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Was it difficult to get the rights?

AshtonAshton
edited January 2010 in Tales of Monkey Island
I was just curious, as most of you original members of the Telltale Team were former, disgruntled, employees of Lucus Arts, if you had a lot of trouble getting the lisence to make ToMI (or if the reverse happened - they knew you personally and were more willing to give you the rights as opposed to other game studios)

Comments

  • FalancaFalanca
    edited December 2009
    I think LucasArts was willing to give the rights because they kinda felt bad about focusing on Star Wars and leaving the franchise of Monkey Island behind. Then they thought like "screw it, give it to another company so we can squeeze up SW for more profit without any remorse".
  • IrishmileIrishmile
    edited December 2009
    I do not get the feeling that they were all disgruntled, just that the direction they wanted to go with LA's games where not entirely in tune with what their talent wanted to do so it was time for some of them to go on and try new things...

    Its like friends you see years after graduation... you have all grown up, and your interests may have changed but there is still some mutual respect and you decide to do something together that you used to love back in the day.
  • LeakLeak
    edited December 2009
    Might have something to do with Darrell Rodriguez becoming president of LucasArts in April 2008; IIRC it was said then that one thing he wanted to do was breath some fresh air in LucasArts adventure franchises...
  • AshtonAshton
    edited December 2009
    Leak wrote: »
    Might have something to do with Darrell Rodriguez becoming president of LucasArts in April 2008; IIRC it was said then that one thing he wanted to do was breath some fresh air in LucasArts adventure franchises...

    I hadnt heard that (I kinda fell out of the gaming news world after my subscriptions to EGM and NP ran out in like 2002) I thought it was odd that so many adventure games were popping up now with the familiar LA logo (and re-releases/Remakes of older games) oh it would be nice if they dug out the old code for S+M:FP and completed it :D lol

    It's highly amusing also that they went to TTG for ToMI since TTG is most of the old LA Adventure game department... I have to wonder if anyone from TTG went back to LA...
  • jp-30jp-30
    edited December 2009
    I think you'll find TTG approached LA with the intention of reviving the MI licence.
  • FriarFriar
    edited December 2009
    Leak wrote: »
    Might have something to do with Darrell Rodriguez becoming president of LucasArts in April 2008; IIRC it was said then that one thing he wanted to do was breath some fresh air in LucasArts adventure franchises...
    This. It wouldn't surprise me if they had approached LA before he became president, and had been declined.
  • jp-30jp-30
    edited December 2009
    Check this thread out and in particular the below excerpt from 2006;

    (Source);

    GI: A lot of those LucasArts franchises are still very popular - you spoke about Day of the Tentacle. Is there a chance you'll be able to wrangle a few more of those away for more episodes? Are you working on that at all?

    Connors: It's definitely on our minds and it's definitely something we think about. Maybe I can give you more information a while from now. It's definitely something that makes good sense to everybody. For them it's the same thing. For them it's "What's the business model? What's the retail model?" It's not their type of game - it's not Star Wars, it's not with the movie, with the lightsaber - an action game. When trying to do the two things at the same time it makes it challenging. They've been trying to figure out the right solution, and hopefully Telltale is part of it.
  • LeakLeak
    edited December 2009
    jp-30 wrote: »
    this thread
    error_ohcrumbs.gif :(
  • TioAlliTioAlli
    edited December 2009
    "Looks like something went horribly wrong somewhere in the Internet. As a result, the page you've requested isn't available. Or maybe it doesn't exist. Maybe it never existed. Maybe this page is a figment of your imagination. Maybe you're a figment of your own imagination. Did we just blow your mind?"
  • Lena_PLena_P
    edited December 2009
    I had heard LA approached them, actually, although I can't find where I read that, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Also, I think most of the Telltale employees left LA awhile ago or were fired in the purges of the early 2000's. I mean, Ron Gilbert left way back, and Dave Grossman and Chuck Jordan were both freelancers for awhile before they joined Telltale, Grossman even more so than Jordan. Plus there's a lot of new blood at Telltale as well.
  • jp-30jp-30
    edited December 2009
    Sorry about the dead link. Still, the quote and its source are what I was pointing out.
  • EverlastEverlast
    edited December 2009
    I did read that the president of LA was looking into reviving some franchises and revive some adventure genres. In all honesty Lucas Arts needs some diversity. It's like Nintendo, they had a lot of momentum in NES and Super Nes but when N64 came out they lost momentum against Sony's PS1 and later PS2. They then decided out with a great idea to appeal to not only gamers, but also other age groups as well. The result is a simpler system in graphics and limited memory, but a more involved addicting gameplay that actually enables you to work out with the Wii system.

    Lucas Arts has been for decades all about Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, but you gotta wonder how much money they could have dug out if they could have continued building in franchises like Sam and Max, Monkey Island and created new ones like Grim Fandango. I feel like they had something good going on with adventure games and it was adding to diversity, i can never understand why they took steps back and didn't made other franchises. Even action games that dont involve indiana jones.

    Their best game of Indiana jones even came from Fate of Atlantis an adventure game, and yet the rest of the game have been utterly bad, filled with bad reviews, the same can be said with their latest installment. If Lucas Arts where more creative and aggressive in using their resources with other franchises they would have had more success.
  • OzzieMonkeyOzzieMonkey
    edited December 2009
    Leak wrote: »
    error_ohcrumbs.gif :(

    Can I have a cookie?
  • jmmjmm
    edited December 2009
    You may not
  • OzzieMonkeyOzzieMonkey
    edited December 2009
    jmm wrote: »
    You may not

    Oh, I'm sorry. MAY I have a cookie?
  • jp-30jp-30
    edited December 2009
    Still no magic word.
  • OzzieMonkeyOzzieMonkey
    edited December 2009
    jp-30 wrote: »
    Still no magic word.

    Cookie? May I please Have a cookie? Pretty Please with a rubber-chicken-with-a-pully-in-the-middle on top?
  • Lena_PLena_P
    edited December 2009
    jp-30 wrote: »
    Still no magic word.

    Abracadabra!
  • jmmjmm
    edited December 2009
    <poof>
    Turns jmm into a frog, but still NO COOKIE!
  • Thriftweed Fancy PantsThriftweed Fancy Pants
    edited January 2010
    Well, you know what you have to do to turn him back Lena...
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