The International House of Mojo

TheBBPS had a chance to sit down and have a nice chat with Emily from Telltale, aka the PR Department and the News Updater. If you have been wondering why Sam and Max are coming to retail and not WiiWare, how often the Strong Bad episodes are going to be and have always wanted to read the word "edutainment," now is your chance for eternal bliss. Hugh style.

Update: The release date for Sam and Max: Season One has been revealed to be August...something. No other details have been released.

Source: TheBBPS

Yes indeed. As if enough heaped praise hadn't already been bestowed on Sam & Max Season 2, Ice Station Santa has won the coveted Ursa Major Award (Best Anthropomorphic Game)

The winners of the seventh annual Ursa Major Awards (formally the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature & Arts Awards), for the Best in anthropomorphic/"funny animal" literature and art first published during the calendar year 2007, were announced at a presentation ceremony on Saturday, May 17, 2008 at Morphicon...

It is unknown if there is any truth to the rumours that a "Who has the Biggest Brain" facebook-app tournament was held in the Telltale offices. The employee with the lowest score forced to don the suit below and collect the award in person costume .

Source: Ursa Major Awards

For the non-anti-CSI folk around here who haven't bought the game yet: Amazon.com is selling CSI3 for a bargain bin worthy $7.69. Additionally, the PC CSI4 seems to have had its ERP lowered from $29.99 to $19.99. The Xbox 360 version also seems to have been reduced from $39.99 to $29.99. I've nothing new to report on the vic.

Only someone who doesn't trust me would have to click this link. Steam is offering a Season 1 + Season 2 bundle, as well as 10% off all Sam & Max episodes for this first week of Season 2's availability on Steam.

With the first episode a mere month away yet another new preview for Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People has hit the internet, this one from GameCyte. You can check out their impressions, quite a bit of brand new info as well as some old screenshots within.

Strong Bad starts the game asleep on his couch, his hand wedged in a bag of chips, mumbling about an old SNES game. It’s the sort of joke that, while funny on its own, is very clearly a nod to longtime fans of the series. These moments are sprinkled throughout the game, but not too frequently as to be off-putting. Strong Bad’s particular brand of humor is the kind that most anybody can enjoy — the clever dialogue will make most anybody chuckle, yet there were one or two moments when, as the only Homestar aficionado in the room, I found myself to be the only one laughing. SBCG4AP makes no excuses for the fact that it is aimed at fans, but the newcomers in our group found plenty to laugh about as well. My impression wasn’t that you had to be a fan to enjoy the game… you’d just get to enjoy it more.

See it all.

Following the North American launch of Nintendo's WiiWare service yesterday, Telltale has announced the first details for the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People titled, Homestar Ruiner.

Check out a plot summary, some new screens, and a new gameplay video while taking all that in. Also check out the Chapman Brother interview and Next Generation impressions that we forgot about.

The fine folks over at Adventure Gamers are at it again, throwing together a dazzling preview of the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, including impressions from a first-hand look at a recent build. An excerpt:

The first episode of SBCG4AP is expected on WiiWare in June, with the next four following monthly. Each episode will have a different lead designer and writer, similar to a television series. The first episode is being led by Mark Darin, the creator of the Nick Bounty games, with a later episode being helmed by Mike Stemmle, a name familiar to many Sam & Max fans.

Be sure to read the entire preview which includes some gameplay details and additional new info.

Several Telltale staff members have been interviewed about Sam and Max on the Wii by the folk over at CVG. I haven't read the whole thing for fear of Season Two spoilers but you go nuts.

Source: CVG

Apparently around the time Strong Bad was announced IGN UK decided to put up a bunch of gameplay videos that we never knew about. See the game in action!

Have you ever wanted to work on a videogame and not get paid for it? How about playing a game before everyone else in the world, and then deciding if the game makes you feel enough of teh hardcorez? Have you ever looked in the mirror, and said: "Oh, man, am I attractive. I am an attrative hardcorez"? And, most importantly: do you want to literally leave your Wii in a smoldering hot crater?

Then why don't you go playtest Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People? You get to be a hot shirtless Mexican guy, too. And it will literally leave your Wii in a smoldering crater.

Source: Telltale Games

Wait, wait. Stop yelling. It's taken-out of context. Wow. All I did was make a joke about Dave Grossman being in a war and you had to jump-off the top of the Empire State Building?

Okay, okay, time to start making sense: So 1UP have written-up an interesting article on death in video games, and they've interviewed Dave Grossman about it. Worth reading? You bet your life on it. (Ba dum bum psh.)

Source: 1UP

I'm not sure whatever happened to that Stemmle interview Adventure Gamers promised a few months ago, but in the meantime Rock, Paper, Shotgun has us covered with a Q&A with the Sam & Max designer/writer of lore who's yet again back together with the madcap duo - where he belongs.

RPS: Is it strange to be back so close to Sam & Max after all these years?

Mike: Strange, vertiginous, and somewhat disturbingly erotic. I keep expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder, yell "psyche!", and hit me with a two-by-four. I'm sure this'll pass.

Read the whole interview for important facts such as what Stemmle's been up to between Freelance Police and employment at Telltale, some rather perturbing revelations about Sean Clark's hair, and his secret ambition to take on a Maniac Mansion sequel someday. Could Sam & Max: Season 3 be any more anticipated?

Sam and Max: The Effigy Mound, a sketchbook by Steve Purcell, is running out and apparently Telltale are not reprinting it. I'm ordering mine later today: people will think I'm artsy and rich when they see it on my bookshelf. Oh yes. Oh yes indeed.

Update: They're gone!

Source: Telltale Games

Sam and Max have been interviewed over at Telltale by the guys at Jeux Video. There's also a French version if you happen to be a foreigner/foreign snob (but then how are you reading this?).

Update: They've also got an interview with N-Europe, asking about the WiiWare games and what it's like to work for a Nintendo fansite.

According to this video report on Forbes, Sam & Max have so far sold over 500,000 episodes across the 2 seasons, and there will be many more seasons to come (a dozen, perhaps). Also see Dan, Kevin and Emily talking about the episodic games model.

Source: Forbes

You all know Telltale Texas Hold'em as the unexpected casual poker game which was also Telltale's first product. Though the game still represents a huge anomaly in the Telltale company catalog (presumably there was an intention at some point to make casual games in between the episodic adventures series, such as a project that never ended up happening that Dave Grossman alluded to here), most who've played it consider it to be reasonably fun and addictive.

Well, Telltale has bestowed upon the game a major re-release, which mainly translates to Vista compatibility, bug fixes, and integration into their current Account History system. Furthermore, the price of the game has been dropped down to $8.95. In the blog post in which this is all pointed out, Emily also gives a pretty interesting history of Texas Hold'em as the company's test project turned first release, which you'll probably like reading.

What with Sam and Max being the arguable mascots of Telltale Games for some time now, it's only reasonable to wonder how the characters are reacting to the upcoming Strong Bad games, which threaten to swipe the duo's fire.

That question has been answered, courtesy of the brains behind the online comic 2P START!

Source: 2P START!

But you can view them too! Telltale has just released a batch of six new screenshots for Strong Bad which you can see here.

Be sure to also check out Telltale's round-up of recent Strong Bad coverage. Two or so of the ones they listed may be new to people who exclusively read this site. And who could blame you?

Update: Gamasutra have an article up on the riskiness of WiiWare, including games like Strong Bad, and Sify's singing their praises for the coolest serialised games (Telltale included even though the competetion must have been grating). And lastly, if you've ever wanted to make a box shaped like Sam, Max, Strong Bad or a stormtrooper, you can now.

In interview with Telltale, 1up was able to get some interesting quotes from Dan the Man Connors, CEO of the company. Most notably with regard to the company developing original properties:

Asked how soon we might see an original project, Connors replied, "I'd say the earliest would be 10 months, and the longest would probably be 18 months. We can do so many games in a year, so an original is reasonable to squeeze in there somewhere."

You can check out the whole piece here.

You are Jack's confused mind. "The Chapman Brothers. Who ARE they?" you are saying to yourself.

"They're the creators of Homestar Runner," says Tyler. "Strong Bad. All that. Great stuff."

You are Jack's astonished expression in Jack's astonished eyes. "The guys who are collaborating with Telltale Games, the Kings of Gaming?"

Tyler smiles. "I love you so much I could knock your teeth out. Yes, yes they are."

You are Jack's beating heart. "And...were they interviewed by IGN on their game?"

Tyler lights a cigarette, scratches his head. "Yes. Yes they were, and you should head over there and read-up about it or you'll be Jack's bleeding aorta. And stop talking to yourself about Jack and using cheesy expressions all ready."

You are Jack's stomach bookworm, reading the interview. Tyler punches your face for giving another cheesy expression.

Source: IGN