Q&A With the Team

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Comments

  • edited July 2009
    I was just wondering somthing..you got Sam and Max in all new 3d goodness. And now Monkey Island. Whats Next? I think you should make a sequal to Day of the Tenticle or Loom or maybe even Zak Mckrakken! Now that would be awsome!
  • edited July 2009
    Forget those other franchises. Full Throttle! When is it happening?!?!
  • edited July 2009
    Does anyone know if "Stian the Siv-lover" has this game by now??
  • edited July 2009
    Vandalis wrote: »
    I was just wondering somthing..you got Sam and Max in all new 3d goodness. And now Monkey Island. Whats Next? I think you should make a sequal to Day of the Tenticle or Loom or maybe even Zak Mckrakken! Now that would be awsome!

    Speaking of Loom...
    http://store.steampowered.com/news/2644/
    I'm quite likely to buy it when it comes out on there.
  • edited July 2009
    Fury wrote: »
    Monkey Island 2 had a horrible ending. Seriously, it made MI2 the weakest in the series (until Mi4 came out).

    I think 3 did it's best to salvage a plot from that ending, and most people will agree 3 was the best.

    I think you will find you are in minority in this opinion. In all polls on Monkey Island fan boards that I have seen had LeChucks Revenge in the well deserved first position with Secret trailing by about 20%.

    And I think the ending was pure genius. Monkey Island 2 is a masterpiece in my opinion and one of the greatest games of all time.

    And it wasn't the first I played (Secret was).

    Oh my, I'm off-topic aren't I? Well I'm just killing time until Tales comes out!
  • I suppose this might be "Classified," but out of curiosity...

    How much $$$ did it cost to get the license for Monkey Island?
  • edited July 2009
    parabolee wrote: »
    I think you will find you are in minority in this opinion. In all polls on Monkey Island fan boards that I have seen had LeChucks Revenge in the well deserved first position with Secret trailing by about 20%.

    And I think the ending was pure genius. Monkey Island 2 is a masterpiece in my opinion and one of the greatest games of all time.

    And it wasn't the first I played (Secret was).

    Oh my, I'm off-topic aren't I? Well I'm just killing time until Tales comes out!
    yeah the ending to mi2 blew my mind. twice. once with the carnival :eek: then once again with elaine standing by the hole wondering where guybrush went :eek:. it left so much to the imagination and created this wonderful mystery. it was a brilliant ending. best out of all 4 games, in fact. (monkey robot? urgh. cover lechuck in ice and sail away roll credits? uGHH. rootbeer lechuck to death and watch him explode in the sky? ok that was pretty damn cool. but still, MI2 had the best ending, in a lot of people's opinions).
  • Dave GrossmanDave Grossman Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    Always controversial, isn't it? Some hate it, others love it, not too many opinions in the middle. Having a cliffhanger like that would have been a much better idea had Ron or any of us actually worked on the next game. Which, of course, we didn't, and poor Jonathan and Larry had to figure out what to do with it on their own. I thought their game was rather good.

    I'm not going to say anything about what was or was not originally intended to follow that cliffhanger. I would caution you not to put too much faith into any particular rumor you might hear about it. Those who know don't tell, and those who tell don't know. Make up your own mind about what it means - that's what poetry is for (and, um, also the bizarre endings of funny computer games).
  • edited July 2009
    7th where i am!
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    djchallis wrote: »
    Thanks for the reply again! That sounds good.
    I guess my thoughts were from a design point-of-view. I wonder if you guys might design some bits in a certain way just because that's the way it's always done in your games and with your system. Or are you guys too creative for that?

    Well it's always a good idea to design within your core competency. We do this one thing very well, therefore it's a good and safe idea to do that some more. Stuff outside of the norm can be new and exciting, but is often a lot harder to implement. As such, it runs a greater risk of falling flat and just not being that interesting. That said, I think we try to keep a good balance between the two things. I think in the initial design phase we end up throwing around a ton of ideas regardless of how hard it would be to actually do, and then we end up weeding down ideas until we have a produceable game.
    djchallis wrote: »
    If that is your job, you could answer another question for me: How much creativity do you get within your particular job? I always imagine the designer making all the creative decisions. Is that true and does it frustrate you, or are there loads of things you get to be creative with?

    Actually, I'm just Lead Tester. In short, I play the games. So you would probably assume I have absolutely zero creative input. The way we are set up though, we have a pretty free flow of ideas. The designers are very open to ideas, and I'm constantly walking over to the designers and programmers to hash out ideas and fixes. I've got my hands in a bit of everything.
  • ShauntronShauntron Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    Actually, I'm just Lead Tester. In short, I play the games. So you would probably assume I have absolutely zero creative input. The way we are set up though, we have a pretty free flow of ideas. The designers are very open to ideas, and I'm constantly walking over to the designers and programmers to hash out ideas and fixes. I've got my hands in a bit of everything.

    To elaborate on this, the kinds of creative input from a tester most likely to be addressed involves devising situations well off the regular path of the game in which the way the characters act make no sense. Like if you solve a puzzle that ends up torching a characters home, should he still be cheerful when you meet him next time? We also try to think about the weird things a player might try to solve a puzzle, because even if it's wrong, it might be a really good idea, and that's a good opportunity to steer the player in the right direction.

    We're also in a good position to help designers recycle existing content creatively in crunch times (when generating new animations and voices will be a strain), like at the end of the Homestar audition in SBCG4AP 103. If you wait too long to solve the final leg of that puzzle, the timing will be thrown off (since it's a music puzzle) and you won't succeed even if you had the right answer, so Mike was trying to figure out the best way to let people know they needed to be quicker, and I remembered the line "Too late!" when burning Strong Sad's paper work in 102. Now the puzzle works just fine!
  • edited July 2009
    Hi all!

    I just can't sleep so I decided to write my first post here just before the release :)
    I think I am the true Monkey Generation, being 28 now, I was about 11 when I first got my hands on MI2. It was the ultimately cool game then, and for me, it still is. LOTS of awesome graphics, funny characters, great atmosphere. It also gave me inspiration to learn English :)
    I loved it so much that at first I was too critical towards new episodes. I've always loved 320x200x256col pixel graphics (I still do), I am quite conservative in general. But after a few hours of play time I started appreciating the cartoon-style of CMI and the 3D graphics of EMI too. Now I really like ALL MI games. The five episode TMI also sounded a bit strange for me at first and I was a little bit afraid that its style had changed too much... but having all these great names behind it, I am confident that I'm going to love this game too...

    If I have to make a preference order of MI games, it would be MI2, CMI, MI1, EMI. But I love all of them, for different reasons. All of them had their different charming style.

    Oops, almost forgot: my all time favourite visual joke is Stan's suit. In MI1 and MI2 its pattern was stationary on the screen while Stan moved. I suppose it was mainly because it was hard enough to make ANY pattern in 320x200 resolution. But in high resolution cartoon-style CMI the pattern of the suit still didn't follow Stan's movements even thought is would have been easy to do so. Even in EMI, where it was actually HARDER to put a stationary pattern on the 3D suit, they did it :) I laughed a lot when I first met Stan in EMI. It was both funny and giving some respects towards the original MI1&2 games.
    I'm really curious if I'll meet Stan again and if I do, how his suit will look like :)
  • edited July 2009
    I wonder how long we have left? If it wasn't released unitl say 5pm or somthing i would get some sleep. I suppose it doesnt really matter when i get it. I guess im just too excited.

    I think i started playin Monkey island when we got our first amiga when i was about 6 or so, we got the Lucas Arts Games collection, which had Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Loom, Indiana Jones, and Zak Mckrakken. I used to play it for hours but got stuck when i couldn't figure out where to find a helmet. I didnt find out it was a pot under the stove in teh bar until after the amiga broke. So i didn't actually get very far until i was about 14-15 i think when i was able to play it agian. After that i played 2 and eventualy 3. BOth of whish were great. I bout 4 when i seen it in a shop for the ps2 but it wasnt really the same as the others.

    The years past by, im 21 now and i have been patiently waiting for the news that a new Monkey island would be coming. But you were very sneaky and managed to keep it a secret.

    Now that we know its here in only a matter of hours or so. Im just as excited now as i was back when i first played the Monkey Island.

    Im not sure what to do now. Wait up? or just sleep and get it when i wake up.
    It would be nice if you could come up with a time scale of maybe how long we got left till the release.
  • edited July 2009
    Hello everyone!

    To the developers, how much would you rate your own game on a scale of 1-10?

    just curious ^^

    personally, as long as Dominic plays guybrush, i cant possibly give it anything less than 10, but i'll have to wait and see :)
  • edited July 2009
    I'm refreshing the hell out of the download page, I want my MI fix!
  • edited July 2009
    Fefe wrote: »
    Hi all!

    I just can't sleep so I decided to write my first post here just before the release :)
    I think I am the true Monkey Generation, being 28 now, I was about 11 when I first got my hands on MI2.

    I'll be 29 this month, and my first PC game was the original Monkey Island - it started a love-affair with adventure games that I've never lost. When I saw that this was coming out (along with the special edition of SOMI) this month, it was like a dream come true. No real questions for the team, just a huge thank you for a great early birthday present!
  • edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    Actually, I'm just Lead Tester. In short, I play the games. So you would probably assume I have absolutely zero creative input. The way we are set up though, we have a pretty free flow of ideas. The designers are very open to ideas, and I'm constantly walking over to the designers and programmers to hash out ideas and fixes. I've got my hands in a bit of everything.

    I'll say. Lead Tester/Product Support, Focus Tester Wrangler, Pizza Picker-Upper, Toe-fu expert ...oh ... my bad, that's Dave.
    Shauntron wrote: »
    To elaborate on this, the kinds of creative input from a tester most likely to be addressed involves devising situations well off the regular path of the game in which the way the characters act make no sense. Like if you solve a puzzle that ends up torching a characters home, should he still be cheerful when you meet him next time? We also try to think about the weird things a player might try to solve a puzzle, because even if it's wrong, it might be a really good idea, and that's a good opportunity to steer the player in the right direction.

    We're also in a good position to help designers recycle existing content creatively in crunch times (when generating new animations and voices will be a strain), like at the end of the Homestar audition in SBCG4AP 103. If you wait too long to solve the final leg of that puzzle, the timing will be thrown off (since it's a music puzzle) and you won't succeed even if you had the right answer, so Mike was trying to figure out the best way to let people know they needed to be quicker, and I remembered the line "Too late!" when burning Strong Sad's paper work in 102. Now the puzzle works just fine!

    So you're editors, in the publishing editor sense of the word. And like publishing editors, you aren't very well known by people outside of the industry, but you guys do a lot of work to make everything better. It's not a really brilliant insight, I know; I'm just trying to figure out what you guys do and translate it into concepts my little book-obsessed brain can understand.
  • edited July 2009
    can't sleep...need mi
  • edited July 2009
    i think my F5 button is breaking apart, i need monkey island!
  • edited July 2009
    pantagruel speaks!
  • edited July 2009
    My guess is that since Telltale is in California - we're looking at 12:00am Pacific time... so 2 1/2 more hours.
  • edited July 2009
    I think they're actually going to launch it in the morning PST after they get into work and everything, so more like 9 1/2 hours, maybe ...
  • edited July 2009
    But I cannot wait that long!!
  • edited July 2009
    I know, I know, but the times that try men's souls are what make us better, stronger, more zen-like uses that are able to say, "I had to wait another nine hours for MI, but I made it, and I'm a better, stronger, more zen-like me for it." Or you could get wasted. Whatever works for you.
  • edited July 2009
    What we really need is a countdown timer...

    this is such a cool wedding present, came back from the honeymoon to find an e-mail about the comback of MI and I just had to have it... now it's exactly a month since the wedding and it should be here before I go to bed tonight... I wonder if I can survive at work tomorrow with no sleep? or if I can take a day off to play it!

    I think TellTale should have talks with Funcom and secure the rights to create their epposodic title "Dreamfall Chapters"... Sequal to The Longest Journey and Dreamfall :) According to reports the story is all written but they don't have any available programmers as they are all busy with an MMO...
  • edited July 2009
    But I cannot wait that long!!

    Look, some of us (like...those that live in California, ahem...me) will be at work at 9:00am. That means, I'll have to wait until 6:00pm PST knowing that the latest release of my favorite game has been available a full 9 hours before I've had a chance to play it.

    But you know what? Come download time, I won't even care. I'll just kick back and enjoy.

    Brand new Monkey Island tomorrow people!!!!

    Merry Monkey Island Eve! Now get to sleep, so you can wake up in the morning to see what Santa Grossman brought you.

    PS For the love of your mouse...don't hit refresh for eleven more hours. You're going to need the left click button to play the game
  • edited July 2009
    CalBearRJ wrote: »
    PS For the love of your mouse...don't hit refresh for eleven more hours. You're going to need the left click button to play the game

    No I won't... this is my work mouse... if it dies work can buy me a new one... I'll still have my wife's laptop to play it on... altho it has a touchpad mouse and I don't know if she has anything better :eek:
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    Lena_P wrote: »
    I'll say.

    I've picked up a few new ones in the coming episodes. It's been busy recently.
  • edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    I've picked up a few new ones in the coming episodes. It's been busy recently.

    Are you going to have a writing credit by any chance? (See, you make an offhand comment a week ago and it comes back to haunt you.) Also, how are you guys not dead yet? I get tired just thinking about all the work you've been doing.
  • edited July 2009
    Question of utmost importance: Why do I have to be at work on the release day of a game Ive wanted for a whole lot of years? Surely there should be a new bank holiday for the occasion?
  • edited July 2009
    Question of utmost importance: Why do I have to be at work on the release day of a game Ive wanted for a whole lot of years? Surely there should be a new bank holiday for the occasion?

    Wait, did you just cough? Perhaps you are coming down with something and should call in sick?;)
  • edited July 2009
    Any idea what time the game will be realeased in europe????To be more specific Greece here...or should i say Mighty Greece...???:P
  • edited July 2009
    I hope you all realise that naming the release date for something so long waited could always be a ploy used against us to keep us busy while they slip quietly away from us in the other direction... you know the old saying... throw the dogs some sleep drug boiled meat and watch them sleep...

    well it SHOULD be the saying...
  • edited July 2009
    I assume i can download it in Germany, when it is released in the Statest, or am i wrong?
    Uuhhh, that would be great, because i'm back from work then!
    Oh, i missed Guybrush!
  • edited July 2009
    Costa Rica here!
    :)

    I'm waiting too.. hope it comes out before sleep takes over.. :P
  • edited July 2009
    I was looking foward to playing Monkey Island all day tommorow but I just got a call and now have to work tommorow. Hopefully it will be up before I have to go to bed or I am going to have to wait until tommorow afternoon until I can play it and that is in 24 hrs time.
  • edited July 2009
    Again, I'm just a fellow fan, but when the game is available for download it will be available for everyone everywhere. Telltale is, after all, an equal opportunity seller.

    Here's a link to a more official type thread.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    Question of utmost importance: Why do I have to be at work on the release day of a game Ive wanted for a whole lot of years? Surely there should be a new bank holiday for the occasion?

    Yeah! Why should I have to work tomorrow?! I vote we all take the day off. Admittedly, there will be no one at work to actually launch the game, but I'm sure you guys wouldn't mind waiting another day.
  • edited July 2009
    so when is this game going to be downloadable, I'm from the UK, and its now 9.30am, I have to go out at 12.30 ish, so I really want to know if it will be in the next 3 hours or not?
  • edited July 2009
    Germany´s waitin´, too ;)
This discussion has been closed.