Feedback

[FreelanceYeti]

Hi guys and gals,

just wanted to give you some feedback on your work.
Thank you for 5 (till now) entertaining SamnMax episodes, I enjoyed playing all of them! I wonder who gets the job of developing the dialogues.. Marvelous work, guys!
One thing to improve on in my eyes is the scenes and characters in the episodes. One cool thing in "Hit the road" was Sam and Max traveling all different spots and meeting a great variety of characters. Unfortunately you don't find that in the episodes anymore. I wouldn't mind if you took some more time to work on them to create more and cooler scenes for the already hilarious conversations of the duo! That would definitely make me buy the 2nd Season Set, too!
Other than that: Keep up the good work and smokin' that stuff you got!

Cheers,

Yeti

[Mel]

Originally Posted by FreelanceYeti

I wonder who gets the job of developing the dialogues..

That would be Brendan Q. Ferguson (all eps.), Dave Grossman (all eps.), Jeff Lester (ep. 3), Chuck Jordan (ep. 4 I believe). I can't remember if there are any more.

[Jake]

Jeff Lester also wrote some of episode 2 (though not as much as he wrote for episode 3), and Chuck Jordan did some of the writing for 5 and 6 (though apparently not as much as he wrote of episode 4).

* Also Heather Logas wrote some of 5, including the (episode 5 finale spoiler) text adventure

[tobar]

Try to think of Season 1 as a single game just cut up into smaller chunks. So far you've been to what was it an old abandoned theater, a tv studio, a playland and casino/stuffed animal factory, the white house, a virtual world, and now the moon! That's not enough variety for you?

[Trixie]

A trip to the sun is the variety i want!

[marsan]

if they had gone to the sun, I hope they have super strong sun block
It was nice to see that my thought that space would come next came true.

[Laserschwert]

By the by, I wouldn't mind Season 2 going for an episode every 2 months, so that they can be made just a little longer.

[FreelanceYeti]

Originally Posted by tobar

(cut) So far you've been to what was it an old abandoned theater, a tv studio, a playland and casino/stuffed animal factory, the white house, a virtual world, and now the moon! That's not enough variety for you?

I feel to have spent too much playing time at Sam and Max's office, Sybil's and Bosco's Inconvenience to make my point clearer. The virtual world of the recent episode just put those scenes into a different design (I DO recognize the work involved, though!).

Yeti

[Lysandus]

To me the problem really is that the other characters aren't really that interesting or funny, or else they stop being funny fairly quick. Bosco, for instance, has gone from pretty funny to grating over the season, and while I loved Hugh Bliss first time we saw him, his alter-ego in Reality 2.0 just annoyed me, I couldn't even remember why I ever thought he was funny. The only good thing about that encounter was Max, and that's the problem... none of these characters are funny except for the way Sam & Max react to them.

Maybe that's just the way Sam & Max is, but if so, I hope they focus on more character variety in season 2 so it's not that noticable. I'd prefer that over a variety in locations myself, if they'd have to choose.


Disclaimer: I do love the Sam & Max episodes, don't get me wrong! This is one of the few gripes I actually have with these games, otherwise they're fantastic!

[Hero1]

Originally Posted by Laserschwert

By the by, I wouldn't mind Season 2 going for an episode every 2 months, so that they can be made just a little longer.

I agree with that.. it would give the development team a little more time for the episodes.. 4-5 hour game every 2 months would still be awesome.

[Mel]

So let's say, theoretically, you get your 4-5 hour game. Will you then push for 8-10 hours in the (theoretical) season 3. Then more and more until we're back to the traditional game development cycle and Telltale's business model has just flown the coop.

I like 'em the way they are.

[Hero1]

Originally Posted by Mel

So let's say, theoretically, you get your 4-5 hour game. Will you then push for 8-10 hours in the (theoretical) season 3. Then more and more until we're back to the traditional game development cycle and Telltale's business model has just flown the coop.

I like 'em the way they are.

No, I wouldn't.. but if you read the telltale article in the GDC mag.. the 1 month release date puts enormous pressure on Telltale. I'd be quite happy for it to be 2 months..just to give them that extra time... it's quite insane the quality product they've been able to put out in such a short span of time, no one else has been able to do it.. I think a bi-monthly release would surely ease some of the pressure.. and you still get the episodes quite regularly..there is still a steady stream of content..

[Mel]

I brought up a similar point with someone not too long ago of increasing the time between episodes to ease the pace. He made the point that it may not be the pace of the work (or workload) so much as it's been all Sam & Max, all the time and that just a little break from working on that one thing is going to be good for them. There are plenty of people here who would love all Sam & Max but I can attest that working constantly on one project gets old (no matter how interesting it is).

[Hero1]

Well I hope they have a good break between season 1 and 2 so they come back even stronger.

[cowking]

I would suppose it would destroy the "each episode a separate game unto itself" idea but it would add to the game if in episode 4 you could go to the theatre and tv station, and maybe there wouldn't be alot to do in those places but they could have clues or items, it would add greatly to time aspect involved with each game and its difficulty w/o much more programming required and it would ease some of the time burden on them. That what was great about the original game and made it so hard, because there were tons of places to try.

[schuubars]

Originally Posted by Mel

I brought up a similar point with someone not too long ago of increasing the time between episodes to ease the pace. He made the point that it may not be the pace of the work (or workload) so much as it's been all Sam & Max, all the time and that just a little break from working on that one thing is going to be good for them. There are plenty of people here who would love all Sam & Max but I can attest that working constantly on one project gets old (no matter how interesting it is).

artistic burnout.

One of the worse things that can happen to such a Company, if you ask me.