Actually, eggs are usually very benevolent evil overlords. Y'know, as evil overlords go. 'Course, once they turn into chickens, then the tyranny really starts.
*flails desperately for some semblance of topicality*
For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Definitely in the pages of The Adventurer, LucasArts' old quarterly-ish newsletter. Then the game, then Surfin the Highway, then the t-shirt.
When voicing the narrator, where did Andrew Chaikin find the inspiration for the voice?
Hey, we're going to do as many of these Q&A threads as we can manage and people have time for. We'll try to get the art team and the sound guys (it's difficult because they're always extremely busy), and see if we can manage some of the voice actors (it's difficult because they're off-site). Please remember your questions and look for the new threads to open up, because I don't think the rest of us would be qualified to answer!
Why Sam and Max for the PS3? Was it a platform you wanted to work on, and Sam and Max was the next on the list? Or did you think that what you wanted to do with Sam and Max required the bump up in terms of hardware tech? Why not Monkey Island? I'm not sure if any of that is your guys' decision at all, but it's something I'd like to know.
No, it wasn't the design team's decision, but Telltale's been trying to expand onto as many platforms as possible, and the PS3 and the PlayStation store seemed like a good fit for episodic content. As I understand it, the question was what would be the best title to debut on the PS3, and since Sam & Max is getting so much focus in the studio right now, it seemed like the best fit. Taking any of the other games over would feel just like a console port. Plus, it lets PS3 people jump into the Sam & Max series and, hopefully, get interested in the previous seasons.
What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Mine was through the Adventurer magazines, like Jake, and I got to be a bigger fan of Sam & Max than anything else from LucasArts. There was a really cool comic book store in Athens that had all of Steve's Sam & Max comics (this was before Surfin' the Highway), so I was already a scary fan by the time LEC announced they were doing Hit the Road. So basically I've wanted to work on a Sam & Max game since I was in college, and finally got the chance halfway through season 1.
Have you ever considered doing some writing for anything other than videogames? What if Steve Purcell gave you the chance to work on another animated Sam & Max series, or even a movie?
Well sure, if Steve asked! But if there were a Sam & Max series I'd hope that Steve would be the one writing it; nobody other than him can make the characters really sound like Sam & Max, so we're all just doing our best interpretation and our own spin on it. And I wouldn't rule out writing for anything else, but I feel like videogames are what I know best, and they're also where all the most interesting stuff is going on right now. It's pretty much solidified how TV and movies and even most comic books "work" in terms of storytelling, but in games it's all still experimental.
Oh, and please make Steve finish another Sam & Max comic. I know he's a busy man, but there are few things sweeter in life than a brand new Sam & Max comic.
In that AV Club interview, he mentions the still-in-progress Sam & Max story, so he's still aware of it.
any chance of seeing another machinima episode? or god forbid, a little text to fill in the blanks between cutscenes on the dvd? Some days i'm just too tired to actually play the game. Have you guys thought about taking the whole sitcom gaming thing to the next level, actually let us watch sam and max like a sitcom if we don't feel like playing?
I get the impression that the machinima ended up being a lot of work for little pay-off. It got to the point where everyone was wondering why we'd put effort into something that was essentially marketing material, instead of actually putting it into the games? I actually miss the per-episode trailers from season 2 (especially after seeing all the stuff Shauntron was able to cram into the season-wide trailer) more than the machinima, but it's better that all that effort goes into the game itself.
I wouldn't rule out the idea of more machinima-type stuff in the future, and the Christmas thing was an attempt to do exactly what you're talking about. But the current focus is on interactive storytelling -- there are plenty of studios that do animated cartoons, but comparatively few working on story-focused games.
I've been reading a lot recently about how TTG originally wanted to carry on production of the cancelled "Freelance Police". My question is, of all the Sam & Max games you've done, have you come close to the original plot of this mysterious game? Or will you ever consider maybe even having a crack at it now you're on good terms with LucasArts?
I suppose it's not absolutely impossible, now that we have Mike and Derek here along with most of the rest of the Freelance Police team. (I didn't start full-time at Telltale until season 2, so I wasn't aware of any of the Freelance Police stuff). I get the impression that after Telltale made the Bone games and started experimenting with Sam & Max, the type of games went off in a different direction from the game that was being made at LEC.
And, again, it's usually more fun to make new stuff instead of bringing back the old stuff. I've asked Mike about a couple of aspects of the old game, just to make sure we're not repeating anything, but he hasn't gone into a ton of detail for good reason: it's better that it doesn't color anything that's being made here.
Hey Chuck, did you take a good look at Psychonauts when designing Max's powers?
I actually never played more than 20 minutes or so of Psychonauts, back when I was at EA (and too busy to play much of anything). It didn't even occur to me that people would think they were similar until somebody here mentioned that game a few months ago. Sean's played it, and I've asked him to warn us if we come up with anything that seems too similar. From what I've heard, I get the impression that what they're calling "psychic powers" and what we're calling "psychic powers" are pretty different, though.
Will another classic Sam and Max character be returning this season? Season 1 had Bosco from Hit the Road, and Season 2 had Flint Paper. I'm thinking either Mack Salmon or the Slothmart clerk from 'Beast from the Cereal Aisle' and the Glazed MacGuffins episode of the animated series.
Will another classic Sam and Max character be returning this season? Season 1 had Bosco from Hit the Road, and Season 2 had Flint Paper. I'm thinking either Mack Salmon or the Slothmart clerk from 'Beast from the Cereal Aisle' and the Glazed MacGuffins episode of the animated series.
Don't take my word for it, but I'm pretty sure Bosco wasn't in Hit the Road.
Ben Specific Question:
1. Is engine development done separately from game development? Like are you constantly trying to improve the engine and add neat features independent of any feature requests that may come out of a particular game's needs?
Generally we add features to suit the needs of a particular game. Of course, once the feature is in, it's available for all of our games moving forward. There are exceptions of course. Our graphics programmer has been wanting to do real time shadows for a long time. Season 3 is when they happened to be ready.
Also, things like optimizing, or fixing bugs (or creating bugs, not that we ever do that...) of course help all of our games across all platforms.
What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Hit the road for me. I'm just a programmer so I don't actually work on the game proper, but being a fan of the characters is certainly good for my morale
Why the Ps3? Was it something new you wanted telltalegames to try out and get a fan base with sony?
How's the music, in your opinion? Better? Worse? Does it mostly follow a space theme? Can we expect some more random musical numbers like the Mariachi song or the War song?
One thing that intrigues me is the final boss for Season 2, and its relevance to Season 1. Don't take this the wrong way, because I loved the idea of the Soda Poppers being the final enemies, but it kinda seemed to me like there were no plans for having the Soda Poppers become evil before Season 2. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I'm just curious, do you guys make the games with future seasons in mind?
What's with the ice cream trucks? If I remember correctly, there were more and more appearing near the end of Season 1, and one randomly crashes through the window before the final battle in Season 2. Will this ever be explained, or do you guys just really like ice cream?
You say Abe Lincoln will appear in one form or another in Season 3. By chance, does that mean the possessed DeSoto's gonna wreck him some way or another?
Were there any alternative level ideas for the previous seasons that got dumped for lack of interest or anything like that? Were there any characters that were going to become evil (like the Soda Poppers and Hugh Bliss) but ultimately didn't?
Do you have any... weasels on a stick? Do you have any... vegetables in the shape of famous naturalists? Do you have any... complimentary fresh garlic? Do you have any... Pez dispensers with the head of infamous Mexican Revolutionary Poncho Villa? Do you have any... hats in the shape of a cow udder?
I find it interesting that when the player takes control of Max, the camera switches to first-person mode. It makes sense that Max can only use psychic powers in this mode, since in-story, Max Mode only happens when Max decides to use his powers (which the player can make happen at any time). But can the player walk around freely in Max's first-person mode? Also, it's good to see that the future-sight power will be usuable on practically anything, regardless of usefulness - will any other powers be like that?
Also, another couple of questions: will the DeSoto still be
evil, like it was at the end of Season 2
? And what's this I hear about a map?
Edit: Holy crap. HOLY CRAP. I think I know how many powers there are. The plot revolves around a bunch of mystical toys (each granting a psychic power to whoever posesses it), and to have them all is to become all-powerful. That's why there's only six power slots - there's seven of them. Perhaps there's one for every major chakra. The 3-D Viewmaster, for example, would be Ajna, the Brow Chakra, since it (the Viewmaster) grants precognition.
Edit 2: Is the mysterious Shadow Man who introduces the stories going to turn out to be relevant to the plot in any way?
Bah, this thread's answered every good question I wrote for an interview Mixnmojo's doing. Time to write new questions - again (this is take three, now). I hate you guys.
I know many of the current developers, including Chuck, weren't here from the very beginning, so I guess answer if applicable/you feel like it:
Back when you started Season 1 of S&M, you faced inevitable comparison with a very beloved game that's considered a classic in its genre.
Now, the series is very much its own thing, and the bar you have to clear is the (extremely high) one you've set yourselves over two very well-regarded seasons. Which is more daunting? Living up to the classic, or topping your own work?
Besides the move towards more over-arcing storylines, is there anything that's changed in your approach to episodic game development over the years? Plot, tech, art, whatever your area; is your way of doing things now different from when you started?
how much crossover is there between the developers and the designers? Do any of the designers ever get involved in the programming aspects of the game, and vice versa?
I know in movies and tv shows during production stuff is added as they just sort of try stuff out, and I'm wondering, in your games, Sam & Max especially, do the programmers ever think "oooh but wouldn't it be funny if...?" and something gets added in well after pre-production?
And lastly at what stage are the voices recorded? I guess if everything's set in stone as to what happens it can be one of the first things done, and it'll be much easier to animate characters' faces to their voices. But on the other hand usually voices are done right near the end of the dev cycle so any changes can be incorporated into the script.
Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions!!
For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Going to Telltale's website when I was job-hunting out of college. I downloaded the demo to 205 before my interview and thought it was hilarious.
I'm insanely curious how much "fun" the PS3 is to code for. Can you give examples of how the development for porting the engine to the PS3 went/is going without giving away too many insider telltale programing secrets (or give 'em away, I won't tell anyone, promise!).
I'm insanely curious how much "fun" the PS3 is to code for. Can you give examples of how the development for porting the engine to the PS3 went/is going without giving away too many insider telltale programing secrets (or give 'em away, I won't tell anyone, promise!).
The Telltale engine is definitely not as fancy as the tech you see in current AAA games, so we're not trying to squeeze every last cycle out of the PS3 or anything (yet!). There are a few places were we offload some work to the SPUs, and it was fun getting that all working. A big part of the PS3 (and Mac) port was getting a framework in place for compiling our shaders for non-direct3d platforms. This isn't the most exciting thing in the world maybe, but it's something I enjoy working on, and I'm happy with the results. And of course there's lots of busy work implementing all the boring stuff, like the trophies, controller, save game, error reporting, etc.
Anyway, new platforms are always fun. It's only a matter of time before you can play Sam and Max on your toaster
Heh...it's all fun and games until someone from destructoid.com decides to run with it. We still make fun of Yare over the whole "iPhone vs Wii" scandal from time to time. Maybe it's my turn now :rolleyes:
Heh...it's all fun and games until someone from destructoid.com decides to run with it. We still make fun of Yare over the whole "iPhone vs Wii" scandal from time to time. Maybe it's my turn now :rolleyes:
Good thing this is a Q&A forum, so now I'm going to ask about this scandal?
Good thing this is a Q&A forum, so now I'm going to ask about this scandal?
A little bit of googling should find the information in question. This has already been discussed in previous topics, so lets try to get back to Sam and Max questions in this thread.
For any and all of the Telltale guys: What was your first exposure to Sam & Max? The comic? Hit the Road? Being called into the conference room and informed that you'd be making a game about a dog-and-lagomorph investigative team?
Despite my immense comic book collection, I was only vaguely aware of Sam and Max before starting at Lucasfilm games in June of... 1990? (Wait, that can't be right... that'd mean I've been making video games for nearly 2 frakkin' decades... IEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!)
Ahem. Well.
In any event, as soon as I joined Lucasfilm Games (whenever that was), I was pretty instantly given a full dose of Sam & Max, as the two characters (and their office) were heavily featured in the "SCUMMU" training ground that taught new hires how to use SCUMM, SPUTM, FLEM, BYLE, MUCUS, and all the other funky tools that we used to build adventure games back then.
I actually never played more than 20 minutes or so of Psychonauts, back when I was at EA (and too busy to play much of anything). It didn't even occur to me that people would think they were similar until somebody here mentioned that game a few months ago.
That's surprising, when I watched the trailer, parallels with Psychonauts immediately occurred to me, too. Not only the psychic powers, but also the change in the control approach towards something more action friendly (see Sam poising on the flagpole at 1:30 in the trailer), and as I read in the forums, the change of focus in the puzzles - from items towards the use of abilities. I thought it was a deliberate step into a similar direction - these changes worked very well in Psychonauts, after all.
As far as I can tell, Hit the Road was your first lead designer gig? If nothing else, having joined Lucasarts in 1990, it must have been one of the first things you worked on (Ah. Wikipedia claims it was the second thing, after Fate of Atlantis). How does it feel to be back working with the characters who started it all?
And for Mike and Chuck (and anyone else who feels like answering, I guess):
What would you say is the biggest difference between how you approach writing an episode of Sam & Max, versus an ep. of Monkey Island?
I partly answered this earlier -- Mike mentioned Max's psychic powers, and it fit really well with the kinds of puzzles we wanted to experiment with this season. As for why it wasn't used sooner, I'd guess that's because Mike hadn't started working here yet.
Just to pig-pile on this a bit more... my recollection is that "Max's Latent Psychic Powers" is an idea that Steve used to toss out from time to time (usually accompanied by a phrase that I won't repeat here due to its spoliery-ness), and I just kinda glommed onto it.
In fact I kinda wonder why we never considered using them for the Freelance Police game... hurm.
Hey Mike, good to have you here.
Question for you.
How big is the difference in working on the Telltale Sam and Max series and working on Hit the Road or Freelance Police? I know Telltale has put down a whole world with lots of characters around Sam and Max. Do you feel limited by this or do you see it as an extra challenge?
As far as I can tell, Hit the Road was your first lead designer gig? If nothing else, having joined Lucasarts in 1990, it must have been one of the first things you worked on (Ah. Wikipedia claims it was the second thing, after Fate of Atlantis). How does it feel to be back working with the characters who started it all?
Yup, Hit the Road was my first (co) lead designing gig. Before that I worked with Hal Barwood on Fate, which was definitely a case of being thrown into the deep end. That game was ginormous.
Curiously, in between Fate and Sam & Max, Sean Clark and I were briefly helping out on a sequel to Loom.
What would you say is the biggest difference between how you approach writing an episode of Sam & Max, versus an ep. of Monkey Island?
The world of Sam & Max is about eleventy billion times more absurd. At least, it should be. When writing for Monkey, I get ulcerettes fretting about staying "true" to the character. With Sam and Max, I worry a LOT more about bringing the whacky*.
Mike "And with Strongbad, I just tried to keep up" Stemmle
* I apologize for my straining-to-be-hip Whedonization of the language.
Hey Mike, good to have you here.
Question for you.
How big is the difference in working on the Telltale Sam and Max series and working on Hit the Road or Freelance Police? I know Telltale has put down a whole world with lots of characters around Sam and Max. Do you feel limited by this or do you see it as an extra challenge?
Now that I think about it, there's actually not THAT much difference between working on the Telltale S&M series and Hit the Road. Both projects are being put together by talented teams using mature tools with a well-understood development cycle. The biggest difference is, of course, the episodic production schedule which (theoretically) keeps us from getting burned out by working on the same dang project for over a year.
As for the extended cast of Telltale's Sam and Max, I love it. They give us the opportunity to play with long-running story arcs for characters other than the leads, something I never really got to try in the previous game(s).
Mike "And Wait'll You See What Happens To XXXXXX" Stemmle
How do you guys come up with puzzles? Do you start with what S&M need to do and make a puzzle to fit or is it the other way around where someone just says "I want to do something with wire hangers"?
How's the music, in your opinion? Better? Worse? Does it mostly follow a space theme? Can we expect some more random musical numbers like the Mariachi song or the War song?
The music is great, which isn't surprising since Jared's music has always been one of the best things about the series. Some of my favorite music Jared's done is in the new series, and you can hear some of it in the trailer.
As for the musical numbers: if you can expect them, they're not "random" anymore! They probably won't be done the same way, since we've already gone to that well twice now.
it kinda seemed to me like there were no plans for having the Soda Poppers become evil before Season 2. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I'm just curious, do you guys make the games with future seasons in mind?
Generally, no. We plan for continuity within a season, but leave it open after that. (It's especially true of Sam & Max, who pretty much ignore continuity). Some of my favorite parts of the design meetings for the end of season 2 came when we started to put the pieces together in ways that weren't intended -- hey, we've still got that ink ribbon! Hey, we've got three characters that share the same birthday!
The end of season 2 was really just a wacky misunderstanding.
We thought the Soda Poppers were widely loved characters, and we'd be making the game edgier by turning them evil. It was a big surprise that a lot of people didn't like them, since they were so popular on the forums.
What's with the ice cream trucks? If I remember correctly, there were more and more appearing near the end of Season 1, and one randomly crashes through the window before the final battle in Season 2. Will this ever be explained, or do you guys just really like ice cream?
I'm not sure there's much to be "explained," since the end of season 2 was an example of putting the pieces together.
We already had the ice cream truck for the "Secret Serv-ice" pun, and we had birthday mariachis, and we had three characters that had had their birthdays ruined in a previous episode, and we had a character that was turned into a cake. So ice cream seemed like a natural.
Were there any alternative level ideas for the previous seasons that got dumped for lack of interest or anything like that? Were there any characters that were going to become evil but ultimately didn't?
The character progressions are usually planned out from the beginning of the season, so no surprises for us. We're always coming up with different ideas for locations though, and working with the art guys (and by "working with" I mean "being yelled at by") to make sure they fit into the schedule. I can't think of anything major that got axed in previous seasons; usually it's incorporated into something else. For the new season, I can't mention what got axed because it'd spoil things.
Questions for Mike. March 3rd 2004. Did you ever see that coming? What did you think of the reaction from the fans? Can you believe you are working on a new Sam & Max game 6 years later? Has your puzzle design changed at all since it is coming out on the PS3?
Also I just have to take this opportunity to thank you for Hit the Road. I played it when it first came out when I was 13. I have never played a video game that was as funny as HTR. I think it shaped my sense of humour. I had such fond memories of it, I always followed Sam & Max years later. That's why I'm still here and excited the franchise is still going.
Comments
*flails desperately for some semblance of topicality*
So... Is the DeSoto still possessed?
Definitely in the pages of The Adventurer, LucasArts' old quarterly-ish newsletter. Then the game, then Surfin the Highway, then the t-shirt.
No, it wasn't the design team's decision, but Telltale's been trying to expand onto as many platforms as possible, and the PS3 and the PlayStation store seemed like a good fit for episodic content. As I understand it, the question was what would be the best title to debut on the PS3, and since Sam & Max is getting so much focus in the studio right now, it seemed like the best fit. Taking any of the other games over would feel just like a console port. Plus, it lets PS3 people jump into the Sam & Max series and, hopefully, get interested in the previous seasons.
Mine was through the Adventurer magazines, like Jake, and I got to be a bigger fan of Sam & Max than anything else from LucasArts. There was a really cool comic book store in Athens that had all of Steve's Sam & Max comics (this was before Surfin' the Highway), so I was already a scary fan by the time LEC announced they were doing Hit the Road. So basically I've wanted to work on a Sam & Max game since I was in college, and finally got the chance halfway through season 1.
Well sure, if Steve asked! But if there were a Sam & Max series I'd hope that Steve would be the one writing it; nobody other than him can make the characters really sound like Sam & Max, so we're all just doing our best interpretation and our own spin on it. And I wouldn't rule out writing for anything else, but I feel like videogames are what I know best, and they're also where all the most interesting stuff is going on right now. It's pretty much solidified how TV and movies and even most comic books "work" in terms of storytelling, but in games it's all still experimental.
In that AV Club interview, he mentions the still-in-progress Sam & Max story, so he's still aware of it.
I get the impression that the machinima ended up being a lot of work for little pay-off. It got to the point where everyone was wondering why we'd put effort into something that was essentially marketing material, instead of actually putting it into the games? I actually miss the per-episode trailers from season 2 (especially after seeing all the stuff Shauntron was able to cram into the season-wide trailer) more than the machinima, but it's better that all that effort goes into the game itself.
I wouldn't rule out the idea of more machinima-type stuff in the future, and the Christmas thing was an attempt to do exactly what you're talking about. But the current focus is on interactive storytelling -- there are plenty of studios that do animated cartoons, but comparatively few working on story-focused games.
I suppose it's not absolutely impossible, now that we have Mike and Derek here along with most of the rest of the Freelance Police team. (I didn't start full-time at Telltale until season 2, so I wasn't aware of any of the Freelance Police stuff). I get the impression that after Telltale made the Bone games and started experimenting with Sam & Max, the type of games went off in a different direction from the game that was being made at LEC.
And, again, it's usually more fun to make new stuff instead of bringing back the old stuff. I've asked Mike about a couple of aspects of the old game, just to make sure we're not repeating anything, but he hasn't gone into a ton of detail for good reason: it's better that it doesn't color anything that's being made here.
I actually never played more than 20 minutes or so of Psychonauts, back when I was at EA (and too busy to play much of anything). It didn't even occur to me that people would think they were similar until somebody here mentioned that game a few months ago. Sean's played it, and I've asked him to warn us if we come up with anything that seems too similar. From what I've heard, I get the impression that what they're calling "psychic powers" and what we're calling "psychic powers" are pretty different, though.
Don't take my word for it, but I'm pretty sure Bosco wasn't in Hit the Road.
Also, things like optimizing, or fixing bugs (or creating bugs, not that we ever do that...) of course help all of our games across all platforms.
Hit the road for me. I'm just a programmer so I don't actually work on the game proper, but being a fan of the characters is certainly good for my morale
Because programming the PS3 is fun
Oh. Well, it's a good thing I said "Don't take my word for it." Phew. Close one there.
You never actually see him, but his store is there and you do talk to him.
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/wolf/images/Sam_and_Max.JPG
Edit: I was beat to it!
Well, here are my questions:
How's the music, in your opinion? Better? Worse? Does it mostly follow a space theme? Can we expect some more random musical numbers like the Mariachi song or the War song?
One thing that intrigues me is the final boss for Season 2, and its relevance to Season 1. Don't take this the wrong way, because I loved the idea of the Soda Poppers being the final enemies, but it kinda seemed to me like there were no plans for having the Soda Poppers become evil before Season 2. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I'm just curious, do you guys make the games with future seasons in mind?
What's with the ice cream trucks? If I remember correctly, there were more and more appearing near the end of Season 1, and one randomly crashes through the window before the final battle in Season 2. Will this ever be explained, or do you guys just really like ice cream?
You say Abe Lincoln will appear in one form or another in Season 3. By chance, does that mean the possessed DeSoto's gonna wreck him some way or another?
Were there any alternative level ideas for the previous seasons that got dumped for lack of interest or anything like that? Were there any characters that were going to become evil (like the Soda Poppers and Hugh Bliss) but ultimately didn't?
Do you have any... weasels on a stick? Do you have any... vegetables in the shape of famous naturalists? Do you have any... complimentary fresh garlic? Do you have any... Pez dispensers with the head of infamous Mexican Revolutionary Poncho Villa? Do you have any... hats in the shape of a cow udder?
I went into his store in my Hit the Road let's play but I beat a thief, not talk to Bosco.
Sam does say something to him if you enter the store a second time, although he doesn't reply.
Also, another couple of questions: will the DeSoto still be
Edit: Holy crap. HOLY CRAP. I think I know how many powers there are. The plot revolves around a bunch of mystical toys (each granting a psychic power to whoever posesses it), and to have them all is to become all-powerful. That's why there's only six power slots - there's seven of them. Perhaps there's one for every major chakra. The 3-D Viewmaster, for example, would be Ajna, the Brow Chakra, since it (the Viewmaster) grants precognition.
Edit 2: Is the mysterious Shadow Man who introduces the stories going to turn out to be relevant to the plot in any way?
Back when you started Season 1 of S&M, you faced inevitable comparison with a very beloved game that's considered a classic in its genre.
Now, the series is very much its own thing, and the bar you have to clear is the (extremely high) one you've set yourselves over two very well-regarded seasons. Which is more daunting? Living up to the classic, or topping your own work?
Besides the move towards more over-arcing storylines, is there anything that's changed in your approach to episodic game development over the years? Plot, tech, art, whatever your area; is your way of doing things now different from when you started?
I know in movies and tv shows during production stuff is added as they just sort of try stuff out, and I'm wondering, in your games, Sam & Max especially, do the programmers ever think "oooh but wouldn't it be funny if...?" and something gets added in well after pre-production?
And lastly at what stage are the voices recorded? I guess if everything's set in stone as to what happens it can be one of the first things done, and it'll be much easier to animate characters' faces to their voices. But on the other hand usually voices are done right near the end of the dev cycle so any changes can be incorporated into the script.
Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions!!
Going to Telltale's website when I was job-hunting out of college. I downloaded the demo to 205 before my interview and thought it was hilarious.
I'm insanely curious how much "fun" the PS3 is to code for. Can you give examples of how the development for porting the engine to the PS3 went/is going without giving away too many insider telltale programing secrets (or give 'em away, I won't tell anyone, promise!).
Anyway, new platforms are always fun. It's only a matter of time before you can play Sam and Max on your toaster
Are you giving us hints about season 4 being able to be played on the Itoaster? Hmmm..?
Dangit. I'm going to have to go buy a toaster now...
Heh...it's all fun and games until someone from destructoid.com decides to run with it. We still make fun of Yare over the whole "iPhone vs Wii" scandal from time to time. Maybe it's my turn now :rolleyes:
Good thing this is a Q&A forum, so now I'm going to ask about this scandal?
A little bit of googling should find the information in question. This has already been discussed in previous topics, so lets try to get back to Sam and Max questions in this thread.
Despite my immense comic book collection, I was only vaguely aware of Sam and Max before starting at Lucasfilm games in June of... 1990? (Wait, that can't be right... that'd mean I've been making video games for nearly 2 frakkin' decades... IEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!)
Ahem. Well.
In any event, as soon as I joined Lucasfilm Games (whenever that was), I was pretty instantly given a full dose of Sam & Max, as the two characters (and their office) were heavily featured in the "SCUMMU" training ground that taught new hires how to use SCUMM, SPUTM, FLEM, BYLE, MUCUS, and all the other funky tools that we used to build adventure games back then.
You know, if Sybil does return, it's all your fault now, right?
Anyone wanna dare us to bring back the Soda Poppers?
Mike "easily goaded into foolish actions" Stemmle
That's surprising, when I watched the trailer, parallels with Psychonauts immediately occurred to me, too. Not only the psychic powers, but also the change in the control approach towards something more action friendly (see Sam poising on the flagpole at 1:30 in the trailer), and as I read in the forums, the change of focus in the puzzles - from items towards the use of abilities. I thought it was a deliberate step into a similar direction - these changes worked very well in Psychonauts, after all.
As far as I can tell, Hit the Road was your first lead designer gig? If nothing else, having joined Lucasarts in 1990, it must have been one of the first things you worked on (Ah. Wikipedia claims it was the second thing, after Fate of Atlantis). How does it feel to be back working with the characters who started it all?
And for Mike and Chuck (and anyone else who feels like answering, I guess):
What would you say is the biggest difference between how you approach writing an episode of Sam & Max, versus an ep. of Monkey Island?
Just to pig-pile on this a bit more... my recollection is that "Max's Latent Psychic Powers" is an idea that Steve used to toss out from time to time (usually accompanied by a phrase that I won't repeat here due to its spoliery-ness), and I just kinda glommed onto it.
In fact I kinda wonder why we never considered using them for the Freelance Police game... hurm.
Mike "It's Amazing How Little I Remember" Stemmle
Question for you.
How big is the difference in working on the Telltale Sam and Max series and working on Hit the Road or Freelance Police? I know Telltale has put down a whole world with lots of characters around Sam and Max. Do you feel limited by this or do you see it as an extra challenge?
Hello, everybody!
</Doctor Nick>
Yup, Hit the Road was my first (co) lead designing gig. Before that I worked with Hal Barwood on Fate, which was definitely a case of being thrown into the deep end. That game was ginormous.
Curiously, in between Fate and Sam & Max, Sean Clark and I were briefly helping out on a sequel to Loom.
The world of Sam & Max is about eleventy billion times more absurd. At least, it should be. When writing for Monkey, I get ulcerettes fretting about staying "true" to the character. With Sam and Max, I worry a LOT more about bringing the whacky*.
Mike "And with Strongbad, I just tried to keep up" Stemmle
* I apologize for my straining-to-be-hip Whedonization of the language.
Now that I think about it, there's actually not THAT much difference between working on the Telltale S&M series and Hit the Road. Both projects are being put together by talented teams using mature tools with a well-understood development cycle. The biggest difference is, of course, the episodic production schedule which (theoretically) keeps us from getting burned out by working on the same dang project for over a year.
As for the extended cast of Telltale's Sam and Max, I love it. They give us the opportunity to play with long-running story arcs for characters other than the leads, something I never really got to try in the previous game(s).
Mike "And Wait'll You See What Happens To XXXXXX" Stemmle
As for the musical numbers: if you can expect them, they're not "random" anymore! They probably won't be done the same way, since we've already gone to that well twice now.
Generally, no. We plan for continuity within a season, but leave it open after that. (It's especially true of Sam & Max, who pretty much ignore continuity). Some of my favorite parts of the design meetings for the end of season 2 came when we started to put the pieces together in ways that weren't intended -- hey, we've still got that ink ribbon! Hey, we've got three characters that share the same birthday!
The end of season 2 was really just a wacky misunderstanding.
Also I just have to take this opportunity to thank you for Hit the Road. I played it when it first came out when I was 13. I have never played a video game that was as funny as HTR. I think it shaped my sense of humour. I had such fond memories of it, I always followed Sam & Max years later. That's why I'm still here and excited the franchise is still going.
That's a really good question!
Hit the Road was really great, and my introduction to Sam and Max too!
So, yeah, thanks for that!
One more:
Mike, what takes up more time, coming up with answers to our questions or figuring out what to put between the quotation marks in your name?