game ideas to convince telltale to make!

bigtopfrank

considering telltale seems to have an excellent game engine, and it seems that some people are coming up with some good ideas that they think telltale should make . . . i thought i'd start a dedicated thread for it. i think telltale should give us a new game election!! (for those of us who have bought their games!)

there's already been a couple of suggestions, notably these:
edgar allan poe -
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1153
rocko's modern life -
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1425
and discworld -
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1293
and there was this old post as well -
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=542
and somebody mentioned futurama, but methinks the licensing of such would be far too expensive to obtain (i could be wrong though!)

my ideas extend to adult swim cartoons, as i love these in all shapes, but my choices would be these:
the venture bros -
http://www.adultswim.com/shows/venturebros/
aqua teen hunger force -
http://www.adultswim.com/shows/athf/

and a final one . . . i'm adding this because i'm watching it at the moment:
the adventures of brisco county jr. (with bruce campbell voice acting, of course.)

i also found this thread from a couple of years ago . . .
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=892
glad to see someone thinks the same way i do!

anyone agree? or can offer something better?

Mel

It's good to have an existing license on which to base a game for the name recognition and existing fan base who would be willing to take a chance on a company they may not have heard of previously.

I'm curious whether Telltale would ever consider something completely original (story, characters) or if they would stay with acquiring licenses. And if it's none of my beeswax, let me know that too. The question has probably already been answered in some interview, I just don't feel like doing a big internet search at 5 gajillion gaming sites to find it.

Mack Daddy

I would play any of the games on your list BigTopFrank! Especially the Adultswim ones like 'The Venture Bros' or maybe my other favorite 'Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law'.

Oh and Bruce Campbell would be a perfect voice actor for any adventure game...

Love that guy!

numble

I feel as if I've read tons of interviews where Telltale seems to emphasize a desire to do licenses; it seems like their "pitch" to investors is that their strategy is to capitalize on the lack of gaming possibility for most licenses--most licensed games nowadays work only for action, shooting, and driving games, but in reality, few licenses fit into those categories. So Telltale seeks to fill in that gap. It makes license-owners happy that they can both make money and have a game that is "truer" to the license, and Telltale gets an established fan-base to sell their games to.

But yeah, I'd love to see something new and original. But I can see how their strategy is working... After Sam and Max, I've become more interested in Bone and even CSI. So if they ever do anything new, I'd say it might be awhile--but at that point there'd be more Telltale fans via their success with licenses.

Shacknews interview with Dan Connors, Telltale CEO
Shack: Any ideas Telltale has on the horizon you can speak on? Any interesting licenses in the work?

Dan Connors: Uh... I've moved back into "keep it close to the chest" mode, so right now there's not anything I can talk about, except that we are definitely looking at a lot of different licenses. A lot of different people are seeing what Telltale is trying to do episodically, and with the mode we're moving Sam & Max to, and the market around CSI, a lot of people are realizing there's a home for their property in the gaming space.

Shack: Is it difficult to communicate to license holders that a video game adaptation doesn't have to be just going in and shooting everything, or a cheesy platformer? Over the last fifteen or twenty years, that's pretty much what it's been.

Dan Connors: Well, I think there's the games industry proper, then there's the license holders, and the license holders know which licenses have an audience that want an interactive component that isn't necessarily shooting. The publishers have maybe sworn it off a bit, with the exception of Ubisoft, but I think that license holders know that they have a whole treasure trove of material that could be made interactive. While the gaming industry right now maybe isn't built to service that, because the shooting and platforming element is what everything has always mapped to, this new emergence of downloadable and episodic content has made it so that they can connect the audience to the license a lot more easily and with more reasonable economics. So, there's a path from there to here, where before there wasn't one. If you look around at the media companies and how much [of the] internet audience they're seeking out, they're trying to create new audiences for their content. We want to help link that together. I think every day that goes by, people can see that vision clearer and clearer, versus two years ago when we were just getting started and it was just a pipe dream.

Mel

Thanks for that info Numble.

jp-30

There's also some (old) discussion of this topic here.

numble

Anyway, my license picks would be:
King of the Hill
Nice cartoon that doesn't require a crazy, wacky universe--it points out the funny absurdities that already exist in American life and culture. How can you beat a protagonist that sells propane and propane accessories?

Monk
Like CSI, except with a wacky idiosyncratic protagonist thrown in. Also pretty similar to CSI in how it can work in the episodic vein--a crime case (usually murder) needs to be solved, and the only one that can do it is Monk, the obsessive compulsive detective.

I'm not enmeshed in enough stuff to come up with other ideas. The Office?

Mel

jp-30 wrote: »

There's also some (old) discussion of this topic here.

This is so off topic...

...but now I'm craving some waffles. (blueberry)

But yeah, licenses. When Sam&Max bring in the millions, they can hire even more people and have dedicated teams for Sam&Max, Bone, CSI and the next fabulous game!

bigtopfrank

numble wrote: »

Monk
Like CSI, except with a wacky idiosyncratic protagonist thrown in. Also pretty similar to CSI in how it can work in the episodic vein--a crime case (usually murder) needs to be solved, and the only one that can do it is Monk, the obsessive compulsive detective.

I'm not enmeshed in enough stuff to come up with other ideas. The Office?

monk . . . goddamn that's funny! i don't watch that show, but it would be a pretty funny game.

you know, at the end of this though . . . i have confidence that whatever telltale do come out with, it'll be interesting. i may not personally like it, like if they made a game of 7th Heaven or something, but if it was between 15 and 30 bucks, i'd probably get it anyway to check it out.

as for the office, numble . . . what are you talking there? english? or american?

bigtopfrank

hang on a minute . . .

if there was a game based on monk, would you have to stop after checking out a murder scene and wash your hands 43 times?

that might be a bit repetitive for the average adventure gamer . . .

numble

I just mentioned The Office randomly since I've been following the American show recently, have no idea how it would work as a game, or if I would actually want it as a game, except it probably can't be done in the "solve the case" structure as much.

if there was a game based on monk, would you have to stop after checking out a murder scene and wash your hands 43 times?

Yeah I was wondering how you would actually structure a game based around Monk. I just find the characters pretty hilarious, though it's from an episode that's different from it's usual solve-a-case episode, here's an example of the type of humor prevalent in the show: Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty

Junkface

As always my answer is Batman, Batman, Batman.

Venture Bros. is good if only because it would hook them up with Jim Thirlwell. I'd like to see something original from them though and if not I'd be happy if they just stick to creatively worthwhile licenses like they have with Bone and Sam & Max.

bigtopfrank

i think you might be on a winner with the thirwell thing there, junkface!

it actually took me a few episodes before i read the credits properly and noticed his name on there.

speaking of which, he was born in melbourne! i'm from melbourne! (i'm in melbourne, too!) i think you're from melbourne also, from memory, that you said on another post somewhere . . . that's cool.

as for batman . . . too much for a license, don't you think? although a really awesome game for the animated series is long overdue . . . actually, a really awesome game for batman is long overdue, not counting that mod (or wad) for doom way back.

Pvt._Public

I seem to recall playing a Batman game (based on one of the movies I think) on my Windows 3.1 back when I was considerably younger. I enjoyed it at the time (being 3 or 4 and all) but looking back now it seems it was probably crap. I remember you could click about in the bat cave until it let you go out in the batmobile. Then you found some random thugs and beat them senseless. Then you questioned them. Then you clicked some more stuff. Absolutely riveting.

bigtopfrank

not sure, private, but you may be talking about the batman returns game.
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=1430
from memory, though, it still sucked.

Pvt._Public

That's the one! I never got very far but I played it for ages. It was that or "Krusty's Funhouse". Thank god I have discovered decent games now

Junkface

bigtopfrank wrote: »

speaking of which, he was born in melbourne! i'm from melbourne! (i'm in melbourne, too!) i think you're from melbourne also, from memory, that you said on another post somewhere . . . that's cool.

Yeah, I hear he went to Camberwell High (damn, the eastern suburbs of Melbourne have produced some wonderfully confronting musicians.) Pity he doesn't seem to get much respect around here.

As for Batman being too a big a license, you're probably right, but we can always dream; it has such incredible potential if it were handled right.

bigtopfrank

really? i was going to go to camberwell high . . . but i didn't. i actually lived about 100 metres from it at the time. i live near there even now! (funny how you end up moving back to the area of your childhood when you grow up.)

who else are you thinking of with the eastern suburbs/confronting musicians thang? you've got me curious . . . there's this post - http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=852 - where you mention a few interesting people. man, i lent my roland s howard 'teenage snuff film' record to a friend years ago, haven't seen nor heard it since.

Insert my username here

this is probably just me being stupid but when is episode 2 being released???

Insert my username here

anyways sorry for being off topic. I suggest an adventure game about the simpsons but then again......their license must cost a ton because it is after all the longest running cartoon in history all the way from the tracey ullman show to today!

Mel

Insert my username here wrote: »

this is probably just me being stupid but when is episode 2 being released???

http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1335

December 21 on GameTap and January 5 on Telltale.

Crumplehorn

I doubt it could ever happen, but an adventure version of Jeffery Roland's Wigu comic. It cries out to have good voice actors.