That's probably not going to happen! The idea of tying the episodes together has never really come up in any reasonable way, actually, because we really do think of them as separate games that are part of the same story, versus one giant game cut into 6 parts. When TV shows come out on DVD, they don't tie the episodes on together as a 22 hour movie, filming the story bits that happen between epsisodes and re-editing... The concept of that sounds kind of insane, actually.
Sometimes on TV series DVD sets they do cut back in deleted scenes (eg including an "extended pilot" episode), but we have very few of those, if any. There are lots of concepts that are conceived in design meetings that don't make it into the final game, but most of those concepts die before any art or voice is created for them.
Maybe with some other Telltale series in the future we might do some sort of multi-format release where online and packaged are different -- I mean, who knows? Nobody does yet, so anything could happen in the future! -- but I don't think it's something that people have ever thought about actually doing with Sam & Max. People out on the Internet sometimes like to think of the game as "a sequel to Hit the Road, but cut up in pieces," but really, at Telltale, that way of thinking of the games never really enters the picture.
I think the fact that Sam & Max Season One does come after Hit the Road sort of warps peoples expectations of how the episode to episode story "should" be, even though we're doing something totally different from Hit the Road with the story structure of our Sam & Max episodes.
I wonder what comments would be like if we lived in some cruel and twisted dimension where there hadn't ever been a Hit the Road...
For instance, the Phoenix Wright series on the DS is always 4 or 5 "cases" per game, each case with their own beginnings and ends, and nobody asks that they be tied together into one story without breaks. There are 4 games now, each with the aforementioned 4-5 cases per cartridge, and they all have Phoenix's office, the detention center and police station, and, most notably, the courtroom, as well as maybe 10 characters who repeat in every single case, but nobody bats an eye at this "blatant reuse," because Phoenix never had an epic quest "single, very long case" game back in the 90s to judge against.
Anyway, for Sam & Max season two, the plots of the episodes will be a bit more tightly related, a bit more serialized than the Season One episodes -- because we found that most people bought the whole season or nearly all of it, versus just buying one episode, and therefore we don't need to worry quite as much about whether or not people will miss something because they weren't there for plot events from a prior episode -- but each season 2 episode is still still a wholly self-contained story with a beginning and end, and they each have their own opening and closing titles, etc, and I imagine they'll be going out on the disc in that format as well!
The difference is that with Pheonix Wright, after you save, the next case starts up. None of that tedious going back to the desktop and clicking the icon... (It's not all that tedious, but you get the idea.)
Oh, and there's no credits sequence until the end of the last episode (Unless you count the one at the end of case #4 on the DS).
The difference is that with Pheonix Wright, after you save, the next case starts up. None of that tedious going back to the desktop and clicking the icon... (It's not all that tedious, but you get the idea.)
This is true, but the game has a really annoying in-game save system that forces you to save, quit to the main menu, and then load the game you just saved. Any convenience provided by jumping right into the next case is negated by the inconvenience of this, IMO.
This is true, but the game has a really annoying in-game save system that forces you to save, quit to the main menu, and then load the game you just saved. Any convenience provided by jumping right into the next case is negated by the inconvenience of this, IMO.
True, but they could always say that's just there to dissuade people from saving before trying something they're unsure about so they can turn the game off and back on and not lose an exclamation mark/life bar segment.
Pretty lame excuse, but still...
I hadn't really considered it until sumrnot's post, but Grim Fandango was somewhat Episodic itself. It was a single game, but it had four distinct "Acts" that were all fairly self-contained (heck, as I recall years 1 and 3 were on one CD and years 2 and 4 on another) , with very little carried over from one "episode" to the next aside from the overarching plot (which would certainly necessitate playing the installments in order).
It would certainly have been interesting if it had been released episodically in this era of digital distribution.
I hadn't really considered it until sumrnot's post, but Grim Fandango was somewhat Episodic itself. It was a single game, but it had four distinct "Acts" that were all fairly self-contained (heck, as I recall years 1 and 3 were on one CD and years 2 and 4 on another) , with very little carried over from one "episode" to the next aside from the overarching plot (which would certainly necessitate playing the installments in order).
It would certainly have been interesting if it had been released episodically in this era of digital distribution.
Nice to have someone else see the similarity. In Sam & Max the episodes are linked, at least in season one, by the occasional item and an underlying story arc. It would have supported a play-as-one option.
But, hey, I'd settle for a "start next episode" button in the exit menu or even going back to the launcher. As it stands, working through the episodes in a sitting is more annoying than it need be.
And Jake, if you're reading, you can guess how far an argument of "common practice" flies. If that actually worked we'd still be playing pure text adventures instead of using them as retro humor.
w00t! Got an email a minute ago, that a box of S&M goodies (that's to say: a DVD and a Case File) is flying by plane (window aisle with in-flight entertainment I'm sure) to the Netherlands! Yay!!
w00t! Got an email a minute ago, that a box of S&M goodies (that's to say: a DVD and a Case File) is flying by plane (window aisle with in-flight entertainment I'm sure) to the Netherlands! Yay!!
And Jake, if you're reading, you can guess how far an argument of "common practice" flies. If that actually worked we'd still be playing pure text adventures instead of using them as retro humor.
Your snarkiness is unnecessary. I'd like the play experience to be as seamless as possible. We set out with the lancher to replicate a "TV show on DVD" style menu, and built as much into it as we could with the resources we had (which, for the record, was nothing but me, a few days, and a very simplistic autorun menu building tool). I have every intention of improving on it next time around, and I'm listening to everything people are writing here and taking it to heart for the next time I put together a Telltale compilation.
This is true, but the game has a really annoying in-game save system that forces you to save, quit to the main menu, and then load the game you just saved. Any convenience provided by jumping right into the next case is negated by the inconvenience of this, IMO.
Ha! That save system is designed for handheld play: you save right before you have to turn off the system. It's not supposed to be used for "quicksaves" so you never lose any life
*Yes, I used it that way too. But I'm not gonna complain about it!
Just back on the topic of the bonus disc for a couple of seconds, if no one minds of course, I would like to point out that I was very impressed by the quality of the commentaries that I have so far been able to listen to...I dont usually listen to commentaries on movies and stuff because I find alot of them to be very boring and stuff...
However, I found the commentaries on this disc very interesting...I suppose its more because I have friends and stuff in the graphic design industry and I have an idea of how hard everyone works on these kinds of projects...and I also just thought it was cool hearing about all the quirky things that happened too...plus the blooper reel was very funny as people have already mentioned...
Just back on the topic of the bonus disc for a couple of seconds, if no one minds of course, I would like to point out that I was very impressed by the quality of the commentaries that I have so far been able to listen to...I dont usually listen to commentaries on movies and stuff because I find alot of them to be very boring and stuff...
However, I found the commentaries on this disc very interesting...I suppose its more because I have friends and stuff in the graphic design industry and I have an idea of how hard everyone works on these kinds of projects...and I also just thought it was cool hearing about all the quirky things that happened too...plus the blooper reel was very funny as people have already mentioned...
Great job guys!
I look forward to hearing the commentaries, as I held back watching them on the site.
If you like The Simpsons, you should check out the season DVD sets as they have interesting commentaries.
Futurama has some of the very few commentaries I've actually made a point of listening to. Usually I skip over them, but Futurama's nerdy enough to be funny
Comments
The difference is that with Pheonix Wright, after you save, the next case starts up. None of that tedious going back to the desktop and clicking the icon... (It's not all that tedious, but you get the idea.)
Oh, and there's no credits sequence until the end of the last episode (Unless you count the one at the end of case #4 on the DS).
A "play all" type button might be worth looking into, but there would be no change in the structure of the opening/closing of the episodes.
This is true, but the game has a really annoying in-game save system that forces you to save, quit to the main menu, and then load the game you just saved. Any convenience provided by jumping right into the next case is negated by the inconvenience of this, IMO.
True, but they could always say that's just there to dissuade people from saving before trying something they're unsure about so they can turn the game off and back on and not lose an exclamation mark/life bar segment.
Pretty lame excuse, but still...
It would certainly have been interesting if it had been released episodically in this era of digital distribution.
Nice to have someone else see the similarity. In Sam & Max the episodes are linked, at least in season one, by the occasional item and an underlying story arc. It would have supported a play-as-one option.
But, hey, I'd settle for a "start next episode" button in the exit menu or even going back to the launcher. As it stands, working through the episodes in a sitting is more annoying than it need be.
And Jake, if you're reading, you can guess how far an argument of "common practice" flies. If that actually worked we'd still be playing pure text adventures instead of using them as retro humor.
*quickly checks e-mails*
No new mail. Aww.
Your snarkiness is unnecessary. I'd like the play experience to be as seamless as possible. We set out with the lancher to replicate a "TV show on DVD" style menu, and built as much into it as we could with the resources we had (which, for the record, was nothing but me, a few days, and a very simplistic autorun menu building tool). I have every intention of improving on it next time around, and I'm listening to everything people are writing here and taking it to heart for the next time I put together a Telltale compilation.
Thanks for your feedback.
No snark intended, just making a point about a flawed argument as succinctly as I could.
Ha! That save system is designed for handheld play: you save right before you have to turn off the system. It's not supposed to be used for "quicksaves" so you never lose any life
*Yes, I used it that way too. But I'm not gonna complain about it!
However, I found the commentaries on this disc very interesting...I suppose its more because I have friends and stuff in the graphic design industry and I have an idea of how hard everyone works on these kinds of projects...and I also just thought it was cool hearing about all the quirky things that happened too...plus the blooper reel was very funny as people have already mentioned...
Great job guys!
I look forward to hearing the commentaries, as I held back watching them on the site.
If you like The Simpsons, you should check out the season DVD sets as they have interesting commentaries.
some of the family guy ones are fairly good as well
Nah, I'm not a fan of Family Guy.
Of course I've been listening too all the Futurama commentaries. Somehow it seems that fans of S&M are fans of Futurama aswell?
Marc
Futurama is quite amusing, but I've never really watched it properly apart from the odd episode on Sky 3.