi-purposed..