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As promised, Adventure Gamers has some new exclusive Bone content. Check out the Bringing Bone to Life movie preview, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Telltale brought the hand-drawn characters of the Bone universe to glorious 3D. The page also offers some new concept art.
You'll also want to check out the Telltale web site itself, which boasts the new Screenshot of the Week, a new online trading card (Thorn), and a new blog entry.
Update: And be sure to check out Gran'ma Ben, just added to the cast section.
If last month's Idle Thumbs preview wasn't enough to slake your desire for more Bone-related goodness, Adventure Gamers has now put up one of their own. It's lengthy, informative, and offers a bit of new concept art and screenshots. It also promises some more Bone stuff later this week.
Source: Adventure Gamers
The screen of the week over at Telltale Games reveals the dialogue system in Bone. From what it looks like, you can dynamically choose which person in a group to talk to, without leaving the dialogue system. Or I might be wrong. Judge for yourself.
Gran'ma Ben's Farm has been added to the environments page on the Bone site. The glimpses of game continue to impress and look very faithful to the comic visually.
Some cool updates up on the Telltale web site. First up is the Throw Me a Bone sweepstakes. Enter and you have the chance to win some awesome prizes such as a new PC, pre-loaded with the Bone adventure game. Yowza!
Next is the Throw Me a Bone card quest, an interesting card collecting/trading thing that you should read into.
Telltale has also introduced the screenshot of the week. The first one offers a glimpse of the game's unique dialog system, and it looks really great.
And finally, Telltale continues its progressive Telltale staff interview with Greg Frank.
Check it all out.
Up at Telltale's official Bone page, Ted the Bug's 3D model has been added to the cast member section. The tiny critter looks mighty fine in motion, and I can't imagine fans being disappointed with this character's translation to 3D. (Woo! They kept the lines!)
Telltale has updated the Bone location section with the Hot Springs. Make sure to check out the screenshots of Thorn too; Telltale has done a great job at recreating the facial expressions from the comic.
And, uh, as for what's up with the dates... Who knows... Just party like it's 2004 for a bit.
Wa-hey, it looks like Telltale Games has posted the long awaited (?) Bone trailer which seems to consist mostly of cut-scenes (?) from the game. More importantly, you get the chance to hear the voice actors, and see the animation in full swing. My first impression is that they've managed to capture the spirit of the comics just fine. Yours may vary.
Go look!
Weeeeeeeee! Read today's regular staff interview blog entry at telltale.com and who's up for discussion? None other than ex-LucasArts Adventure legend Dave Grossman.
Also, Telltale is a company where characters and story are the foundations of a game, instead of being the wrapping paper on yet another boring run-around-and-shoot-and-don?t-do-anything-else title. The bulk of the games industry is, sadly, a place where people think having a conversation about "character" means trying to think of a cool weapon for the protagonist to use. (You think I?m exaggerating, but that really happens all the time.) Not so Telltale. It?s very refreshing to be here. And it?s a small company where people enjoy their jobs ? like LucasFilm was in 1989, but without the mountain lions.
Also, their recent TELLTALE NOW press release smallprint mentions "Telltale is also finalizing an agreement to work on one of the most popular television franchises which it will announce shortly" which lends some weight to the rumoured pickup of the CSI franchise license.
Source: Telltale
Telltale Games has announced a new distribution system for awesome games. Called "Telltale Now," the system is billed as a "new model for delivering graphically rich, engaging, interactive stories direct to consumers." The press release says the following:
Of course, Bone will be featured on the Telltale Now service, along with other games (presumably) which have yet to be announced."We've identified a void, which lies between long-form games for hard core gamers at one end of the spectrum and casual online parlor diversions at the other," says Dan Connors, Chief Executive Officer of Telltale. "We see an opportunity to offer rich, interactive stories that anyone can quickly download and play ? which are simply not available today. This is an exciting new way to get great adventures out to the world."
- Immediate delivery. Customers get titles quickly by downloading them over the Internet, eliminating trips to local retail stores.
- Free passports. Visit new worlds, meet characters and explore interactive stories free of charge. Customers then gain instant access to full stories with a simple mouse-click and secure online transaction.
- Engaging, ongoing stories. For most titles, Telltale will release new episodes at regular intervals. While each release will offer a complete, self-contained adventure, customers will also be able to continue the stories as new installments become available throughout the year.
Mike Stemmle, veteran interactive writer and designer, says "Telltale's new format makes me all a-tingly with storytelling and design possibilities. It's nice to see a company with the huevos to try something different."
"Telltale Now fills a unique place in the digital entertainment world," says CEO Dan Connors. "These titles provide affordable, shorter-form online programming, analogous to TV shows. Contrast this with traditional longer-form titles available at retail, which are comparable to feature films."
With a nice graphical tweak across the whole Telltale website, the company have also been kind enough to post some new content in the BONE section. This includes the first screenshots of the Dragon's Stair location and a nifty little overview of the comic and game for the uninitiated.
Source: Telltale Games
Well, that's what they're saying over at Adventure Europe.
In the midst of all the pre-E3 buzz, an inside source from the gaming industry informed us that there are rumours about TellTale Games buying the CSI license from Ubisoft. We would like to emphasize that this is just a rumour yet and nothing official has been announced by TellTale Games or Ubisoft.. Interesting. Telltale certainly have been hiring up a storm of late, so there's definitely something big in the wings. And a franchise as globally huge as CSI can only have positive spinoffs for the company both publicity wise and as a platform to help fund their more niche titles.
Source: Adventure Europe
Want to hook up with some talented artists? Well, if you're in the Berkley area, you have the chance to meet Double Fine's Scott Campbell, Raz, and Nathan Stapley as well as Telltale's Graham Annable at Comic Relief.
This is, possibly not surprisingly, a Stickleback-Hickee signing, and it will take place from 7-9pm tonight at 2026 Shattuck Ave. in Berkley. Tim Schafer also promises snacks and beverages, so how can you go wrong?
Looks like things are heating up over at Telltale - if you've been looking for some more hard info on Bone, you can't go wrong with the new official website. There are a couple of screenshots and character art posted, as well as some game info. (You get to play Ted!)
Run over there now.
Remember when Telltale asked fans to send them questions for an interview? Well the questions are all in and answered, and you can read the results here. A quote:
Being that many of you were on the Sam&Max team, and founding TellTale was in part inspired by the cancellation of that project, do you have any juicy tidbits to share with us about the game, or the making of the game? -Apignarb/UdvanorkyHeather has also promised a series of mini-interviews based on typical days over at Tell Tale Towers, to be published through the site blog. Sounds pretty awesome to me ? keep an eye on the main page over the next couple of weeks for that.
Graham A: One thing I can tell you is that Mike Stemmle had the ability to launch into random show tunes at any given time on the project. It was one of the more interesting aspects of our team meetings. You never knew when it was going to hit.
The dudes and dudettes over at Telltale Games really seem to got something going. Not only is Bone getting a cash infusion thanks to smart investements, they are also adding even more employees, many of who used to work at LucasArts. Some of the more interesting names are Brian Gillies, lead artist on the Evil Genius, and Lea Mai Nguyen, a lead artist on RTX Red Rock (the game might suck, but the art was really nice).
Even more interesting, Telltale will soon start work on another license,
Source: Adventure Gamers
Illustrious UK gaming magazine PC Zone have reviewed Telltale?s Texas Hold?em in their latest issue. Here?s what they had to say:
"Indeed, the real draw here is the quartet of quirky characters, none of which would look out of place in a triple-A LucasArts adventure... The closest you?ll ever get to Sam & Max 2... Insubstantial as it is, the charm here is irresistible."This came with their patented Indie Game of the Month award, and an overall score of 75%. Not bad at all!
If you can leave that excellent demo alone for a few minutes, you could always pop on over to Locker Gnome to read their new interview with Telltale Games CEO Dan Connors.
Dan: It?s obvious that story telling in games is on everyone?s mind in the development world. Coming out of GDC its all anybody is talking about. To me this is good news for adventure game fans, because it means companies are going to focus their technologies on better storytelling. As a result, I think there will be elements from adventure games introduced into more games and greatly enhanced. At the same time some elements from adventure games will go the way of first person jumping puzzles... I think every adventure game person will readily admit, that using every item with every thing to get past a puzzle, and move through the story, is seldom fun. So in trying to solve that, and make the genre more accessible, I think you will see interfaces and puzzles continue to be more straightforward and less complex.Those who have been following Telltale since they formed from the defunct Sam & Max team will know most of this stuff already, but it's still worth a look.
Source: Locker Gnome