The International House of Mojo

Further expanding its online distribution avenue for customers, Telltale announced in a press release today that it has teamed up with Big Fish Games to offer Out from Boneville as well as future Telltale titles. As the press release points out, this new outlet is in addition to Yahoo! Games, Direct-to-Drive, Trymedia Systems, Boonty, CNET, and the developer's own Telltale Now to expand the availability of Telltale's games and to hopefully reach an even bigger audience.

Read the whole thing here.

Check out this new interview with Telltale CEO Dan Connors about the upcoming Sam & Max game. There isn't much in the way of earth-shattering new information, but as always it's worth a look.

Thanks to JBRAA for finding this.

If you were hoping that you wouldn't see any cool Sam & Max stuff today, then prepare to be disappointed.

First off is the offering of a Sam & Max T-shirt, which I don't even have to tell you you're going to buy right now, in large quantities. Also for sale are signed Sam & Max prints, one which features a large version of a special art called "Something's Not Right Here," the other featuring a large version of the Outlaws comic. They are both signed by Steve Purcell. (You might recall these being sold by the Gary Winnick co-founded Tantrum Entertainment a little over a year ago.)

And finally, the first of the promised series of serialized Sam & Max web comics by Purcell.

woot.

The lovable GameCloud has thrown up a mighty interview with everybody's favourite Steve Purcell, asking him about all manner of things related to recently-revived Sam & Max.

"Of course it was disappointing [for LucasArts to cancel Freelance Police]. It came as a big surprise but I never had the chance to react because the fans did it for me. The outrage and solidarity that they showed was an amazing thing to behold. I'd never want to cross those folks."

You see? At least somebody appreciates your efforts. To enjoy this and many more questions, be sure to read the entire feature.

According to a tipoff on the Telltale Games forum, they are due to appear on Monday 21 November at the Adventure Europe's Developer Conference to partake in a chat session via messageboard.

The schedule has them slotted in Monday 21st November 21:00 until 23:00 GMT alongside Herculean Effort, Himalaya Studios/AGDI, and Totem Games.

The big question is whether Bad-Brain's Wolfgang Kierdorf will be putting in an appearance to dazzle us all with some more (made-up) on the spot news. So far it looks like we're out of luck on that front.

Update: The chat's now over, but you can read all the questions and answers here.

Source: Adventure Europe

Adventure Gamers has put up a huge, four page interview with Dan Connors and Kevin Bruner of Telltale Games. Topics of discussion include Bone, Sam & Max, and CSI. It's a totally awesome interview, and as a bonus you get some concept art from Bone: The Great Cow Race, and even the first screenshot! Reading is good for you.

Now available for download is an updated version of Telltale's debut adventure Out from Boneville. Features of this new version include a different trial version (the demo is now the first 30 minutes of the game rather than ending after the locust chase), the option to skip mini-games, and the correction of some compatibility issues. This update notably addresses complaints/suggestions that fans have had with the game.

And good news for people who haven't bought the game yet: Adventure Gamers is hosting a contest where five lucky winners will get a free download of Out from Boneville. Even cooler, just for entering the contest you'll get 15% off the purchase of a Telltale game until year's end. Not sure what you're waiting for.

Yep. The page is little more than an FAQ to get you salivating, but still! Known facts such as Steve Purcell's involvement and a 2006 release are re-stated there, but there's also the hint that Sam & Max content will not be limited to games, which is cool-sounding. And to top it all off, Purcell will be publishing serialized Sam & Max comic adventures on the web! Now is the time to retract your suicide pacts.

Oh yeah, and Telltale also offers the colorized Scholastic editions of the first two Bone books at their store now.

(Sam & Max)

Telltale has been busy. In addition to the next installment of Bone, and preliminary work on Sam & Max, according to a press release posted on VE3D, Telltale has been working with Ubisoft to create the next game based on the popular television series CSI, titled CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder.

Developed by Telltale Games, CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder will continue the authentic experience of Ubisoft's popular CSI video games. Players will work alongside Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows and the rest of the original Las Vegas cast to help solve intense cases and investigate crimes using cutting-edge techniques and real-world forensic equipment. CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder(tm) improves upon the successful core design concepts of previous CSI games, featuring an all-new, real-time 3D engine, enriched character interactions and animations, and longer, more immersive stories.

As far as I know this game will be released as a retail title - you know, a full game sold on a store shelf - but we should probably be hearing (and seeing) more of it soon on Telltale's (and Ubisoft's) website. It's nice to see Telltale working on some larger projects as well as their episodic/comedy comic book titles.

In a new article by Next Generation, Telltale CTO Kevin Bruner talks about the company's business model and while it's mostly more of the same the company's future prospects are really exciting:

Looking a few years down the road, Bruner has big plans for the company and for properties that are ignored in today's market. "I hope we're bringing out a new game every month on a number of different franchises and making the television metaphor really work. We want to be a channel like HBO or Bravo and really seeing licenses that don't play well right now in the game space, find a home at Telltale.

The article also states the company is currently made up of 20 people, and will expand to 30 to meet the demands of working on the Sam & Max game alongside Bone episode 2. You read now.

Thanks to jp-30 for finding the article

Telltale has lowered the price of Telltale Texas Hold'em from $19.99 to $12.99, so if you were interested in the game but held off purchasing, now might be a good time to get it.

Also, if you checked your October Telltale newsletter (which you should all be subscribed to) Telltale says this: "We'll have news to share on the site next week, which will be certain to interest many of you!"

I wonder if it will have to do with Sam & Max a Theodore Dudebrough surfing game?

Telltale is now offering the soundtrack for the first Bone game for online download, which is rather awesome. The page also includes the bonus of some interesting and informative comments from composer Jared Emerson-Johnson about the process of creating the score, and it's a great read. Enjoy the tuneage.

In this short interview with Telltale Games, the company discusses a bit about the future. Sam & Max news will be posted by the end of the month. Work on the second Bone game (still presumably based on only The Great Cow Race) is well underway, as you might have gathered from Dave Grossman's blog from last week. Telltale assures that the episode will be longer. The long-rumored "game based on a popular television series" will be published next year by one of Telltale's "partners." Check out the rest, won't you?

I wonder if the announcement of some concrete Sam & Max news will happen to coincide with the activity of a certain person's web site. Here's hoping!

Source: AdventureGamers forum

Graham Annable, who as you probably know by now serves as Creative Director and Lead Animator at Telltale Games, has published a nice article about creating games over at Pop Thought. Annable discusses his history in games and comics and, of course, his time at Telltale and creating Out from Boneville. It's a great read, so check it out.

Also, for those who haven't noticed it yet the latest Telltale blog rather encouragingly invites all to send their comments on Bone. So send in your feedback!

OK, so it's more of a ramble, but I had a lot of emotions that needed to come out about the first Bone game. It was given a score though, so I stand firm that it with some goodwill can be called a review. Anyway, read!

Hot on the heels of the Sam & Max news is another huge Telltale milestone! Check the Telltale Games website because, well, surprise, Bone is released, waiting for you to download!

A free demo is available, and the first episode is available for purchase for $19.99. More information on Bone is available at the all new Telltale site.

So, what do you guys think of it?

Despite two former aborted attempts to revive the Sam & Max licence in a computer game, Telltale games have done what fans had been hoping for since that infamous "current market place realities and underlying economic considerations" press release.

Adventuregamers reports:

The deal was inked only days ago, and few details are available as of now. Telltale stresses that the game will not be Sam & Max: Freelance Police, the LucasArts title whose highly-publicized 2004 cancellation was widely mourned by fans. New content will be developed, and the game will be implemented in an episodic format similar to that of Telltale's Bone games. Purcell, who works at Pixar, says he will be as involved with the Sam & Max project as he can be.

So, where's the party at?

Source: Adventuregamers

Bone goodies are continuing to appear as the game nears completion. The Extras page of the official Bone site now has several more screenshots, both new and old. Also check out this net meeting a Norwegian newspaper had with Telltale (The Q&A itself is in english). And as always be sure to check out Telltale's latest blog, which among other things mentions Sam & Max.

Finally, those who have completed Telltale's Bone card quest might have noticed that the bottom corner of the wallpaper prize features what is apparently Telltale's company slogan: "Tales for your imagination." I thought it was interesting, anyway.

Still no word as to when this month the game will be released.

Eurogamer has put up a new interview with Telltale CEO Dan Connors as Bone nears completion:

Eurogamer: How do you educate the audience into getting excited about it?

Dan Connors: Well, sites like Eurogamer play a big role in this [smiles]. The Internet community continues to get bigger and bigger, and we're working actively to spread the word throughout the fan, gaming, and comic book communities. We're working with Scholastic to field programs that promote the game alongside of their Bone book series. We've also taken inspiration from initiatives like Firefox, which does excellent grassroots marketing. Visitors to the Telltale site can play a digital collectible card game while they're waiting for the game to come out, and we'll have more online initiatives coming soon.

There are mere weeks until the game's release, so keep that credit card handy.

Up today is a new Bone preview over at IGN. Naturally, it's worth a look. And don't forget to keep up with Telltale's site which is being pretty consistent with blog and news updates.