Season 4: Finalization of a Cancelled Project, or an Original Concept?
As we all know, there have been quite a significant number of cancelled Sam & Max projects. The two most notable and well known are, or couse 'Freelance Police' and 'Plunge Through Space'. With Steve Purcell's new S&M blog, he has been posting quite a few pieces of concept art from these two projects, along with some other unnamed projects. This has really sparked my interest in a lot of the cancelled 'S&M' projects - 'Plunge Through Space' most of all; everything that he has posted from this cancelled project just seems really interesting, and I'm sure it could have become something great if it were ever finalized. And I'm sure the same goes for many other 'S&M' projects that have been cancelled over the years. Now, with Telltale and Steve Purcell able to do whatever they like with the franchise, there's is the possibility and opportunity to finalize these projects and turn them into something great.
So, the question is, should they do this? Or should they leave these old projects in the past and focus on something fresh? And if you do want one of the [titled] projects to be made into a game, then which one?
I look forward to hearing your opinions.
So, the question is, should they do this? Or should they leave these old projects in the past and focus on something fresh? And if you do want one of the [titled] projects to be made into a game, then which one?
I look forward to hearing your opinions.
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Comments
In a perfect world, there would be no lawyers ¬-¬
Sadly, ours is not that perfect world =/
If I just had to choose one, then definitely Plunge Through Space first, I'm really interested in the space Desoto mostly.
I have to agree, I love the idea of the space DeSoto - and I'd love a remake of Hit the Road made all awesome like the Monkey Island 1 and 2 remakes that have or are coming out. Make it hand drawn and look like Steve Purcell's Sam and Max comic art style, that's what I say! ;-)
EDIT: I have to take back what I said about the remake bit. I just saw a youtube video and it looks better than I remember. I don't think it needs a remake, just a re-release. :-)
But sadly just because Steve and TellTale have got the Sam and Max property back doesn't mean they've necessarily gotten the rights on these games exactly. You see, despite Sam and Max being the starring characters, these games as far as I know were created by Lucasarts employees with Steve in an advisory role and as such are the creative properties of Lucasarts, though unreleased. They might give a legal stink if the script, concept art, or any characters created and copyrighted by the Lucasarts team that exist solely within those games and not created by Steve himself are used. For example, in the animated Tick series the characters Die Fledermaus and American Maid were originally not in the comics and were copyrighted by Walt Disney who had inherited Fox's line up of animated shows and could not be used in the following live action series, so instead the creators of the live action had to replace the characters with similar versions known as Batmanuel and Captain Liberty. So, in other words, taking the exact script or excerpts from it would mean stealing the work of the original writer or writers - unless they were brought on board or credited with permission, paid royalties, etc. The same goes for building characters off of concept art from the scrapped games - another example is the Ghostbusters the Video Game for the Wii having a Ray design remarkably like the artist Dapper Dan's concept art. The dispute was settled when the company admitted to using his concept art without legal permission and the compromise was to include Dapper Dan in the game end credits. Anyway, IF this were the case with Lucasarts and the canceled Sam and Max projects, this can't stop TellTale from taking the basic ideas (you can't copyright an unrefined concept - I can still make a superhero comic with similar concepts despite many already existing and copyrighted) of the canceled games - such as a DeSoto in space - and using that. Sure, the story may be different, there may be different characters for Sam and Max to meet, maybe they still have to rescue the Statue of Liberty, but without using the exact script or concept art TellTale can get past the legal barriers (that may or may not exist).
Yeah, I really think Telltale should do this, regardless of whatever LucasArts tells them to do.
But I'm the same, I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE for Season 4 to be Plunge Through Space. Everything I saw for that was just epic and I'd love to fly around in a flying DeSoto!
Fixed.
I must admit that this is also the number-one reason that I want to see 'Plunge Through Space' made - so that we can use the flying DeSoto to... er, plunge through space!
Seriously. I want to fly it and see if every key on my keyboard actually does something like Steve said they would.
*drools in Homer Simpson like fashion*
That for me would be one of the best pieces of gameplay ever.
I think Earthbound 64 did come back... on the Gameboy Advance as Mother 3. I wonder if either of those two Sam and Max games will come back this way... if they come back at all.
There were changes, yeah, but Mother 3 and EB64 are still pretty much the same thing, it's not like they didn't change as much as every other game does from beta to full version.
Anyway I fear I've lead this thread astray with my talk of Mother
So you think that they should steal things that belong to LucasArts, and then get sued into oblivion?
I didn't necessarily say they should steal it. I think they should walk right up to the president of LucasArts, and say "I know you want to put Freelance Police behind you, but I want to continue working on it, so I would appreciate it if you would give us permission to continue the project"... or something to that effect.
probably the president would say something like this:
GIMME SOME MONEY NAAAO
and the they will decide that is better to do a new and good sam & max game without worrying about the past
Still, that would be pretty cool to have that game back in production. Granted, I'd prefer the 'Plunge Through Space' concept, but really, I'm just up for any new material, regardless of concepts being dredged back up from cancellations, or being completely new.
Freelance Police is still LucasArts property. Telltale can't finish the game, nor can they use anything from it, just like with Hit the Road. Even if LucasArts wanted to finish the game (and they don't), they no longer have the Sam and Max license. You may ask yourself "Can't Telltale and LucasArts work out a deal?" Probably, but it wouldn't benefit either of them as much as what they're doing now. Telltale can make Sam and Max games by themselves just fine without having to share the profits with another company, and LucasArts does well enough by releasing an endless sea of Star Wars crap.
Plunge Through Space is a different story. Infinity Machine, the company developing it, went bankrupt, so I don't really know its legal status. Did it revert to LucasArts when they re-acquired the Sam and Max license? If that's the case, could it belong to Telltale already since the Sam and Max license is now theirs? Did Steve Purcell get the rights after Infinity Machine went bankrupt since he owns Sam and Max? Are the rights just floating around, belonging to nobody, waiting for someone to get their hands on them? I don't know. But I do know that if Telltale was able and willing to finish Plunge Through Space, it would've happened by now.
What about a book?
I think Steve has expressed some interest in making Plunge Through Space into a comic.
Of course, he's too busy with Pixar to do anything Sam and Max-related right now besides be an advisor for Telltale.
The same went for using the Sam and Max characters in games (Lucasarts abandoned the two). Steve Purcell had to wait for years to get the rights to his own characters back!
I think so too, but George Lucas has more money to spend on lawyers than they do.
I wish I had seen the stuff for that... That'd be awesome. But sadly I think you're right about Lucasarts' rights on Freelance Police and Plunge Through Space. There's a lot of original developers that would either need to be credited or further paid as well as TellTaleGames purchasing the rights to those individual games, which they may or may not want or are able to spend the money on.
I would buy that book.
I might try to model this.
Ah, God a new Sam & Max comic would be just what the doctor ordered...
because, in reality, it's quite a shame that the franchise's original format is almost extinct.
I wholeheartedly agree. And I've always thought Sam and Max should integrate more action. The Sam and Max from the comics are more likely to use violence than their adventure game counterparts. It'd be nice to have gameplay include using the gun more and beating criminals senseless. You know, like in the source material. ;-)
You're right. Although not everyone agrees, as a comic artist myself I would be more overjoyed to hold a new Sam and Max graphic novel in my hands than a new video game. I'm fascinated by ink on paper. Something about lines on paper that really fascinates me and causes me to be a dreamer.
Of course, it probably will be fresh and new. An older canceled game is highly unlikely as Telltale has said about Freelance Police many times.
First, Steve magically comes by that thing from that show where you go inside and do stuff for a year, and then you come out and only a day has passed, which enables him to make Plunge Through Space as a graphic novel without getting in the way of his other obligations (alternately, Steve gets a gigantic advance which allows him to do away with those obligations without the need for fictional, metadimensional spaces).
Telltale magically comes into an enormous sum of money which they use to buy the rights to Freelance Police from Lucasarts. BUT, "Freelance Police" isn't Season 4. Season 4 (and 5, and 6, and so on; end list at whatever point Telltale decides to stop making Sam & Max games) proceeds as normal, and Freelance Police is a side project; a small team is dedicated to it and takes a couple of years to work on it while the main staff gets on with their thing.