Q&A With the Team

[Ry Guy]

Originally Posted by Zomantic

Whoa! Awesome stuff there... Some of those drawings are genuinely scary , others inspire sympathy, a few are even cute. Really impressive! Oh, and lotta zombies too... (You mean... ZOMBIES?!)

Thanks! Who doesn't love zombies???

Originally Posted by Onno

Wow Ryan. That looks absolutely amazing!

How do you typically make those drawings? Do you sketch on paper first or directly on the computer? using a pen tablet? Wat software do you prefer?

Were those TMI sketches done in Illustrator? They look so clean and crisp, they could very well be vector-graphics for box-art. Actually, the background-graphics do as well.

Are you employed by TellTale or are you a freelance artist that's available for other projects once TMI is finished?

Thanks man! I usually just sketch out a line drawing of whatever on paper (i'm still getting used to drawing on a cintique, doesn't have the same feel as a pencil across paper), scan it in, then I color it and all that jazz in PS. I used to prefer painter, but have gotten fond of PS's speed. At home i use an old tablet that i've had for like 6 years, but here at work I have the opportunity to use a cintique. Some days i just prefer the tablet..

The TMI sketches were done in PS, with a good amount of selecting for clean edges.

I'm working full time at TTG as the lone concept guy. I do some freelance on the side to feed the non existent family of 9, but that gets pretty tiring.

[seanvanaman]

Well, now I just feel bad for not attempting to answer your questions That generally means, we don't know, we're not at liberty to say, or this thread has just gotten bigger than anyone thought it would! Alas, let me try.

Originally Posted by taumel

I don't know if this has been asked before but are there any plans for localised versions, german in particular? And if so, will this be done before the DVD release also for the episodes, updating already released episodes as well? I don't need it personally, but it would be great if i could share the game this way with my daughter.

I haven't heard anything about localizations yet. If not, think of how much fun you'll have translating for your daughter! You can do all the piratey voices you want!

Originally Posted by taumel

In a maybe behind the scenes i would be curious to see how the production of Monkey Island worked, the worflow with the different stages and also finally showing off the TTG tool.

This WOULD be cool.

Originally Posted by taumel

How many people are working on Monkey Island at TTG?

25? 30? It's hard to say, it's always changing. I'm coming over from WG right now, while others are jumping back and forth, etc.

Originally Posted by taumel

do you have any plans to shorten up the update cycles, maybe to every two or three weeks or is it more about producing more series with the already familiar update cycles or putting more work into a normal serie?

We make 'em as fast as we can. A month seems to be about our breaking point, but I'm sure we'd experiment with the sweet spot of release times for episodes if we could.

Originally Posted by taumel

Will there be a XBLA version of Monkey Island as well or is it tied to the Wii due to some exlusive deal or is the franchise not allowed to show up on the Xbox360?

This is a little above my pay-grade, but I can say there are no announced plans to bring this XBLA right now.

Originally Posted by taumel

Now after you worked out the hint system will we also see an increase in the puzzle complexity to also please more of the veterans and will inventory combinations making their way also into other series? Btw i read that there will be four hint grades, are these like none, low, medium, high?

The hint system doesn't give us, the designers, carte blanche to create mind-bending, spirit-breaking puzzles. Earlier I read somebody describe the MI games of old as trying to "beat" the player -- which is just about right when you think of some of those puzzles. Our puzzles are going to be pretty close to what you're familiar with when it comes to Telltale, but with some added MI complexity (which is usually pretty bizarre). Our hint system will work the same as it has in our other games, but hints might be delivered in a more organic fashion (which you'll have to play to see!)

Originally Posted by taumel

What has changed, that after so many years of trying it finally happened that LucasArts allowed it?

I don't know -- a lot of things have to happen at the same time for a deal like this to actually come to life, so I think it was just the right time and the right people were involved.

Originally Posted by taumel

I suspect if Monkey Island goes well, which i would say is safe to assume, there is more to come from this direction, right?

Speaking PURELY as a fan, I hope so. But for now let's just assume this is our only chance to return to Monkey Island and enjoy every second of it!

[Todesreiter]

Norman Matt sais that it will be a pleasure for him to speak
guybrush again for the german version of tales of mi and mi1 se!

so you have to tell the publisher
that it will be a MUST to ask him !!!

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by Todesreiter

Norman Matt sais that it will be a pleasure for him to speak
guybrush again for the german version of tales of mi and mi1 se!

As a little explaination for the non-Germans here, Norman Matt is basically the German Dominic Armato, lending Guybrush his voice in CMI and EMI... in fact, he sounds DAMN close to Dom... so... "Dom close", I guess

[Skippy the Demon]

I hope you guys get him then, it would've stunk if they had gotten someone else to play Guybrush in the English version.

[Dave Grossman]

Originally Posted by GuyMontague

<===

I applaud the Curse team for coming up with door-hinge. I know it doesn't technically rhyme, but it's pretty darn good:

The cap'n burst in, lookin' like he'd kick down the door-hinge
"We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an or-inge!"

I believe I personally gave them that rhyme. I had come up with it for a Pajama Sam game where I needed rhymes for all the primary colors for some reason.
(Seems to me Tim also called me for a rhyme for "fandango" in that same general time period....)

Edit: Chuck just walked past my desk, and he claims he came up with door hinge independently. We're going to have to duke it out.
(He also claims not to have played Pajama Sam, if you can believe that!)

[GeeTom]

Ahoy me monkey island fans! I finally preordered the game - this is my first post and i am already in the vip-area.

and i have question:
why did we have to wait sooo long for this!? xD

btw i'm also from germany and was used to the german voices, which were pretty awesome and very close to the original. And i agree, they have to get norman matt for guybrush.

i just played through CMI again with english voices - now i'm "prepared" for ToMI

[Arodin]

I was curious about this Norman Matt guy (even though I don't know more than a few words of German), so I looked around and found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=r1pXHhrToLw

He does have a Dom-like tone. It's kind of fun watching it in German...

[Dave Grossman]

Originally Posted by Joe Newberry

It's been awhile since I played it, but didn't Loom kind of wrap up all its plot threads at the end?

No way, Loom was a total cliffhanger. Rips in the universe and all that sort of thing. And there was a sequel in development at LucasArts for a while - "Forge." Our own Mike Stemmle even worked on it.

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by Arodin

I was curious about this Norman Matt guy (even though I don't know more than a few words of German), so I looked around and found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=r1pXHhrToLw

He does have a Dom-like tone. It's kind of fun watching it in German...

I've just checked out the Spanish intro... Guybrush sounds a little TOO happy filling his journal with his tragic tale...
Edit: Maybe we should post these in Dominic's thread for him to check out.

[fdisk]

Originally Posted by Laserschwert

I've just checked out the Spanish intro... Guybrush sounds a little TOO happy filling his journal with his tragic tale...
Edit: Maybe we should post these in Dominic's thread for him to check out.

I played all 3 Monkey Island in spanish, it's weird to play MI3 now in english, although it makes the experience new and fun!

[Dave Grossman]

...and boy, are my elbows tired!

OK, actually, it's my eyeballs. I didn't have a laptop or anything with me at the show, so today I'm back in the office and I just skimmed through this whole thread, all 500+ posts of it. The enthusiasm here is awesome!

I avoided replying to many of the posts I saw early in the thread, because I figured that in 27 pages surely someone must have addressed them. But it seems we've actually left a lot of questions unanswered. So, uh... well, I guess I'll try going back to the beginning again and picking out a few to actually answer.

Sorry if I miss yours. Feel free to ask it again.

[Paine]

Okay, I finally have a question. It's probably better directed at LucasArts, but they're not cool like Telltale and directly communicating with their fans. I'm hoping that as former Lucas employees and game programmers in general, you guys can answer it:

How much effort/resources would it take to port the SCUMM engine to the DS? Would it be comparable to producing one game? If it was done, would it allow easy and quick ports of all old SCUMM games to the DS? If so, how the hell has no one at Lucas had this idea already? Sell 5-10 already popular games for the price of one engine-porting development cycle. Seems like guaranteed profit.

[jukeboxhero]

Scumm VM for DS has been done, it's just homebrewed. Look around the web. Therein lies your answer.

[xuicsus]

I told my friend that the biggest thing that came out of E3 was the return of Monkey Island! His answer was, "What's Monkey Island?" to which I proceeded in answering... "Look behind you! It's a three-headed monkey!"

Needless to say, he now thinks I'm utterly insane now. It's going to be my mission, however, to show him the original when it's re-released and get him to support this movement of new monkey games!

Long Live the ghost pi--- *stab stab*

Long live the Fearless Guybr--- *stab stab*

Long live the... um... three-headed monkeys? *much applause from the dagger-wielding-primate*

[HoppyDragon]

Originally Posted by xuicsus

"What's Monkey Island?"

On one hand, I know that if Monkey Island becomes more popular and well known than it already is, LucasArts may continue the series for quite some time again. On the other hand, if the series is popular, will they cater to the old fans or destroy the franchise in the process of trying to make it mass appealing?

The only people I trust right now with Monkey Island is Telltale.

And back on topic, I have my own question, which hopefully hasn't been asked already. In the main forum a few people were talking about night scenes and locations in TMI. So, will there be any?

[snotsnit]

Originally Posted by xuicsus

"What's Monkey Island?"

BLASHPHEMY! May he take a long walk off of a very short plank.

[seanvanaman]

Originally Posted by HoppyDragon

And back on topic, I have my own question, which hopefully hasn't been asked already. In the main forum a few people were talking about night scenes and locations in TMI. So, will there be any?

Oh yes.

[snotsnit]

Originally Posted by Dave Grossman

I believe I personally gave them that rhyme. I had come up with it for a Pajama Sam game where I needed rhymes for all the primary colors for some reason.
(Seems to me Tim also called me for a rhyme for "fandango" in that same general time period....)

Edit: Chuck just walked past my desk, and he claims he came up with door hinge independently. We're going to have to duke it out.
(He also claims not to have played Pajama Sam, if you can believe that!)

Technically, there are 2 words that actually rhyme with orange: sporange and blorenge. check them on google

[rogerthehart]

Have you looked at scummvm.org?