Telltale Interview-Nothing New About King's Quest

2»

Comments

  • edited May 2012
    I just think Roberta has been out of touch with gaming for so long that she's irrelevant. I also don't think she was the genius game designer people make her out to be. Not saying she didn't have a good idea, but she got a LOT of help along the way. And she was the bosses wife. The lady did like to tell stories, and she was in the right place at the right time.

    I'm not saying only a FAN should get the license, you're putting words into a lot of people's mouths. I don't even think Tell Tale shouldn't have the license - I'm just saying my trust for them to do right by the game is waning daily. It's been over a year without a goddamn peep.

    I'm not throwing Roberta under the bus - her track record speaks for itself, and we all obviously love the games. I just don't think she'd be too relevant right now. At least others who are getting back in the game, Josh Mandel, Mark Crowe, Jane Jensen, have kept active in making games for the last 14 years.


    Bt
  • edited May 2012
    Chyron8472 wrote: »
    I can try to have an open mind. It doesn't, however, mean that I will have an open wallet.

    So, you've decided you're not going to buy the game even before seeing a screenshot or concept art?
  • edited May 2012
    I've decided not to pre-order it as soon as humanly possible.

    I also reserve the right to decide to wait until after someone else, ideally whose opinion of proper Sierra-style adventure games is similar to mine, tells me the game is acceptably King's Quest before I decide to officially approve of it (and similar games by Telltale) by paying full price for it.
  • edited May 2012
    I just think Roberta has been out of touch with gaming for so long that she's irrelevant. I also don't think she was the genius game designer people make her out to be. Not saying she didn't have a good idea, but she got a LOT of help along the way. And she was the bosses wife. The lady did like to tell stories, and she was in the right place at the right time.

    I'm not saying only a FAN should get the license, you're putting words into a lot of people's mouths. I don't even think Tell Tale shouldn't have the license - I'm just saying my trust for them to do right by the game is waning daily. It's been over a year without a goddamn peep.

    I'm not throwing Roberta under the bus - her track record speaks for itself, and we all obviously love the games. I just don't think she'd be too relevant right now. At least others who are getting back in the game, Josh Mandel, Mark Crowe, Jane Jensen, have kept active in making games for the last 14 years.


    Bt

    But wait a minute. If we want a game that's "true to the old stuff", does it matter if Roberta is relevant or keen on what's new in gaming? And I disagree. She was the sole writer/designer on the first five KQ games. She started the damn series. She had help in the form of artists and musicians, but from KQs 1-5, she was pretty much the writer/executive producer and director all in one. And her being the bosses' wife has nothing to do with her talent, only that she got more support and freedom than others did.

    Then who should get the license? You don't seem to be OK with TT having it. You don't really think Roberta would do a good job with KQ. So, who should have it? And how many times does it need to be said that not talking much about a game that is far down the pipeline a standard TT practice, that it's not like they've done this only with TT? I can sense a strategy where there is one, and this "We're all in this together as fan game makers against TT strategy" is going to bite you in the ass when a certain fan designer gets the license and says "Sorry BT, I got it, not you."

    Relevancy doesn't matter in this field as adventure games themselves aren't that relevant in the larger pond of gaming itself. Jane Jensen may have continued making games since 1998 but they were pretty craptastic....
  • edited May 2012
    But if the game had a Phoenix Online or AGDI logo slapped on it, we both know you'd be waiting around the block just like BT, Lamb and all the other fan game people. It's alright. It's ok to admit you don't really like KQ, just the fan games.
    I will not EVER play The Silver Lining. I've played a portion of the demo of ep.1 (of which I was not impressed) and heard enough spoilery stuff about such as how TSL creates a certain wizard's relationship to Valanice that I refuse to ever darken POS's website again.

    Yes, I liked AGDI's KQ and QFG games alot; I hated Al Emmo, though. I also liked IA's KQ3, but I found AGDI's game to be superior in a few ways (eg. the barmaid's voice-acting; not needing to click after each line of dialogue).

    My favorite KQ game remains KQ6. Then the AGDI KQ games; KQ7; IA's KQ3; KQ4; KQ3; and KQ1 and 2. I really do hate the animal voices in KQ5, and have not played the diskette version yet.


    I trust AGDI and IA because they have proven themselves. Telltale has not. Others feel the same as I do, and Telltale has done nothing to alleviate these feelings despite having a very long time inded in which to do so. And has been said, the best way to let a company know you don't like their product is to not buy it.
  • edited May 2012
    Why are we having this conversation again?

    Because it's relevant to the article posted.... And this is a message board for chatting.
  • edited May 2012
    Chyron8472 wrote: »
    I will not EVER play The Silver Lining. I've played a portion of the demo of ep.1 (of which I was not impressed) and heard enough spoilery stuff about such as how TSL creates a certain wizard's relationship to Valanice that I refuse to ever darken POS's website again.

    Yes, I liked AGDI's KQ and QFG games alot; I hated Al Emmo, though. I also liked IA's KQ3, but I found AGDI's game to be superior in a few ways (eg. the barmaid's voice-acting; not needing to click after each line of dialogue).

    My favorite KQ game remains KQ6. Then the AGDI KQ games; KQ7; IA's KQ3; KQ4; KQ3; and KQ1 and 2. I really do hate the animal voices in KQ5, and have not played the diskette version yet.


    I trust AGDI and IA because they have proven themselves. Telltale has not. Others feel the same as I do, and Telltale has done nothing to alleviate these feelings despite having a very long time inded in which to do so. And has been said, the best way to let a company know you don't like their product is to not buy it.

    So then leave. You don't want TT to make the game, you won't buy it, so don't stick around and spread your doubt. Seriously.
  • edited May 2012
    Again, you aren't getting what I am saying.
    Then who should get the license? You don't seem to be OK with TT having it.

    I am fine with TT having the license. What I am not fine with is them sitting on it, and doing nothing with it. Or sharing nothing about it with the fans. And my support is waning. I'm not outright saying "THE GAME WILL SUCK! THEY DON'T DESERVE IT!". Hell, THERE IS NO GAME YET. I am saying that their silence on the matter doesn't bode well to me, and the minor news of Dave Grossman going over a few ideas on it doesn't assuage me.

    I don't have any opinions on who should have the license. I really don't; I don't have a solid answer. Personally, I do think AGDI would have made a decent King's Quest game if granted the license, but it may not have had the penetration to other markets.

    I am reserving any kind of real judgement on TT's KQ until I get some solid news about it - but I am saying my doubts are increasing as time rolls on.


    Bt
  • edited May 2012
    So then leave. You don't want TT to make the game, you won't buy it, so don't stick around and spread your doubt. Seriously.
    I'm not willfully spreading doubt. TTG is doing that without my help. Also, I didn't say I refuse to ever buy the game. I said I reserve the right to not pay for it until I decide it's worth spending money on. I have already decided not to preorder any more deluxe sets from Telltale, since I preordered their TOMI Deluxe Set and it was rather insulting.

    Also, I am an active member of this forum community. I'm not leaving just because I'm concerned. At least I'm interested. On the other hand, I have never been in the forums for The Walking Dead, and have not posted anything in Jurassic Park more than to discuss the movies before the game came out.

    I did say previously that my (and others) opinion of the project has calloused into frustrated indifference, but it is your argumentative attitude that is getting me more annoyed at present than the game itself.
  • edited May 2012
    Telltale hasn't done anything with the license yet because they've been working on other games, namely The Walking Dead and Fables. Would you rather them rush the game out the door and have it be messy and poor or let them take their time and make an installment true to the series?
  • edited May 2012
    I would assume the reason why certain people don't care specifically for Roberta at this point is because she is responsible for such as KQ8. Maybe not entirely, but she did play her part in it, and it's most certainly not a classic point-and-click adventure game as the others in the series were.

    Actually she pretty much has all the responsiblity for the RPG/combat aspects... She chose to focus on that part of development first, at the expense of puzzles. Because she didn't have much experience in that type of gaming, and wanted to get it 'right'. Because she chose to do development that way, when time and budget restraints cropped up, she didn't have the kind of time to put into the puzzles as she should have. Things ended up being cut.... Not just puzzles, but she had to cut out areas and the enemies/bosses that went along with them, in order to have time to finish puzzles in the completed areas.

    It's also probably one of the reasons why the early part of the game seems more finished (more puzzles) than the later half of the game. Especially the last few levels (Frozen Reaches and the three Temple levels), but even Barren Region is somewhat 'barren' pun intended when it comes to the balance of puzzles to RPG mechanics. She couldn't just drop those levels as they were important to the story, but she also didn't have time to put many puzzles into them, and they tend be more battle oriented (than the first levels).

    It also didn't help that she was a perfectionist... She wanted to have everything 'perfect' before she moved onto the next aspect of game design... So again the focusing on getting the RPG mechanics/combat working, and also going through several 'art designs', and boosting the engine so she could get the graphics as good as she wanted them to be (she wanted it to look better than most of the 3D stuff at the time, with higher polygon counts). Things like full 3-d instead of the 2D sprites, etc. Still she never quite got that the way she wanted it, since she didn't have access to the newer Red Baron II engine, and she was shoping they would release their game before she completed her own so she could get access to the engine (and boost the graphics further).

    So ya, the problem is she didn't balance her priorities right.
  • edited May 2012
    Telltale hasn't done anything with the license yet because they've been working on other games, namely The Walking Dead and Fables. Would you rather them rush the game out the door and have it be messy and poor or let them take their time and make an installment true to the series?

    See, you are making an assumption that they are working on it in any real capacity. There is little information to support this. Yes, if I knew they were working on it in a real capacity, I would have some more patience. Yet, the only news we've gotten in a full year is that Dave Grossman is looking in to it.


    Bt
  • edited May 2012
    See, you are making an assumption that they are working on it in any real capacity. There is little information to support this. Yes, if I knew they were working on it in a real capacity, I would have some more patience. Yet, the only news we've gotten in a full year is that Dave Grossman is looking in to it.


    Bt

    And you're making an assumption that they are not. The same little information supports either assumption.
  • edited May 2012
    And you're making an assumption that they are not. The same little information supports either assumption.

    And why should I not think that? Based on the current evidence I have, my leanings towards believing the amount of work they have done for King's Quest is minor seems more feasible. I could be wrong, though. They have yet to prove this.

    Bt
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited May 2012
    See, you are making an assumption that they are working on it in any real capacity. There is little information to support this. Yes, if I knew they were working on it in a real capacity, I would have some more patience.

    I'm struggling to understand why this is so important to you... just because they may not be actively working on KQ right now does not mean there won't be a game next year. :confused:
  • edited May 2012
    Double Fine is also not currently working on a Kings Quest game... Do you equally hate them?
  • edited May 2012
    Irishmile wrote: »
    Because it's relevant to the article posted.... And this is a message board for chatting.

    My main point was that people didn't know that Dave Grossman was heading this when that was revealed ages ago. I'm confused as to why people don't remember it. When the KQ forums first opened there was a flurry of people against the idea of Dave Grossman leading it because of his previous blatant statements about his negative opinions on Sierra's game design.

    I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about it again, I'm just wondering why people have forgotten or think this is brand new information.
  • edited May 2012
    I think Dave Grossman is smart enough to know when puzzles need to be difficult that statement was made talking about other games he made and likes to make. He is a professional and I have faith that he will do the game justice and will make the game he is paid to do.
  • edited May 2012
    Irishmile wrote: »
    Double Fine is also not currently working on a Kings Quest game... Do you equally hate them?

    What the hell kind of comparison is that? That is so illogical, it boggles my mind. Congratulations - you have hit me harder in the brain than any intoxicant ever could!

    Double Fine never declared that they bought the rights to King's Quest, nor did they declare their intentions to make it.

    That's like getting mad at Burger King for not making a Big Mac, man.


    Bt
  • edited May 2012
    I like where this thread is going.

    I guarantee you that members of IA/AGDI are not the ONLY people concerned that Telltale will fuck the King's Quest license up the ass. We're just the only ones who have actually stuck around these boards to comment on it. There was a pretty big outcry way back when it was first announced that Telltale was seeking to shit on the King's Quest legacy, and we certainly weren't the ones leading it.

    And honestly, I have never thought that any fan group had any chance of getting their hands on the King's Quest license for commercial use. POS might be able to get it one of these days, but not at the moment. They simply aren't successful enough yet to have the capital to exchange that kind of money with Activision.

    The only person who ever expressed anything resembling the kind of "fan-group license envy" that you imagine was AGC2 at AGDI--and quite frankly, I think most of the rest of us thought that was utterly ridiculous.
  • edited May 2012
    pretty big outcry way back when it was first announced that Telltale was seeking to shit on the King's Quest legacy
    Telltale certainly didn't announce it like that in their PR statements...

    I don't want POS to get anywhere near a commercial fan release of KQ... Thank you very much... In my humble opinion, they really don't get KQ, at all (AGDI did some things I'm not a big fan of, but POS made the same mistakes and took them further)...
  • edited May 2012
    AGDI did breathe new life into the whole affair. I was there, in 2001 - 10 years ago - when they breathed life and excitement into a corpse. You cannot take that away from them.

    King's Quest I VGA was amazing at the time. It was fun.... and we were all amazed. Regardless of my feelings on fan-fiction, and they readily admit II+:Romancing the Stones took it to a new level.

    So far, the only thing Tell Tale has done is pony up the bucks to pay for a license.

    Bt
  • edited May 2012
    Lambonius wrote: »
    I like where this thread is going.

    I guarantee you that members of IA/AGDI are not the ONLY people concerned that Telltale will fuck the King's Quest license up the ass. We're just the only ones who have actually stuck around these boards to comment on it. There was a pretty big outcry way back when it was first announced that Telltale was seeking to shit on the King's Quest legacy, and we certainly weren't the ones leading it.

    And honestly, I have never thought that any fan group had any chance of getting their hands on the King's Quest license for commercial use. POS might be able to get it one of these days, but not at the moment. They simply aren't successful enough yet to have the capital to exchange that kind of money with Activision.

    The only person who ever expressed anything resembling the kind of "fan-group license envy" that you imagine was AGC2 at AGDI--and quite frankly, I think most of the rest of us thought that was utterly ridiculous.

    If you know for certain that they're going to "fuck the KQ series up the ass", why the hell do you stick around here? There's other boards. Do you just want to spread negativity about this game? Seriously. You'd probably prefer POS having the license. Fucking Emo Quest.
  • edited May 2012
    Hey hey hey, Ani - calm down now. You're getting reactionary here. You know Lambonius doesn't want PoS having the license. You're going to get some itchy fingered Mod in here thinking he's doing good by shutting down the thread, when this is the most activity we've had around here in a while. Just take it down a notch, and think before you post - I know you're not stupid. Don't get all reactionary on things. You know Lambo is the king of hyperbole.


    Bt
  • edited May 2012
    You know Lambo is the king of hyperbole.

    I say we launch a Kickstarter to fund Emo Quest!
  • edited May 2012
    So far, the only thing Tell Tale has done is pony up the bucks to pay for a license
    How do you know if Tell-Tale payed for the license? Couldn't have Activision came to Telltale, and offered them the license? Either way both companies are going to make a profit.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited May 2012
    You're going to get some itchy fingered Mod in here thinking he's doing good by shutting down the thread

    ohai. I'm not a "he", but I can fill in on the shutting-down front until one of the dudes gets here. :p

    I don't want to close this (or any) thread, but I second the call for calm. It seems there's barely a single thread that escapes all this interpersonal sniping. It's getting really old. Whatever issues you've got, can we just skip the shit-giving and focus on the games.
    Lambonius wrote: »
    I say we launch a Kickstarter to fund Emo Quest!

    Starring Colin Farwalker:

    zvuoy.jpg
  • edited May 2012
    I would play Emo Quest...
  • edited May 2012
    Emo Quest sounds like the bastard child of Eco Quest... If the latter series is about bleeding heart eco hippies with some ecoterrorism thrown in...

    Emo Quest can be about Adam Green's ansgsty goth teenage years... When he starts talking to snakes, rats, bats, spiders, and insects... Oh wait he started on that path in the second game didn't he?
  • edited May 2012
    The thing that really jumps out at me about the article is that it is yet another missed opportunity to reach out to the fans. (And I'm not talking about providing details on the actual game; more on that below.) Even before they announced KQ, since widespread discontent with BTTF first surfaced, Telltale has never reached out to the segment of their customer base who are put off by their "here are some things to click on while we tell you a story" style of adventure gaming.

    Failing to make any attempts to win dissatisfied fans back is an exceedingly unusual thing for a company to do unless they're perfectly fine with throwing them over. That's the message I've gotten from Telltale for a year-and-a-half now, so I really shouldn't be surprised at this latest interview.
    Lambonius wrote: »
    ... that whole first section, where they asked him about adventure games and innovation, seems just filled with passive aggressive arrogance. "I wish Ron and Tim were doing something new," etc., etc.

    Of course they wish Ron and Tim were doing something new, because that would validate their own approach to adventure game design. Instead, all of the excitement with the DFA and the Sierra designers making new games (and let's not forget Tex Murphy) is a repudiation of where Telltale has taken the genre, and that self-serving sentence Lamb quoted tells me they damn well know it.
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    We didn't hear anything much about The Walking Dead while BTTF and Jurassic Park were going on, but hey look - there's a game now. The lack of info is just down to where KQ falls on their release timeline.

    No, we didn't hear anything much about the game itself but we certainly saw efforts to engage the fans. Go to Telltale's blog and use The Walking Dead tag. Keep clicking the "Older Blogs" link till close to the end. You'll find that within a few months of announcement Telltale had a Twitter page for TWD. There is at least one piece of concept art 10 months before release. They were hyping the game at E3 and reaching out to fans at ComicCon long before the game came out and even before Jurassic Park's release. Where is the equivalent effort for King's Quest? If they had a web page and some marketing art for TWD at the time of announcement, shouldn't they have some for KQ by now?
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited May 2012
    thom-22 wrote: »
    No, we didn't hear anything much about the game itself but we certainly saw efforts to engage the fans. Go to Telltale's blog and use The Walking Dead tag. Keep clicking the "Older Blogs" link till close to the end. You'll find that within a few months of announcement Telltale had a Twitter page for TWD. There is at least one piece of concept art 10 months before release. They were hyping the game at E3 and reaching out to fans at ComicCon long before the game came out and even before Jurassic Park's release. Where is the equivalent effort for King's Quest? If they had a web page and some marketing art for TWD at the time of announcement, shouldn't they have some for KQ by now?
    It makes sense The Walking Dead was promoted a little bit shortly after announcement, because it was planned to come out in 2011 before all of Telltale's projects got bumped by the Jurrassic Park postponement.

    Take Fables as an example of a game with a later planned release with a similar level of promotion as King's Quest. There's been very little said about Fables, and only recently it was revealed it's coming out in Q3 2012. That means the earliest the first episode of King's Quest can come out is November or December of this year. And more likely it will start coming out in 2013.

    So, we'll probably start seeing some info at the cons this year. They plan to reveal Fables at Comic Con. We might get some KQ tidbits there, or maybe earlier if Telltale decides to show their upcoming games at E3.
  • edited May 2012
    See the problem is some people think if it doesn't come out by the end of the year, that there will not be any chance to play the game, ever... You know that silly Mayan apocolypse thing that people and hollywood make such a big deal over (see 2012, LOL)?
  • edited May 2012
    thom-22 wrote: »
    Of course they wish Ron and Tim were doing something new, because that would validate their own approach to adventure game design. Instead, all of the excitement with the DFA and the Sierra designers making new games (and let's not forget Tex Murphy) is a repudiation of where Telltale has taken the genre, and that self-serving sentence Lamb quoted tells me they damn well know it.

    YES!!! This exactly!! :cool:
  • edited May 2012
    Telltale usually controls its official PR fairly tightly, and because they work digitally and don't necessarily have to go through a lengthy gold disk/duplication/distribution cycle to get a game to market, they don't start releasing much information until they're within a few months of release and creative decisions about the first episode are somewhat finalized. Nobody wants to get burned by showing off preliminary artwork, rough puzzles or placeholder voice acting -- in the Internet age, the first impression often becomes THE impression.

    Telltale's marketing also has to be careful to differentiate Fables from King's Quest -- both are set in universes where fairy tale characters exist, but the properties have very different approaches and subject matter, and both have different but similarly niche audiences. While I am sure the games will look and feel very distinct from each other, bullet points and sound bites may not be easy to manage; talking about King's Quest when they're not even ready to talk about Fables could confuse the audience and damage sales of both titles.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.