Nettmøtet er avsluttet. Les svarene fra Telltale Games ved Dave Grossman, Brendan Ferguson og Chuck Jordan nedenfor.

The Future of Point-and-click games

Do you think point-and-click adventure games will make a comeback any time in the future? (Apart from current telltale titles of course)
Innsendt av: Bjørn Edvard Holmberg

Yes!

I'm sorry, we've got to go make some point-and-click adventure games right now. Thanks for the questions!

Brendan
 

I love the Monkey Island series. Ower the years i have played them loads of times.

Any chanse we will see something simular from you in the future? Easy point and click for all ages, with humor and witty remarks you remember for a long long time?


Innsendt av: Monkey Island fan 1.000.000.000

Easy interface, broad appeal, memorable dialog... that's pretty much all I ever try to do! My hope is that everything you find on the Telltale site will at least approach those qualities.

Aw, man... there are 45 more questions still on the board and I have to go to a meeting. My apologies to all those I didn't get to, and thanks for having me!

Dave Grossman
 

Celebs

1. I love you guys; will you marry me?

2. Are we going to see some celeb cameos in S&M? Or celeb cameo-impersonations? I'm thinking a Max - Steven Segal showdown . Yeah?
Innsendt av: KB

1. Sure.
2. Santa was the biggest celebrity we could find. We'll keep looking to sign the highest profile stars you love to see mercilessly distorted.

Brendan
 

Now and then

Hi Mr. Grossman

I was a huge fan of the Monkey Island series (still remember sitting in my parents livingroom in front of my Amiga 500), Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max.

My question is, where did the magic go? It seems as if the original style, witty dialogue and amazing storytelling somehow vanished when the 3D gaming era started blossoming. Todays adventure games (except a few) just feels bland and unoriginal, with 3D characters moving around in unimaginitive backdrops.

Maybe it's just me, but i miss the "old" days when you had gorgeous backdrops in 2D and characters full of detail. What's your take on this?

Best regards.
Innsendt av: Jan I. Nielsen

I don't believe that 3D or 2D has any influence whatsoever on how imaginative things are, or how witty the dialog is, or how well the story is told. If adventure games today feel bland and unoriginal to you, well, maybe some of them are, but I suspect it's more the fault of the writers, designers and artists than that of the graphics engine.

Dave Grossman
 

Cell Shading

Did you ever consider making the new "Sam & Max" game in cell shading?
Innsendt av: Joakim Molteberg

We may have talked about it at one point, but if so not for very long. We developed a look that made us all happy and we went for it! Steve Purcell was heavily involved, so I know we did Sam & Max proud.

Dave Grossman
 

Monkey vs. POTC

I used to play Monkey island back in the 90's. But when i saw Pirates of the caribbean - Curse of the black pearl, I noticed a lot of obious simmularities.

Any comments?
Innsendt av: Øyvind Pettersen

Of course, the game was inspired partly by the ride at Disneyland. Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my favorite movies - if we'd ever done a Monkey Island movie, I would have wanted it to be more or less like that, so now I have the best of both worlds: The Monkey movie is done and we didn't have to make it ourselves....

Dave Grossman
 

Bone!

So, when can we expect to play any more Bone-episodes? Are you guys only focusing on Sam & Max these days?
Innsendt av: Phoney

Bone rocks. I'm not sure when we'll release the next installment, but keep watching the web page.

Dave Grossman
 

A pirate I was meant to be!

We're thieving balladeers.
A gang of cutthroat mugs.
To fight us off ye don't need guns!
Just really good ear plugs!

A pirate I was meant to be!
Trim the sails and roam the sea!

Thank you so much for all those splendid memories, sitting in some dark room trying to solve puzzles, not being out scoring girls. I guess that's why I eventually became a pirate. To score girls. And roam the seas.
Innsendt av: Kim

Hint: Bursting into song at random, especially if it quotes a ten-year-old adventure game, is probably not the best way to score girls.

And when you're scoring girls, remember to give just as many points to the trivia part of the competition as you do to appearance, because general knowledge is very important!

Chuck J
 

Thank you!

Whoever you are, you have given me a childhood I can look back at with joy and happiness. Not only was I running around quoting games as if it was the coolest thing on earth, but you also helped me learn English at a faster rate then what the Norwegian school system would have. You might just be one of the reasons why I hate my native tounge, 'cause everything sounds much better when spoken in English. Unless some idiot in the hardware department screws up, I look forward to playing your games again in 20 years! Thank you!
Innsendt av: Daniel Dahl

I've heard for years about adventure games being used to do language learning, both at home and in schools. I love that! It gives me one more argument for the things we do having social relevance....

Dave Grossman
 

Fullsize games

Even though I enjoy the concept of Sam & Max and episodic gaming, I would also love to see a fullsize adventure game coming from Telltale (yeah, I know you got CSI, but I've never really been a fan of the show). Are there any plans for this in the near future?
Innsendt av: Eivind Hagerup

We're still excited about the episodic model at Telltale, and even the CSI games are structured as episodes. There's a lot of advantages to working with the episodic model; you don't have to wait 2 years to start getting feedback, and you can see the game grow and change while you're still working on it.

What we're trying to do is have the episodes tell a complete story on their own, and then this season in particular, use the overarching storyline to build to that epic feel that you'd get from a "full-size" adventure game.


Chuck J
 

LucasArts

There seems to still be a huge crowd of people longing for new games in the classic LA-series. Why do you think that LA themselves won't start making Monkey Island og DOTT-sequels? Are they lacking the nescessary talent, are they afraid of risking the money, or are they simply just evil?

I mean, you guys are making some nice money by making Sam&Max now, right?
Innsendt av: 3HM

I think everybody at LucasArts it busy rescuing the games they're already working on....

Dave Grossman
 

What would you say..

if I sang out a song?
Innsendt av: Myge

What if I told you, and I'm not saying I will, YAGAYAGAYAGAYAGA? Serious question.

Brendan
 

S&M on Wii?

Will you release Sam&Max on Wii eventually. Point&Click would suit the machine really well. Would it then be discbased (whole seasons) or episodes downloadable on WiiWare?

DoTT was one of the first games I played on PC and I loved it, even though I needed a walkthrough to figure stuff out. (didn't catch all the references either, but the guy dressed up as an alien in the flag was hilarious for a young boy....) Rerelease on console please?
Innsendt av: petra

Sam & Max would be great on the Wii, and we've cleared some of the technical hurdles while we were working on our recent CSI Wii title ("Hard Evidence"). I'm not going to promise anything, though, because we ALSO want to make NEW games, and there are a limited number of people working here....

Dave Grossman
 

Max

I very much liked the way you could choose to talk with Sam OR Max in the first season, and was looking forward to more of this. The "Max-blade" is still there, but we are almost never given the chance to talk as Max. How come?

And will we ever be able to steer Max as well? And will the "driving sequences" be more than just driving?

Don't take this wrong - I absolutely love your games and enjoy how the series is evolving. Maybe I'm just asking too much from the things I enjoy?
Innsendt av: Jonas B.F.

There's another bit in "Ice Station Santa" where you can talk to Jimmy Two-Teeth using Sam or Max, so we're still doing that occasionally. We really only put it in when we think it makes sense to do so -- Sam has the patience for long conversations, where Max is more of a "paws-on" type of investigator.

As for steering Max or switching up the driving sequences, anything's possible. We've been experimenting with several things this season, and as you say, the series is "evolving."


Chuck J
 

I am Gybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate!

Obviously, you guys must have a pretty sick sense of humor... Where do you get the ideas from? No, really?

And what's Ron Gilbert like? Reading his blog, I imagine some sort of crossover between Leslie Nielsen and Bob Saget.

Bernard (no longer afraid of purple tentacles)
Innsendt av: Bernard

I have prepared a series of web pages to answer the questions "where do you get your ideas." It's here:
http://www.phrenopolis.com/ideasiphon/index.html

As for Ron, he's not like Leslie Nielsen or Bob Saget, but he would find the comparison highly amusing. In fact, I'm cannot resist forwarding it to him.

Dave Grossman
 

Full Throttle

Did you have anything to do with Full Throttle?
Innsendt av: ôÿvind

No, did you?

Brendan
 

Thank you

Yes, I would like to say thank you so much for bringing the adventure games back out of the respirators.
I loved the old MI games, and I love the new Sam and Max episodes and I'm looking forward to seeing what other whacky antics you guys might come up with!

Innsendt av: Victor

No need to thank us, it's what we do. But go ahead and thank us anyway, it always feels nice. >:-)

That's just a regular smiley, the devilish eyebrows are a genetic condition.

Brendan
 

My cat is dead !

I put my cat in the freezer but nothing happened ?

Innsendt av: Norakuling

You have no way of knowing whether the cat is really dead until you open the freezer.


Chuck J
 

Death to 3D!

First of all, love your games!

I just want to share my concern about new games solely is beeing made in 3D and not in 2D, as they should be.
Why, oh why is this the case?
To be honest, 3D killed my enthusisasm for MI4. Allthough I played it through, it didnt have the same feeling to it, and the controls were a complete mess.

You guys are my last and only hope to get 2D point and click adventures back!
Innsendt av: starmelt

2D is great, but I hope we're not actually your last and only hope, because Telltale is a 3D studio. In our case, it's because we like to move cameras around a lot and animate characters without drawing millions of frames, so we think we get much better cinema with 3D.

And the controls don't need to be a mess just because it's 3D. We think the ones for the Sam & Max series are pretty good, and we're continuing to improve them as we speak.




Dave Grossman
 

Make Games.

How did you make your games?
Innsendt av: Mathias

For me, I like to first come up with a basic setting or idea, then try to think of a story that will allow players to experience the most interesting aspects of that setting. After that, we think about what objectives you would have, and what sort of activities and puzzles you would do to achieve those goals.

Once the design is finished, we write all the characters' dialog, and then we hand it off to the programmers, modelers, animators, composers, voice directors, choreographers, etc. I have no idea how any of that stuff gets done.

Brendan
 

The future?

What do you think is the future of gaming? Cinema-like games which are story-driven or MORPG where leveling up and getting better equipment drives the game?
Innsendt av: Leo

Both. There's always going to be room for story-based games, leveling-based games, and game types that don't have either. And games are getting better at finding ways to tell a story through the game mechanic, instead of stopping your game every few minutes to tell you more of the story.

I don't think "story-driven" and "game-driven" are mutually exclusive. Since Telltale is so committed to story and characters, it'll be interesting to see where we can go with the idea of applying storytelling to different types of gameplay.

Chuck J
 

epic question

how long can you hold your breath? longer than guybrush?
Innsendt av: teh jorg

I'll settle for longer than Chuck.

Dave Grossman
 

Not a question

More like a plea;
Please turn up the volume a bit on the new sam & max series... I bought the first season and I found it lacking. I felt you guys were safing it way too much. Where's the morbid and utterly perverse humor I remember from Hit The Road? Children don't play these games, nostalgic adults do. So please, oh please, start spicing it up a little. And by a little I mean a lot.
Innsendt av: Henrik Aa. Bjorland

Fear not, we're very committed to removing all semblance of good taste from our games. I hope you'll give Season 2 a try and see if we've suitably perverted you all.

Brendan
 

Purple Tentacle tattoo - i need your help

Hi! I am a big fan, especially for DotT, the greatest game on earth and in time, ever. Obviously I'm considering having a Purple Tentacle tattoo all over my back, with the quote "If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs" underneath.

Unfortunately, the game is not exactly in high-resolution, and I still haven't found the perfect drawing of Purple for my back yet, so I wonder if you could help me out in some way. What is his greatest pose, and does it exist in high resolution?
Innsendt av: Num

His greatest pose is the one where he's shouting about taking on the world, but it might look a little weird as a tattoo since it's shown in perspective.

As for high-res, unfortunately DOTT was released in 1993, when pixels were still visible to the naked eye. There's no high resolution anything. But a competent tattoo artist could probably do something awesome based on a pretty rudimentary screen shot.

Send photos!



Dave Grossman
 

Why don't anyone fart?

Why don't any of your characters fart?
Innsendt av: Fart fart

Just play episode 202. It was released today!

Brendan
 

Baseball

Could you please make a game based loosly on baseball and other fun things like trees and fruit and different types of bears. It could be a mix of point and click like Sam & Max and Final Fantasy, only with baseball.

My question is this:

Do you like baseball?

And do you have a favorite team?

The Original Sam & Max kicked ass btw.

Innsendt av: Johannes

Yes, I like baseball. My favorite are the, um, Boston Red Sox. Yes, the Red Sox, for sure. As it happens I've been thinking for months about a game featuring baseball, trees, fruit, and different kinds of lions. The bear angle hadn't occurred to me yet, but I'll think about it.

Brendan
 

Episodes only for adventure games?

Hi!

Not counting in Half-Life - I don't count them as "real" episodes since they last for many hours and are released so seldom - is it only adventure games that can work in an episodic setting?

"Sin" didn't exactly work out, and I can't imagine many other people picking up its pieces. Strategy, role playing, racing, none of them work as episodes either.

By the way, thank you for many good memories! :)
Innsendt av: Ole-Petter

I think there's a ton of different types of games that could work in the episodic format. It sounds like the games that Hothead are doing (Penny Arcade and Ron Gilbert's new announcement) are incorporating RPG-type stuff.

You've got to arrange your production schedule to support monthly releases, and commit to an episodic schedule at the beginning. But apart from that, there's nothing keeping strategy, role-playing, or even racing games from being released in an episodic format. I'd love to see more companies trying this.

Chuck J
 

DOTT

Will you make DOTT2 ?
DOTT is the best game ever.

Great to see adventure games finally starting to gain popularity again, after all these years in the shadows of 'point & click" shooters (.)

10 print "You people rock !"
20 goto 10
Innsendt av: Sølve

The hold-up is that we just can't figure out whether to call it DOTT 2 or Maniac Mansion 3. Once we resolve that we're good to go.

PS: Excellent use of programming skills!

Dave Grossman
 

Getting there

Hey, just figured I'd holla out that I love the humor in Season 1, but I think the games are kinda hard :(

I'm never really sure where to go next and struggle quite a bit but don't want to check a guide (because the occacionally reveal the zany stuff about to happen). But I love the writing. It is one of few games ever that has made me laugh (well, I guess since the old Sam & Max games).

So yeah, gonna grab Season 2 once I finish off Season 1 but it would be nice with more hints for what to do, because guides really ruin games like these :(
Innsendt av: Lars

In Season 2, we're trying out a new help system in the game. Characters like Max can chime in from time to time to give you a little suggestion about what to do. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!

Brendan
 

Thank you!

Day of the Tentacle represents one of my dearest childhood memories, and I would just like to say thank you! I am forever grateful!

Innsendt av: Chron-O'-John

You're welcome! Thanks for saying so.

Dave Grossman
 

Stuffed animals!

I saw somewhere on the internet that people were wishing for a stuffed toy-version of Sam and Max. What are you waiting for? I would buy one straight away!
Innsendt av: Weighted Companion Cube

A stuffed TOY, you say? I guess I can untie Fido and Fluffy, no need to stuff them after all.

Brendan
 

Emulators

What do you guys think about game emulators where you can play you old games on for example a playstation 3? I am thinking about the ScummVM application.
Innsendt av: Joakim Molteberg

Awesome.

Dave Grossman
 

Adventure games

What ever happened to the good old adventure games? I started playing Sierra games around 1990 and now there are seldom published games I want to play any more.
Innsendt av: Torunn

We're publishing games as fast as we can! We were all recently fitted for bionic implants, so I expect we'll soon be churning out games even faster.

Brendan
 

Monkey Island - the movie

If fans wanted to make a Monkey Island animated movie, would we have to pay a lot of money, or could we just do it, if it was non-profit?

I've cross-stitched Guybrush. Pixels are great for cross-stitching embroidery!

And have you seen the Monkey Island fan-made play?

And the BIG question! MI 5, do you think it will be one?
Innsendt av: Anne-Marie

I did see the first scene from the Monkey Island play. I wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood came knocking. Unfortunately there's a writer's strike right now, so it will have to be entirely pantomimed.

Brendan
 

Maniac Mansion 3?

Hi

With the success of the Sam and Max episodes, are there any chance of reviving other games like this as well? My biggest wish is of course Maniac Mansion 3 or a new Indy adventure like Fate Of Atlantis. I've nothing against The Infernal Machine or Emperor's Tomb, but you just can't beat a good, old Indy adventure. :-)

Great job so far, guys!
Innsendt av: Roger'n

LucasArts owns the rights to both Maniac Mansion and Indiana Jones, so you'll have to get them to host one of these chats!

Brendan
 

Episodic games

When Telltale games first talked about episodic gaming - and then released a couple of Bone-games - people weren't too optimistic concerning episodic gaming.

This seems to have changed now, with many game companies launching episodic games.

Do you think Sam & Max played a big role in this transition? Was the series regarded as some sort of guinea pig for others?
Innsendt av: Bernt G.

I do think Sam & Max helped to boost developers' confidence that this sort of thing could be done. It helps to have a successful example to show the people who are giving you the money to make the series, for example....

Dave Grossman
 

Monkey Island

Hi!

Thanks for rescuing my childhood by making these great games!

My question for you(sorry if already posted): Will there be a new Monkey Island now that Sam & Max are back?


Innsendt av: Morten

LucasArts owns the rights to Monkey Island, you'll have to ask them!

Brendan
 

Favourite figure

What is your favourite figure of all the charaters in your games? (Not just the main characters)
Innsendt av: Ørjan

My favorite character in the Sam & Max games is BradyMax. That's Max with Brady Culture's head on him. I'm still hoping to make an entire series about his adventures in weight loss.

Brendan
 

Please

Full games, no more episode stuff, ok? :)
Innsendt av: Tom

But we're addicted to episodes! Every morning, instead of coffee, I drink episodes.

Brendan
 

How much?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Innsendt av: Endre

Pi.

Chuck J
 

Insult swordfighting

Hello and thanks for all the great laughs over the years!

I was just wondering about the insult swordfighting from Monkey Island 1 and 2 why you always loose when you choose the option "I am rubber you are glue"... its a killer isnt it?

Disturbed regards
Thomas
Innsendt av: Thomas Nilsen

In a Pajama Sam game it would work every time. But pirates have different standards from ordinary humans.

Dave Grossman
 

Pirates of the Caribbean

Are the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies based on the Monkey Island games? It is much of the same kind if humour and the villains of the movies are clones of those from the games...
Innsendt av: Ole

Dave doesn't like to brag, but when they were making the first couple of Monkey Island games, they invented a time machine and went back to the early 60s. They accidentally left a copy of the Secret of Monkey Island script in Los Angeles, which the Disney guys found and used to make the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

True story.

Chuck J
 

Killology

Dave,

Have you ever met or spoken to "the other" Dave Grossman? His work with "Killology" kind of creeps me out ...
Innsendt av: Mush

I've never met him in person, but we've exchanged an email or two, just on account of having the same name (there's a club of about fifteen of us). He seems like a reasonable person - I've never read his book, so I can't speak to its relative creepiness. Somebody once suggested that we do a panel together, but that would be really confusing....

Dave Grossman
 

The state of industry

Hi! First of all, I can't even express my enthusiasm for seeing these characters again. They helped define so many people's childhood experiences, and it's wonderful that a new generation gets the chance to have the same kind of memories.

I just had a quick question to ask you about the state of the industry. Growing up I always saw myself as a games developer, which shaped my education choices, finally leading me to an MSc in Artificial Intelligence. My thesis was even about achieving dynamic storylines in games. However, I felt as a games developer, my future would be tainted by the creative restrictions that taunt the lives of so many programmers face. And so my career path took a different turn. It just seems the creative process has been turned into budgets and deadlines, at least that is the impression that I get from the poor souls who work at e.g. EA.

Do you have any opinions on this? And are you optimistic about the future of the adventure genre? Thank you, keep on inspiring!
Innsendt av: SK

I'm very optimistic about the future of adventure games! Certainly, even at Telltale there are budgets and deadlines (no trillion dollar games yet), but we've been given a lot of room to come up with games not quite like anything that's being done.

Part of that is simply the virtue of episodic gaming. An entire 10+ hour game about entering a virtual reality, for example, might seem too risky to a big publisher, but for one episode, let's give it a shot! Luckily, it's been going well for us, so expect us to keep pushing the creative boundaries!

Brendan
 

Monkey Island

This is for you Mr. Grossman:

You're quite the genious!

and

Would you consider making another DOTT game?
Innsendt av: Leander

Hey, thanks! You're quite generous.

I'd consider another DOTT under the right circumstances, but there are plenty of other things I'm more likely to do. I might make another game with the same initials, say, "Dreary Old Table Tennis," just to see what happens.



Dave Grossman
 

Newcastle.

Who do you think will take on the manager position at Newcastle, now that Sam Allardyca is gone?


Innsendt av: Matta

My money's on Joe Gibbs.

Dave Grossman
 

You are a hero

I cant wait to get my hands on the next game you make. Just thinking back on all the hours I´ve spent on MI 1 and 2 and DOTT makes me smile. Will the humor in Deathspank be as good as in the old games, and can you say anything about the difficulty on the puzzles?

Keep up the good work, people like you create gold and art in the digital world.

And ps.. Do you know if there will be a MI5? There are a lot of us out there who miss Guybrush and Elaine :)
Innsendt av: cartman

We don't have any control over the humor in Deathspank, since Telltale isn't making that one - but I assume Ron will not let you down.

For our next, check the Telltalegames.com site, we just put up a new episode of Sam & Max this morning! ("Moai Better Blues") Kudos to Brendan and Chuck on that one, they do all the work around here while I polish the tiki collection.

MI5: Your guess is as good as mine! I miss them too.




Dave Grossman
 

Day Of The Tenatacle

DOTT is the best game EVER, I want to thank you all for giving me the hounour of playing that game! Thank you!!!
Innsendt av: Tuzemsky

You're welcome! I had fun making it and it remains one of the things I'm proudest of.

Dave Grossman
 

Hi Dave!

I love, no - worship the LucasArts games you participated in, and still hold them as some of my favorite computer games. Solid work!

My question is: How do you think the later Monkey Island games turned out in comparison to the first two? Sadly, I think they pale when opposed to the two old ones, both dialogue-, story- and humor-wise. They just lack that special feeling "yours" did.

Also, if you had the opportunity, how would you feel about making an eventual sequel?


Looking forward to the new episode! :)
Innsendt av: Ady

Hi! Thanks for the compliment! I endeavour to be solid at all times.

I disagree with you about Monkey 3, I thought it was really well done (and I'm not just saying that because Chuck's here). Some things changed, certainly, but I thought it stayed pretty true to what a Monkey game should be.

It was quite a few years before I played the fourth one, and I'm not sure which changed more, the game or me, but I found that, although it was funny, it was just too big and broad for my taste, and I didn't have the patience to puzzle my way past the second island so I never finished it. Small wonder that I'm making smaller games now....

Sequel: Well, get me the license, and Ron Gilbert, and I'll think about it.








Dave Grossman