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Could TellTale Games revive the Junior Adventure?

JuniorAdventurerJuniorAdventurer
edited September 2011 in General Chat
Before you get all "what the heck are you talking about" at me, I'm just going to provide a bit of info.

Humongous Entertainment was a company founded in 1992 by Ron Gilbert (yes, THAT Ron Gilbert) when he left LucasArts after finishing Monkey Island 2. This company created several series of point and click games for children, collectively titled "Junior Adventures", with iconic characters such as Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, and Freddi Fish. Later they created the massively popular Backyard Sports franchise. As well as being the company many of today's TTG employees made their name at (chief among them being Dave Grossman), Humongous has a large fanbase of their original audience, some of them in their early 20's, still playing their games anywhere from on occasion to almost religiously. Obviously that was the short version, so I'm going to link you to a more robust article here.

With my little spiel done, I want to say this. The games made by Humongous Entertainment are still relevant and play as well today as they did more than 10 years ago. The games made by this company are now owned by Atari, but their treatment of the titles has been... less than satisfactory. They tried their hand at matching the success of the original games in 2003, but anyone can tell you that these games were much lower quality in every aspect. They have since resorted to re-releasing their most popular adventures every few years, with a more recent port to the Nintendo Wii. What I'm getting at is that, since many of the former staff of Humongous Entertainment are now at TTG, it would be wonderful if TTG were able to pull some strings and make some new games based off of these great adventures. Many will say that there is no possible way that this could be done, and that there is no money in kids' games anymore. Keep in mind, though, that the quirky sense of humor and likable characters found in the old Humongous games are able to appeal to even adults. Parents, for example, could often be found playing the games after their child's bedtime.
All I'm saying is that a lot of people would be very happy that somebody is giving a shot at reviving the games that made up their childhood. I'd like to hear anybody's thoughts on this subject, and if any of the staff at TTG are reading this, feel free to comment on this idea as well.

Comments

  • RibsRibs
    edited September 2011
    With regards to actual License's, I think it either belongs to HE who will not do anything with it or Ron Gilbert has them and therefore Double Fine has them.
  • Rather DashingRather Dashing
    edited September 2011
    Telltale is already going above and beyond Humongous in terms of making games for children. Titles like Back to the Future don't even require that you have any idea what's going on to continue, as long as you can grasp the concept that clicking the largest and often only thing on screen is a good idea. Much of Back to the Future can be completed without LANGUAGE skills, and only really requires sufficient motor skills to move a pointer and click.
  • RibsRibs
    edited September 2011
    Rather Dashing wrote: »
    Telltale is already going above and beyond Humongous in terms of making games for children. Titles like Back to the Future don't even require that you have any idea what's going on to continue, as long as you can grasp the concept that clicking the largest and often only thing on screen is a good idea.

    Oh, you didn't like Back to the Future? Hm. News to me.
  • DaviesDavies
    edited September 2011
    The real question is 'can Telltale Games revive the dead to amass an unstoppable army of zombies'?!

    Seriously, this question needs to be brought forth in Parliament, before it's too late.
  • StrongBrush1StrongBrush1
    edited September 2011
    Rather Dashing wrote: »
    Telltale is already going above and beyond Humongous in terms of making games for children. Titles like Back to the Future don't even require that you have any idea what's going on to continue, as long as you can grasp the concept that clicking the largest and often only thing on screen is a good idea. Much of Back to the Future can be completed without LANGUAGE skills, and only really requires sufficient motor skills to move a pointer and click.

    What's this? A smartass remark from Rather Dashing involving his distaste for the Back to the Future game? I never would have thought it!
  • caeskacaeska
    edited September 2011
    *resists urge to beat the dead horse*
  • DaviesDavies
    edited September 2011
    caeska wrote: »
    *resists urge to beat the dead horse*

    Perhaps Telltale could revive that dead horse, so that it could be beaten to death anew.
  • LuigiHannLuigiHann
    edited September 2011
    Rather Dashing wrote: »
    Telltale is already going above and beyond Humongous in terms of making games for children. Titles like Back to the Future don't even require that you have any idea what's going on to continue, as long as you can grasp the concept that clicking the largest and often only thing on screen is a good idea. Much of Back to the Future can be completed without LANGUAGE skills, and only really requires sufficient motor skills to move a pointer and click.

    I actually do think that BTTF is interestingly relevant to this thread. If Telltale decides to make another game with a difficulty level similar to BTTF's, I think they genuinely would benefit from looking at the level of interactivity in the Humongous games. Almost everything you see in a Humongous game can be interacted with, and most of them just trigger fun little animations. The character doesn't even touch most of them, you just click on a stovepipe and bubbles come out, or you click on a tree and a squirrel runs around it, and stuff like that. The fun thing is you can usually click on several things in a row and the animations will all play at the same time. It's quite pleasant. And while that sort of thing might seem out of place in the BTTF universe, I think it would work in an "interactive storybook" kind of way if clicking on stuff just made it do something random, rather than just having most things be unclickable. Brings a bit more life to the world.

    I don't think there's any sense or any need for Telltale to license specific Humongous properties, but I do think that if they are going to go out of their way to make super-accessible games then it makes sense to include virtual toys that appeal to kids of all ages.
  • RAnthonyMahanRAnthonyMahan
    edited September 2011
    Rather Dashing wrote: »
    Telltale is already going above and beyond Humongous in terms of making games for children. Titles like Back to the Future don't even require that you have any idea what's going on to continue, as long as you can grasp the concept that clicking the largest and often only thing on screen is a good idea. Much of Back to the Future can be completed without LANGUAGE skills, and only really requires sufficient motor skills to move a pointer and click.

    I feel like if Telltale ended up curing cancer, Dashing would immediately be on the forums going "You know what disease Telltale should've cured? How easy BttF was!"

    Anyway, seeing the return of the old Humongous Entertainment games would be nice. (I'm nostalgia-ing pretty hard just thinking about them.) I doubt Atari would be willing to loan out the license, though. Then again, I once thought Activision would never do anything with King's Quest...
  • PecanBluePecanBlue
    edited September 2011
    Are you guys really sure you want this terror of a ridiculously catchy song come to life again in the hearts of many children?

    Answer: Yes
  • LuigiHannLuigiHann
    edited September 2011
    PecanBlue wrote: »
    Are you guys really sure you want this terror of a ridiculously catchy song come to life again in the hearts of many children?

    Answer: Yes

    OH GOD NO

    It's all coming back to me now

    I closed the video after one second but it's too late, the song is playing in my mind from memory
  • DrRocketGeniusDrRocketGenius
    edited September 2011
    Davies wrote: »
    Perhaps Telltale could revive that dead horse, so that it could be beaten to death anew.

    ...I laughed way to hard at that. Way to go.
    PecanBlue wrote: »
    Are you guys really sure you want this terror of a ridiculously catchy song come to life again in the hearts of many children?

    Answer: Yes

    OH GOD I REMEMBER THAT
  • DaviesDavies
    edited September 2011
    PecanBlue wrote: »
    Are you guys really sure you want this terror of a ridiculously catchy song come to life again in the hearts of many children?

    Answer: Yes

    Oh, for the love of God up above; turn it off...
    ed_shot07.jpg
    "Shut it off!"

    foto5ii8.jpg
    "Arghhh, shut it offfff..."

    q-bert.jpg
    "Shhuuttttttt itt..." *BONK*

    censored.png
    "Gooble gobble, *#$@."

    929.jpg
    "Regular service shall be remused presently."

    In the mean time, here's some relaxing muzak for your listening pleasure...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0AzWLc6Js

    SYSTEMS REBOOTING...
    [hangover recovery programme initiated]
    SICK MODULE BOOTED
    HEAVE IN...
    3..
    2..
    1...
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