About the engine...
Dear Telltale Games,
I'd like to thank you tremendously for taking up the mantel of the Adventure Game. Lord knows no one else has put forth all the glorious gusto as your fantastic team. For this, I will forever be in your debt.
However, due to how much I care about what you're doing, I cannot keep silent anymore about my concerns for your 3D engine.
I get it, make something from the ground up that caters to adventure games. Great concept. But, to be honest, I'm not sure it's working out.
I don't mind the low poly counts and lack of advanced materials. Lucasarts put out adventure games for years that weren't cutting edge. But the difference is that those games could run on older, slower computers (by 1992's standards). While telltale games seem to run terribly slow and glitchy even on fast machines.
Also, the animation seems to suffer in this engine. It will get choppy, transitions between animations aren't smooth, and there is a real lack of emoting from the characters. If the engine could handle animation better, I believe this would allow the animators to bestow real life into the characters.
My last major gripe is that the various interfaces have seemed less functional than that of older adventure games. I find the original Sam and Max Hit the Road far easier to control the actions and inventory than any of TellTale's offerings. The inventory system is too rigid and unnatural. And navigation in Tales of Monkey Island is less than ideal.
I hope you can forgive my negativity, because I really do love what you're doing. And that's precisely why I have to bring this up. I just think if you really intend to bring back the genre to its former glory, you must break down this technical wall. Otherwise I'm afraid the appeal wont extend beyond the existing niche audience that embraces your games with forgiveness in order to fulfill their desire to relive the glory days of computer games.
Thank you for your time.
(please don't send a hit squad of covert ninja monkeys to kill me)
I'd like to thank you tremendously for taking up the mantel of the Adventure Game. Lord knows no one else has put forth all the glorious gusto as your fantastic team. For this, I will forever be in your debt.
However, due to how much I care about what you're doing, I cannot keep silent anymore about my concerns for your 3D engine.
I get it, make something from the ground up that caters to adventure games. Great concept. But, to be honest, I'm not sure it's working out.
I don't mind the low poly counts and lack of advanced materials. Lucasarts put out adventure games for years that weren't cutting edge. But the difference is that those games could run on older, slower computers (by 1992's standards). While telltale games seem to run terribly slow and glitchy even on fast machines.
Also, the animation seems to suffer in this engine. It will get choppy, transitions between animations aren't smooth, and there is a real lack of emoting from the characters. If the engine could handle animation better, I believe this would allow the animators to bestow real life into the characters.
My last major gripe is that the various interfaces have seemed less functional than that of older adventure games. I find the original Sam and Max Hit the Road far easier to control the actions and inventory than any of TellTale's offerings. The inventory system is too rigid and unnatural. And navigation in Tales of Monkey Island is less than ideal.
I hope you can forgive my negativity, because I really do love what you're doing. And that's precisely why I have to bring this up. I just think if you really intend to bring back the genre to its former glory, you must break down this technical wall. Otherwise I'm afraid the appeal wont extend beyond the existing niche audience that embraces your games with forgiveness in order to fulfill their desire to relive the glory days of computer games.
Thank you for your time.
(please don't send a hit squad of covert ninja monkeys to kill me)
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Comments
I also haven't really seen any problem with the animations, or choppy transitions.
I did however give up with the Monkey Island mouse controls, and use the arrow keys to walk and shift key to run instead.
I'm not saying that you are wrong, your experiences may be different. (and I dont currently have a high-end PC to test the games on) I just felt that I should give my input.
Controls aren't worse than in other new adventure games, infact I think that controls are better than in SMI:SE.
I don't think the fact that this engine is somewhat passable with the settings and resolution turned down is any kind of excuse.
Also, I'd like to know what the various interfaces have that is in any way superior to the likes of Sam and Max: Hit the Road, Full Throttle, or Curse of Monkey Island. (Why is it so bad to be able to choose between looking at something or interacting with it? Or the always funny, Use Mouth with it. Or why can't I easily play with things in my inventory without feeling like I'm fighting the software?)