Q&A With the Team

[Quuux]

Originally Posted by MarkDarin

SWEET! I loved Jam and Trax's Decent Shoes I sure hope Treason Spree is just as good!

It can't be worse than Cheese 'n' Bun which when you boil it down turned out to be about a sandwich.

[Eduardo]

Originally Posted by LuigiHann

That was more of a disguise (perhaps a transformation-based disguise, but still) than a form.

Yes,I think it was a disguise, he still stinked of rotten while looking like that.

And he did it before in the 1st game.

[hamzie]

Originally Posted by Eduardo

Yes,I think it was a disguise, he still stinked of rotten while looking like that.

And he did it before in the 1st game.

agreed

i should stop abusing the spoiler thing

[Armakuni]

Originally Posted by Joe Newberry

I was reading the other day about how in the early days of Sierra On-Line, Roberta Williams would personally give people hints when they called the office number. That made me wonder if any of the developers that went back and played the original games, which another post mentioned a lot of people were doing, got stuck on a puzzle and had to ask someone that worked on that game for a solution?

That reminds me of an interview she gave... when talking about the much harder puzzles in games back then, she mentioned they expected video gamers to be more educated back then as computers were very expensive

[Bagge]

Originally Posted by Armakuni

That reminds me of an interview she gave... when talking about the much harder puzzles in games back then, she mentioned they expected video gamers to be more educated back then as computers were very expensive

Wow, that's lack of self insight! Roberta Williams wrote some of the most illogical, unfair and downright bad puzzles in the history of adventure gaming. Education will not help you solve those puzzles. It was a test of patience more than anything.

[freewheel]

This is really amazing. And actually, i DO want some of them semi-illogical puzzles involved in ToMI. Come ON, anything to make the episode last longer than a measly 2-8 hours!
Well.
Except maybe a 6 hour Stan sales pitch. That might be pushing it.

No, but seriously. the puzzles in the new S&M, SB and W&G series are just downright wussy compared to the old MI puzzles. We were bred on stronger grog than this and I for one can't stomach the watered-down version.

Like come on, it was the PAIN of going through the oop chee ack that made it so maddeningly memorable. Loved it.

IMO, hints to the game only breed the generation of lazy whiners we see growing up around us.

[DarthBo]

I agree with freewheel, don't make it too easy!

[Bagge]

There's no use in puzzles being hard if you cannot solve it by logic. The fun of puzzle solving lies in actually solving puzzles yourself, not by desperately clicking and combining everything until you stumble on some illogical solution cooked up by the game designer to artificially increase the length of the game.

[serweet]

Originally Posted by Bagge

There's no use in puzzles being hard if you cannot solve it by logic. The fun of puzzle solving lies in actually solving puzzles yourself, not by desperately clicking and combining everything until you stumble on some illogical solution cooked up by the game designer to artificially increase the length of the game.

Though finding jokes by combining the wrong things together, I find, has always been a brilliant thing in Monkey Island
But agreed, the fun is in knowing you have solved a puzzle, rather than tried everything.

[geminisfl]

¡¡THANKS!!

I've been waiting for this so long, that I just.... JUST... CAN'T BELEIVE IT!
I can't even think about any interesting question to make!

Hugs from Spain!

[Silverwolfpet]

I hope that it will provide with at least 8-10 hours of gameplay (not knowing the puzzles) and 1-2 hours using a walkthrough.
Ummm, here's another question: Would you accept help from your fans while working on a Monkey Island title? I mean, it would be exciting to find an unnoficial way of collaborating with you. Maybe gather a small group of people (such as us), and ask them to fill out forms with questions like
"Who would you like to see most in the next Monkey Island game, besides the main characters? a) Stan b) Murray c) Herman"
or
"What location would you like to see once more in the next MI title? a) Melee Island b) Blood Island c) Phatt Island"

Maybe I'm just rambling here, but I think most of us would like to help a bit at creating a MI title. Right guys?

[Toothless Gibbon]

Originally Posted by Bagge

There's no use in puzzles being hard if you cannot solve it by logic. The fun of puzzle solving lies in actually solving puzzles yourself, not by desperately clicking and combining everything until you stumble on some illogical solution cooked up by the game designer to artificially increase the length of the game.

Although a lot puzzles have logical solutions, many many more require lateral thinking. Thats the secret of a good puzzle IMO.

Use key to open door is logical.

Use monkey as wrench to to turn off a waterfall is lateral thinking. (OK, extreme example)

[corruptbiggins]

No questions (yet!), I just wanted to join the fawning over Telltale for bringing Monkey Island back to our monitors after all this time.

Because of this (and SMI:SE) I've started playing through the series again - it's been a few of years since I did a complete play through all the games. It's surprising how much I don't remember!

[Bagge]

Originally Posted by Toothless Gibbon

Although a lot puzzles have logical solutions, many many more require lateral thinking. Thats the secret of a good puzzle IMO.

Use key to open door is logical.

Use monkey as wrench to to turn off a waterfall is lateral thinking. (OK, extreme example)

I was talking about logical as opposed to illogical, not as opposed to lateral. In Ron Gilbert's words:

Puzzles and their solutions need to make sense. They don't have to be obvious, just make sense. The best reaction after solving a tough puzzle should be, "Of course, why didn't I think of that sooner!" The worst, and most often heard after being told the solution is, "I never would have gotten that!" If the solution can only be reached by trial and error or plain luck, it's a bad puzzle.

[Shwoo]

Originally Posted by Toothless Gibbon

Use monkey as wrench to to turn off a waterfall is lateral thinking. (OK, extreme example)

That puzzle might be a bad example. If you're not American, the term monkey wrench probably won't pop into your mind during that puzzle, even if you know that it's called that in America.

I wouldn't even have made the connection if it hadn't been mentioned in the E3 demo. I think it was the E3 demo?

[Toothless Gibbon]

Originally Posted by Bagge

I was talking about logical as opposed to illogical, not as opposed to lateral. In Ron Gilbert's words:

I see what your saying, but I love puzzles that use plays on words etc that, at least initally, seem illogical.

However Im sure its fine line between challenging and frustrating when coming up with them.

[freewheel]

I get the whole need for a logical solution to the puzzles of course, but we never really had that issue with MI puzzles did we? Even IF i did, out of eventual desperation, solved a number of puzzles by randomly chucking stuff together, we could always perceive on hindsight some slender warped logic involved. And that was generally sufficient for me. It just meant I needed to be more warped and tenuous in my logic for the next killer puzzle. (See, more important life skills learnt already!)

But I totally dig what serweet said about the wrong answers. The new series all give one standard dialogue for "I can't use such and such with such and such". How boring can that get?

[Merkel]

The "wind blowing the scarf" thing in MI2 was pretty hard to think of, but that was such a great puzzle. Took me ages, but it still is a great puzzle

[Toothless Gibbon]

Originally Posted by Shwoo

That puzzle might be a bad example. If you're not American, the term monkey wrench probably won't pop into your mind during that puzzle, even if you know that it's called that in America.

I wouldn't even have made the connection if it hadn't been mentioned in the E3 demo. I think it was the E3 demo?

Well that puzzle is renowned for being the most 'lateral' in the games, and it was a killer puzzle. I'm not from the US though and still got there in the end. Once hypnotised however, the monkey was shaped like a wrench (spanner).

I think it took me so long to solve though that I probably would use a walkthough / hint system if they did something similar in Tales.

The Internet was the biggest thing that killed adventure games for a while IMO.

[Blondebeard2]

The Monkey Island logo changed a little bit. Now it looks more like a vectorial illustration
Since both LucasArts and Telltale use the new logo, I'm curious to know who created the new Monkey Island logo?