Q&A With the Team

[Jake]

Welcome to the secret forum! As a thank you for pre-ordering, we've created this little backstage area where you can hang out with the development team, keep an eye on the development of Tales of Monkey Island, and hopefully get your hands on things before we go wide with them to the public.

First off, though, let's start a Q&A thread!

Any questions you've got for the development team, ask 'em here!
We'll try to dogpile this thread with high quality facts and higher quality lies conversation!

[adg1034]

My blind fanaticism for the MI series has me foaming at the mouth right now, but my (much smaller) saner side is having nightmarish flashbacks to Escape from Monkey Island. I don't know- maybe it's just the art style. (And Guybrush with a beard? Really?)

But all of that is irrelevant. Telltale (and Lucasarts, grudgingly), I now love you for even more forever than I did previously. Now don't screw this up.

[Erwin]

The only thing I'm wondering at the moment is how on earth you managed to keep this quiet for so long.

[Bagge]

Holy cripes on toast! This was huge news. I'm still grinning, even though it's been a couple of hours since I found out about Tales of Monkey Island.

I have some questions for the dev team:

1: Will you be using a mouse-based (aka. Sam & Max) interface or a keyboard/gamepad-based interfaced (aka. W&G) for the PC version of TMI?

2: Are we going to visit any familiar islands from the other games, or will TMI feature all new locations?

3: How will TMI deal with some of the controversies from EMI (such as Herman being Elaine's father and the stone monkey head on Monkey Island being a huge robot)? Will this be treated as canon, or will you silently ignore these things?


Thanks!

[Nojh]

I've liked every Monkey Island game that has come out although LeChuck's Revenge still holds the title rank, likely because it was the first I played. Each game was true to the spirit and had its own quirks as well and I have faith all of you (given who you are) know exactly how to proceed with this (and already have, if the trailer is any indication).

So let the questions begin!

General
1. Who talked to who first? TellTale or Lucas Arts?
2. How did you guys manage to not tell anybody about this for so long? Really?
3. How much input does Lucas Arts have vs Tell Tale and any other 3rd parties involved in the series? In areas of story, game play, music and concept art design. Is this is TellTale production with Lucas Art's permission, or a Lucas Arts production with TellTale's programming and distribution?
4. What are you allowed to tell us about Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition?

Developer Specific
1. So how many of the past games have you played? (Time to prove your cred!)
2. Which was your favorite Monkey Island game (if applicable) or favorite adventure game that you haven't worked on?

Umm... when I think of more I'll post.

Nojh

[Scar Trek]

Is that Jake Rodkin from Idle Thumbs? Best podcast ever, this thread should be full of hot scoops so we ought to lay down some tarp, but I digress.

My first on-topic question is, can you promise us no godawful minigames akin to Monkey Kombat?

Second, are you angling to make games based on any other beloved old Lucasarts properties? I'm sure you can't say much more than yes or no, but it would be enough to instill hope in the shrivelled, blackened hearts of early 90s computer gamers everywhere.

Third, unlike Sam & Max which was a single game, Monkey Island has a bit of a heritage. Are you going to be bringing back a lot of recurring characters and locales, or aiming more towards a fresh experience?

Finally, have you made sure everyone in the office has suffered Monkey Island 4 and understood just what the hell went wrong?

[KilianValkhof]

Awesome! You've used MI 3's tune as the music for the trailer, am I right? I have it as my ring tone

Also: favorite line from the series?

[talon2000uk]

I also really want to know about the control system, not a big fan of the Wallace and Gromit one. To Xboxified in my opinion.

[jannar85]

When does this episodic series take place? Is it after the 4th game? Or somewhere in the middle?

[LuigiHann]

July 7th? Announced barely a month from release? Am I allowed to say "You crafty bastards" here? If not, feel free to censor that.

Also, if I'm interpreting the screens and concept art right, it looks like their pirate ship will become a "hub area," which is a pretty clever solution for combining a swashbuckling adventure with a grounded episodic feel. Very nice.

I'm happy Dominic is there, but did you get Earl Boen as well? I thought he had retired, but it looks like he retired from screen acting in favor of... game and cartoon voice-overs. So no excuses there I suppose the fact that I can't tell from the trailer means it ultimately doesn't matter, but still, Dr. Silberman demands respect.

When does this take place within the series? Almost looks like you're going for something between 2 and 3, which would be odd but could work...

[adurdin]

Congratulations on developing the next Monkey Island games. I eagerly look forward to whatever advance information you can leak, although I have only one question:

Do you have Dominic Armato doing the voice of Guybrush?

[Laserschwert]

When are we going to hear some samples of Michael Land's work for the new series? I think the trailer just used music from 3 and 4, so I'm REALLY looking forward to get some new MI-music AT LAST. Furthermore, with you guys releasing soundtracks for all your game-series, this (hopefully) appears to be the first officially released "Monkey Island"-soundtrack, which makes me drooooooool...

(Although today's double MI-news made me drool since then anyway...)

[danstu]

Thank you Telltale... This is the best E3 present ever. I preordered before I finished reading the announcement.

[mikemania]

Originally Posted by Bagge

3: How will TMI deal with some of the controversies from EMI (such as Herman being Elaine's father and the stone monkey head on Monkey Island being a huge robot)? Will this be treated as canon, or will you silently ignore these things?

Ooh, good question.

Um... are we allowed to ask whether the Secret of Monkey Island will be revealed?

[bookwo3107]

I'll skip the gushing and go straight to the questions. (this is of course, very difficult, as all I've been doing since I've read the announcement is gush)

(1) Will the Wii see a disc release for the season like Sam & Max did? I've already pre-ordered for the PC (obviously) but I'd be willing to double-dip if I can get a disc for the Wii.

(2) I know that this is something that's probably going to be laughed off since season one hasn't even began, but is there a chance for Season Two or is the license deal just for one season?

(3) Will each individual episode function like the Sam & Max seasons where each episode is relatively self-sufficient but works together to form an overarching story, or like the individual chapters in the Monkey Island games where each chapter needs the one before it to inform what is happening in it?

[figmentPez]

Is Murray (the demonic skull) going to make an appearance?

[Winther]

I'm sorry, just, right up front, I need to let this out:

OMGOMGZOMGOMFGWTFHOLYCRUD!!!111!!1!!1!! (And I usually NEVER use internet acronyms...)

Right. Questions... questions... I realize that in the coming months you'll probably be sick of various "Will we be seeing such-and-such make a return from the previous games"-questions, but I just have one, really.

Insult swordfighting, yes?

...

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG---

[fhqwhgads]

OK, why don't you guys just take ALL my money, and then you can just send me whatever you release in the future upfront. Really. No need to convince me anymore.

[DoubtedEdwardo]

I just want to know if these games will contain the Ron Gilbert-endorsed Secret of Monkey Island(tm)!

[Jake]

Originally Posted by DoubtedEdwardo

I just want to know if these games will contain the Ron Gilbert-endorsed Secret of Monkey Island(tm)!

Though they might be Ron Gilbert-endorsed, they won't contain the Secret of Monkey Island. Unless we put it in by accident. There's going to be some good stuff in here, though, for people who have been following these characters for all this time.