"What Do You Want to See in a Back to the Future Game? Tell Us!"

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Comments

  • edited July 2010
    Any thoughts within the company about possible donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation? Is this something that's even a remote possibility?

    Please do this. Whether it's for every copy sold or with multiple eBay auctions, please do this.
  • edited July 2010
    Sinaz20 wrote: »
    Nobody has brought anything up, but I suppose I could see what our take on that would be. We are not strangers to donating to good causes-- I'm pretty new here, but it seems the way we normally do it is to take a few copies of the game, sign them, and ebay them-- proceeds go to charity.

    I'll look into it, but either way, it seems like something we don't have to prioritize until closer to release.

    Sounds good. Chat with folks up the ladder, see what the response is, and let us know :)

    but I was totally serious about that job thing.

    cheers!
  • edited July 2010
    Sinaz20 wrote: »
    Here's a question for you though-- in what year would we encounter 50 year old Jules and Verne? Something we haven't even agreed on yet is whether or not Doc and Clara have a "home base" in time.

    Whether or not they have a home base -- and if they do, it's probably in Clara's time, since that's when the kids were born -- Jules and Verne are almost "native" time travelers. So it seems more likely that (as volveralfuturo suggested) they would find us somewhen, rather than vice versa.

    (Although in retrospect, I suppose if their home is Clara's time, that would make them 50 right around the time of one of the suggested possible plots from the survey... that's just weird.)
    Sinaz20 wrote: »
    Have you ever considered that when we see Doc at the very end of BttF3, he is at least 10 years older than when we last saw him, considering he and Clara had to have time to have two kids and raise them? It's trippy. Doc could have had other adventures previous to his 10 year lapse in time with Marty in the future-- another mind bending concept.

    That's true, but it's hard to guess how long he's actually had the train for. I'm sure it took more than a few years to build a time machine using nineteenth century technology. On the other hand, we know he did take at least one side-trip to the future before coming back to visit Marty. So who can say?
  • edited July 2010
    Sinaz20 wrote: »
    Without divulging anything sensitive, I just want to say that I agree with a lot of the things you say here.

    A key rule I've been preaching whenever we ideate over time travelling plot lines is that when Marty and Doc realize they've messed something up, they can't go back and simply prevent the inciting action-- instead they have to go back to just after and try to recover from the mess-up.

    So like, in BttF2, they can't just go back and slap Marty's hand as he goes into the store to buy the almanac-- they instead have to go to 1955 and steal it back from Biff. Not only does it allow us more drama and gamey stuff to do, but it also avoids hard paradoxes... paradoxi... paradices??? I don't know.

    Here's a question for you though-- in what year would we encounter 50 year old Jules and Verne? Something we haven't even agreed on yet is whether or not Doc and Clara have a "home base" in time.

    Have you ever considered that when we see Doc at the very end of BttF3, he is at least 10 years older than when we last saw him, considering he and Clara had to have time to have two kids and raise them? It's trippy. Doc could have had other adventures previous to his 10 year lapse in time with Marty in the future-- another mind bending concept.

    Anyway, that's all I'm saying for now. None of that last paragraph has any direct bearing on the stories we are writing. :cool:

    I actually dont like this emphasis on the BTTF3 plotline...for me its the weakest of the movies...70% of the movie in the west, without exploting another time periods, and the end with jules and vernes for me is kind of dumb... for example the ending in BTTF1 is way better... for me the west is overused, and the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s its overused in adventure games...way better to use decades like the 60s, 80s, and beyond...

    I dont have special interest in jules and vernes, or in clara... i want more, tanners, george mcflys, elaines, martys, martys kids, jennifer(specially the one in part 1)rock and roll, skateboarding, high school, hill valley, etc doing a 50 year old guy in the 1930s, with a hat trying to stop world war 2 is kind of like a sierra game or like quatum leap episode...nothing special for me at least...
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited July 2010
    FIGULS wrote: »
    doing a 50 year old guy in the 1930s, with a hat trying to stop world war 2 is kind of like a sierra game or like quatum leap episode...nothing special for me at least...

    Now don't you bash on Quantum Leap! ;)

    Actually, Quantum Leap was so adorable because it DID normally have a focus that was equally "narrow" and personal as the BTTF movies. What happened to this particular family during the cold war? What happened to this special person? How can this marriage survive? These were the normal "Quantum Leap"-questions. If Sam tried to change actual "history" events, this normally went wrong. It's the small-scale, personal, family questions that mattered both in QL and BTTF. Even when Biff took over the entire world in BTTF II, the main questions for Marty were: What happened to my father/ mother/ school etc.
  • edited July 2010
    Lets move away from focusing on Doc's family and annoying ugly kids...

    And focus on the excellent adventures Doc and Marty are going to have, travelling through time in the delorean - creating problems and solving them in Telltale's new Back To The Future game! :)
  • Sinaz20Sinaz20 Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2010
    mcfly88 wrote: »
    Lets move away from focusing on Doc's family and annoying ugly kids...

    And focus on the excellent adventures Doc and Marty are going to have, travelling through time in the delorean - creating problems and solving them in Telltale's new Back To The Future game! :)

    Hey now. Just because we are discussing the issues with the third movie doesn't mean we at TellTale are making a BttF3.2

    I, for one, have been engaging in talk backs because it's a fun exercise. But as I mentioned before, BttF, to us, is a family saga concerning, first and foremost, Doc and Marty, and their family sagas through time.

    There's no harm in just talking about the movies-- even if you didn't like one installment or the next.

    Jota wrote: »
    Whether or not they have a home base -- and if they do, it's probably in Clara's time, since that's when the kids were born -- Jules and Verne are almost "native" time travelers. So it seems more likely that (as volveralfuturo suggested) they would find us somewhen, rather than vice versa.
    There's nothing really establishing a home base in time.

    Clara could have had the kids after the train was built in Paris of 1960.

    Our general consensus was that the home base was in the future since both Doc and Clara are sci-fi enthusiasts. True, they were all wearing Victorian clothing, but that could just make them "eccentric."
  • edited July 2010
    I am happy to hear that lil bit of news/info! Sounds like the game will follow marty and doc! No one really liked bttf3 lol I have watched the movie hundreds of times and love bttf1 and 2 espically the plot! Hope some of the movie scences get put into the game as a mission!
  • edited July 2010
    I would like to see everyone beeing able to use time machines and how this fucks it all up.
  • edited July 2010
  • edited July 2010
    bttf1985cc wrote: »
    I am happy to hear that lil bit of news/info! Sounds like the game will follow marty and doc! No one really liked bttf3 lol I have watched the movie hundreds of times and love bttf1 and 2 espically the plot! Hope some of the movie scences get put into the game as a mission!

    OK, thanks for the comment, i was hearing so much about clara, and jules and verne... i was becoming worried about them being leading roles...for me theyre the worst developed characters in the bttf trilogy, very squared, and without personality in the case of clara, and i saw this 2 little weird kids, and thought...so what???

    way better the 80s part, with flea trying to get marty to run his car, etc etc...

    i just gonna say an idea i was thinking on my way home listening to ratt on the radio!!!

    how bout if marty is a famous rockstar(like he is meant to be in the movies) in 1989 in a kind of hard rock band (van halen, guns and roses, motley crue kind of band) but hes lost or has been lost by somebody that is in control of a delorean??? (new girlfriend, friend, or better by an evil doc!!!) jaja that sounds good for me...:p
  • edited July 2010
    I think Marty and Doc Brown should be playable characters but I wouldn’t rule out Jennifer as a possibility for female players.

    The Delorean is iconic in the back to the future trilogy and should also be used in the game, but since the Delorean was destroyed in the third film, maybe there’s the potential for Martys new 4×4 to be used instead (I’d much prefer the Delorean though).

    The story should follow the same basic idea as the films. There is a problem with the timeline, Doc and Marty travel back/forwards in time to solve the problem, A Tannen from that same time period causes obstacles that Doc and Marty must figure out how to overcome. Each film runs parallel to one another so the game should do so too. The story should be set in Hill Valley. All three films were set there so there really is no need to stray from this place.

    The game play is the most important part of this game for me. A point and click adventure would suit well as I believe it would give the game a similar pacing to the films but I also think there should be some action sequences similar to the skateboard/hoverboard chases.
    Marty’s backpack could act as the inventory and one of Marty’s key items could be his skateboard/hoverboard which could be used to travel around areas quicker. Doc could use his sleep inducing “Alpha rhythm generator” in someway. Doc’s dog Einstein could also be used to sniff out hidden items in certain areas.

    Things that could be expanded upon from the films could be Mr Strickland’s background, Marty’s band “The Pinheads”. Biffs parents and his offspring’s absence from the films. We know he used to live with his grandma in the 50’s and we know he has a grandson called Griff, but what about his other relatives?

    Another small detail I’d like to see is every episode/chapter open up with the date and time and end with “To be concluded” as it does in Back to the future 2.
  • edited July 2010
    I just hope to see less lovey-dovey and more ACTION and chase sequences! Kabooom! :D
  • edited July 2010
    If there was a time-cop it would have to be a Strickland, protecting the timeline from slackers.
  • edited July 2010
    Point and click game, lol how fun. Good luck with this TT. Id rather play GTA BTTF mod game where you can run around and walk around hill valley and the clock tower. Not solve a puzzle and click yourself threw the game lol
  • edited July 2010
    Yes, I think we are all well aware of the game you want by now.

    Thankfully, it's not the game most other people want.
  • edited July 2010
    Yeah cause everyone on here is already a TT fan and likes those types of games lol, I only signed on here cause of the BTTF game, There are alot of other people out there that want the type of game I am talking about, Hence this isnt the only fourm talking about the game, In Fact Bttf hill valley has a fourm that has alot of people on there that enjoy the GTA vice city mod and over-all game play and dont like the way TT is going with the game. Be my guest to check it out and see what true BTTF fans think about it, The subject is TellTale is making a bttf game.
  • edited July 2010
    Someone's getting a little butt-hurt.
  • edited July 2010
    http://www.bttfhillvalley.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=3015

    Wow, that's the second funniest thread I've ever read.
  • edited July 2010
    Spykes wrote: »
    Someone's getting a little butt-hurt.

    Yeah I noticed also
  • edited July 2010
    jp-30 wrote: »
    http://www.bttfhillvalley.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=3015

    Wow, that's the second funniest thread I've ever read.

    What is this the 1st lol
  • edited July 2010
    yeah lets do a game about running a shooting things!!! WOW THATS SOOO NEW AND ORIGINAL...yes GTA is a great game, but damn...open to something different dude...

    ehem...

    Adventure games are a way better way of really using and taking advantage of a movie like BTTF, in fact AG are like a movie...you talk, walk around, solve different puzzles, manipulate people, walk around, yes sometimes run or even shoot something if its needed, its a way more open spectrum...


    really, know the genre before talking BS about it...its way more sweet to experience BTTF this way, really.
  • edited July 2010
    Id like to see many versions of the main characters (future past present) and i d like to see them interact in a way.

    Another thing i like to do, is play with different characters.

    Maybe you can make a plot where they manipulate something and you can decide whether or not to solve it. (some freedom of choice stuff... but i guess its hard to make it work)

    One thing that might work, could be a search quest not kidnapped maybe as a joke (child of Marty or someone else) and he or she does something terribly wrong, so marty and doc have to figure out, what, when and who and how to solve it.

    yours sav
  • edited July 2010
    The plot of the films was so genius it would be criminal to purposely not follow the story line. As long as the story is followed in the best way possible then it's sure to be a winner.

    Also, this game needs to include Johnny B Goode!
  • edited July 2010
    doh too late, must have missed the thread.. survey is now closed lol
  • edited July 2010
    I wouldn’t mind seeing some chase or escape scenarios involving the Delorean or the Skateboard/Hoverboard. That way the Delorean would have more purpose than being used solely for time travel scenarios (that is IF the Delorean is a controllable vehicle within the game).
  • edited July 2010
    The year 9999999+
  • edited July 2010
    First: I'm new..and I'm German...so please have mercy ;)
    Second: I opened a new thread with this content, just to discover this thread afterwards. So please: Mercy again ;)

    It's strange: I'm really looking forward to this game. I waited for this since a was a kid and even tried my own attemd to design and program a Bttf adventure. Because of that, I have some fears that I will be disappointed. But I also know that TTG has great expertise and they just make very cool games, so I'm confident again

    So here are my personl thoughts about what makes Bttf so unique and outstanding from other Time traveling movies and what would be great to be considered in game/story design. And even more: What I DON'T think a Bttf game should include.

    1. Accidantially lost in time and messing it up
    A great deal in the first movie is the whole concept of stranded in time and just messing it all up. In this terms, Marty is similar to Guybrush in Monkey 2, both are anti-heros. Marty changes time by jumping in front of his grandpas car and now has messed everything up. Guybrush shows Largo the beard of LeChuck, which results in LeChuck being reborn (well, kind of). So the whole story is about fixing things, that the main character messed up. This is pure fun and it's very personal and stays in the family!

    PLEASE DON'T:
    I don't want the story to be around typical time traveling issues. There is a desaster coming, a world war, a nuclear explosion oder something like that, so Marty has to jump to that time and prevent something terrible from happening. That ain't fun, it's a "Time travel police" thing. I don't want that. We have that covered this weak time traveling movies enough.

    2. Just a few unique characters, in different timelines
    Huge fun is also watching the same characters in different timelines. This was a bit weak in the last movie, because there were just ancestors of the real characters and not the characters themselves.
    So please include all the main characters again, feel free to add some unique characters at well, but let's see them in different timelines. Visit a grandpa of your enemy and tell him a story he then tells his grandson, which effects the present etc.

    PLEASE DON'T:
    Have several characters, that have nothing to contribute to the story. When you have a close look at the movies, there aren't many 'NPCs' there, that are just there to talk a few lines. They are often really unique and funny.

    3. Fun, but not comedy
    The fun of Bttf results in the situation, which are unfamiliar...your mom beeing into you and wants to kiss you is something that maybe can't be topped.

    PLEASE DON'T:
    Don't use this Monkey Island / Sam 'n' Max humor on that. It just doesn't fit. It should have a fair about of serious athmosphere but with surreal and timed humor in certain situations.


    That's it for know. I think, I have a lot more feelings about that, but can't express them right. Overall, it's all about rescuing your family and fix the things you messed up by your own. While fixing that, you mess up something else etc. I think, these are the essentials of Bttf.

    What do you think?
  • edited August 2010
    You guys are all forgetting something crucial! We need a mind blowing final sequence! Just like the movies!

    BTTF 1: Getting the 1.21 gigawatts in time
    BTTF 2: Getting the almanac! (ok, this one is not really mind blowing)
    BTTF 3: Reaching the 88mph in time!

    We need that, we need to feel nervous, we need to make the right choices in the right times, we need to race against the clock... I don't know how TTG can pull this off... but the final sequence of Full Throttle comes to my mind

    What do you think?
  • edited August 2010
    Definitely!!! :eek:
  • edited August 2010
    Creedy wrote: »
    Don't use this Monkey Island humor on that. It just doesn't fit. It should have a fair about of serious athmosphere but with surreal and timed humor in certain situations.

    While I agree that BTTF is not Monkey Island, that basically IS Monkey Island's humor. I doubt that the creators are going into the game though trying to make a Monkey Island or Sam and Max game. Why would they do that?
  • edited August 2010
    I think what he meant was, Knowing that TT is know for puzzle and point and click with its games, He didnt want 2 see the same puzzle or point and click theme in the bttf game, Maybe try something different with BTTF.
  • edited August 2010
    It's going to be a point and click adventure game. That's what TT do, and it's the portfolio of work with which they won the lisence on. I think what was meant was that there's a clear difference in style of humour between Monkey Island and BttF, which is entirely true. 'Serious atmosphere with surreal and timed humour' isn't unique to either series (and indeed much of situation comedy!), but the tone and style are completely different. And indeed, the style of humour has got nothing to do with the mechanics of the game. S+M and MI share the same mechanics but due to the tone, stories and presentation feel like very different games. I wouldn't be surprised to see the same mechanics but in the BttF tone that audiences expect.
  • edited August 2010
    If Bob and Bob are lending a hand with it's creation, I'd love to hear what they've got in mind. In fact, I'll only check out this game and possibly buy it if all the main cast are signed up to voice. If it worked for Ghostbusters, it'll work here, hopefully.

    I'd be more than happy with a game that essentially has us relive the movie as we see it: see 1985-A's version of 2015, not have Marty succeed in reuniting his parents, that sort of thing. We can either play it straight or have countless options available to change the whole movie into something vividly different.

    The time-travel concept is unique, so the possibilities are wide-open.
  • edited August 2010
    I've just re-seen the trilogy (the three films in a row), and I've made a little list of classic moments I'd like the game to have:
    * Tannen on manure
    * McFly being told chiken
    * "Hey, look at this" trick
    * Strickland saying "You are a slacker" to someone
    * Doc saying "Great Scott!"
    * Someone seeing his/her other self
    * Someone meeting his/her ancestors/descendants
    * Doc explaining something with a model and/or blackboard

    No matter what sort of vehicle the time machine will be, I think it should have something added in each new chapter, just like on the movies the Delorean had additions (the pole in BttF)/improvements (the flying system and Mr Fusion in BttF2)/repairs (the 1955 tires and "microchip", and the train wheels in BttF3), and sort of like the Sam&Max closet has something new in each episode from the two first seasons
  • jmmjmm
    edited August 2010
    You forgot the classic "This is heavy, doc!". But I agree, at least 99% of those moments need to be in (at least 1/3 of them in each episode)
  • edited August 2010
    Two more:

    * Over the (Biff) shoulder view of Marty face
    * A remake of the BTTF II scene where Doc and Marty are on the highway walking towards and away the camera (the one that ends with Marty looking at the camera with that expression like "why is he doing this and why I'm following him?") like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTdFgDoPIzM#t=1m58s

    Sorry about that link, is the only one that I could find with that scene.
  • edited August 2010
    I am the most die hard fan of this trilogy!!
    the first time i saw bttf was when i was 2,one of my first words was flux capacitor (even though i didn't say it completely correct but clear enough for my mother to understand it. and for the record i hate all the Ideas. they don't make any sense to me. the only plot that sort of had a cool thing was the Time Train crashing through time and them having to go back and find the pieces with the temporal scanners.Here's my idea, start where the the Trilogy left off.
    a few hours after Doc took off in the Time Train with his beloved Clara and their children, Marty dropped off Jennifer and heads home but along the way he see's something down the road, he hits the brakes and see's a familiar site, Doc standing outside of the DeLorean. Doc tells him something went wrong with the Train and somehow it broke apart through time. he was able to make it a few months into the future from when he left Marty and Jennifer, but along the way lost Clara and the kids. The only part of the Time Train he was able to save was the Engine part he was in piloting. his family was lost with the rest of it.
    since he was in the future only a few months ahead he was able to reconstruct a new DeLorean time machine and was able design his own Mr. Fusion generator for it. He needs Marty's help in order to find the rest of the train and his family who is scattered through time.
    I feel like the game levels could be like
    1. -Doc use Temporal Scanners he designed to find pieces of the Time Train and takes Marty back to the future of 2015 and to get a piece of the train there.

    -while they are there Doc decide he needs Marty to get the equipment he would need in order to make a hover-conversion on the new DeLorean.(in that sequence of the game, Marty would have to sneak in with Doc in the hover-conversion center to steal parts and for him to do it on his own)

    and that could be like an opening point in the game.i have all of this written down in a notebook i was making up a 4th movie idea

    Im just trying to stick closer to the original story. If you all want i can give you a more detailed story but i wanna hear what you all think of this one
  • edited August 2010
    I would like to see a pick your character like type at the beginning, drivable delorean/time train ....hoverboards and flashlights (don't ask) its just cool in a game to see flashlights at night....
  • edited August 2010
    It's not going to be an RPG, and the playable character will be set, but objects you find along the way will be useful to progress the story.
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