The International House of Mojo

Here ya go buddy:

PAX 2007 Preview

Give Telltale Games a lot of credit. Sure, the episodic-downloadable game (delivered digitally) has been done before, but until Sam and Max came along, it was not nearly as successful.

But Sam and Max changed all that. The title was wildly successful, and Telltale Games is moving forward with Season 2. Catching up with team members during the Penny Arcade Expo in the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle reveals much of the reasons for the success of the franchise – they love the humor and the opportunity to freely create their vision.

If you think that Sam and Max bore some resemblance to games like Grim Fandango (LucasArts), there is a reason for that. Much of the Telltale team is former LucasArts employees and some even working on either Grim Fandango or the Monkey Island series. LucasArts did have the rights to Steve Purcell’s work (Purcell is the creator of Sam and Max, releasing the comic book back in 1987. Sam and Max actually first appeared in a game in 1993 (Sam & Max Hit the Road). LucasArts had the rights but various projects were cancelled and the rights eventually went back to Purcell, who allowed Telltale to develop the license as an episodic video game. That was a blessing because with the distribution system, well, “the whole digital download thing really let us make the game we wanted to make,” said Telltale’s Design Director Dave Grossman.

So much for the backdrop, you are saying, what about the game? Well, unfortunately, the Telltale crew didn’t live up to their company’s moniker and were rather tight-lipped concerning the details of the title. But what they did show off during the meeting were some of the changes coming to the game.

Bosco’s store, for example, has undergone a dramatic change. In the first game, Bosco would sell Sam and Max items they could use for escalating costs. In Season Two, he has made so much money off the pair (a hundred-trillion dollars) that he really doesn’t need to run a store anymore and can actually give into his paranoia, which includes – among other things – a machine which will determine if you are not welcomed to the shop or if you are “not unwelcome.”

At the end of one of the streets in the game was a diner, which was always closed. That diner is now accessible. It is Stinky’s Diner and it is “always open, unless it is closed,” and features its own cast of characters.

There are also more mini games, including a chance to use a doll to duke it out with Jimmy Two Teeth, the boxing champ rat from Season One.

The humor is rather evident throughout the story. Even the Telltale quartet had a hard time keeping straight faces as punch line after punch line was delivered through the few scenes shown.

A couple other changes will enable Sam to run now and holding down the cursor, instead of constantly pointing and clicking on ground areas, will allow players to navigate the scenes at a constant pace. Also, in Season One, Telltale had a deal with GameTap that allowed the latter to feature the digital download for 15 days before it appeared on the Telltale site. That has been reduced to a one-day exclusive lead for GameTap.

The look is great, the humor is obviously there and this is a title to get excited about. When will it release? Well, the team was not really sure outside of saying that it was expected to launch in the fall.

--end

(P.S) There weren't any screenshots shown. just the render that was shown at the stinky's place.

Darn, it's blocked at work - why does Sam & Max have to abriviate to that? Why!

Any chance of a rough description?