Is Telltale getting too ambitious?

[jp-30]

And Jake used to run some second-rate LucasArts fansite.

[Capn_Nacho]

Arguably it's more akin to the golden-age LucasArts of the 1990's than is the current LucasArts company.

 

I would say it's unarguably more like golden-age LucasArts than is the current LucasArts. Telltale is one of the companies that has most strongly inherited the incredible talent and creativity that came from the company we all loved (and, maybe, still love.)

 

I don't think that TTG has gotten too ambitious yet, though I certainly do hope that the scope of their ever-increasing output doesn't harm their individual games. We shall see, but I have faith!

[ATMachine]

He was also an animator on CMI, Full Throttle, Afterlife, and Outlaws.

Heeee. I punted on that one because I couldn't remember whether he was an animator or something else. Fixed now.

[Rosefull]

You should know that many of the people working at Telltale are LucasArts veterans from years back. Dave Grossman worked on MI1 and DOTT, Mike Stemmle on Hit the Road and EMI, Joe Pinney worked on a canceled Indiana Jones game, Graham Annable had some minor job was the most important animator ever on The Dig.... I could go on for days. Arguably it's more akin to the golden-age LucasArts of the 1990's than is the current LucasArts company.

Really? Wow, I didn't know that; no wonder TMI was so good. That's cool.

 

Well, I've never really played any other LucasArts games either, come to think of it. Pretty much just MI as far as I can remember, though I might have dabbled in Loom after SMI advertised it.

 

Anywho, my only point was I don't play Telltale/LucasArts games for the brand. I just play games I love, regardless of who makes it, and I love Monkey Island.

[jp-30]

Telltale also got Ron Gilbert in for a day of brainstorming, general plot outlines and rough character arcs. Or something like that.

[Rosefull]

Man, they really had everything going for them. No wonder they were brave enough to pick up such an ancient and loved series.

[jp-30]

Aaand the company was formed by 3 guys (Dan Connors, Kevin Bruner & Troy Molander) laid off by LucasArts when they cancelled Sam & Max Freelance Police.

Telltale was founded by a group of former LucasArts employees who had been working on Sam & Max: Freelance Police, a sequel to the 1993 game Sam & Max Hit the Road, prior to its cancellation on March 3, 2004. In an early press release the vocal public response to said cancellation was cited as a main reason the company was founded. The Telltale Games team has a large collective experience working on LucasArts' famed classics.

[elTee]

Well, now that's not entirely true. I can't speak for everyone here, but I'd never heard of Telltale until a couple months ago when I first found out about TMI. In fact, at that point, I was quite the opposite of a Telltale fan. I was angry when I heard that this little-known company had taken my favorite series after ten years and made what I thought was going to be an abomination. I went into the game hating it before I began. But I have to admit, they changed my mind. And for someone as stubborn and opinionated as me, that's hard to do.

 

So, my personal opinion of their style is based only on what I saw in TMI, since that's the only Telltale game I've ever played. And from that, I gathered that they have a lot of potential. They were a little too eager (the amount of unnecessary references to the older MI games became very annoying very quickly) and some of the puzzles were a bit repetitive (if I have to find my way through a jungle with a map one more time...), but I still think it was a good game and that they have room to grow.

 

I should point out, I really enjoyed TMI - I have no complaints about it at all, in fact. All I was saying was that if the other games are feeling 'rushed' (which is what people in this thread are implying - I have no first hand experience) then casual Steam gamers will be less forgiving of the flaws.

 

But Telltale have also been pretty much the only company who have managed to release episodic games on a regular basis, so I guess that would be the trade-off.

[Rosefull]

Yeah, that makes sense. All I was saying is that I'd call myself more of a casual Steam gamer who likes one Telltale game, than a Telltale fan in particular.

 

But of course, I'm not a very harsh judge of games. ^^;

[Harald B]

I consider myself a fanboy, and I do worry about Telltale's pace at times. I hope that things go back to normal as the last steps on Tales wrap up. It seems that that is when all the trouble started, with that offer that was too good to pass up. Monkey Island was not exactly too big for Telltale, but it was bigger than they could handle comfortably and came at a less than ideal time. So here's hoping that as they regain control of their own schedule, things will smoothen out again. If the Sam & Max 3 dvd suffers I'll be very disappointed.

[Laserschwert]

If the Sam & Max 3 dvd suffers I'll be very disappointed.

To me that will be one of the main factors as well... unfortunately, neither Jake, nor Doug or Emily are going to work on that DVD anymore (Doug and Emily left Telltale and Jake climbed up the ladder), and those guys were the reason, why the two season DVDs of S&M were as awesome as they were. We'll just have to wait and see... the ToMI-DVD will be a good indication where they're heading without those three (and I'm just a bit worried, since there's not going to be a DVD-Video portion to the disc).

[Harald B]

(and I'm just a bit worried, since there's not going to be a DVD-Video portion to the disc).

Has that already been decided? Dang, that does not sound good..

[SyntheticGerbil]

(and I'm just a bit worried, since there's not going to be a DVD-Video portion to the disc).

 

That sucks. Maybe it's too time consuming or costly to make hybrid discs now?

 

I'm late here, but I'll add my complaints to the PS3 version getting exclusive content, since I always order the PC version for the DVD at the end of the series as well as whatever goodies may come with them. If these nutrition specs don't get added into the DVD version, then I'll probably do some sort of OCD thing like buy episode 1 of Season 3 on PSN only.

[Jake]

For whatever it's worth, I'd like the Season Three disc to be a hybrid like the other two Sam & Max discs. That's just my opinion, but it seems like that series should be internally consistent, even if other games are handled differently.

 

(I'm not sure, but I imagine the Season 3 DVD will ship with nutrispecs pre-unlocked.)

[urluckyday]

For whatever it's worth, I'd like the Season Three disc to be a hybrid like the other two Sam & Max discs. That's just my opinion, but it seems like that series should be internally consistent, even if other games are handled differently.

 

(I'm not sure, but I imagine the Season 3 DVD will ship with nutrispecs pre-unlocked.)

 

I'm not sure I understand...