You think there will be heavy emphasis on time puzzles?

Sir Pantalones

Like those in Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max: Chariots of the Dogs and kinda The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, that is.

I like those kinds of puzzles, where what you do in one point in time affects another, or when one age can tell you what happened in a past one to help you progress there.

I personally want BttF to focus on that, but in even more innovative ways.

monkeymovies

YES I do! Telltale has been experimenting (and succeeding) with Time Travel puzzles for years, plus Dave Grossman was a project leader on Day of the Tentacle, giving just another example on how well this whole project could turn out puzzle wise.

I hope we get some character/time puzzles by playing as Doc/Marty in different timezones, leaving/giving each other objects for the other to collect in the future.

tredlow

Sir Pantalones wrote: »

I personally want BttF to focus on that, but in even more innovative ways.

I agree. It's not a very good time travel adventure game if it doesn't.

Spectral Knight

Focus? I imagine that will be the whole mechanics of the game in a nutshell! Chariots of the Dogs certainly seemed like almost a pilot for this series in a way, and probably helped convince on the license-winning front (you never really know how long such dialogue takes), but I'm sure having seen that wouldn't' have done any harm in persuading Universal that BttF in particular was in good hands.

Hassat Hunter

There better be...

Spykes

I hope they use DotT as a template for the BttF game. I don't think any adventure game has used Time Travel as a gameplay mechanic as perfectly as DotT did.

SurplusGamer

I don't think all the puzzles or maybe even most of the puzzles should be time travel related... I mean, the first BTTF wasn't much about time travel at all, it was mostly about an adventure that was self-contained in the 1955 part of the film, which happened to have time travel as its basis. Same with the third film, only the first film really had time travel being central to the actual problem and the solution to the problem. Or to put it another way, in 1 and 3, time travel was just the excuse for the adventure, only in 2 could it be described as the adventure itself.

So yes, I think time travel should have a prominent place in the puzzles (I loved the heavily time-travelly elements of BTTF2's plot) but I don't see that it has to be the most important thing in the puzzle-solving. I think some episodes where they just go to a time period, solve a problem, and return, without any twisty turny time travelly puzzles would be just fine.

What -would- be cool is if the time-travel twisty turny stuff exhibited over multiple episodes more than being focused on across a single chapter. For example, in episode 4 you might have to fix a problem that you unwittingly caused way back in episode 1 by going back in time and sneaking around behind your own back and trying not to encounter your other self. That's the sort of thing I want to see.

Sir Pantalones

I agree that some episodes should be set in just one age, just to keep variety up. But a couple of episodes based around different time periods would do nicely.

And encountering yourself is a must-have for this series.

Hassat Hunter

SurplusGamer wrote: »

What -would- be cool is if the time-travel twisty turny stuff exhibited over multiple episodes more than being focused on across a single chapter. For example, in episode 4 you might have to fix a problem that you unwittingly caused way back in episode 1 by going back in time and sneaking around behind your own back and trying not to encounter your other self. That's the sort of thing I want to see.

So, multiple solutions to problems, and then which you take has influence in later episodes?

While that's a great idea, it would require having to keep savegames for said data (some apparently seem to uninstall episodes after completing them), and would complicate matters for people who did not play the episodes before that.
I guess they could use a system that would randomly pick one of the solutions if these conditions are not met or there is a "canon" version though.

EDIT: Re-reading, more like what happens in BTTF2 at the party. Still I would like above idea too, even if it probably doesn't get included .

TechnoGoth

I'd love to see a back to the begin episode. The second to last or last episode being about going back to the beginning of episode 1 to set things up so you get involved in the whole time travel adventure in the first place. Starting a fight with your girl friend so that she stays at her mom's for the night defrosting the fridge to short out the power so your alarm clock doesn't go off and you're late for work. etc..

Vainamoinen

Of course the BTTF was all about time-travel related issues! Still, you could forget about that while watching, at least in movies 1 and 3, because the actual effects of what Marty and Doc do in one time period are not obvious until they travel to another time period (which happens only at the beginnings and ends of these movies).

It might be hard to transfer this to the adventure game genre, because it heavily relies on instant gratification ("Hey, I solved that puzzle!"). You can't really drag the sense of achievement from something you've done in the first episode to the end of the third. I'm really curious about how this will be approached.

It was quite brilliantly solved in DoTT, because you could switch between the timelines at any time and instantly see the effects of your deeds. Man that game is brilliant... oh, where's that CD... I've got to play that again...

I've stated elsewhere in this forum that DoTT did copy from BTTF to a large degree, so it would just be fair to let BTTF lend a few mechanics from DoTT. It's hard to tell when it's overdone, though.

ElWaster

I think they'll be heavy emphasis on fixing a broken delorean

Sir Pantalones

ElWaster wrote: »

I think they'll be heavy emphasis on fixing a broken delorean

And divorcing Dr. Brown.

By the looks of it, this doesn't seem to be set after BttF3.

ElWaster

I'm hoping for a lot of 80s references and 'The Power of Love' lol

LuigiHann

I bet there will be a few DotT-style time puzzles, but not a lot, since zipping back and forth between a couple of time periods would be required for that type of puzzle to work, and that's really not something that happened in the movies at all.

Sir Pantalones wrote: »

And divorcing Dr. Brown.

By the looks of it, this doesn't seem to be set after BttF3.

Are you basing that on the concept art? If I were drawing preliminary concept art for a Back to the Future game, I'd probably draw them in some of their iconic costumes from one of the first two games, even if they were going to have new costumes in the game itself. Just to nail down the style first. Probably. So I wouldn't read much into that.

Sir Pantalones

No no no, just the fact that he's back and up an time-travelling again. He has a wife and kids in the wild west to take care of.

That, and that the DeLorean is back.

I don't know for sure, of course, but so far, I think it seems like it's set before BttF3.

RMJ1984

One of the amazing things about Day of the tentacle, beyond the fun amazing story, loveble characters and amazing locations and art, amazing music and sound effects. Was the whole time travel aspect.

If they can do some wacky funky stuff with the cartoony graphics, man this game could really be up there with dott in terms of time travel games.

doggans

Sir Pantalones wrote: »

No no no, just the fact that he's back and up an time-travelling again. He has a wife and kids in the wild west to take care of.

Well, the end of the movie showed that Clara and the kids aren't opposed to time travel adventures. Besides, even if he leaves his family in the old west (or wherever their home base is), he can just go back to a minute after he left, and continue taking care of them.