Here's my take on how to ameliorate it--avoid all reviews/trailers until you actually play the game--come on, how many people actually want to see/read about what an episode with the great title of "Abe Lincoln Must Die!" will actually contain before they actually play it?
Sorry to those who're upset by the "spoiler". I was just looking at 4 pages of people complaining and offering all of they're insight as to what Telltale needs to do and it killed me. So i was just throwing that out there to relieve some of the tension. I wouldn't consider it a spoiler, but I'm sorry to those who did. It won't hurt
"I do believe that plenty of the easy puzzles in Monkey Island 2 and 3 were lazily designed"
I completely disagree.
Of course--that's why I qualified the statement with "notwithstanding the fact that..." which basically means--it doesn't even matter. It's easy to quote out of context.
Plenty of adventure games use a hard and easy mode-Monkey Island 2 and 3, loom...
But can it be pulled off with the schedule Sam & Max has? If the games are monthly releases, it's hard for me to believe that they could suddenly find the time to implement a hard and easy mode for the game. If you look at Monkey 2 and 3, the easy modes weren't just these lazy alterations that simply chopped the game in half. They had some pretty clever workarounds for certain puzzles and even included a new inventory item or two. The point is, making an easy or hard mode would not be a simple matter, and would in a way be like designing two games. There was an interview at the SCUMM Bar (the site is down, unfortunately) with some guy on the Monkey 3 team who said that one of his main jobs was ensuring that the "Regular" mode made sense throughout all the puzzle changing. (EDIT: Hey site's up now! And the interview I was remembering was with Chris Purvis.)
(Loom hardly counts because the difficulty settings simply changed the game's unique interface. The lower the difficulty, the more ornamented the distaff was and the more tone deaf you were allowed to be. It was a pretty superficial change and had no affect on puzzles.)
What you're actually asking for is the reverse of what the Lite and Regular modes on Monkey 1 and 2 were. The "Hard" modes of those games were the regular modes and considered the actual game, whereas the "Easy" modes removed or simplified some of the more difficult puzzles to make the game less intimidating for newcomers (perhaps necessary in an epic game like those, hardly necessary in an intentionally bite-sized one). You have to think that the version of Sam & Max that the team is actually releasing is the version they intend you to play, and the version they think most people will buy, and thus it wouldn't pay for them to make a whole other one that may or may not appease a certain number of people.
But can it be pulled off with the schedule Sam & Max has? If the games are monthly releases, it's hard for me to believe that they could suddenly find the time to implement a hard and easy mode for the game. If you look at Monkey 2 and 3, the easy modes weren't just these lazy alterations that simply chopped the game in half. They had some pretty clever workarounds for certain puzzles and even included a new inventory item or two. The point is, making an easy or hard mode would not be a simple matter, and would in a way be like designing two games. There was an interview at the SCUMM Bar (the site is down, unfortunately) with some guy on the Monkey 3 team who said that one of his main jobs was ensuring that the "Regular" mode made sense throughout all the puzzle changing. (EDIT: Hey site's up now! And the interview I was remembering was with Chris Purvis.)
(Loom hardly counts because the difficulty settings simply changed the game's unique interface. The lower the difficulty, the more ornamented the distaff was and the more tone deaf you were allowed to be. It was a pretty superficial change and had no affect on puzzles.)
What you're actually asking for is the reverse of what the Lite and Regular modes on Monkey 1 and 2 were. The "Hard" modes of those games were the regular modes and considered the actual game, whereas the "Easy" modes removed or simplified some of the more difficult puzzles to make the game less intimidating for newcomers (perhaps necessary in an epic game like those, hardly necessary in an intentionally bite-sized one). You have to think that the version of Sam & Max that the team is actually releasing is the version they intend you to play, and the version they think most people will buy, and thus it wouldn't pay for them to make a whole other one that may or may not appease a certain number of people.
You are right that they don't have the time... I was just responding to his response which said that it encouraged lazy design. I disagreed and gave examples of the games that did it and worked well.
You are right that they don't have the time... I was just responding to his response which said that it encouraged lazy design. I disagreed and gave examples of the games that did it and worked well.
Of course, wishful thinking is that teachers and designers aren't all like that, which is true--but I feel that the budget and time constraints of a monthly $6 game would make it more likely for designers to cut around the corners if they are now tasked to come up with what is effectively 2 games in the same time, with the same budget.
remember when that thing happened? and then it triggered that other thing? (i spoiler tagged this because I know that there are a lot of overly sensitive forum readers out there. and if you clicked on it and your still pissed? HA not my fault! kittens don't open bottles of spoiled milk for a reason!)
I just played the entire second season and the beginning of the third.. I may have been highly medicated but I enjoyed Sam and Max battling against the giant purple elephant.
That's impossible! A friend of a neighbour of a guy selling hot dogs in the town of my brother's wife's cousin's dog's veterinarian who's acquainted with the gold fish of a flat mate of a cousin of the grocer whose shop I once passed by told me that the Episodes are designed, programmed, created and uploaded on the launch day.
That would also explain the unforeseen delays on said launch days; hm? :cool:
Episode 38? Where they have to solve the mystery of the lumpy apple sauce in their retirement home? That was indeed a good'n..... but many seasons ago... we had doom saber get samples of Telltale DNA at the playtest, and we made an army of uberdevelopers last week that get 20 episodes done a day.
Episode 38? Where they have to solve the mystery of the lumpy apple sauce in their retirement home? That was indeed a good'n..... but many seasons ago... we had doom saber get samples of Telltale DNA at the playtest, and we made an army of uberdevelopers last week that get 20 episodes done a day.
Mmmmm....DNA....or like my high school Chem teacher used to say, "Dirty Nasty Ass!" LOL
Sorry, I haven't. When I am at Davis aka farm town university, I don't watch T.V.
Ah.. Was just being kind of jokey--the latest episode of Lost actually deals with time loops. I can understand that people in Davis don't watch TV when they have fun and exciting things like "Bovine Bingo" to occupy their time with.
Comments
I completely disagree.
Of course--that's why I qualified the statement with "notwithstanding the fact that..." which basically means--it doesn't even matter. It's easy to quote out of context.
Also, episode 3 has my favorite ending sequence of any of them so far.
(See what I did just there? How I got the thread back on topic?
Look, a two-headed monkey!
I would like a line (maybe about one of Bosco's accent) where Max says something like:
"Sam, do Australians say 'phew'?"
Of course you can substitute "Australian" for some other accent/nationality and 'phew' for some other word...
Wait, you mean to say there's a difference between New Zealanders and Australians?
...Runs!
But can it be pulled off with the schedule Sam & Max has? If the games are monthly releases, it's hard for me to believe that they could suddenly find the time to implement a hard and easy mode for the game. If you look at Monkey 2 and 3, the easy modes weren't just these lazy alterations that simply chopped the game in half. They had some pretty clever workarounds for certain puzzles and even included a new inventory item or two. The point is, making an easy or hard mode would not be a simple matter, and would in a way be like designing two games. There was an interview at the SCUMM Bar (the site is down, unfortunately) with some guy on the Monkey 3 team who said that one of his main jobs was ensuring that the "Regular" mode made sense throughout all the puzzle changing. (EDIT: Hey site's up now! And the interview I was remembering was with Chris Purvis.)
(Loom hardly counts because the difficulty settings simply changed the game's unique interface. The lower the difficulty, the more ornamented the distaff was and the more tone deaf you were allowed to be. It was a pretty superficial change and had no affect on puzzles.)
What you're actually asking for is the reverse of what the Lite and Regular modes on Monkey 1 and 2 were. The "Hard" modes of those games were the regular modes and considered the actual game, whereas the "Easy" modes removed or simplified some of the more difficult puzzles to make the game less intimidating for newcomers (perhaps necessary in an epic game like those, hardly necessary in an intentionally bite-sized one). You have to think that the version of Sam & Max that the team is actually releasing is the version they intend you to play, and the version they think most people will buy, and thus it wouldn't pay for them to make a whole other one that may or may not appease a certain number of people.
You are right that they don't have the time... I was just responding to his response which said that it encouraged lazy design. I disagreed and gave examples of the games that did it and worked well.
I don't see where there is a conflict.
I cannot believe this bull
I'll have to remember to come back to read this thread after playing the game!
If so, what the hell did I played two weeks ago during the focus group!?
Yes yes, rub it in...but your uppance shall come!!!
Yes, I know I've set it up perfectly for a Max-like reply..
I just played Episode 1.
...of the second season.
Yeah! In your face, guy!
That's impossible! A friend of a neighbour of a guy selling hot dogs in the town of my brother's wife's cousin's dog's veterinarian who's acquainted with the gold fish of a flat mate of a cousin of the grocer whose shop I once passed by told me that the Episodes are designed, programmed, created and uploaded on the launch day.
That would also explain the unforeseen delays on said launch days; hm? :cool:
I think episode 38 was too easy.
Did you just watch the latest episode of Lost?
Mmmmm....DNA....or like my high school Chem teacher used to say, "Dirty Nasty Ass!" LOL
Sorry, I haven't. When I am at Davis aka farm town university, I don't watch T.V.
Ah.. Was just being kind of jokey--the latest episode of Lost actually deals with time loops. I can understand that people in Davis don't watch TV when they have fun and exciting things like "Bovine Bingo" to occupy their time with.
Actually was over there 6-7 years ago--stayed in a town called Vacaville, which I believe translates to "Cowtown."
Bringing it back to a quasi-on-topic level, how far away is Davis from Telltale?