My Letter to TellTale
A Letter for TellTaleGames:
Dear TellTaleGames,
I just want to write to you to tell you how grateful I am that you exist.
One of my youngest, and most definitely first memorable moments of gaming as a child of 6year old was my Dad and my Uncle both playing Monkey Island on the Amiga. This had immediately hooked me, because it was a game that approached the user with a series of none traditional, yet logical puzzles, that, if the user paid enough attention to the smaller detail and aspects such as speech in the game they would be able to complete the quest without the aid of help, or for what existed at the time, helplines.
My love for these games was furthered by the release of Monkey Island 2 - LeChucks Revenge, and then when the home PC age began, I purchased the Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max double pack, later followed by the Fate of Atlantis and Last Crusade pack, as well as all following Monkey Islands. As I'm confident you will agree, these are all great games, not just because they all fall under the 'Adventure Game' umbrella, but because the logic for all of them were also very different. Sam and Max being the more experimental and 'non traditional' school of logic, and then we had Day of the Tentacle that used the idea of hiding objects so that they would be available throughout the 3 time stages. Obviously you all know this, and I'm just covering information that might now seem a bit redundant to you, however I needed to write some background info to get to my main point.
So far, I have played Sam and Max series 1 on the PC, and I am currently beginning episode 4 of Sam and Max on the Xbox. In addition i am one of the many playing Monkey Island and eagerly awaiting the final episode. I've played the demo of Wallace and Gromit and will purchase the season on Xbox once I complete Sam and Max.
Being British and a Wallace and Gromit fan, from what i have seen from Wallace and Gromit so far you guys have done a great job of capturing the style and feel for the characters and this is from playing the Demo alone.
Your rendition of Sam an Max is what bought me to your website initially, and I have to say, I am very impressed with how much detail you have all paid when researching the previous game incarnation because it shows from the minute you begin playing the game. I'm not just talking about the speech and the back and forth between Sam and Max either, but something as simple as keeping the cardboard box as the inventory brings back memories of yester-years, keeping the driving levels in the game also as well as references. I'd like to think that Sam and Max must be on of your favorite games to work on because the wacky world they live in must allow you to have that creative freedom to experiment with new outrageous locations, characters, and solutions to puzzles without destroying the essence of what started it all.
Bringing me to Monkey Island. As i said above from the age of 6, Monkey Island has been my game of choice, I can't remember how many times I've completed the first 4 games and when I heard that TellTale would be making a Monkey Island game back at E3, I was so excited, it was all over my Facebook, emails to friends, it was all I could talk about. When I finally got to play the first episode all the way to the 4th. I've been absolutely amazed with the obviously amount of effort and attention to detail, as well as listening to the fans. What I also appreciate is how you have called it 'Tales of Monkey Island' and not Monkey5 etc... I personally think that was a very clever idea and with it, stops the user from trying to piece everything from all the games together and jsut enjoy what we have in front of us. The only criticism I have was the use of the mermaids, (as I'm sure your read over the forums when the ep was released) but it's clear that you listen to the user and the fans and there has been not more appearances, and from what I've found only the 1 reference in the form of the painting in Club41. The older, more mature Guybrush is a fantastic way to bring the series into the newer age also, maturing him along with the fan like myself. I am eagerly awaiting the final episode.
You have breathed new life into a genre that would have been nothing more then a page in the history books if left much longer. You're one of the few companies that from what I see create this type of game nowadays, but you don't throw out shoddy peices of work hoping to make a quick buck, you make, in my opinion, true pieces of art that keeps long time fans that grew up with these characters and stories overjoyed. These aren't just 'games' they are stories and characters they you grow to love, like watching a TV show from season 1 to season 20, you grow attached. With all of the above in mind I want to commend everybody in TellTaleGames for their obvious hard work, dedication and goal to not only make a great game, but to make a great game for the fan.
Thank You TellTale.
Kindest regards
Carl Stevens
Dear TellTaleGames,
I just want to write to you to tell you how grateful I am that you exist.
One of my youngest, and most definitely first memorable moments of gaming as a child of 6year old was my Dad and my Uncle both playing Monkey Island on the Amiga. This had immediately hooked me, because it was a game that approached the user with a series of none traditional, yet logical puzzles, that, if the user paid enough attention to the smaller detail and aspects such as speech in the game they would be able to complete the quest without the aid of help, or for what existed at the time, helplines.
My love for these games was furthered by the release of Monkey Island 2 - LeChucks Revenge, and then when the home PC age began, I purchased the Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max double pack, later followed by the Fate of Atlantis and Last Crusade pack, as well as all following Monkey Islands. As I'm confident you will agree, these are all great games, not just because they all fall under the 'Adventure Game' umbrella, but because the logic for all of them were also very different. Sam and Max being the more experimental and 'non traditional' school of logic, and then we had Day of the Tentacle that used the idea of hiding objects so that they would be available throughout the 3 time stages. Obviously you all know this, and I'm just covering information that might now seem a bit redundant to you, however I needed to write some background info to get to my main point.
So far, I have played Sam and Max series 1 on the PC, and I am currently beginning episode 4 of Sam and Max on the Xbox. In addition i am one of the many playing Monkey Island and eagerly awaiting the final episode. I've played the demo of Wallace and Gromit and will purchase the season on Xbox once I complete Sam and Max.
Being British and a Wallace and Gromit fan, from what i have seen from Wallace and Gromit so far you guys have done a great job of capturing the style and feel for the characters and this is from playing the Demo alone.
Your rendition of Sam an Max is what bought me to your website initially, and I have to say, I am very impressed with how much detail you have all paid when researching the previous game incarnation because it shows from the minute you begin playing the game. I'm not just talking about the speech and the back and forth between Sam and Max either, but something as simple as keeping the cardboard box as the inventory brings back memories of yester-years, keeping the driving levels in the game also as well as references. I'd like to think that Sam and Max must be on of your favorite games to work on because the wacky world they live in must allow you to have that creative freedom to experiment with new outrageous locations, characters, and solutions to puzzles without destroying the essence of what started it all.
Bringing me to Monkey Island. As i said above from the age of 6, Monkey Island has been my game of choice, I can't remember how many times I've completed the first 4 games and when I heard that TellTale would be making a Monkey Island game back at E3, I was so excited, it was all over my Facebook, emails to friends, it was all I could talk about. When I finally got to play the first episode all the way to the 4th. I've been absolutely amazed with the obviously amount of effort and attention to detail, as well as listening to the fans. What I also appreciate is how you have called it 'Tales of Monkey Island' and not Monkey5 etc... I personally think that was a very clever idea and with it, stops the user from trying to piece everything from all the games together and jsut enjoy what we have in front of us. The only criticism I have was the use of the mermaids, (as I'm sure your read over the forums when the ep was released) but it's clear that you listen to the user and the fans and there has been not more appearances, and from what I've found only the 1 reference in the form of the painting in Club41. The older, more mature Guybrush is a fantastic way to bring the series into the newer age also, maturing him along with the fan like myself. I am eagerly awaiting the final episode.
You have breathed new life into a genre that would have been nothing more then a page in the history books if left much longer. You're one of the few companies that from what I see create this type of game nowadays, but you don't throw out shoddy peices of work hoping to make a quick buck, you make, in my opinion, true pieces of art that keeps long time fans that grew up with these characters and stories overjoyed. These aren't just 'games' they are stories and characters they you grow to love, like watching a TV show from season 1 to season 20, you grow attached. With all of the above in mind I want to commend everybody in TellTaleGames for their obvious hard work, dedication and goal to not only make a great game, but to make a great game for the fan.
Thank You TellTale.
Kindest regards
Carl Stevens
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Comments
This makes me smile.
Lol.
...
Nice sentiments. Now I wish I was old enough to have played stuff like Day of the Tentacle when they came out though. :-(
...the only Monkey Island to ever include a number was Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge, so it being called "Tales of Monkey Island" has nothing to do with not wanting to call it "MI5" because it is MI5.
Actually, according to Telltale, their season is closer to Monkey Island 6. There's at least one untold story between Escape and Tales. Think of it as the same thing as the infamous number skip between Leisure Suit Larry 3 and it's immediate sequel, LSL5.
Actually, according to Telltale, that was a joke that got out of hand. Time has passed between EMI and TMI, and Guybrush did things, but that doesn't make TMI MI6.
Courtesy of the one and only Jake:
No, the entire point was they didn't want to follow up immediately after EMI since the fan reception of EMI was ... less than stellar.
Arguably more time passed between MI 1 and 2 than EMI and TMI.
you compare the early MI to anything related to telltale...
I cant refuse to do so.. if I do try that.. then I must consider that telltale makes utter crap.
BUT if ... however I view telltale as well themselves.. the games are decent.
They still need to go much deeper (fixing models of characters and sounds for starters) in every game its an issue..
I hate doing this sort of post but I feel to strongly here.. this isnt lucasarts.. granted some of the folks.. are at telltale.. its NOT the same company..
games dont even come close to comparing and shouldnt even be tried.
all I can say is.. they have had some wins and some losses, sam n max and strongbad are the strong suits ..MI coming and prolly breaking for 2nd place but... then you have lonely bone and WG.. which, I still cant pull myself to buy even for 20$ and a special offer. (still its tempting)
keep truckin telltale.. just... LEARN from the mistakes you KEEP making.. and get some better flipping testers or more...
some stuff should just not be allowed to pass, reguardless of a deadline. And you dont patch.. sooo yeaaa
Not to mention that Wallace and Gromit is arguably one of their best series...
This post is based on true events.
S&M and TMI are both god (and yes, i do mean the almighty, not just "good"). GIMMEMORE
What's appropriate? I don't see how this post has any relevance to this particular thread. Have I missed something?