Q&A With the Design Team

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by Chuck

Also, if you're short on time, a useful trick is to take something that's not funny and then write the opposite of it. THe entire script of 301, for example, is the opposite of Precious Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire.

I am beginning to hate Bill Corbett (only not really).

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by Chuck

Everybody's got his own take on it, and you know that kind of thing's one of BioWare's main selling points. But my own take is that I hate any kind of "branching" content at all, whether it's as big as an alternate ending or as seemingly small as using one item instead of another to solve the same puzzle. Some of that's practical: I don't like the idea of making content that half of your players aren't going to see; I'd rather have the team spending their time on stuff that's guaranteed to be in the game.

I get that, but on the other hand you're already doing it. Half the players (or, I'd even say, most the players) are going to miss lots of stuff. The whole "did you try...?" thing is all about that. People might use the "right" dialogue before they have time to ask the wrong ones, and they'll disappear. And so on.
So I'm not sure it would make that much of a difference if there also were two ways to go around a given puzzle. Although I get Dashing's argument that if more items can do the trick, then it's easier to reach the solution.

Anyways, I just wanted to comment on that because when I read "I don't like the idea of making content that half of your players aren't going to see" my first thought was "but you already do!".

[Iryon]

Originally Posted by Chuck

What you hear about maps is that they're a great way to navigate around a city, so the new season has a city map to let you drive from location to location.

So we got a map to point to?

[ezzetabi]

Do we have a Linux support this time or we have just to hope?

How much would it cost a Wine based porting? (Like Picasa)

I do not want to appear a snob jerk, but since the ID could make a linux version of a complex game like Doom 3 I was wondering why porting is so rare.

[Hassat Hunter]

Originally Posted by Chuck

So, short answer: there's no plan to have all the episodes run into each other, because it doesn't really add anything as far as we're concerned.

As a result, we broke Jared. I hope you're happy.

Totally. Just fix him before the next season, will you .

Everybody's got his own take on it, and you know that kind of thing's one of BioWare's main selling points.

Of course they make RPG's (the real kind, so not Hack&Slash, MMORPG or Oblivion style) so that's pretty much a given that'll be in. Can't imagine a RPG without different solutions to problems, branches and lots of way to costumize your character.
Might as well go and compare to FPS'es. Apples and oranges and all.

Having said that I totally like RPG's, so I wouldn't mind having a semi-RPG'ish mini-game hidden in the game.
Also, I second Avistew's

Anyways, I just wanted to comment on that because when I read "I don't like the idea of making content that half of your players aren't going to see" my first thought was "but you already do!".

No questions for now...

[Rather Dashing]

Has "Why New York?" been answered?

If not...

Why New York?

[Tor]

Originally Posted by zmally

Here's a question for the devs:
I live in England, can I have a job as a tester please?

Being a tester isn't all that's it's cracked up to be! Watch this insightful episode of Penny Arcade: The Series...

[Hassat Hunter]

Or play Sam&Max 105 (which I just did).

And play S&M 101 and get stuck in conversation mode in the dream selecting both the noose and gold fish tank at the same time. Darn TTG and their buggy games! (no, not really... TTG's are one of the rare new games which can't make me write a couple A4's of bugreports)

[GepardenK]

Originally Posted by Chuck

...But my own take is that I hate any kind of "branching" content at all, whether it's as big as an alternate ending or as seemingly small as using one item instead of another to solve the same puzzle. Some of that's practical: I don't like the idea of making content that half of your players aren't going to see; I'd rather have the team spending their time on stuff that's guaranteed to be in the game.

Even if you had infinite time and money, though, I still wouldn't like branching paths or alternate solutions. (Unless your story's specifically about branching paths or alternate realities). The reason is that it seems like "fake" interactivity -- it's letting players do a bunch of different things instead of the one most interesting thing...

Yes, I too was never a big fan branching stories ala mass effect and the like. I think it is because the choices always feels forced and you end up playing a designer made story anyway. "fake interactivity" as you put it is a very good description... The guys at BlackIsle/Trokia made it work fairly well on the good old Fallout/Arcanum games though

When I was talking about open ended puzzle gameplay I never meant for any of the story/cutscene/dialogue to change. I was simply thinking about puzzles that, by their very nature, allowed the player to think somewhat creatively about a problem, instead of hunting for a solution that is already there. Dynamic puzzles if you like, so that players could talk (brag) on the forums about how they specifically solved a certain situation in the game.

Anyway, I got my answer so thank you. But I do have another question for you if you don't mind

In terms of areas to explore, not length, roughly how big will the new season episodes be (compared to season 1 and 2)? Will we see an episode that is as big as the season 2 finale?, because that one was huge!

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Lena_P

Why the 70's? I love the vibe you've chosen for this season, I just wonder why you chose that decade particularly?

I think Sam & Max just have a late 70s/early 80s vibe to them: weird, creepy, vaguely sinister, but ultimately goofy. And when we started looking for reference material, it reinforced that. We knew we wanted it to be like a horror anthology with a narrator, and that meant "Night Gallery." We knew we had psychic powers, and that implied "In Search Of" and also Carrie and The Fury. We knew we wanted a "dirtier" and weirder version of New York, and that started to imply stuff like The Warriors. And we wanted a cheesy sci-fi feel for the first episode, and kept going back to "Space: 1999" and Logan's Run and Zardoz. Plus when Jake and Ryan were coming up with aesthetics for the effects and UI, we kept going back to old TV promos and early 80s visual effects. Plus Blue Note jazz album covers, for some reason.

Originally Posted by World93

Just out of curiosity, on all the cover screens show a "based on..." gag, who comes up with those and do they actually have any connection to the story of that episode at all?

We started that in season two in reference to the running gag in the comics. Whoever's doing the episode (or me) comes up with them, and they ideally have as little connection to the episode as possible, just like the comics do. (We still have to sell these things, though, so we can't get away with calling an episode "Fair Wind to Java" or "Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple" if it's got nothing to do with the episode's story).

Originally Posted by Sailorcuteness

whos your fav orignal charecter you created in the sam and max series

I'm liking how General Skun-ka'pe turned out. Especially since we got Roger L Jackson to do the voice.

Originally Posted by haydenwce27

What's your opinion of the method of joke telling that Family Guy often uses - where many of the jokes are flashbacks or snippets of other events?

I suppose it's okay in moderation, but if you use it over and over again it stops being a running gag and starts being a crutch. Luckily, we can't do those easily because it would require a scene load and throw off the timing. I like that we did that once in Monkey 3 (when you put a pin in the voodoo dolls in the Voodoo Lady's hut), but it's something that's easier in movies and TV shows than in videogames.

Originally Posted by haydenwce27

For many Sam & Max episodes, there are only 2 locations overall (e.g. Straight & Narrow, and White House in "Abe Lincoln Must Die") Could you tell us what the average amount of locations will be per episode in Season 3?

No, because it really varies from episode to episode. And we don't tend to think in terms of "locations" (like, say, the Zombie Factory), but in the number of environments (outside the castle, the main hall, Jurgen's lab). We're still experimenting with how many environments we can reasonably produce for an episode, and how to use the environments in more interesting ways. So, for instance, you're not doing the same thing in Stinky's every episode.

Originally Posted by Lackey

This is a fantastic quote for all those people who feel like a lot of games are focusing too much on "choice" can I post it on another forum?

In the same vein of that question, are you guys alright with us taking quotes from this thread?

You can use it as long as you correct my typo of "you're story's" to "your story's." I've seen people quoting this forum on other message boards already; we'd just ask that you mention the game and that the forum is open to the folks who pre-ordered. Because this is supposed to be a perk for people who already bought the game.

[Hassat Hunter]

Talking about multiple solutions. What *was* the correct answer to the ToMI 1 puzzle? Using the wind device or going on the moans of DeSinge?

[GepardenK]

Originally Posted by GepardenK

In terms of areas to explore, not length, roughly how big will the new season episodes be (compared to season 1 and 2)? Will we see an episode that is as big as the season 2 finale?, because that one was huge!

Oops, this one was already asked. Sorry

Let me think...hmm

Will Lefty`s power tools finaly open!?

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by avistew

I get that, but on the other hand you're already doing it. Half the players (or, I'd even say, most the players) are going to miss lots of stuff. The whole "did you try...?" thing is all about that. People might use the "right" dialogue before they have time to ask the wrong ones, and they'll disappear. And so on.
So I'm not sure it would make that much of a difference if there also were two ways to go around a given puzzle. Although I get Dashing's argument that if more items can do the trick, then it's easier to reach the solution.

But advancing the story always takes precedence over everything else. So even if you choose the "right" dialogue item and that cuts out the goofy choices, you haven't changed the outcome of the story. It's the difference between making a choice just for fun (I want to hear what happens when he says this), vs. making a choice that's actively involved in playing the game.

And I believe that's exactly why it makes a difference how you solve a puzzle: I want to make sure that we're all in agreement (the designer, the developers, and the player) that choice X is the most interesting and cleverest solution. I believe that if there's ever a point where you've got several solutions to a problem that all seem to make as much sense as any of the others, then we've given you a boring problem to solve.

Originally Posted by Iryon

So we got a map to point to?

I was under the impression that you like it when we point at the map.

Originally Posted by ezzetabi

Do we have a Linux support this time or we have just to hope?

How much would it cost a Wine based porting? (Like Picasa)

I do not want to appear a snob jerk, but since the ID could make a linux version of a complex game like Doom 3 I was wondering why porting is so rare.

Telltale doesn't support Linux, but some players on the forums have had some success using Wine and the like. I don't have any idea how much it'd cost to do an "official" Wine port, but there aren't any plans anytime soon.

And I'd imagine that the reason ID can do a Linux port of Doom 3 is because they're a very programmer-driven company and because Carmack likes to tinker; Telltale is more content-focused. Plus, DOOM is obviously such a huge series that ID can afford to spend all their resources porting their games to every possible platform. Adventure games are just a different market -- for the most part, the people who are interested enough in technology to be running and maintaining Linux (even "user-friendly" versions like Ubuntu) have lost interest in more casual games like graphic adventures. Remember that getting a game up and running on a platform is only a small part of the job: you have to have enough QA guys to test all the different versions, customer support for anybody running the different versions, etc.

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Of course [BioWare] make RPG's (the real kind, so not Hack&Slash, MMORPG or Oblivion style) so that's pretty much a given that'll be in. Can't imagine a RPG without different solutions to problems, branches and lots of way to costumize your character.
Might as well go and compare to FPS'es. Apples and oranges and all.

But I don't think that's the case. For one thing, I think genres are becoming less and less relevant (and that's a good thing). If you think in terms of "first person shooter" vs "RPG" vs "point and click adventure" then you're just going to keep making minor iterations on the same game over and over again. You only get cool stuff when you start to think of what the game's trying to do: "story-based game" vs "simulation" vs "puzzle game" etc. Half-Life 2, [i]Portal[i], and Team Fortress 2 are all different types of games (story-based game, puzzle game, and team-based strategy game) all using the same engine and basically the same first-person interface.

Also, BioWare's games aren't full of branching choices just because they make RPGs; I'd say the opposite is true: they make RPGs because they like making games full of branching choices. They use the choices as a selling point (at least, for KOTOR and Mass Effect they did); that's their focus. The Final Fantasy games are also RPGs, but they're not about choice or customization, but about presentation.

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

Why New York?

Because Steve set the comics in New York.

Originally Posted by GepardenK

In terms of areas to explore, not length, roughly how big will the new season episodes be (compared to season 1 and 2)? Will we see an episode that is as big as the season 2 finale?, because that one was huge!

As I said earlier, we're still experimenting with what feels like a good length. (You can't really separate time/length from the number of areas, because they're too connected). The finale of season 2 was, frankly, too big -- everyone wanted the season to go out on a high note, but towards the end of the episode, it just feels like you're slogging through another set of things to get to the end. We're still working on ways to make it feel like you're exploring and seeing new things, without it just turning into a drag -- not just for the development team, but for the players as well.

[Steve2911]

Will Sam & Max's office become even more littered with memorobilia from previous cases? I can imagine hardly being able to walk or see the walls by the end of season 3 (as is joked about by their cupboard in 204).

[EwenW]

Dear Chuck,

Thanks for answering SO many questions so far. My question (and apologies if its been asked already) is twofold:

Who are your favourite minor characters in Telltale's version of Sam and Max and who, from the previous seasons, do you feel has the most potential to be further developed?

[Molokov]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Talking about multiple solutions. What *was* the correct answer to the ToMI 1 puzzle? Using the wind device or going on the moans of DeSinge?

Well in that case - there was only one solution to the puzzle, but multiple types of hints to get you to the solution.

Something like the 10,000 grubs vs getting the cochlea the "easy" way is an example of two solutions to the one puzzle (getting a cochlea). Of course, one of them was deliberately made to be stupidly difficult and boring, so going the "easy" way makes a much more fun game.

NOTE: "Easy" way is of course not all that easy, and involves many many sub-puzzles.

[Remolay]

wait, you could actually get the 10,000 grubs?

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Remolay

wait, you could actually get the 10,000 grubs?

yep! (video contains spoiler of getting all grubs)

[Remolay]

dang, now I HAVE to play again

[Jake]

Caution: It will take you like a month to get them all. People got it by cheating