Sam & Max is and Adventure game... keep it that way.
I don't have faith in Telltale doing justice to Sam & Max. I think Bone is a game for little children and doesn’t pose any challenge like adventure games should. The humor was cheesy, like a Pixar film. It had its good parts, but something always made me go and finish old adventure games many times. They had no reparability value, so what gave them that magic? Why is bone, that sticks to the basic ideas of classic adventure games doesn’t have it? It's an ok game, but missed out on so much more it could have been.
However, I do like that Telltale stick to the genre but they should not depend on minigames to pull more people into it. The game can be fantastic if they see what made the first game so great. Using its cynical and intelligent humor and not think that when someone talks loud they sound funny. Use minigames to the minimum as a part of the main game and use a lot as side parts. Sam & Max had those games you carried around with you which was brilliant, whenever you got stuck and didn't know what to do, you could just play a game of car-bomb and then go back to the game with new ideas.
There is also the use of new technology. They can implement more than one path or add multiple cases to solve and let you chose (separating the game wont allow this). Make a more complex world map and much more.
I really hope that Telltale would make Sam & Max a superior game like the original was, maybe even better. I don't care if it doesn’t talk to the wide group of gamers, I want it to be perfect for people who like these types of games. It's not a Sam & Max FPS, MMORPG, RTS or Dancing Game... Its an adventure game for f*ck's sake and should stay that way. I do hope that it sells good, though. I'll follow the development of this game and make sure to get it once its out, even if it would be bad I'll still try. Whatever happens, I hope I'm very very wrong and Telltale would kick major as* with it. I hope it will have that magic that many new games lost these days.
Good luck Telltale, work hard to make it perfect.
However, I do like that Telltale stick to the genre but they should not depend on minigames to pull more people into it. The game can be fantastic if they see what made the first game so great. Using its cynical and intelligent humor and not think that when someone talks loud they sound funny. Use minigames to the minimum as a part of the main game and use a lot as side parts. Sam & Max had those games you carried around with you which was brilliant, whenever you got stuck and didn't know what to do, you could just play a game of car-bomb and then go back to the game with new ideas.
There is also the use of new technology. They can implement more than one path or add multiple cases to solve and let you chose (separating the game wont allow this). Make a more complex world map and much more.
I really hope that Telltale would make Sam & Max a superior game like the original was, maybe even better. I don't care if it doesn’t talk to the wide group of gamers, I want it to be perfect for people who like these types of games. It's not a Sam & Max FPS, MMORPG, RTS or Dancing Game... Its an adventure game for f*ck's sake and should stay that way. I do hope that it sells good, though. I'll follow the development of this game and make sure to get it once its out, even if it would be bad I'll still try. Whatever happens, I hope I'm very very wrong and Telltale would kick major as* with it. I hope it will have that magic that many new games lost these days.
Good luck Telltale, work hard to make it perfect.
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Comments
You implied that Bone was not an adventure game because it had minigames. What? Where's the indication that they are depending on mini games? Where is there even the hint that Sam & Max will be anything but an adventure game? Where are you getting all this from?
There's no reason to think Sam & Max will be a whole lot like Bone anyway. I disagree with you about Bone's humor, but I'm sure you realize that these are two completely different stories with completely different characters and tone. They are well aware that it's not the same kind of humor as Bone. Also I'm sure you know that Steve Purcell is working with them, right? Telltale knows what they're doing; they've been part of a lot of past adventure projects and while they're willing to hear suggestions by us loud-mouthed fans on internet forums they're not stupid enough to actually take most of them. Give them a little more credit.
There is no hint that Sam & Max will be the same as bone and, but it is going to be episodic... which is not something that I like. If you read through and I believe you did, I hope that Telltale does great with the game. There are actually many bigshot companies that I wouldn’t trust with the S&M franchise before Telltale. So I am giving them credit, but not much and I'm not sorry about it.
Sam & Max is one of my favorite franchises and I have nothing but great memories from it. You don’t have to understand, but it would be a shame if they would hurt it. It would defiantly be a challenge to make a better game than the original, but I'm glad it's being done. Steve Purcell is nothing but asset to the development team and I hope he takes a big part of its making.
If you heard about Double Fine, I can say that they have more than impressed me with Psyconauts. I was expecting a lot from Tim's company and got even more. I expect the same from Telltale and hope to get an even bigger surprise.
There is no hate, only worries, just like many old fans, I want to see an amazing product. Didn't like Bone very much and that's why I worry more.
A. They're developing for a more niche market than Psychonauts, which was an adventure-inspired platformer, so episodic content is a good way to get money and the ability to change problems between episodes, so the games improve quickly. No publisher is going to fund a full length adventure, and Telltale can't afford to develop such a big game all at once with no money coming in.
B. Bone and Sam and Max are two completely different games, and are being handled very differently. Bone was designed for comic readers and people who had never played a game before in their life, which is why Bone was pretty easy and whatnot. Sam and Max is being designed for adventure gamers, and is also being tooled to be more "gritty," like the comics.
C. The cancelled Freelance Police was going to be episodic, in a way. It featured six seperate cases that would tie together into a larger plot line. The developers (most of Telltale) even wanted to have downloadable cases after the game was released, but who knows if LucasArts would have allowed that. Now imagine this same idea, but with each case as a seperate cheap purchase and Telltale wielding complete control, along with the constant supervision of Steve Purcell, the creator of Sam and Max? How does that sound? Not too shabby, huh?
D. Sam and Max Hit The Road featured one neccessary minigame (Whak-a-Rat), so it's not like they're anything new to the series, and they're definitely not new to adventures as a whole.
Also, the Bone series is definitely not kiddy. Anyone who's read the comics knows that they start out very happy and it seems kiddy, but the later chapters are surprisingly dark. And Out From Boneville was the first short game out of a large series (I estimate maybe six games), and they're episodic, so imagine them as one full game. The earliest levels are always the easiest, yes?
Also, I enjoyed Psychonauts immensely but Tim Schafer has kind of pissed me off when he appeared in an article of PCPowerPlay (An Australian magazine) and basically said that he thinks Adventure games are too old and [unevolvable?] now.
since it's here though, just to be relevant, I understand where the OP was coming from, but I do think TTG did a great job with S+M (though I do wish it were more complex (branching storylines, etc) but that's kinda expected from an episodic adventure game.)