All bitter remarks aside, Puzzle Agent 2 does spark a bit of hope in me. As for the rest...we'll see if those manage to make any impression on me when more material surfaces.
Ouch, I'm really disappointed with the announcements. None of the new projects interests me at all.
Is it just me, or is this stuff extremely obscure? I guess the fact that I don't read comics doesn't help, but I had never heard of The Walking Dead, Fables, or Hector Badge of Carnage before. It makes me wonder if there's enough of an audience for these things for the games to sell. I don't think all three combined will generate as much interest as Monkey Island or Back to the Future.
I have of course heard of Kings Quest, but I think it's probably the worst possible choice out of all classic adventure games for TT to resurrect. There are a lot of huge epic fantasy RPG games out now and coming out soon. How hollow and bland will 5 relatively short Kings Quest adventure episodes feel in comparison to a massive 60+ hour fantasy RPG game like Dragon Age 2 or Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? I just don't see how it can be anything but disappointing.
Oh well, see you in a few years Telltale when you get some better ideas.
Gabriel Knight is not better than King's Quest. It's completely different and that's it. Gabriel Knight is a much deeper and more powerful type of story than King's Quest but that doesn't automatically make it better.
It's been a long road, a trip with highs and lows but now I know that the company I knew and loved is gone for sure.
Now it seems Telltale is becoming nothing more than a Game Factory, churning out half baked games: Bug infested, uninteresting gameplay and nothing more than short interactive movies.
The sad thing is at the core they have good stuff going on: story, voice work and music are constantly good (sometimes above good), but in the latest releases the bad choices and problems are beginning to overwhelm those good traits.
And now announcing more and more games, with so many problems with the current ones, It's like they don't care anymore about the quality or the "game" aspect of adventure games.
Perhaps the problem is growing too fast, trying to take more than it can chew and forgetting about the core aspects of the genre Telltale got back from the grave.
Anyway, I see two possible outcomes:
a) Telltale continues with the same MO, with more people and titles or
b) They make the smart choice and restructure itself (Perhaps two groups/studios, one for adventure games and other for casual/light adventures)
Choice "a" will probably attract new "casual" gamers, but will continue to have the opposite effect on old/core/adventure game enthusiasts. In the long run if the quality (read as "software quality") continues to drop even "casual" gamers will abandon ship.
Choice "b" will probably produce a few flops and internal mayhem, but if done right it may recapture some of us and continue to attract more players.
Regardless, I completely lost interest in new Telltale games since the disappointing BTTF episodes (I tolerated S&M:TDP, but I'm only playing BTTF to complete the game). The only game I might get is PA2, the other announced games, I'll pass.
[/WALL_OF_TEXT]
Programming resources, production resources, publishing, marketing, sales...
Telltale is evolving into a company that not only lets us, the designers, make great story-based stuff but goes out and finds guys who are doing the things that fit with our vision and helps them out, which I think is pretty cool.
Reality check: You aren't making/designing great games. Your portfolio mostly consists of soso to good games with a tendency of getting buggy and worse.
Is it just me, or is this stuff extremely obscure? I guess the fact that I don't read comics doesn't help, but I had never heard of The Walking Dead, Fables, or Hector Badge of Carnage before.
I'd hardly call The Walking Dead "obscure", not since it became a hit television series on AMC.
According to a press release by AMC "The pilot received 5.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched premiere episode of any AMC television series. The first season finale received 6 million viewers, a series high; with 4 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic, making it the most watched basic cable series for the demographic"
The most watched basic cable series for 18-49 (presumably the target audience for a game) is definitely not obscure.
Not the case. If you remember, Puzzle Agent was put out as part of our "Pilot" program. It then went on to do great business on the iPhone and iPad where it was never marketed as episodic. If you go read the reviews folks like the game but wondered what the deal was with the ending (because we never promised or even mentioned more installments). We felt like we couldn't leave them on the hook with another crazy ending again, so we'll be finishing the story in Scoggins, but that doesn't mean Nelson Tethers and the FBI's Department of Puzzle Research goes away.
Jake, Mark, Graham and I are super stoked about how this story wraps up.
Oh, OK. I just assumed that when you said you were concluding the story in Puzzle Agent 2 that that would be it for Nelson Tethers. I guess if you're doing one-offs like Bone, rather then a full season that's a different story.
So are you guys still making pilot games, or is it all just up in the air?
I'd hardly call The Walking Dead "obscure", not since it became a hit television series on AMC.
According to a press release by AMC "The pilot received 5.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched premiere episode of any AMC television series. The first season finale received 6 million viewers, a series high; with 4 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic, making it the most watched basic cable series for the demographic"
The most watched basic cable series for 18-49 (presumably the target audience for a game) is definitely not obscure.
AMC. Basic cable. 5.3 million. When it comes to an IP for a video game, these aren't exactly strong selling points. CSI gets over 70 million viewers every year. Who knows how many hundreds of millions have seen the Back to the Future films. CSI and BttF games do well for Telltale I'm sure, but nothing Earth-shattering. So what is a TV show with only a tiny fraction of that audience going to do for them?
And that's the best IP they have on the table. Fables and Hector are even less significant.
They would have been much better off creating original content than scraping up these lame IPs to base their games on.
This is why we can't have nice things. Are you adventure game fans or Lucasarts fans? If the only things you like from TTG are Monkey Island and S&M, then you don't really like TTG or the stuff they're making, you just like the holdovers from the Lucasarts era.
Yeah, that's what I was conceding. Doesn't mean we necessarily have to like it.
What starts a typical zombie story becomes about the impossible human choices of living during the apocalypse.
*That's* the selling point?!!
In the UK, the main two tv channels tend to try make pathetic stabs at SF. The shopping list goes like this:
1) Think of SF concept, eg everybody in the world dies while you're stuck on a train, or everybody in the world dies and you have to scavenge/run a farm, or everybody's going to die but you know because you're getting visions from the future
2) Say it isn't SF
3) Concentrate on the impossible human choices of living during the apocalypse
4) Call it a 'psychological drama'
5) Get no viewers as they all turn over and watch "Star Trek"
Great news, but I have a REALLY hard time understanding why somebody who has the opportunity to grab a Sierra license would take King's Quest instead of the greatest game series of all time (all genres included): Gabriel Knight. But who knows what happens in the future. It will still be really fun to play a modern version of King's Quest.
I don't have numbers, but I'd bet a large amount of money that the King's Quest games sold significantly better than the GK games and are better known to this day.
Ouch, I'm really disappointed with the announcements. None of the new projects interests me at all.
Is it just me, or is this stuff extremely obscure? I guess the fact that I don't read comics doesn't help, but I had never heard of The Walking Dead, Fables, or Hector Badge of Carnage before. It makes me wonder if there's enough of an audience for these things for the games to sell. I don't think all three combined will generate as much interest as Monkey Island or Back to the Future.
I have of course heard of Kings Quest, but I think it's probably the worst possible choice out of all classic adventure games for TT to resurrect. There are a lot of huge epic fantasy RPG games out now and coming out soon. How hollow and bland will 5 relatively short Kings Quest adventure episodes feel in comparison to a massive 60+ hour fantasy RPG game like Dragon Age 2 or Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? I just don't see how it can be anything but disappointing.
Oh well, see you in a few years Telltale when you get some better ideas.
Walking Dead is unquestionably bigger than any Telltale license before BTTF (and other than CSI). Even if it's just basic cable as you say, the intersection of that audience and internet-savvy gamers who will be the targets is massive. Every internet-savvy gamer knows it, and there's the comic book to add some more on top of that as well.
King's Quest would have been unquestionably bigger than S&M and MI if you had taken the cultural pulse before Telltale's S&M came out. It might still be bigger even now. (Leisure Suit Larry of course leaves this all in the dust).
Hector for me. The first one was hilarous and the new ones will get the same care and attention which telltale no longer deems important.
Ive been following ttg since the mysterious silhouette of Bone appeared on the homepage and bought every game since. I no longer want to play boring, buggy borderline-games. Let me know when you start making adventure games again, my money's going elsewhere
Both the Walking Dead and Fables are well known with the comic book fans which is probably a bigger audience than adventure games at the moment.
Walking Dead is a hit cable show.
And even if Fables itself is not that well know outwith comicdom the chacters in the series are world famous. (Snow White, Prince Charming, The Big Bad Wolf, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella etc etc etc)
So hardly obscure.
It's all a matter of perspective seeing as most of Telltales games would be seen as obscure to the mainstream market.
Telltale games I've played and rate (where 5 is average and 10 is perfect):
Sam and Max Season 1 - 5/10
Sam and Max Season 2 Ep. 1 - 6/10
Puzzle Agent - 6/10
Tales of Monkey Island - 7/10
BTTF Ep. 1 - 5/10
Bone 1 and 2: 3/10
They've come close to the old heights of LucasArts a couple of points in ToMI. That's all. Puzzle Agent was good because it was simple and a GOOD interface, but was let down by the....er.... puzzles, which are the kind I don't like. I'm much more comfortable with Puzzle Agent 2, because I can't see how they can mess that one up.
Go back to making games that are fairly enjoyable to control would be the first thing to do. It's like they're trying to make things harder to do by each game, while dumbing down the puzzles and having big neon signs saying "SOLUTION HERE!" everywhere. Not to mention the big HINT button. Their games make the lite/easy mode in Monkey 2 and CMI look extremely challenging.
That means nothing. Where one gamer is stuck, another breezes through. Very rarely do we see people getting stuck at the exact same point in the old games. It's when that happens when you find that a puzzle is too hard, or badly designed for that matter.
I know I only used help once in MI2, and once in MI1. In MI2, it was how to get the near-grog, and in MI1 it was to get Otis out of jail.
The only puzzles I get stuck on nowadays are what I would call physical puzzles. Things that you normally don't think about doing in an adventure game. Like in ToMI, walking on the rug to gain static electricity. Or in Machinarium, yanking your robot up and down to get the damn bird fall off the wire. For some reason, puzzles like that always gets me. Not because they're particularly hard or clever, but because they're unexpected in games where this kind of puzzles are extremely rare. It never crosses my mind for some reason.
Other than that, I usually get by with a little patience. I remember when adventure games used to last for weeks, or in my case, months (internet didn't "exist" when I played Monkey Island, so I had to wait for the solution in a magazine or something like that, and I only happened upon them by chance), because of getting stuck (and loading times were longer ). I got through the games one step at a time, but nowadays people have too little patience. I'm always shocked that even just a couple of hours after a Telltale episode is released, I see people asking for help get past this and that puzzle. Really? That's not just having very little patience, that's like not knowing the existance of the word patience. I know some people don't have a lot of time to play, but come on!
I saw this even with the childsplay game that is Back To The Future.
See... if a game took me weeks... I'd just not play it. I like to dedicate a few days at most to a game, regardless of genre. Uncharted 2 = 2 days. Sam and Max: The Devil's Playground, three days. Guess it's just preference. I still haven't played BttF so I don't know about that one.
I'm like that right now with the Longest Journey. I've been playing that thing for almost a week now and I'm just getting furious it's taking this long.
It's not uncommon to have two or more games goin at the same time. But the time it took to finish it back then wasn't due to the difficulty, it was due to the solution not being instantly available should you want to use one. There should be challenge, or else it's no longer a game. The whole basic premise of a game is to overcome a challenge by following a set of rules. If there is no challenge, there is no game. Telltale is getting dangerously close to that with the BTTF games.
Or at least let the hint system determine how quickly a player progresses. The hint system should cater for players who want a challenge as well those who dont want to spend more than a few hours per episode. Thinking back to s&ms2 episodes used to get harder as the season progressed, spoon feeding the player less and giving you more freedom. In recent seasons difficulty is all over the place where even the more obscure puzzles can be quickly solved due to the limited ways of interacting with objects, and objects to interact with. I like to feel ive had a part to play in progressing through the story so these game are no longer fun to play
Incase anyone is interested, a more interesting announcement from Amanita Design is coming on the 25th March regarding 2 upcoming games. Heres to Macinarium 2!
Hmm I havent played Machinarium though I've heard it's really good. I need to finish Longest Journey (Motivated) and Runaway (Not Motivated. Voice acting is abysmal) before I do so though.
Gabriel Knight is not better than King's Quest. It's completely different and that's it. Gabriel Knight is a much deeper and more powerful type of story than King's Quest but that doesn't automatically make it better.
Yes it does (this is my extremely subjective opinion ).
I don't have numbers, but I'd bet a large amount of money that the King's Quest games sold significantly better than the GK games and are better known to this day.
I highly doubt there is any significant difference in sales for each individual game, although there are 8 King's Quest games and Gabriel Knight has 3. The popularity is probably eaqual as well, although I'm sure Telltale has a special gameplay idea in mind when choosing KQ.
Hmm I havent played Machinarium though I've heard it's really good. I need to finish Longest Journey (Motivated) and Runaway (Not Motivated. Voice acting is abysmal) before I do so though.
Have fun with the 'peanut butter' puzzle in Runaway. Just remember to take it literally. No, really. You LITERALLY need... Peanut. Butter.
As for the difficulty issue - maybe if there were two difficulties available at the start. So if you're a hardened adventurer you could select 'Veteran', which is the game straight, no hints allowed. And if you're not used to adventures or have trouble with them you can pick 'Rookie', which is like BttF with all the hints available to you should you need them. That way, it wouldn't change the game much nor require that much programming, but it would appease both sides. Just a thought.
Anyway... To be honest, I found myself a little disappointed with the five games announced. The two comic adaptations mean nothing to me since I've never read either comic (or watched the show), the revival of King's Quest is pointless because I was never a fan of the series and its ability to die (which I suspect may be carried over..!), the full 'season' of Puzzle Agent is mildly interesting but doesn't really grab me (and will probably contain the same poorly-worded and somewhat illogical puzzles as the pilot) and Hector: Badge of Carnage is... well, OK, that one looks like it could be fun. But it's one out of five, and really, that's not a great result.
No more Monkey Island? No more Sam & Max? Either would have been fantastic and completely changed my entire opinion of this, but no. Instead we get two 'new' franchises that don't interest me at all, one old franchise that really doesn't interest me, one I don't think will be that great and just the one that actually appeals to me. Seriously, 1/5 is a failing mark.
Still, at least there's Jurassic Park to look forward to.
I'm not exactly broken up over it either, but I was referring to there not being something we all would want as part of the five announced - Sam & Max was an example, while Monkey Island would be another. The lack of one of those is probably the biggest letdown in my eyes.
You know, I'm happy that they're doing stuff I've never heard of (Fables & Hector, and I've only really heard about The Walking Dead since the TV show started) as it gives me a way into something new. For instance I never heard of Homestar Runner until Telltale did SBCG4AP and I liked the game so much I went through the entire HR archive and liked all that too. So while I may not pre-order any of the new stuff getting made (though Puzzle Agent 2 is a guaranteed pre-order for me) I will definitely keep my eye on them.
I am slightly disappointed that there is no news of any possible ToMI sequel but I do realise that that decision is more in LucasArts' hands than Telltale's.
I highly doubt there is any significant difference in sales for each individual game, although there are 8 King's Quest games and Gabriel Knight has 3. The popularity is probably eaqual as well, although I'm sure Telltale has a special gameplay idea in mind when choosing KQ.
I would bet every penny I could get my hands on that KQ5-7 each heavily outsold GK1-3. I would put $5K on it right now if I knew we could get the figures.
You know, I'm happy that they're doing stuff I've never heard of (Fables & Hector, and I've only really heard about The Walking Dead since the TV show started) as it gives me a way into something new. For instance I never heard of Homestar Runner until Telltale did SBCG4AP and I liked the game so much I went through the entire HR archive and liked all that too.
Same:D I didnt know what to expect with walking dead, so I checked it out saying "Ill just read the first few to get the basic plot and go on" That was a few hours ago and Im still reading this:D:D
Reality check: You aren't making/designing great games. Your portfolio mostly consists of soso to good games with a tendency of getting buggy and worse.
I have all of Telltale's games and I've never had a single problem with a bug.
Also, I find it hilarious how some people in here are like, "these announcements suck cause I've never heard of these properties", because apparently there is no way that the games could be totally awesome unless you've heard of what they're about. I mean, Telltale just announced five frickin' games and they're not even done with the two they're already working on, that's amazing in my book. I might as well sell Telltale my apartment.
Yeah I'm almost burned out on Sam & Max for the time being.
I had that feeling between S2 and right into the beginning of S3... I didn't even feel like playing "The Devil's Playhouse"... playing the demo it felt so different and confusing at first... but before the first episode was over, I was hooked again.
On the other hand, ever since finishing "Tales of Monkey Island" I am soooo craving for more of it. But it looks like, I have to stay patient for now.
AMC. Basic cable. 5.3 million. When it comes to an IP for a video game, these aren't exactly strong selling points. CSI gets over 70 million viewers every year. Who knows how many hundreds of millions have seen the Back to the Future films. CSI and BttF games do well for Telltale I'm sure, but nothing Earth-shattering. So what is a TV show with only a tiny fraction of that audience going to do for them?
Don't underestimate the power of a cable viewing audience. Keep in mind that people watching cable are paying money to do so. On average they've got a larger entertainment budget that those watching just broadcast networks. CSI is popular because it's simple, easy to get into, and appeals broadly to a wide audience. Most of AMC's dramas have had more ongoing plots, where the audience is expected to be invested in the show. When it comes to sales of ancillary media, that investment in the world and characters really matters. (Also, there's more overlap with gaming for the geeky audience of a zombie show than with the more mainstream CSI or BttF.)
Think about this. Last night I checked Amazon's bestseller list for TV shows. Of the top 20 titles: 9 are from cable stations, 6 are broadcast networks, 4 are from the UK and one was a direct to DVD kids show. Switch over to Blu-ray (viewers with even more disposable income) and the top 5 shows are all from cable networks, and "The Walking Dead" is number 3 on the list (it's #11 for DVD sales.)
So we've got a show that's a hit with 18-49, is selling comparatively better on Blu-ray than on DVD, is beloved by the press (both comic and television), has been nominated for multiple awards and you're wondering what it can do for TTG? Are you living under a rock?
They would have been much better off creating original content than scraping up these lame IPs to base their games on.
Personally I think that TTG is going to be best off choosing to work on whatever IPs they enjoy the most. Don't confuse a nice audience with no audience. If TTG breaks even on a game, while enjoying their work and refining their craft, that's a huge success in my books.
Most major gaming publishers ride on a few major successes, with most released games actually losing money. I'm really doubting that's the way TTG operates, and I'm glad they're able to pursue the IPs that they're passionate about.
EDIT: I just checked and "Mad Men" was the best selling TV series on iTunes for 2010. "Mad Men" is an AMC show as well, and "The Walking Dead" has surpassed it in ratings. People voting with their wallets are supporting the shows, it's not a stretch to think that they'll be interested in games as well.
I have all of Telltale's games and I've never had a single problem with a bug.
Also, I find it hilarious how some people in here are like, "these announcements suck cause I've never heard of these properties", because apparently there is no way that the games could be totally awesome unless you've heard of what they're about. I mean, Telltale just announced five frickin' games and they're not even done with the two they're already working on, that's amazing in my book. I might as well sell Telltale my apartment.
Yeah, the only bugs I have ever faced in telltale's games are poker nights save bug, and all those sbcg4ap graphical bugs(which I have an album of, link in my sig) and I still love them because I can look past it. Sure I beat BTTF episode 2 on my first playthrough(which is a first by the way, not even episode 1 did that), but that was because I was craving the game and loved it.
Yes harder puzzles would be great
Yes the bugs are terrible and would love it if they actuallyed demo'd the games, I remember during sbcg4ap, they had public a beta where people in california(or are willing to go to california) can demo the game for bugs, what happened to that?
Sure I'm going to hold back on buying most of these games, so telltale DONT think you are fine here please tweak your games more, but I still love telltale and their games for what they are. If I want a great action game, Ill go play Just Cause or Zelda. A little brain teaser(no matter how easy) is good every now and then:D
And I still think telltale could make a decent movie, they are shorter than the average episode, dont require as much writing, no gameplay, and telltale is great with story and everything that makes a movie good.
All of the bugs I ever see look really cool and never break anything. My favorite was in Night of the Raving Dead for the entire game part of Sam's hat was spiking through his body. That or his hand spiking like a cane in the second season 3 game.
Comments
All bitter remarks aside, Puzzle Agent 2 does spark a bit of hope in me. As for the rest...we'll see if those manage to make any impression on me when more material surfaces.
Is it just me, or is this stuff extremely obscure? I guess the fact that I don't read comics doesn't help, but I had never heard of The Walking Dead, Fables, or Hector Badge of Carnage before. It makes me wonder if there's enough of an audience for these things for the games to sell. I don't think all three combined will generate as much interest as Monkey Island or Back to the Future.
I have of course heard of Kings Quest, but I think it's probably the worst possible choice out of all classic adventure games for TT to resurrect. There are a lot of huge epic fantasy RPG games out now and coming out soon. How hollow and bland will 5 relatively short Kings Quest adventure episodes feel in comparison to a massive 60+ hour fantasy RPG game like Dragon Age 2 or Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? I just don't see how it can be anything but disappointing.
Oh well, see you in a few years Telltale when you get some better ideas.
It's been a long road, a trip with highs and lows but now I know that the company I knew and loved is gone for sure.
Now it seems Telltale is becoming nothing more than a Game Factory, churning out half baked games: Bug infested, uninteresting gameplay and nothing more than short interactive movies.
The sad thing is at the core they have good stuff going on: story, voice work and music are constantly good (sometimes above good), but in the latest releases the bad choices and problems are beginning to overwhelm those good traits.
And now announcing more and more games, with so many problems with the current ones, It's like they don't care anymore about the quality or the "game" aspect of adventure games.
Perhaps the problem is growing too fast, trying to take more than it can chew and forgetting about the core aspects of the genre Telltale got back from the grave.
Anyway, I see two possible outcomes:
a) Telltale continues with the same MO, with more people and titles or
b) They make the smart choice and restructure itself (Perhaps two groups/studios, one for adventure games and other for casual/light adventures)
Choice "a" will probably attract new "casual" gamers, but will continue to have the opposite effect on old/core/adventure game enthusiasts. In the long run if the quality (read as "software quality") continues to drop even "casual" gamers will abandon ship.
Choice "b" will probably produce a few flops and internal mayhem, but if done right it may recapture some of us and continue to attract more players.
Regardless, I completely lost interest in new Telltale games since the disappointing BTTF episodes (I tolerated S&M:TDP, but I'm only playing BTTF to complete the game). The only game I might get is PA2, the other announced games, I'll pass.
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Reality check: You aren't making/designing great games. Your portfolio mostly consists of soso to good games with a tendency of getting buggy and worse.
I'd hardly call The Walking Dead "obscure", not since it became a hit television series on AMC.
According to a press release by AMC "The pilot received 5.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched premiere episode of any AMC television series. The first season finale received 6 million viewers, a series high; with 4 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic, making it the most watched basic cable series for the demographic"
The most watched basic cable series for 18-49 (presumably the target audience for a game) is definitely not obscure.
Oh, OK. I just assumed that when you said you were concluding the story in Puzzle Agent 2 that that would be it for Nelson Tethers. I guess if you're doing one-offs like Bone, rather then a full season that's a different story.
So are you guys still making pilot games, or is it all just up in the air?
AMC. Basic cable. 5.3 million. When it comes to an IP for a video game, these aren't exactly strong selling points. CSI gets over 70 million viewers every year. Who knows how many hundreds of millions have seen the Back to the Future films. CSI and BttF games do well for Telltale I'm sure, but nothing Earth-shattering. So what is a TV show with only a tiny fraction of that audience going to do for them?
And that's the best IP they have on the table. Fables and Hector are even less significant.
They would have been much better off creating original content than scraping up these lame IPs to base their games on.
Yeah, that's what I was conceding. Doesn't mean we necessarily have to like it.
*That's* the selling point?!!
In the UK, the main two tv channels tend to try make pathetic stabs at SF. The shopping list goes like this:
1) Think of SF concept, eg everybody in the world dies while you're stuck on a train, or everybody in the world dies and you have to scavenge/run a farm, or everybody's going to die but you know because you're getting visions from the future
2) Say it isn't SF
3) Concentrate on the impossible human choices of living during the apocalypse
4) Call it a 'psychological drama'
5) Get no viewers as they all turn over and watch "Star Trek"
And could, y'know, somebody pilot another "Sam & Max" game? We only need one episode here and there, just to keep us going....
I don't have numbers, but I'd bet a large amount of money that the King's Quest games sold significantly better than the GK games and are better known to this day.
Walking Dead is unquestionably bigger than any Telltale license before BTTF (and other than CSI). Even if it's just basic cable as you say, the intersection of that audience and internet-savvy gamers who will be the targets is massive. Every internet-savvy gamer knows it, and there's the comic book to add some more on top of that as well.
King's Quest would have been unquestionably bigger than S&M and MI if you had taken the cultural pulse before Telltale's S&M came out. It might still be bigger even now. (Leisure Suit Larry of course leaves this all in the dust).
Ive been following ttg since the mysterious silhouette of Bone appeared on the homepage and bought every game since. I no longer want to play boring, buggy borderline-games. Let me know when you start making adventure games again, my money's going elsewhere
Walking Dead is a hit cable show.
And even if Fables itself is not that well know outwith comicdom the chacters in the series are world famous. (Snow White, Prince Charming, The Big Bad Wolf, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella etc etc etc)
So hardly obscure.
It's all a matter of perspective seeing as most of Telltales games would be seen as obscure to the mainstream market.
Sam and Max Season 1 - 5/10
Sam and Max Season 2 Ep. 1 - 6/10
Puzzle Agent - 6/10
Tales of Monkey Island - 7/10
BTTF Ep. 1 - 5/10
Bone 1 and 2: 3/10
They've come close to the old heights of LucasArts a couple of points in ToMI. That's all. Puzzle Agent was good because it was simple and a GOOD interface, but was let down by the....er.... puzzles, which are the kind I don't like. I'm much more comfortable with Puzzle Agent 2, because I can't see how they can mess that one up.
I know I only used help once in MI2, and once in MI1. In MI2, it was how to get the near-grog, and in MI1 it was to get Otis out of jail.
The only puzzles I get stuck on nowadays are what I would call physical puzzles. Things that you normally don't think about doing in an adventure game. Like in ToMI, walking on the rug to gain static electricity. Or in Machinarium, yanking your robot up and down to get the damn bird fall off the wire. For some reason, puzzles like that always gets me. Not because they're particularly hard or clever, but because they're unexpected in games where this kind of puzzles are extremely rare. It never crosses my mind for some reason.
Other than that, I usually get by with a little patience. I remember when adventure games used to last for weeks, or in my case, months (internet didn't "exist" when I played Monkey Island, so I had to wait for the solution in a magazine or something like that, and I only happened upon them by chance), because of getting stuck (and loading times were longer
I saw this even with the childsplay game that is Back To The Future.
I'm like that right now with the Longest Journey. I've been playing that thing for almost a week now and I'm just getting furious it's taking this long.
Incase anyone is interested, a more interesting announcement from Amanita Design is coming on the 25th March regarding 2 upcoming games. Heres to Macinarium 2!
Yes it does (this is my extremely subjective opinion
I highly doubt there is any significant difference in sales for each individual game, although there are 8 King's Quest games and Gabriel Knight has 3. The popularity is probably eaqual as well, although I'm sure Telltale has a special gameplay idea in mind when choosing KQ.
As for the difficulty issue - maybe if there were two difficulties available at the start. So if you're a hardened adventurer you could select 'Veteran', which is the game straight, no hints allowed. And if you're not used to adventures or have trouble with them you can pick 'Rookie', which is like BttF with all the hints available to you should you need them. That way, it wouldn't change the game much nor require that much programming, but it would appease both sides. Just a thought.
Anyway... To be honest, I found myself a little disappointed with the five games announced. The two comic adaptations mean nothing to me since I've never read either comic (or watched the show), the revival of King's Quest is pointless because I was never a fan of the series and its ability to die (which I suspect may be carried over..!), the full 'season' of Puzzle Agent is mildly interesting but doesn't really grab me (and will probably contain the same poorly-worded and somewhat illogical puzzles as the pilot) and Hector: Badge of Carnage is... well, OK, that one looks like it could be fun. But it's one out of five, and really, that's not a great result.
No more Monkey Island? No more Sam & Max? Either would have been fantastic and completely changed my entire opinion of this, but no. Instead we get two 'new' franchises that don't interest me at all, one old franchise that really doesn't interest me, one I don't think will be that great and just the one that actually appeals to me. Seriously, 1/5 is a failing mark.
Still, at least there's Jurassic Park to look forward to.
And no, King's Quest does not count.
I am slightly disappointed that there is no news of any possible ToMI sequel but I do realise that that decision is more in LucasArts' hands than Telltale's.
I would bet every penny I could get my hands on that KQ5-7 each heavily outsold GK1-3. I would put $5K on it right now if I knew we could get the figures.
Same:D I didnt know what to expect with walking dead, so I checked it out saying "Ill just read the first few to get the basic plot and go on" That was a few hours ago and Im still reading this:D:D
So tomarow I'll check out fables.
Yeah I'm almost burned out on Sam & Max for the time being.
I have all of Telltale's games and I've never had a single problem with a bug.
Also, I find it hilarious how some people in here are like, "these announcements suck cause I've never heard of these properties", because apparently there is no way that the games could be totally awesome unless you've heard of what they're about. I mean, Telltale just announced five frickin' games and they're not even done with the two they're already working on, that's amazing in my book. I might as well sell Telltale my apartment.
I had that feeling between S2 and right into the beginning of S3... I didn't even feel like playing "The Devil's Playhouse"... playing the demo it felt so different and confusing at first... but before the first episode was over, I was hooked again.
On the other hand, ever since finishing "Tales of Monkey Island" I am soooo craving for more of it. But it looks like, I have to stay patient for now.
Don't underestimate the power of a cable viewing audience. Keep in mind that people watching cable are paying money to do so. On average they've got a larger entertainment budget that those watching just broadcast networks. CSI is popular because it's simple, easy to get into, and appeals broadly to a wide audience. Most of AMC's dramas have had more ongoing plots, where the audience is expected to be invested in the show. When it comes to sales of ancillary media, that investment in the world and characters really matters. (Also, there's more overlap with gaming for the geeky audience of a zombie show than with the more mainstream CSI or BttF.)
Think about this. Last night I checked Amazon's bestseller list for TV shows. Of the top 20 titles: 9 are from cable stations, 6 are broadcast networks, 4 are from the UK and one was a direct to DVD kids show. Switch over to Blu-ray (viewers with even more disposable income) and the top 5 shows are all from cable networks, and "The Walking Dead" is number 3 on the list (it's #11 for DVD sales.)
So we've got a show that's a hit with 18-49, is selling comparatively better on Blu-ray than on DVD, is beloved by the press (both comic and television), has been nominated for multiple awards and you're wondering what it can do for TTG? Are you living under a rock?
Personally I think that TTG is going to be best off choosing to work on whatever IPs they enjoy the most. Don't confuse a nice audience with no audience. If TTG breaks even on a game, while enjoying their work and refining their craft, that's a huge success in my books.
Most major gaming publishers ride on a few major successes, with most released games actually losing money. I'm really doubting that's the way TTG operates, and I'm glad they're able to pursue the IPs that they're passionate about.
EDIT: I just checked and "Mad Men" was the best selling TV series on iTunes for 2010. "Mad Men" is an AMC show as well, and "The Walking Dead" has surpassed it in ratings. People voting with their wallets are supporting the shows, it's not a stretch to think that they'll be interested in games as well.
Yeah, the only bugs I have ever faced in telltale's games are poker nights save bug, and all those sbcg4ap graphical bugs(which I have an album of, link in my sig) and I still love them because I can look past it. Sure I beat BTTF episode 2 on my first playthrough(which is a first by the way, not even episode 1 did that), but that was because I was craving the game and loved it.
Yes harder puzzles would be great
Yes the bugs are terrible and would love it if they actuallyed demo'd the games, I remember during sbcg4ap, they had public a beta where people in california(or are willing to go to california) can demo the game for bugs, what happened to that?
Sure I'm going to hold back on buying most of these games, so telltale DONT think you are fine here please tweak your games more, but I still love telltale and their games for what they are. If I want a great action game, Ill go play Just Cause or Zelda. A little brain teaser(no matter how easy) is good every now and then:D
And I still think telltale could make a decent movie, they are shorter than the average episode, dont require as much writing, no gameplay, and telltale is great with story and everything that makes a movie good.