A question about the relationship between S&M(the IP) and telltale games

Unknown

I was wondering if telltale games was in a situation to consider buying what I understand is a finished game, the SM2 adventure game, since Lucasarts appears to have left it.

And if they are capable of doing so, I wanted to ask them to consider it. Lucasarts may have disregarded it, but I know I wasn't the only one really excited about it.

I know telltale games want to produce episodic titles due to time constraints, fund constraints, etc... but digital distribution seems like a viable way to release it, even if it is larger than an episode of a game.

I hope I'm not out of some sort of line I'm not aware of here.

Unknown

I think the problems with Lucasarts all along has been their complete and utter refusal to consider any suggestion of selling their IP, even for series that haven't been developed in years, and are unlikely to ever see the light of day again, considering their "dedication" to the Star Wars franchise...

Its a godsend that the rights to the Sam & Max characters have finally been wrestled from the iron grip of Lucasarts - I think in this case, those rights were never fully owned by Lucasarts, and their temporary ownership just expired, and went back to Steve Purcell as the creator... (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this )

I don't think Telltale's decision to produce episodic games is due entirely to time and financial constraints - that may have factored into the equation on some level, but it is more an experiment into a more effective working process and method of distribution.

From a working environment standpoint, most bigger budget games involve a horribly long and unpleasant crunch-time before release, and this only serves to make employees lives hell, and inevitably affect the quality that might otherwise be achieved. With less epic-scale episodic release, the turnaround and quality could potentially be more consistent, and the people making the games are less likely to lose enthusiasm for their work.

It also begins to mimic the proven sales pattern of many mmorpgs to some extent. From a business standpoint - its going to be preferable to have a steady source of income as opposed to an occasional lump-sum.

Udvarnoky

It's possible that LucasArts is unwilling to sell the resources to Freelance Police (they still own all the stuff to the game, just not the license to the characters). That and Telltale may want to start anew.

jp-30

In the adventuregamers.com Sam & Max / Telltale announcement (or in the forums discussing the story) they did mention that the story in Freelance Police was Purcell's. Which means we will probably see bits and pieces of the plot or particular sequences from the LucasArts game recreated in the Telltale episodes.

Unknown

ah, well. I was just hoping somehow we'd get a S&M game now AND later when TTG makes theirs. It was a nice dream

How close to being done was Freelance Police anyway?

jp-30

Reports have varied from ~65% to 90%. But quite what it means to have a game "90%" done is anyone's guess. It's unlikey that you could play through 90% of the game.

It possibly means the story was written, the characters, textures & locations were built, voiceovers recorded and the actual gameplay was still being worked on.

Unknown

well thanks for clarifying that. Frankly, I didn't know it was even as low as 90%