Why are they releasing SNM2 episodically?

if they're gonna do it the way they did it with Bone.....

I'd kinda like a full game. i don't really want to pay 20 bucks for a 4-6 (maybe even less) hour game. Sam and Max wouldnt be the same. maybe they could start selling it in stores? i just dont wnat to lose the file and not be able to play it anymore.

[Udvarnoky]

It's going to be episodic. The thing is, given Telltale's size, budget, and today's market, it wouldn't be feasible to make one huge game and sell it in stores.

Downloadable Sam & Max cases really isn't that horrible an idea. Freelance Police was actually supposed to be that way, but even when it wasn't it was still made up of individual cases that made up a big plot, and supposedly they were going to offer additional downloadable cases after the game's release. And frankly, I'd rather small, consistent doses of Sam & Max than no Sam & Max at all (or Sam & Max in the hands of a less capable developer).

Also, you do not have to re-purchase a game from Telltale if you delete it or use another computer. You just have to re-activate it.

But guys. If you think about it, aren't almost all of the old adventure games built of chapters? Monkey Island for instance, and Grim Fandango, Discworld etc etc.

Come think about it. Adventure games do almost always begin with some kind of introduction (i.e. get out Mêlée Island in The Secret of Monkey island, or get out of Scabb Island in LeChuck's Revenge (I bet you can come up with some other examples as well)).

I would say that the only difference is that you cannot complete the whole game in a couple of weeks, and that the developers wont have to stress in the end of the project (which eventually could result in a less good last part of the game).

I love this concept!

I think its fine. I'm just cheering that Sam n Max are back once more. If the episodes are a hit then maybe releasing them all in one package once they are done would be good. The episodes would keep revenue coming in and thus fueling production on the rest of the chapters, it is a great idea. If you remember freelance police was mostly done when it was cancelled. Alot of the money needed for a game goes into marketing and distributing - so online, bite sized morsels of Samnmax will help increase the chances of seeing the furry duo again. Long live Sam n Max! hoorah.

[Alucard]

bah. I sure hope snm2 isn't "episodes". from what I hear the bone chapter is done in an hour. I can go buy a used game for 10 bucks and it will take a lot longer then 1 hour to finish. I guess it's back to replaying grim fandango etc for me.

keep up the work telltale your games do look good but they need a lot more content.

how about this guys.. when theyve finished say 4 episodes they release that as a game in a box in stores 4 you guys.. but if you ever want to see a sam and max game..it cant NOT be done in episodes.. it would take telltale 2 years to make a complete sam and max game.. it would cost them a lot of money and by that time they would probably go out of business and we wouldnt see anything .. with episodes.. we get something every 6 months.. telltale stays alive.. and sam and max stays alive.. the episodic format is perfect for keeping a small company like telltale alive.. because they have that revenue coming in from say the 1st sam and max case..and that helps them make the 2nd case.. I think they are really on track with the formula.. I think for these episodes they need to make the games a lot harder..cause that will extend the time you take to play it.. I remember originall on hit the road.. i was stuck and i may have only been 2 hours of gameplay in.. but it took me 3 months to progress.. because i'd go away..and then come back to the game later try and figure it out etc.. and you know I dont find that frustrating..the greater the challenge the sweeter the reward is when you dofigure it out..

I think you are missing the economics of scale. Telltale is created a new quality product for a niche market. Ofcourse its going to cost more. When you have some multimillion number of people buying your product, you can afford to charge less.

As for the value of a 4-5 hour game for $20... I look at it this way. Myself I buy new games. I don't really mess with the used game market. Most games cost me $50 for around 10 hours of game play. At 5 hours for $20, Bone is a bargin. To me at least.

My only concern is if Telltale will be able to put out other episodes in a timely matter.

[Alucard]

I guess I'm not part of said niche market. When I spend money on a game I stack it up against how long it is. Take the GTA games. You can play those things hours and hours. Granted LA style adventures haven't always been really long but the way games have been in the past 5-7 years have been to make them longer and longer. I used to use the rule for my game consoles when deciding weather or not to buy a game. If I rent the game and I'm not anywhere near the end of it at the end of the rental and I enjoy it I'll buy it. (except wild arms 3 ( now I can't find it cheap enough to buy second hand) Anyway, a 2 hour game isn't something I'll buy anytime soon for 20 bucks since there will likely be 4-5 episodes. which means 100 bucks for 10 hours gameplay? I guess this niche market has deep pockets too.

I'm quite happy with the idea that game length isn't everything - take the recently released Fahrenheit(/Indigo Prophecy) - took me 7 hours first time through, but absolute genius game and worth every penny of £25 I paid for it.

That said - I've already posted my thoughts on telltale's pricing policy (or lack of) elsewhere. Even if the size of episodes increases for the money, or the cost goes down after the first episode - this first episode is already alienating people... it was not a good idea to price the first ever release at a level that people start questioning its worth - at the very least, they needed a cheap introductory offer to get everyone playing.

Alucard, if you don't value quality adventure games enough to pay for it, don't play them. Really, problem solved.

From my point of view, GTA games are a waste of money. Now put down the pitch forks and let me explain myself. I love GTA concept and have bought all 5 of the GTA games. (Vice City was my Favorite FYI) How many have I finished? 0. Thats right none of them, because they are too freakin long. I kick myself every time I buy a GTA because I'm never going to get to the end of the game. I only get an hour or two to play games a night (and up to 4 hours on weekend nights) and really, I don't play every night. So after 3 weeks, I'm sick of the game, ready to move on to the next game, and only gotten maybe 30% completed. Normally I want to be done with a game in two weeks or under 15 hours total game play time. Any more than that, I'm spending money on content I will never see. For my money, I don't want more game play, I just want better game play.

15 hours would be an ideal time-frame for a decent adventure...

If an adventure game gets beyond that, it usually could have done with some tighter "editing"... (kinda like The Longest Journey - brilliant, but I couldn't help feeling it could have done with trimming one or two scenes)

Whenever a game extends beyond the 15-hour kind of ballpark, its inevitably making up the time with time-filler gameplay.

GTA does it, the Final Fantasy games do it... they even have a decent amount of story, but when you really think about it, 90% of the gameplay is just stretching out the time between "events"... and thus, pretty eventless. (Not to say this isn't a valid idea - I enjoyed the GTAs and FFs a lot)

I think tightly scripted adventure games are always going to have a different price-to-length ratio... because so much more work goes into the same time frame. That said, in the same way that a 12-hour long linear action shooter is hard to swallow, so is 5 hours of adventure game for the same money...