Other platforms
Just wanted to know if TellTale is thinking of making their games for other platforms as well? Linux and Mac OS (X) for example? I can tell you a few good reasons why that would be a good idea, but first I'd just like to know if TT is even interested in something in this direction. (that, and the fact that I have to study for my next exam!)
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
I'm willing to claim that I fit into the adventure-gamers' generation (being born in 1983) and from what I can see, quite a number of this generation started looking at Linux as a great alternative to Windows. I, for instance, use Linux since 1996 and the only reason that brought be back to Windows (as dual-boot!) could be a good game that didn't have a Linux port. That happened only twice in that period - once it was because of NWN, when it wasn't ported yet.
But since in my eyes - and I guess we're all here on the TellTale forums for the same reason - there hasn't been a good enough Windows-only game in the past decade, I don't plan on having (and buying!) an expensive OS clogging my disk to just sit there waiting for the good times to return. I'm more then willing to pay a fair price for a good game - that has nothing to do with the fact that (almost) all software I use, including games and the OS itself are free. But I'm not willing to buy a whole OS (and another disk!) to just play a game - that's one (or two) expenses too much!
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way.
On a side note: if you'd stick with open-standards, you could save some money on the creation of the games - let's say you use ogg/vorbis instead of mp3, because you don't need to pay for the usage (like you do with mp3!). Also you might take some open-source tools (or even engines) to lighten your bills.
I know this post isn't the most coherent in forum-history, but I've got waaaaay too much things on my mind to clean it up. ...sorry
P.S. Words can't describe the happiness I felt when I first read about TT's start and plans! I hope you can repeat that feeling with making games that I can actually play!
but i dont think they will Support Comunism
Didn't know that using free and open source software [FOSS] says anything about the ideological or to which pollitical line you count yourself.
While we're at it ...I didn't even know I was communist! In all these years! Who would have though?!? *gasp* I guess I have to call to the Voting commision and tell them that I voted oposite of my nature!!
Oh, and in case you didn't know - you're just "supporting communism" as much as I do and TellTales did it even a bit more with putting up this forum. mvnForum is FOSS, as you can clearly guess from the GPL license stated on their download page.
You'd be surprised how much of your so called "communist" software and technology you use
i was just joking
I know ...I didn't take your "teasing" really seriously as you can see. But I did use it to try to avoid flames from someone who didn't understand your joke.
Trust me ...when you've been using GNU/Linux for such a long time, you've gone through a lot of very harsh abuse by M$ die-hards (and some wierd anti-communism wierdos O_o*) ...It takes quite a bit more to make me mad wink
* those can be wierd - never experienced communism or even socialism, never even learned anything about it. maybe "had a grandpa who fought in the war against commies" and then they presume you're a "communist pig", because you use FOSS. *shivers while remembering an incident with such a freak*
That would be awesome, but somehow I seriously doubt that 3d games work on ScummVM. So I guess we either have to convience TellTale to make a port, or hope it plays under Wine (god, please, not Transgaming!)
Anyway, back on topic...speaking as a Mac user who only owns one PC that's old enough to qualify for retirement benefits...including a Mac port or making the game Mac/PC hybrid would just about make my millenium. I would love you forever.
Thank you. That is all.
Whoops, my bad then ...didn't check which non-SCUMM games play on ScummVM :]
Surprisingly it's not on ScummVM's compatibility list.
*goes double check*
Oh, it's there under Subprojects as "Residual". Heh, my bad. All the more reason that I buy a copy of MI4 and Grim Fadango :]
With this said, yea - I'd be completely fine if TellTale games would work hand-in-hand with ScummVM to make their games work on other platforms.
p.s. thanks for correcting my mistake [:">]
The "Residual" subproject/CVS module (of ScummVM) is intended to play GRIME games. I hope I made your day. ;;)
Yea, Linux and Mac OS X ports of great games would make make my millenium too. And I guess, since Mac OS X uses a similar kernel as Linux, there shouldn't be too much hussle making both ports work.
...Yes, yes you did. Whooooo!
games i played
mi1
mi2
mi3
beneath a steel sky
DOTT
Maniac mansion
The Dig (almost finished)
Simon The Sorceror 2
Broken Sword 2 (almost finished,deleted my last save game
Anyhoo, I think we're getting "slightly" off topic here. This is not a "what-i've-succeeded-to-run-onScummVM" topic.
It appears that there would be interest for Linux and Mac ports, but there hasn't been a single reply from a TellTale member yet. It'd be great if we got an official "yes" on this matter. ...That'd make my day/millenium
Firstly, I welcome the thought of TellTale releasing their games on multiple platforms.
Secondly, in order to maximize the user base and minimize additional development cost for any ports, I submit the following suggestion:
Release the game on one disc, containing the data files and whichever platform engines TellTale wish to make themselves.
Then, release the source code of the engine only (obviously you do NOT want to use the GPL), or even just the bits and pieces required to be different between platforms, and let the fans do ports to whatever operating system they would like to see the game ported to. THEN, gather those engines on the TellTale website and put them up for download, so people who go out and buy the disc can download a suitable engine for whatever platform they currently use.
Of course, this requires that TellTale be utterly devoted to their fans, but in return they will surely gain a huge and completely loyal fanbase (relative to the number of adventure gamers across the world) and can use the ports as the basis of portable engines in the future, thereby cutting development cost on future titles while being able to release multiple engines on one disc.
Another sideeffect of releasing source code and portable engines will of course be that TellTale's games will outlast most every game on the market today, thanks to devoted fans and constantly updated engines and even new ports to as-of-yet non-existant operating systems and consoles.
I also hope TellTale will continue LucasArts' fine tradition of educating users on the importance of always installing and playing off of a backup in order to protect the original from damage. Being a collector who really cares about keeping my originals in mint condition WAY into the future, I owe a lot to LucasArts for showing me how a true collector works to maintain his collection.
In summary, I have high hopes for a bright future as TellTale works to bring adventure gaming back to its roots. LucasArts sure won't.
I was thinking more in the direction of having a close-source native port (on the same CD) or a cooperation with the ScummVM team. Wasn't thinking of such a bold idea as opening the source, but that actually is a great idea. Of course TellTales would have to be (for their own interest depending on how open they are willing to go) careful of what kind of license they would choose or create.
Just a hint, if you even think of making the games available for more platforms: avoid MS Windows-only libraries like DirectX.
OpenGL and OpenAL and SDL are just as powerful, and they can be used on many many platforms (including some very exotic ones).
So. please, TellTale, don't tell us that we (Mac, Linux, ... users) don't cover enough market potential to be worth the hassle. As you see, we *are* worth it ...come on, at least 3 Linux users and 1 Mac user out of 100 ...and trying to be as helpful as we can.
But if TellTale wants to go full-out and opensource the original engine I'm all for it. :x Just BE CAREFUL when you select a license - or even better devise a useful license on your own, based off of one of the opensource.org Approved Licenses.
I hearily agree. OpenGL / OpenAL / SDL is definitely the way to go if porting to other operating systems. Proprietary technology tends to never live beyond the lifespan of the product that promotes it, while these mentioned open standards will continue to live on even on the next generations of operating systems.
I bet that whatever market potential there is for the Linux and Mac ports (and PocketPC, and Palm, and whatever) the community (proudly headed by ScummVM) will do each of us our best, in order to *make* it worth it for TellTale. If we can show them that we *really care* about their games (making ports, getting the word out to our non-adventuring friends, creating good publicity etc, in short devoting our time to promoting and helping TellTale) then we can hope that they in turn will respect us as good and loyal customers and give something back to the community all in good time. It's the way it *should* work, and just because the major players (EA, Infogrames (*puke*) and the rest) won't play nice with their loyal fans, doesn't mean an independent developer can't.
I can of course only speak for myself: I am not a programmer, so I wouldn't be able to help with porting. But I am an active user of both Windows, Linux, Mac and Amiga (yes, you better believe it!). I tend to buy multiplatform discs (such as the Starcraft PC/Mac hybrid) if available, so as to be able to run it on several of my systems. For example, I prefer to bring my Mac when needing to connect to an unfirewalled or otherwise unsecured network, and of course I like to take some games with me on the road. ScummVM thankfully lets me play all my old LucasArts classics whereever I go and whatever computer I happen to use at the time, so portability of the engine, to me, is one of the key selling points of any game, as is the ability to make a backup (to disc or image clone) for day-to-day usage without requiring the use of proprietary software. If on the road, I refuse to be forced to carry original discs with me, and much prefer just taking an image of the game and storing on harddisk, thereby only having to use the original disc once (like any good and caring collector should!).
Another piece of advice to the TellTale guys:
Whatever you do, *don't sell out to a major publisher*. Sierra recently sold out to VUGames, and this August ('04) they were suddenly shut down without prior notice or any reasonable explanation - it's safe to assume several good-to-go games were cancelled as a result of this). Microsoft Games, while basically an umbrella label for several major independent studios, does everything possible to minimize the visibility of the actual developer's name and logotypes on the boxes, robbing caring fans of the possibility to choose games by their favourite developers. Infogrames are busy destroying the good reputation of Atari as they endeavour to gobble up every independent developer left in Europe. EA is doing much the same over in the US. As a result of all this, I as a fan of specific developers no longer know quite which games to buy to support, for example, Westwood Studios, without inadvertently (sp?) supporting EA, with whose business practices I happen to disagree strongly. Therefore I now avoid games from the major publishers alltogether, and if I do want to play them (which happens only rarely), I often wait and buy them through one of the independent budget labels who care enough for the games to put out a decent prepatched budget release instead of just reprinting some old discs that still require loads of patches.
I'd say: TellTale - take notice.
I guess I went slightly off topic there, but it had to be said.
And yes, we need TellTale to give us some answers as to their intentions when it comes to multiplatform development, porting and community devotion. :-/
Good idea- I'd love to see games on Linux, especially of the world's best genre...
Yes it is.
Hmmm ...it really seems so, the last version (8) of SCUMM powered the Curse of Monkey Island (MI3).
My bad.
But we really should be getting back on topic!
That nes version sucked incredibly, it was hard and annoying to control, Dave tells you the first and (incredibly) easiest puzzel which is completly pointless and each character has their own annoying repeditive music that makes you want to rip your ears off.
Yeah....
I don't like the nes version.
your also forgeting that most console adventure games are ports, if you play a game that is ment for console it will be much simpler to controle.
Also, when porting such a game to PC or Mac, endusers would likely complain about a way too complex control system compared to the single mouse button interface of classic adventures. So there's another level of adaptation of the control system that would have to be done in order to make the game a pleasant experience. Of course, letting the fans do the porting will likely result in far better control systems for each different system because the developer of a certain port is likely to play that port him/herself many times over and wants a really good control system for him/herself and all the other owners of that particular platform. Thereby also cutting some development costs for TellTale, of course.
I myself felt that Grim Fandango and EMI were far too console-ish for the PC, as efficient and ergonomic play required a joypad (or a Natural Keyboard), and there was no alternative mouse interface that would have simplified the controls immensely and made the games more enjoyable. Of course, with Grim I could cope with the quirky control system (and pain in my wrists from long gaming sessions) because it was a great story and a compelling game, but with EMI it was just plain annoying because the game wasn't even very good to begin with (seen from the standpoint that really, Ron Gilbert should have done the entire series from beginning to end, so we'd know the real Secret of Monkey Island(TM)).
But if you are gonna use a mouse, why not just use the computer? Leave consoles for other genres....:P
Then again ...this is maybe just because I've had bad experience with (some other) game companies (including LucasArts)
Sorry for the delayed response. As THM guessed, we've been kinda busy.
I love linux - as a matter of fact, I have a couple linux boxes as servers. Linux rocks.
As with most companies, whether or not we create a Linux-based game will be based on the cold hard economics of the endeavor. At this point we're focused on getting the first game out and making the company financial viable - you guessed it, that means windows, and possibly console. To the chagrin of all of us Linux users, the install base isn't as big.
If we have the time and resources, we'd love to see how the Linux community takes to our products. We're not ruling it out, we just have to make sure we can feed the team, and our families first. Those folks eat A LOT! [>:D<]
I wrote this line and put it through a translation tool in Spainish
Hello all my friends, what a wonderful evening it is.
Then to Spainish
Hola todos mis amigos, una qu� tarde maravillosa es.
and back to English.
Hello all my friends, one what late wonderful is.
I almost gave up on you guys. I completely understand your economic needs - it's how the world works. For the moment I'm quite content that you're not ruling it out.
I hope you read the whole thread, especially cappuchok's posts - his ideas and suggestions are IMO very good and worth considering.
About porting to consoles. I'm not really sure there's a big market for adventure games there (except simple kiddie ones perhaps). I'm not trying to mob or anything. It's just that I really don't see PS or even Xbox users play a Grim Fadango-like game O_o ...it somehow just doesn't add up (plus it sounds a bit perverted
Good luck with your current project (and hope to see it someday on my Linux box
reference: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxglwrap/ for more info.
Kevin
Since it's still in alpha-state and the guys at v3x.net don't provide any information on what existing games might run on DXGL... I had no luck in getting anything to run on it...
Anyways, I'm no developer, but for the average gamer it's not of interest yet, it seems.
They seem to be very interested in a BeOS-port of Direct3D, which is nice (I really like BeOS), but which isn't a very 'realistic' platform for further developments.
... and the last update to DXGL was in January 2003(!).
Hmmm...
All I know about DX is that Egoboo developers ( http://egoboo.sf.net ) had a very very hard time changing the DirectX Egoboo 1 into OpenGL Egoboo 2. I've talked with Ben Bishop (the lead developer of Egoboo) and he said:
- that if they knew how hard it was to switch from DX to OpenGL, they'd never use DX in the first place
- you actually learn what a mess DirectX is when you try to change the code to use it with OpenGL
- that not everything can be cleanly ported from DirectX to OpenGL (and probably vice-versa). - i remember he was refering to some light effects that DirectX made easy, but in OpenGL they needed to be done with "a bit" different approoach.
I don't really understand why people are so hot on DirectX anyway?! But, well, that's just me - a linux end-user.
Just curious - is your first game going to be based on the GrimE engine?
I'm a new user of the forum, I've been playing adventures games, since i was 5 years old. I'm a linux user. I just write to say, that I'm very happy to see all that adventure games are not death!!!!!!!!
I have to say that from my point of view, linux is a game market to be discovered. I'm developing tools to make linux easyer for users (easy but powerfull) and I can say that lot of people dislike windows and want more posibilites. But one of the problems is that there aren't enough games for linux, thats why I think that an intelligent aproximation of the Telltale game to linux (lower costs) will be a good thing.
Maybe we can discuss in the post how to make economically ok.
Sorry for my english....I'm spanish..