Slashdot Mirror
Sam And Max Developer Funded to Make 'Bone'
Next Generation reports that Telltale games, the current developer of the Sam and Max sequel, has been given $825,000 in a new round of funding. From the article: "Telltale CEO Dan Connors said, 'With our first titles based on Jeff Smith's popular comic books [Bone], Telltale is releasing accessible, innovative, interactive stories for the masses. This expansion funding gives us the ability to move even more aggressively in key areas of our business and further accelerate our company's strategy and growth.'"
The Bone series was excellent, and could translate into a wonderful line of games.
The old Sam & Max video game was one of my all-time favorites, and if they can make a Bone game even half as good as that, I'll defeinitely be buying it.
That can only be a good thing. All I want to see, is Sam and Max make a return to gaming in the correct way - by starring in a game that befits their status.
My fingers are crossed that Telltale are the guys for the job...
My Mind Is Rewired. Is Yours?
Funny, I'm recording the dialog for Bone 2 right as I read this!
Jory
http://studio.jory.org/
Jory
I for one can't wait for the new Sam & Max game. It's been far too long. Glad to see that development hasn't completely died yet.
It would seem that Telltale games is releasing games in an 'episodic' format, which conveniently makes them more money. I can only assume the same will apply to their Sam and Max game, which can surely only be a bad thing.
As long as its not made by Phone Bone Inc I'm sure it will all turn out great! There be dragons...
kin242.net
I'm guessing you've never worked for a small developer. This isn't exactly EA.
Jory
if it results in a game where you take one character dip him in water and smush his face in a electrical panel to get to the next segment.....
I am so all over that game....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Steve Purcell has created some interesting interactive online comics on their site at:
a link=8367058FE9CC052C2FEB69468A83EE4C.txt
http://www.telltalegames.com/comics/samnmax/?perm
Fairly entertaining, but only a few pages so far. He doesn't seem to have lost much of his sense of humor after all these years.
On a related note - I checked ebay recently. Steve Purcell's comics have become surprisingly valuable - found out my copy of "Sam & Max: Surfing the Highway" is worth hundreds. I'm keeping it though - it's the one comic I own, and it's worth the humor.
Personally, I think it would be great if they could Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson to reprise their roles. The voices in the cartoon were okay, but still couldn't measure up to the Lucasarts game.
"Space is what I need, what I feed on..."
Quiche++?
This isn't exactly EA.
Thank heavens for that. *shudder*
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
And even though I couldn't afford to buy into continuing the game, I can say it's definitely worth playing. Great voice acting, good amount of interactive material, overall a good game from the sampler alone.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
It still doesn't excuse silly verbiage. Why couldn't he say in human-tongue, "With this money, we're going to make some awesome, interactive games, we're going to nail some key areas of our business, and we're going to do all of that faster than before."
I guess this is not going to be a game for us geeky folk.
On se Internetz nobody noes your German.
I keep that one aroud, just to see the beautiful 'bike fighting' sequence. Easily one of my favorite games of all time. Then there's the fun way Ben talks.
How great was my joy when I learned they were making a sequel. How great my disappointment when I learned the sequel had been cancelled.
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.
You should know, first off, that I am an adventure gamer. Most other games don't pique my interest, but I've been a longtime Sierra Online & LucasArts adventure game fan, beginning way back with the Infocom text adventures and through all the Space Quest series and more.
So, when the folks who founded Telltale were let go from their projects at LucasArts, I was thrilled to see they were striking out on their own and made it a goal to be working on their new projects.
Last year, we did sound for Bone: Out from Boneville and a CSI game Telltale produced for Ubisoft (which will be shipping very shortly). The writing has been excellent all the way through. The actors we are using are all top-notch. And the company's goals really are on making adventure games that people want. Bone: The Great Cow Race has been in dialog production for about 2.5 weeks (and we wrap up tomorrow) and has, again, been very high quality.
The game is funny. It is clever. It is true to the comic book. And I think adventure gamers like me will love it. (I know that I'm eager to play it!)
Jory
It still doesn't excuse silly verbiage. Why couldn't he say in human-tongue, "With this money, we're going to make some awesome, interactive games, we're going to nail some key areas of our business, and we're going to do all of that faster than before."
He probably did and the PR folks changed it around to be more sellable. Having run my own business for a while now, being casual is nice, but it's not always appropriate for press releases.
Jory
Games like DOTT, Monkey Island and Sam and Max were so much fun, and I never felt that Doom came close to providing that level of enjoyment.
I realise that many people prefer FPS but are there really so few Sam and Max (resisting the opportunity to abbreviate it) fans out there?
Breakfast served all day!
As the old saying goes, they don't make them like this anymore. Didn't you notice how games have become so boringly serious since the eve of "realistic 3D" everything ? At least, cartoon characters had to rely on humor to be entertaining. I miss them all, Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, BASS, Day of the tentacles (what a game... I spent an enormous amount of time on this one, really, it was huge!). Give us back the fun !
This expansion funding gives us the ability to move even more aggressively in key areas of our business and further accelerate our company's strategy and growth.
Schmmock schmock schmock schmock schmock schmock schmockity schmock schmock schmock schmock schmockly schmock schmock schmock schmock schmock business anf schmock schmock schmock's schmock schmock schmock.
I'm glad they got money, bu jesus, this is like scraping my brain with sandpaper. Please speak English about what you;re actually doing, we're happy about it.
Perhaps Telltale can use some of that money to hire voice talent that doesn't suck donkey balls for the next few installments of the game. The Bone siblings were OK, but everyone else was mostly shit. Mostly.
I really enjoyed the graphics, sound, etc. on the first game, but for $20, it took maybe an hour to finish and the play wasn't that interesting - definately not worth paying that much for each chapter. I hope that additional chapters will be cheaper, or I'm pretty sure they won't be getting my money.
can't wait. Not entirely sure what "Bone" is thou... Sam and Max is a classic, and LucasArts were fools to let it drop. Lets hope the new guys can do it justice.
I want to play more adventure games, Monkey Island 3 was excellent, Myst, even Zork Nemesis, I was disappointed when Sam and Max got cancelled.
I kind of expect them all to move to web based games though, because then the game engine can stay on the server and so piracy stops being a problem and distribution cost drops to pennies. Rather than these $40-$70 shiny boxes with big expensive printed colour manuals on retail shelves.
Succulent little bone creatures, marbled in fat?
Phoney was primarily a con man - that isn't too far removed from a marketspeaking CEO, though.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
I have no idea if this game is related in any way, though.
The Telltale Sam & Max title will be completely new and different. While part of the time came from the LucasArts Sam & Max team, many others worked on other projects either at LucasArts or other game companies.
Jory
In addition to "nice", I'd add "effective". I see what you're saying, but I can't believe the vacuous chain of buzzwords will impress a useful audience. My take is that the PR folks aren't doing their job here.