The International House of Mojo

Telltale's gotten much better at the latter over time (Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse had very little recycled over previous seasons and between episodes, except when the story demanded it (for example the Stinkys were important to a subplot), and even then they were used sparingly. They've kept that balance in The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us (it's to the point that revisiting places like The Trip Trap no longer feels like environment recycling, since it doesn't happen often and when it does it's necessary to the plot... it now feels no different than re-visiting locations in retail games).

The point about small environments still stands though, but that's not really an episodic flaw, more a design choice, as the city in the first book of Dreamfall Chapters is huge, with a lot to see and explore.

While I'm on that subject, it would be great if Telltale took some inspiration from DFC in their upcoming games. Telltale's engine and animation is miles better, but Red Thread is one step ahead of Telltale on everything else. They've taken Telltale's formula and expanded it. Not only do they have more to explore, they found a pretty good balance of puzzles and choices and consequences based gameplay.

As Telltale said, the gameplay fits the license, so not every game needs puzzles. It does make sense storywise to limit them in The Walking Dead (although they could use some as season two feels lacking over season one. I felt episode four of season one had a good balance), but even though I liked The Wolf Among Us, it definitely could have benefitted from some detection based inventory puzzles. Hopefully Telltale will see that exploration and puzzles don't interrupt the flow of the story, but complements it, and will consider them for their licenses going foreward.

Gee, I didn't think my comments would lead to such hostile considerations, but I am very happy to see I'm not the only disgruntled ex hardcore Telltale fan.

I must say I liked S&M Season1 and 2 (that's as far as I've got), but they can't compete with HTR.
I think the episodic nature of their games is inherently bounded to give a lesser degree of interactivity and complexity which must be accepted by the player at the very beginning of the game experience or he will complain.

So, I understand tentacle's disappointment but I don't agree completely, as we all knew episodic format was about smaller environments and, alas, excessive recycling of environments by Telltale.

Yeeeeah...I dunno. I agree, and I dont. I liked Tales From Monkey Island, but I was disappointed with Sam & Max. I never made it passed Season 1 though, but I heard it got better.

But I'm one of those guys who owns original copies of Sam & Max comics, The Collected Sam & Max in original run hardcover back when it was still in print, Hit the Road boxed on floppy disc and cd-rom, autographed posters and stuff.

SO, my hopes, expectations, and dreams might have been too high for any company to deliver on.

I do pretty whole heartily agree on Jurassic Park though. When Tell Tale said they were releasing all of that game at once, I was confused. Since the whole reason they were supposed to be doing the episodes, was to listen to fans and make changes and fixes to the story as it went on episode to episode. Releasing them all at once to me seemed like they just said "Hey, instead of making episodes useful to the overall product, lets make episodes as just a way to sell the whole game for more money in case someone buys them individually!".

Back To The Future was fun, even though it felt more like the Saturday morning cartoon for Back To The Future, instead of like the movies. I still liked it.

The Walking Dead is pretty great though. My wife watched me play through all them on the TV in the living room, and didnt want me to play without her there. Excited for Season 3.

The Wolf Among Us, I just started, but so far so good.

As for the comments about them being too rated G, pretty much anything from Lucas Arts is G rated. PG at the most. They even made a game about badass bikers that I would let my 8 year old play.

The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us are very much not rated G, and I wait for my son to goto bed before playing them...So...G rated comment doesnt really apply.

So, because you didn't like the games, you'd have preferred the franchise be dead and buried instead of letting the fans that did like it get to experience new stories?

I hear this a lot from fans of many different franchises, and I really don't understand this point of view. For instance, I liked Shrek, but I didn't like the three sequels that much (like you with Telltale's Sam & Max games, I watched them once and have no interest in watching them again). But for me, I'm just happy with enjoying the first Shrek as the existence of the sequels is never going to change the fact that I liked the first movie.

I'm also happy that there's three sequels out there that a lot of people do love so that they can enjoy those stories. I don't wish that they just stopped at one, because that would be silly, since it would deprive those who liked them the chance of seeing the characters again. And honestly, even though I really didn't like the sequels, objectively I can see that they still did well with the characters. They still had good stories and the characters were treated well, they're just a bit overcrowded with jokes over story for my tastes (but a lot of people like that, and even though I don't, there's nothing wrong with that).

Last thing I bought from Tellale was Jurassic Park, and that wasn't money well spent.

They don't make adventure games anymore.
Hell, they don't give half a buttcheek about the legacy or about what made those games rule. They had the potential to be the next LucasArts - a potential that never came to fruition. It was always too...rated G...

But hey, don't worry about what I say, I still play those 'crummy old scumm games from the 90's"

Grossman leaving was the final nail in the coffin. Hope he does something better with his time than work at CrapTale.

Oh, and another thing - Sam & Max is not in great hands at Telltale. I played through everything they put out, but it doesn't hold half a fart's worth of a candle to Hit the Road. I've never replayed any of the episodes. Purcell shoulda' never let it out of his hands.

Their new website is definitely confusing all around...

The games can now be purchased on the actual game pages (and buying from Telltale is worthwhile again since they've brought back the collector's discs which will be sent at just the price of shipping).

Though, strangely it isn't yet available to preorder at the Telltale website. My guess is that someone at Steam hit the button to go live a little too early as the release date on Steam now says November 2014.

I'm also someone who, although I appreciate what they're doing now, is missing the old days of Sam & Max/Strong Bad/Wallace & Gromit/Monkey Island. There was just a bit of charm there that came from a company consisting of just a small amount of people that's missing now. Oh well, I still enjoy their games.

Just a question though - is it still possible to buy games from Telltale's website? You can order Borderlands from Steam, but I can't seem to find the option on the Telltale website anywhere. Even worse, the store page seems to have gone entirely? Is Telltale done with selling their products through their own website?

I admit my comment was driven by a mix of nostalgia and anger, Jennifer.
Anyway, it seems like direct contact has become rare now, as one of the moderator clearly states: "Hey there! Not too often we see Telltale staff (openly) show up nowadays.".
Aaaand I'm glad to know they still have some room reserved for Sam & Max, though I don't get the reason why future S&M based games will be mini-games, another season would be much appreciated, wouldn't it?

All in all, I will try to follow Jason's advice and be grateful about three S&M seasons and a very good MI5.
Double Fine is still there for us, after all.

And since my comment seems to have been broken and the website won't let me fix it :/ lets try that again:

There's a big difference between LucasArts and Telltale though, and that's that Telltale still cares for the little license that they still have the rights to, and that's Sam and Max (Note also that Monkey Island and other LucasArts properties are probably a no go even if they wanted to make them, as Sony seems to want the rights to all of them, and Telltale is not the kind of company that would go through a publisher, making them exclusive on one console just to get a license. That goes against their game development philosophy of having their games on as many systems as possible).

There was just a new Sam and Max game last year, and late last year Kevin Bruner said that there would be more small sized Sam & Max games in the future. They haven't abandoned their past, they've just evolved into something bigger and different. And they're continuing to bring Sam and Max around for the ride, which we should be thankful for, especially as they're still handling those characters well as they're still good at getting Sam and Max's personalities, mannerisms, and appearances right. They continued to strive to make Sam look more like the comics, and the Sam and Max conversations are among the best in the two Poker Night games. Plus, since Sam & Max started out as comic book characters, and those comics featured them doing everything from saving the world to doing ordinary things like shopping for groceries or playing fizzball, Sam & Max work perfectly in a game just sitting at a table playing poker and talking about their love of mayhem.

Honestly, I get so confused about all the hate (there's always a new post at the Telltale forums every few months asking them to give up the Sam and Max license, which would be a bad thing, as companies aren't exactly lining up to make new Sam and Max games). Telltale still makes Sam and Max games, and they are still good, so where's the problem?

And, yeah, I agree the Telltale forums are overpopulated with a lot of immature people, but the developers still do talk directly with fans there (case in point, this thread, created by designer Mark Darin two days ago).

There's a big difference between LucasArts and Telltale though, and that's that Telltale still cares for the little license that they still have the rights to, and that's Sam and Max (Note also that Monkey Island and other LucasArts properties are probably a no go even if they wanted to make them, as Sony seems to want the rights to all of them, and Telltale is not the kind of company that would go through a publisher, making them exclusive on one console just to get a license. That goes against their game development philosophy of having their games on as many systems as possible).

There was just a new Sam and Max game last year, and late last year Kevin Bruner said[/url] that there would be more small sized Sam & Max games in the future. They haven't abandoned their past, they've just evolved into something bigger and different. And they're continuing to bring Sam and Max around for the ride, which we should be thankful for, especially as they're still handling those characters well as they're still good at getting Sam and Max's personalities, mannerisms, and appearances right. They continued to strive to make Sam look more like the comics, and the Sam and Max conversations are among the best in the two Poker Night games. Plus, since Sam & Max started out as comic book characters, and those comics featured them doing everything from saving the world to doing ordinary things like shopping for groceries or playing fizzball, Sam & Max work perfectly in a game just sitting at a table playing poker and talking about their love of mayhem.

Honestly, I get so confused about all the hate (there's always a new post at the Telltale forums every few months asking them to give up the Sam and Max license, which would be a bad thing, as companies aren't exactly lining up to make new Sam and Max games). Telltale still makes Sam and Max games, and they are still good, so where's the problem?

And, yeah, I agree the Telltale forums are overpopulated with a lot of immature people, but the developers still do talk directly with fans there (case in point, [url=http://www.telltalegames.com/community/discussion/86238/dev-here-checking-in-with-you-guys]this thread, created by designer Mark Darin two days ago[/url]).

I guess you're right, that was a bit harsh.
It's difficult for me to see what once was a small company that I was very fond of grow until becoming mainstream and "forgetting" those who supported them at the very beginning.
I have visited the TT forums recently and, holy crap, it was disturbing.
A small niche where I used to post regularly and enjoyed very much became some sort of giant shitty sewer reminiscent of 4chan, where it's impossible to have a decent conversation.
The traditional direct contact between the real TT devs/staff seems to have faded out.
It was sad.
Growth has its drawbacks, I will get used to it eventually.

I think the correct attitude toward Telltale is gratitude that they saw fit to rejuvenate the Sam & Max and Monkey Island properties on their path to mainstream success rather than entitlement and contempt that they didn't pander to us more.

Telltale has always made a certain type of game, and they've only gotten better at it. Their desire to work primarily with big licenses was declared right when they started - I can show you an interview from 2004 where they painted a portrait of what they saw themselves as, and you would recognize that description as what they are today. We won the lottery by getting three great Sam & Max games and a terrific Monkey Island 5 - more than we every dreamed possible even shortly before that windfall abruptly happened. Why not count our winnings and be happy?

It's funny how the company has the money to acquire expensive rights for games like Borderlands, but doesn't seem interested in acquiring rights for more beloved titles like Maniac Mansion or Loom.
Oh, and what about Sam & Max?
Well, they would not milk so much money from those titles, so they just do not care anymore.
I can pretty much state that the Telltale I used to love is officially dead. Dave Grossman leaving is just another proof.
Reminds me of a company called LucasArts, that has followed a similar path and contributed to the birth of Telltale before dying.