A question for everyone/anyone working on the game. What do you think is the most important aspect of a Monkey Island game? What one thing really makes it special for you?
The thing that I am spending most of my free brain cycles on is striking the nice balance between challenging and frustrating. It is very hard, because challenging for one person can be frustrating for another, and there has been a lot of internal debate on how we should approach certain aspects of the game to make it a satisfying experience.
I recently played the Wallace and Gromit demo and second episode which were great, but I noticed that you haven't included an option to adjust the music and voice volume seperately. I think this is a very handy option for people who have trouble hearing or are forced to play in a noisy environment. Please inlcude this option in The Monkey Island games.
A technical question: Has Telltale discovered the benefits of Anisotropic Filtering yet?
For those who don't know what AF is, in short it makes textures look better when they're angled away from the game "camera". Here is a quick comparison of the special rug in Sam & Max's office, at the start of Season Two (possible spoilers, I guess, for those who don't want even a clue about what happens in Season One): With no Anisotropic Filtering With 16x Anisotropic Filtering
(Screenshots are a roughly 860x350 cropped portion of an originally 1920x1080 screenshot.)
I remember how puzzled I was when even the DVD video of the Season One extras showed distinct signs that no AF was used. (I haven't studied the Season Two video yet). Is there some compatibility issue that keeps AF from being a standard part of the high quality graphics option? I know ATI and nVidia chipsets have had very low performance hits, almost zero, from AF for quite a while, are Intel chipsets the hold-up?
I recently played the Wallace and Gromit demo and second episode which were great, but I noticed that you haven't included an option to adjust the music and voice volume seperately. I think this is a very handy option for people who have trouble hearing or are forced to play in a noisy environment. Please inlcude this option in The Monkey Island games.
This was confirmed a few pages back. There will be three volume sliders in the menu.
Just a quick thank you to Telltale for all the hard work you're obviously putting into this game!!
I can't wait to play it.
3D Guybrush looks great! If only LucasArts put as much effort into their Guybrush sprite for the Special Edition...
I decided to try the first episode of Wallace and Grommit as my free game and despite my initial feelings of ambivalence I came around to thinking you guys are clawing your way back to the artistic heights of the 2D days at a fair pace, and the mixed keyboard/mouse controls felt much more natural than I expected.
No doubt the graphical improvements are partly due to the 360's extra power compared to the Wii so my question would be, is the PC version of ToMI going to have any extra graphical effects that the Wii might not have, such as depth of field blurring?
I thought it added quite impressively subtle realism to W&G :cool:
Oh, and the fixed widescreen aspect, I've seen it commented that this is necessary for your scene riggers to know exactly where everything is going to be.
Are all future Telltale PC releases going to have a fixed 16:9 perspective?
Oh, and the fixed widescreen aspect, I've seen it commented that this is necessary for your scene riggers to know exactly where everything is going to be.
Are all future Telltale PC releases going to have a fixed 16:9 perspective?
We're using some depth of field and some post-processed glow effects in Monkey PC, though maybe not as heavily as in Wallace & Gromit, as the style of the world and the cinematography in general isn't quite the same between those two worlds. As for fixed aspect ratio, I think that's still up in the air on PC, though I know that on the Wii the game will run full screen on a 4:3 display (not letterboxed like W&G), just because clarity is important on a system like that. Both PC and Wii of course support widescreen if your display is widescreen, though
Wow! I just pre-ordered today, I just went through all 35 pages.
My head hurts. In a good way, I think.
...
No, no, it just hurts.
A lot of my questions have been answered. Part of me thinks this sort of thread should be in the general forum for everybody to see, but since I'm here I might as well get some questions out of the way.
I guess everything on my mind right now is about LucasArts. Do they have any strict guidelines about handling Monkey Island? How much input have they had on the game?
Here's a question I think we all have, somewhere in our subcounscious. Will you implement the whole concept of "Easy version/Mega Monkey"?
It was used in MI2 and MI3 which made the games really entertaining and replayable!
Here's another question, to satisfy my curiosity: How many people have pre-ordered ToMI uptil now?
I noticed that you guys started answering more often. Yay! Free grog for everyone!
Sorry to re-post this, but I figured that you might have missed it.
Well I was going to ask about item combination and challenge level, but that was answered, so the only question I have left:
Where exactly did Telltale plant the bug in my house to keep making games based on things I'm obsessed with. I don't want you to STOP bugging me, I just want to know where to have my wistful conversations about Adventure games I'd like to see/see come back. :^)
Well I was going to ask about item combination and challenge level, but that was answered, so the only question I have left:
Where exactly did Telltale plant the bug in my house to keep making games based on things I'm obsessed with. I don't want you to STOP bugging me, I just want to know where to have my wistful conversations about Adventure games I'd like to see/see come back. :^)
hahaha seriously
it's like their fingers are squarely on the pulse of the dreams of us classic adventure game fans
AND THEY KNOW HOW TO USE IT
the day it was announced, i had just woken up and saw an AIM message from one of my friends about MI coming back, and I seriously thought I was still asleep and dreaming for about an hour afterwards as I investigated it. Here we are like a week later and that feeling is still lingering a little bit, but I'm coming to accept it as reality a little bit now.
The thing that I am spending most of my free brain cycles on is striking the nice balance between challenging and frustrating. It is very hard, because challenging for one person can be frustrating for another, and there has been a lot of internal debate on how we should approach certain aspects of the game to make it a satisfying experience.
If in doubt, err on the side of frustrating! (you have a hint sytem after all.. )
:cool: just finished replaying CoMI today which is why i remember. On to EfMI now and hoping i can grit my teeth through the interface to complete it again.
and I seriously thought I was still asleep and dreaming for about an hour afterwards as I investigated it. Here we are like a week later and that feeling is still lingering a little bit, but I'm coming to accept it as reality a little bit now.
QUOTE]
Gosh. the nostalgia. I must admit that for me its kind of like an intermittent delayed euphoria that sparks up every few hours.
Sorry if that has already been said, but have you considered doing a cinematic trailer for ToMI just like the one you did for Sam & Max Season 2 ? I know a lot of people who were... how to put it... less than convinced by the current trailer (but when they see the actual gameplay footage on gamespot they say "hey, actually it looks nice"). I think a good cinematic trailer would be a good way to convince the last skeptics
Are the Stan shopkeeper going to be in the game? Always loved the guy... also want to know will there be insult fights again... insult fights was like a salt on to soup. And also hoping that the soundtrack is coming, always loved the "Pirate music."
Hey guys Im the newest addition to the ship-o-preorders, looking at the trailer I think it will be very faithful to the Lucasarts Monkey Island games, having some of the main designers of the original at Telltale definitely helps. Im hoping that the music will be very MI3 inspired, as well as that kind of humour, eg Murray the demonic skull, and just the general vibe of it. Monkey Island is my favourite adventure game and always will be, cant wait for the release!
Are the Stan shopkeeper going to be in the game? Always loved the guy... also want to know will there be insult fights again... insult fights was like a salt on to soup. And also hoping that the soundtrack is coming, always loved the "Pirate music."
-Pleased and faithful Gamer-
One of the dev (don't remember which one) just gave that nice answear:
"Has there already been an MI episode without Stan?"
I really hate to be one of those people... who am I kidding. M:I changed my life! First PC game I ever bought. King's Quest V was sold out and M:I had really cool box art (I was 8, okay). Early LucasArts games totally informed my sense of humor growing up, and now...people still don't "get" me.
Question: who on the design team has the nerdiest desk setup and, follow-up, what ridiculous nerd artifacts are displayed on it?
I really hate to be one of those people... who am I kidding. M:I changed my life! First PC game I ever bought. King's Quest V was sold out and M:I had really cool box art (I was 8, okay). Early LucasArts games totally informed my sense of humor growing up, and now...people still don't "get" me.
Twisting the youth of today has always been a priority for us.
Question: who on the design team has the nerdiest desk setup and, follow-up, what ridiculous nerd artifacts are displayed on it?
Nerdiest? I pick Stemmle, for the comic book superhero items. He's got a number of Green Lantern figures and a set of 1970s Marvel Superhero 7-11 cups. By volume it's quite restrained, but that just distills the essence of nerdiness all the better.
For sheer quantity/clutter/disaster, my own desk is undoubtedly the worst. I use it as a place to keep toys that I don't want to have to find room for in my house. So there's an endless array of pencil toppers, Homies, Pez dispensers, rubber brains, wind-up toys, Lego people, and so on. There's also a Fisher-Price robot, three Pillsbury Dough-Boys, a bunch of tikis, and many, many pieces of paper.
From Wallace to Monkey, Telltale has allowed me to work on two of the my most beloved properties ever.
Anybody who not only appreciates Monkey Island, but also the best thing to come out of Yorkshire since Patrick Stewart, has my absolute trust in making a great new Monkey Island
So true! Low system requirements make players happy.
There was a time when 4GB was enough to play just about anything. Now it barely loads Windows.
Darn you Bill Gates! :mad: *shakes fist
A question for the team, if they're not already hiding in a corner, rocking back and forth from the impending release date, and the mini-novel that our combined questions make...
Am I right in thinking you haven't decided upon the final control system, and if so will you let us all know when you do?
I must admit, never played Wallace and Gromit (never got 'round to it, despite loving the progs), so I don't get the allusions to WG style controls.
Also, can we have some more teasers of any kind any time soon? I have this feeling of a kid before Christmas if multiplied by about 10
Twisting the youth of today has always been a priority for us.
How true. I played SoMI during lunch at school when I was in elementary school and my fragile psyche never quite recovered. It's fortunate that I'm now employed by the people who helped corrupt shape me into the person I am today.
Im worried after playing wallace and gromit it was far too shot and too easy I have completed 2 parts in an unbelievably quick amount of time. I dont play many games any more so im not someone who is practices at playing games, i dont reply the money island games all the time as I like wait till I have forgoten most of the puzzles (the last time there was a 10 year gap), so Im not practiced at puzzles like this either, these games are just too easy, and its got me worried that Im going to be disappointed by ToMI im not bothered about the little things have no intention in pulling things appart as some have, all i want is humour some of the old characters I remember back, puzzles that challenge me and a game that isnt over before I've had a chance to get into it!!! please say Money Island be more difficult then wallace and gromit, or at least have a difficult option. btw if I find it too easy then so will all the other MI fans as Im not that good at computer games.
Anne26 - Fear not! You'll find challenging puzzles in ToMI. The W&G games are designed to move you through the story at a pretty good clip. Monkey wouldn't be Monkey without wacky, tricky puzzles. Of course the hints will be there for those who want them, but so will the challenging puzzles.
Anne26 - Fear not! You'll find challenging puzzles in ToMI. The W&G games are designed to move you through the story at a pretty good clip. Monkey wouldn't be Monkey without wacky, tricky puzzles. Of course the hints will be there for those who want them, but so will the challenging puzzles.
thanks that makes me feel better!! I will make sure the hints are turned off! dont get me wrong its a good idea for people who are new to MI, and the more people that get into MI the better, because it will make it more likely we will get future games.
So is this forum going to be around throughout the season? I hadn't really thought about this until my wife asked me. While she wasn't too thrilled i bought "another game" when i told her what all went on in here, she thought it was kinda cool as a pre-order incentive. Beats a lot of the useless garbage I've received in the past from retail chains.
Im hoping that the music will be very MI3 inspired...
Michael Land is composing all of the music for "Tales of Monkey Island". He wrote the music for all of the Monkey games so you can rest assured that it will be inspired by... well himself.
Nerdiest? I pick Stemmle, for the comic book superhero items. He's got a number of Green Lantern figures and a set of 1970s Marvel Superhero 7-11 cups. By volume it's quite restrained, but that just distills the essence of nerdiness all the better.
If you mean areas instead of desks per se, Dave is the winner hands down. He has a number of bizarre contraptions that I can only guess their use. Mike has a handful of green lantern figures but thats about it. Nerdiest areas in the office, I think, would be a tie between Scott & Emily. Actually on further inspection, Scott has a Vault-Tec lunchbox. I think he wins.
If you mean areas instead of desks per se, Dave is the winner hands down. He has a number of bizarre contraptions that I can only guess their use. Mike has a handful of green lantern figures but thats about it. Nerdiest areas in the office, I think, would be a tie between Scott & Emily. Actually on further inspection, Scott has a Vault-Tec lunchbox. I think he wins.
I think we're overlooking Dennis here (Cinematic Artist Extraordinaire). Not including all of his classic Nintendo mini-figs, he has a 1/15th size Cloud Strife (20 articulating parts!) and paid an exorbitant amount for a limited run Street Fighter Anniversary panoramic poster which he painstakingly mounted to foam core.
And did I mention his Gold copy of NES Zelda that he has mounted in a wooden shadow box?
I think Dennis is the clear winner, based sheerly on calories burnt in pursuing nerdom.
But Dave's bizarre contraptions are out of this world. This forum needs photos of these things.
Comments
For those who don't know what AF is, in short it makes textures look better when they're angled away from the game "camera". Here is a quick comparison of the special rug in Sam & Max's office, at the start of Season Two (possible spoilers, I guess, for those who don't want even a clue about what happens in Season One):
With no Anisotropic Filtering
With 16x Anisotropic Filtering
(Screenshots are a roughly 860x350 cropped portion of an originally 1920x1080 screenshot.)
I remember how puzzled I was when even the DVD video of the Season One extras showed distinct signs that no AF was used. (I haven't studied the Season Two video yet). Is there some compatibility issue that keeps AF from being a standard part of the high quality graphics option? I know ATI and nVidia chipsets have had very low performance hits, almost zero, from AF for quite a while, are Intel chipsets the hold-up?
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=132282&postcount=509
I can't wait to play it.
3D Guybrush looks great! If only LucasArts put as much effort into their Guybrush sprite for the Special Edition...
No doubt the graphical improvements are partly due to the 360's extra power compared to the Wii so my question would be, is the PC version of ToMI going to have any extra graphical effects that the Wii might not have, such as depth of field blurring?
I thought it added quite impressively subtle realism to W&G :cool:
Are all future Telltale PC releases going to have a fixed 16:9 perspective?
We're using some depth of field and some post-processed glow effects in Monkey PC, though maybe not as heavily as in Wallace & Gromit, as the style of the world and the cinematography in general isn't quite the same between those two worlds. As for fixed aspect ratio, I think that's still up in the air on PC, though I know that on the Wii the game will run full screen on a 4:3 display (not letterboxed like W&G), just because clarity is important on a system like that. Both PC and Wii of course support widescreen if your display is widescreen, though
My head hurts. In a good way, I think.
...
No, no, it just hurts.
A lot of my questions have been answered. Part of me thinks this sort of thread should be in the general forum for everybody to see, but since I'm here I might as well get some questions out of the way.
I guess everything on my mind right now is about LucasArts. Do they have any strict guidelines about handling Monkey Island? How much input have they had on the game?
I noticed that you guys started answering more often. Yay! Free grog for everyone!
Sorry to re-post this, but I figured that you might have missed it.
use "head-b-clear" with "grog"
use "spiked drink"
Where exactly did Telltale plant the bug in my house to keep making games based on things I'm obsessed with. I don't want you to STOP bugging me, I just want to know where to have my wistful conversations about Adventure games I'd like to see/see come back. :^)
it's like their fingers are squarely on the pulse of the dreams of us classic adventure game fans
AND THEY KNOW HOW TO USE IT
the day it was announced, i had just woken up and saw an AIM message from one of my friends about MI coming back, and I seriously thought I was still asleep and dreaming for about an hour afterwards as I investigated it. Here we are like a week later and that feeling is still lingering a little bit, but I'm coming to accept it as reality a little bit now.
HOLY CRAP! MONKEY ISLAND!
If in doubt, err on the side of frustrating! (you have a hint sytem after all..
:cool: just finished replaying CoMI today which is why i remember. On to EfMI now and hoping i can grit my teeth through the interface to complete it again.
(i really hated that part of it)
-Pleased and faithful Gamer-
One of the dev (don't remember which one) just gave that nice answear:
Question: who on the design team has the nerdiest desk setup and, follow-up, what ridiculous nerd artifacts are displayed on it?
Twisting the youth of today has always been a priority for us.
Nerdiest? I pick Stemmle, for the comic book superhero items. He's got a number of Green Lantern figures and a set of 1970s Marvel Superhero 7-11 cups. By volume it's quite restrained, but that just distills the essence of nerdiness all the better.
For sheer quantity/clutter/disaster, my own desk is undoubtedly the worst. I use it as a place to keep toys that I don't want to have to find room for in my house. So there's an endless array of pencil toppers, Homies, Pez dispensers, rubber brains, wind-up toys, Lego people, and so on. There's also a Fisher-Price robot, three Pillsbury Dough-Boys, a bunch of tikis, and many, many pieces of paper.
Anybody who not only appreciates Monkey Island, but also the best thing to come out of Yorkshire since Patrick Stewart, has my absolute trust in making a great new Monkey Island
There was a time when 4GB was enough to play just about anything. Now it barely loads Windows.
Darn you Bill Gates! :mad: *shakes fist
A question for the team, if they're not already hiding in a corner, rocking back and forth from the impending release date, and the mini-novel that our combined questions make...
Am I right in thinking you haven't decided upon the final control system, and if so will you let us all know when you do?
I must admit, never played Wallace and Gromit (never got 'round to it, despite loving the progs), so I don't get the allusions to WG style controls.
Also, can we have some more teasers of any kind any time soon? I have this feeling of a kid before Christmas if multiplied by about 10
How true. I played SoMI during lunch at school when I was in elementary school and my fragile psyche never quite recovered. It's fortunate that I'm now employed by the people who helped corrupt shape me into the person I am today.
thanks that makes me feel better!! I will make sure the hints are turned off! dont get me wrong its a good idea for people who are new to MI, and the more people that get into MI the better, because it will make it more likely we will get future games.
July 7th
I made the same mistake, before I pre-ordered.
I was being sarcastic, but oh well.
Oop! Sorry about that. Let me go tinker with my sarcasm detectors...
Michael Land is composing all of the music for "Tales of Monkey Island". He wrote the music for all of the Monkey games so you can rest assured that it will be inspired by... well himself.
That sounds like a great use of your time.
Ah, so you believe in a Jeffersonian Democracy.
Should I feel sad or happy that I have no idea what you mean?
I think we're overlooking Dennis here (Cinematic Artist Extraordinaire). Not including all of his classic Nintendo mini-figs, he has a 1/15th size Cloud Strife (20 articulating parts!) and paid an exorbitant amount for a limited run Street Fighter Anniversary panoramic poster which he painstakingly mounted to foam core.
And did I mention his Gold copy of NES Zelda that he has mounted in a wooden shadow box?
I think Dennis is the clear winner, based sheerly on calories burnt in pursuing nerdom.
But Dave's bizarre contraptions are out of this world. This forum needs photos of these things.