I think it would be great if Telltale employees would participate in the forum games now and then... although I realize that they might not have time for that.
I loved the Telltale Heart webcast and I'd love for that to become a monthly or bi-monthly thing. It's great to get the chance to see Game Developers in "the wild" as opposed to the zoos that are gaming conferences. And doing it on a monthly basis should make it much easier to cull two or three hours worth of questions from the forums (and then even if someone answers a question at the beginning of the month you can still ask it during a slow bit in the show because who's going to remember the answer from a month ago? The internet lives in the Now, it barely remembers what happened last week.)
In fact, a lot of these things you mentioned are either being discussed or already being worked on! That's FANTASTIC, it means we're on the right track with giving you some more zany Telltale action. We're going to branch out a lot more in ALL aspects of community, so if you have any opinions on other media like Twitter or such, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Then we will steal the ideas and wreak havoc with them. It's what we do.
if you have any opinions on other media like Twitter or such, we'd love to hear what you have to say.
On Twitter Sam and Max make random comments to one another... there was once talk (I want to say by Jake but I dont remember which TTG for sure) that it could be made into a mini-story between episodes or seasons. I'd love to see this done with ANY of the games (well except Texas Holdem... that would be a very boring story I think )
Though I have this hilarious image in my head of Guybrush telling lechuck "hold on a sec, my phone's beeping, I jsut got a tweet" LOL
On that note, how do you record a webcast together with recording it on your HD? I myself am interested in doing something similar, for gameplay footage.
Oh, and Grog Machine cup for sale.
Perhaps also profiles for the developers, with some very cool trivia.
Perhaps also profiles for the developers, with some very cool trivia.
Many of the Telltale employees have bios on the Telltale corporate site. A couple of my favorites would be Joe Pinney and Brendan Q. Ferguson's bios, although Chuck Jordan did come up with a great opening line to his. Classic, just classic.
As for twitterness, I think you should post more blurry pictures, or maybe just type in random dialog or things like, "Gee! I never thought of Sybil as a hat person, before". Anything to drive the fans crazy; I love overreacting to things.
In fact, a lot of these things you mentioned are either being discussed or already being worked on! That's FANTASTIC, it means we're on the right track with giving you some more zany Telltale action. We're going to branch out a lot more in ALL aspects of community, so if you have any opinions on other media like Twitter or such, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Then we will steal the ideas and wreak havoc with them. It's what we do.
I'm all for using extra mediums to widen the message, but for people like me (who don't have twitter) we feel like we are missing out. Would it at all be possible to embed the feed into the top of the page? If you want an example of what i mean, click here (Official Nintendo Magazine website)
I'd like to take this opportunity to mention once again that many of us play Team Fortress 2 at lunch during the week, and we'd love for more fans to join us.
Let me explained what I mean. There was a newspaper (online) that had planned chats between people and their guests (like, political figures or whatever).
There was a moderator from the paper.
The people would ask their questions, which wouldn't show up in the chat, but instead be sent to the mod. The mod chose questions and posted them. The guest answered them.
This way the only text to show on the chat was the questions that had been chosen, and the answers. It prevented the answered from being drowned in questions and other comments from everybody. And everyone who was online at the planned time for the chat had an opportunity to ask a question, if theirs was selected.
Not sure if that would be practical for you in any way, but I thought I'd throw it out there. It was nice being able to talk live.
Another option would be something that is one-way. Like, the chat has us in it, and we type questions, and whoever is answering does so in a video, live, and is reading the chat.
It would definitely raise the interaction as opposed to submitting questions beforehand and such.
Granted, I have no clue how applicable it is to you guys but... Better suggest it anyways, I only risk my idea being rejected and ridiculed.
EDIT: I almost forgot. The chat thing, the newspaper would then post online the whole text of accepted questions + answers, for people who missed it.
I'd like to take this opportunity to mention once again that many of us play Team Fortress 2 at lunch during the week, and we'd love for more fans to join us.
We play from about 1230 to 1330 PST. All skill levels (including new players) will have a great time!
WHAAAT!? I must take part in this lunchtime madness.
Back on topic...
Community outreach eh? If there's one thing I know about people, it's that they like stuff. So you should reach out to the community with lots and lots of it in your hands. Prizes. Goodies. Swag. TTG is pretty awesome in that department already, so I'm not really suggesting anything new, but I'd like to see more of those Twitter/Blog contests.
Also, we want to be inside. Invite us into your work-space. Let us see a little bit of what you do. Give us a taste of what it's like to be you. The more we feel connected with you, the better. Even if it's just a sample of what your day is like. I suggest a small video blog with little interviews and tours of the office. But, like I said before, the TTG staff are already doing an awesome job (their presence on these forums alone puts them ahead of most game companies).
Let me explained what I mean. There was a newspaper (online) that had planned chats between people and their guests (like, political figures or whatever).
There was a moderator from the paper.
The people would ask their questions, which wouldn't show up in the chat, but instead be sent to the mod. The mod chose questions and posted them. The guest answered them.
This way the only text to show on the chat was the questions that had been chosen, and the answers. It prevented the answered from being drowned in questions and other comments from everybody. And everyone who was online at the planned time for the chat had an opportunity to ask a question, if theirs was selected.
Not sure if that would be practical for you in any way, but I thought I'd throw it out there. It was nice being able to talk live.
Another option would be something that is one-way. Like, the chat has us in it, and we type questions, and whoever is answering does so in a video, live, and is reading the chat.
It would definitely raise the interaction as opposed to submitting questions beforehand and such.
Granted, I have no clue how applicable it is to you guys but... Better suggest it anyways, I only risk my idea being rejected and ridiculed.
EDIT: I almost forgot. The chat thing, the newspaper would then post online the whole text of accepted questions + answers, for people who missed it.
No offence, I agree there are a lot of ways TTG can reach out to it's customers... but we all need to keep in mind this is just a little GAME COMPANY PR, _not_ The Funday Pawpet Show... Maybe I'm being narrow-minded but I'm seeing these suggestions starting to spiral out of control...
I'd like to take this opportunity to mention once again that many of us play Team Fortress 2 at lunch during the week, and we'd love for more fans to join us.
Join our Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TTGTF2
Server address: tf2.telltalegames.com
We play from about 1230 to 1330 PST. All skill levels (including new players) will have a great time!
I've not played TF2 in ages, I may just sneak in one day if I have time during that hour...
And that is a rather interesting PR move, dont think I've seen that... well... ever (outiside of Valve's Staff popping on the official servers, of course)
You can't underestimate the work of Doug, Emily and Jake(when he was doing more web stuff) They were the link between Telltale and the community.
One of the things I'd like to see is a bit more information coming from the creators. Maybe a short interview with a writer of an episode when its released for the blog. I understand all those guys are extremely busy but on release day it would be nice to hear a bit of info on what went into creating the game.
It sounds like everyone is extremely busy so its a hard task I'm sure. I do miss the days of jokes about Brendan in a closet and the Blades of Stenchar but I think I enjoy the steady release of episodic games from Sam & Max to Wallace & Gromit and Monkey Island more
what _IS_ the website listed in the first part? I can see it at the very bottom of the screen after the music changes but I cant make it out for all the corruption... I really dont want to go through the pain of downloading and decompiling it to try and get the URL...
You just realized this? For the record, "normal" humans don't drink gasoline; they just use it in their cars. Also, we can't lift our cars with one hand, either.
Zombies, ninjas, zombie ninjas, robot zombies, robot ninjas, Floating Head Doctor, rabbity-things, dogs with bees in their mouths so that when they bark bees shoot out, Devo Cow, Gene Shalit, The Safety Dance, The Super Bowl Shuffle, William Howard Taft, Jello Pudding, Reginald VelJohnson, and a rousing game of "Find The Saltine".
Zombies, ninjas, zombie ninjas, robot zombies, robot ninjas, Floating Head Doctor, rabbity-things, dogs with bees in their mouths so that when they bark bees shoot out, Devo Cow, Gene Shalit, The Safety Dance, The Super Bowl Shuffle, William Howard Taft, Jello Pudding, Reginald VelJohnson, and a rousing game of "Find The Saltine".
No, equal, maybe, no, YES, no, equal, meh, equal, no, no, BIG NO, no, no, no, too much sodium.
@Jake:
OK, if you want to convince us that you're not a robot, I have a small test for you:
reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention:
You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?
Wait, I got mine at birth...
Did you only become human on your 18th birthday? How weird, I was human from the start.
You must be pre-determined, most likely. There are some of us who chose not to become one, you know, this system is designed in such a way to eliminate those rodents.
I'm ready to burn my certificate though, well, if it finally comes in my 19th birthday. I think it got lost in the mail or something...
Comments
In fact, a lot of these things you mentioned are either being discussed or already being worked on! That's FANTASTIC, it means we're on the right track with giving you some more zany Telltale action. We're going to branch out a lot more in ALL aspects of community, so if you have any opinions on other media like Twitter or such, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Then we will steal the ideas and wreak havoc with them. It's what we do.
On Twitter Sam and Max make random comments to one another... there was once talk (I want to say by Jake but I dont remember which TTG for sure) that it could be made into a mini-story between episodes or seasons. I'd love to see this done with ANY of the games (well except Texas Holdem... that would be a very boring story I think
Though I have this hilarious image in my head of Guybrush telling lechuck "hold on a sec, my phone's beeping, I jsut got a tweet" LOL
On that note, how do you record a webcast together with recording it on your HD? I myself am interested in doing something similar, for gameplay footage.
Oh, and Grog Machine cup for sale.
Perhaps also profiles for the developers, with some very cool trivia.
Open it using RealPlayer and press "Record"
AFAIK this is the only (mainstream) program that can record live webcasts, and then iirc it's in the low-quality RV (RealVideo) Format...
Many of the Telltale employees have bios on the Telltale corporate site. A couple of my favorites would be Joe Pinney and Brendan Q. Ferguson's bios, although Chuck Jordan did come up with a great opening line to his. Classic, just classic.
As for twitterness, I think you should post more blurry pictures, or maybe just type in random dialog or things like, "Gee! I never thought of Sybil as a hat person, before". Anything to drive the fans crazy; I love overreacting to things.
If we continue with this idea, we will (hopefully) be better prepared in terms of recording and technical aspects. Heart was rather wing-and-a-prayer.
I'm all for using extra mediums to widen the message, but for people like me (who don't have twitter) we feel like we are missing out. Would it at all be possible to embed the feed into the top of the page? If you want an example of what i mean, click here (Official Nintendo Magazine website)
Join our Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TTGTF2
Server address: tf2.telltalegames.com
We play from about 1230 to 1330 PST. All skill levels (including new players) will have a great time!
Let me explained what I mean. There was a newspaper (online) that had planned chats between people and their guests (like, political figures or whatever).
There was a moderator from the paper.
The people would ask their questions, which wouldn't show up in the chat, but instead be sent to the mod. The mod chose questions and posted them. The guest answered them.
This way the only text to show on the chat was the questions that had been chosen, and the answers. It prevented the answered from being drowned in questions and other comments from everybody. And everyone who was online at the planned time for the chat had an opportunity to ask a question, if theirs was selected.
Not sure if that would be practical for you in any way, but I thought I'd throw it out there. It was nice being able to talk live.
Another option would be something that is one-way. Like, the chat has us in it, and we type questions, and whoever is answering does so in a video, live, and is reading the chat.
It would definitely raise the interaction as opposed to submitting questions beforehand and such.
Granted, I have no clue how applicable it is to you guys but... Better suggest it anyways, I only risk my idea being rejected and ridiculed.
EDIT: I almost forgot. The chat thing, the newspaper would then post online the whole text of accepted questions + answers, for people who missed it.
WHAAAT!? I must take part in this lunchtime madness.
Back on topic...
Community outreach eh? If there's one thing I know about people, it's that they like stuff. So you should reach out to the community with lots and lots of it in your hands. Prizes. Goodies. Swag. TTG is pretty awesome in that department already, so I'm not really suggesting anything new, but I'd like to see more of those Twitter/Blog contests.
Also, we want to be inside. Invite us into your work-space. Let us see a little bit of what you do. Give us a taste of what it's like to be you. The more we feel connected with you, the better. Even if it's just a sample of what your day is like. I suggest a small video blog with little interviews and tours of the office. But, like I said before, the TTG staff are already doing an awesome job (their presence on these forums alone puts them ahead of most game companies).
You mean like they did with dom? click here
I've not played TF2 in ages, I may just sneak in one day if I have time during that hour...
And that is a rather interesting PR move, dont think I've seen that... well... ever (outiside of Valve's Staff popping on the official servers, of course)
Possibly. I just didn't want to be left out of the conversation >.>
One of the things I'd like to see is a bit more information coming from the creators. Maybe a short interview with a writer of an episode when its released for the blog. I understand all those guys are extremely busy but on release day it would be nice to hear a bit of info on what went into creating the game.
It sounds like everyone is extremely busy so its a hard task I'm sure. I do miss the days of jokes about Brendan in a closet and the Blades of Stenchar but I think I enjoy the steady release of episodic games from Sam & Max to Wallace & Gromit and Monkey Island more
what _IS_ the website listed in the first part? I can see it at the very bottom of the screen after the music changes but I cant make it out for all the corruption... I really dont want to go through the pain of downloading and decompiling it to try and get the URL...
What???
I got a pack of smokes, and a selective service card...Jake can't be a robot, I mean he's awesome.
Wouldn't being awesome prove he's a robot? What's more awesome than robots?
Me? Oh crap that means I must be an robot too...
You just realized this? For the record, "normal" humans don't drink gasoline; they just use it in their cars. Also, we can't lift our cars with one hand, either.
Zombies, ninjas, zombie ninjas, robot zombies, robot ninjas, Floating Head Doctor, rabbity-things, dogs with bees in their mouths so that when they bark bees shoot out, Devo Cow, Gene Shalit, The Safety Dance, The Super Bowl Shuffle, William Howard Taft, Jello Pudding, Reginald VelJohnson, and a rousing game of "Find The Saltine".
No, equal, maybe, no, YES, no, equal, meh, equal, no, no, BIG NO, no, no, no, too much sodium.
You also forgot giant robots. In space!
But... but... but... Weh. Weh, I say! And again, I say weh!
Agreed about space robots, though. Everything's better in space. Especially custodians.
And six legged dogs with goggles?
This morning was horrendous.
Hey, that's a GOOD thing! Some of us wont admit (IF) we're human!
OK, if you want to convince us that you're not a robot, I have a small test for you:
reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention:
You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?
Wait, I got mine at birth...
Did you only become human on your 18th birthday? How weird, I was human from the start.
You must be pre-determined, most likely. There are some of us who chose not to become one, you know, this system is designed in such a way to eliminate those rodents.
I'm ready to burn my certificate though, well, if it finally comes in my 19th birthday. I think it got lost in the mail or something...