Telltale's Next Platform

[The Highway]

What would be the reaction if Telltale formatted their games for the Apple iPad?

[Rather Dashing]

Pretty bad, I would say, and I doubt it would sell well at all. They are a relatively niche developer, and they can't assume that the small(-er than PCs capable of playing Telltale Games) install base would be able to deliver a return on their investment.

Also, I'd prefer to play my games on my monitor, with my mouse. I'm comfortable with these, and I don't think a purely touch interface is anything approaching superior.

[DjNDB]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

Also, I'd prefer to play my games on my monitor, with my mouse. I'm comfortable with these, and I don't think a purely touch interface is anything approaching superior.

I think a touchscreen could work great for adventure games, especially point+click. A mouse is just a device that is trying hard to implement the direct manipulation paradigm, a touchscreen however is much closer to accomplishing it.
Also multitouch has the potential for more interactive puzzles. That would require games developed specifically with multitouchscreens in mind though, and i think designing games for just one kind of input device is not exactly what TTG intends to do, at least not generally for all games. But there's nothing to say against using multitouch to make stuff accessible easier that is common to all platforms.

[Guhndahb]

I'd far rather see them stay focused on what they are doing now.

[nikasaur]

It's no secret that we're always interested in the benefits of moving to new platforms. The defining factor would be seeing how the public receives the iPad and what niche in the market it holds. Only time will tell!

[Avistew]

Touch-screen speaking, I'd prefer the DS. From the day it came out it felt to me like the perfect point-and-click platform... Touchscreen + a screen for maps or the inventory (and you'd switch screen to click on the inventory).

I've been surprised that not more adventure games came out for the DS. I know some did, but I was expecting more of them to.
I'm sure people would buy a DS game that would contain old adventure games for instance.

Anyways. I do think a touchscreen, if we're talking about point and click, is better than a mouse. A mouse is just a way to do it before touchscreens were invented.
But now TTG is moving away from point and click so I'm not sure.

[Yohmi]

iPad’s large multitouch input can deliver an incredibly new experience on the adventure game genre. Imagine you can zoom in a part of the set to examine details of various elements. You can try to figure out clues by examining all the aspects of your inventory just by touching it and rotating naturally. We can even try to think again of adventure games at first person, like Normality for example, with scrolling by hand, zooming by pinch or two hands, pulling some strings… With multitouch on a larger screen than iPhone and iPod Touch, you can also create new puzzles, that can also now requires a bit of skills (like pushing three buttons on the right and modulating a button with your left thumb and index, for a simple example, or doing origami, tearing paper, opening a letter, making the old «*power station&circuit breaker*» puzzle a lot more stressing).
It’s clearly a new gorgeous input. I’m quite surprised it does not create a real excitement when you think of it, because it’s quite a device very appropriated to this genre. A lot more than wiiware and xbox live arcade to me.
By the way, I suppose that developping their games to the mac should help them to make ports. It could be a double win.

Anyway, Telltale are the kind of company that can create the surprise with such early choices, after all they’re the one who made adventure game an episodic format. And that’s quite the kind of format that’d fit just well with AppStore-powered distribution, ergo mobile devices.

[StarEye]

Off topic: A side scrolling but first person would be interesting. It wouldn't really be first person, I don't really know what it could be called. Move the scenery left or right, up or down with your fingers or mouse, click on elements and make things happen. I don't think anyone's ever made a game like that before, have they?

[natlinxz]

RatherDashing, I have stopped caring about your "anti-ipad" posts, you aren't giving the device a chance. The Nintendo Wii is capable of running Sam and Max (sort of) and the iPad has a much more powerful processor on it. And if MYST can make it to the app store weighing in at over 700 megabytes, telltale won't have to do any special compression like they did with TOMI.

[Thriftweed Fancy Pants]

Don't be too hard on him, he's right about a few things regarding the iPad, but in this case I believe he may have jumped on the I-hate-Apple-bandwagon a little too soon. I believe there are some exciting possibilities for gamers, especially in the adventure game genre. While some may be comfortable with the traditional mouse and keyboard, I'm least willing to try a touchscreen interface. I think it would be a lot of fun to use my fingers to manipulate troops in an RTS or navigate around in an adventure game.

[taurus82]

...should be PlayStation 3.

[Ash735]

Originally Posted by taurus82

...should be PlayStation 3.

Agreed, the PS3 allows much more freedom in terms of download size and power, especially over the Wii, and it's one of the main consoles you guys haven't supported, the PS3 is an ever growing market thanks to 2009 and it would be wise to get a series or two on the PSN with some advertising, could bring in a few extra fans!

[natlinxz]

The Playstation 3 is a marvellous console, but it wasn't made for adventure games. The Nintendo Wii has a great setup for point-and-click adventures, even if it is a weak system. Maybe that wand thing coming out (whatever it's called) for the PS3 will have some adventure gaming significance, but the Dualshock 3 just doesn't cut it.

[Ash735]

Originally Posted by natlinxz

The Playstation 3 is a marvellous console, but it wasn't made for adventure games. The Nintendo Wii has a great setup for point-and-click adventures, even if it is a weak system. Maybe that wand thing coming out (whatever it's called) for the PS3 will have some adventure gaming significance, but the Dualshock 3 just doesn't cut it.

Well that arguement doesn't cut it when they've done games for the Xbox 360, and with a game like Tales of Monkey Island, controls would work perfectly fine, Left Stick for running, Right Stick for cursor.

[Wiggi]

That'd be awesome, so long as the controls are different from the Iphone MI:SE...twas a bit awkward to handle.