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Telltale Bags $6 Million in Funding
Telltale Games, makers of the recent Sam and Max episodic series of adventure games, has announced that they've gotten ahold of $6 million in funding. GamesIndustry.biz references the press release, which states that a San Francisco-based venture capitalist firm took the plunge ... apparently based on the power of the digital distribution methodology. Telltale's CEO and co-founder Dan Connors said, "This funding will allow us to stay on the cutting edge of innovation by building out our team and our tools, and by taking on new licenses for the episodic treatment ... Telltale has it all-a great group of people who are changing an industry while doing what they love," said Granite Ventures managing director Chris Hollenback, who has now joined Telltale's board of directors." Considering that a year ago no one was sure if the Sam and Max games would work in this format, I think this is telling about the future of games and digital distribution.
Dear Republican Scum:
You fools owe the liberals for everything you have. The great achievements in human history were all done by liberals. In fact, conservatives fought these liberals, because conservatives are for the "status quo." Liberals are all about growing in new directions.
We liberals said the Earth was round. You didn't believe us. We said the Earth was not the center of the universe. You excommunicated us. We said there were dinosaurs. You said it was a hoax. We said there were cavemen. You still don't have an answer for that one. We liberals said women and blacks deserved to be equal members of society. You conservatives fought us, and killed many of us.
We are the great painters, comedians, writers, playwrights, poets, songwriters, scientists, and lovers. Name me one conservative legend in human history who was regarded as a good person. Just one. You can't, can you?
There are no conservative Mozarts - only Salieris. We had MLK. You had Bull Connor. We had Picasso, Warhol, Dali, Da Vinci, Michelangelo. You would have hung a few of these guys for being gay. Where are your artists? You have nothing. No artists. Because you conservatives are not creators. You are destroyers.
All of Silicon Valley and most of Wall Street is center-left liberals and progressives. The blue states in this country account for most of the country's wealth. We have Harvard and the Ivy League. Where are the great conservative colleges? University of Texas? Name the great cities of the world that are known for being conservative? London, Paris, Rome? Anyone?
You conservatives have been a drag on human development since the very beginning. Since Cain (the conservative, always trying to please Daddy) and Abel (the good son, the open-minded son). When you conservatives ruled the world, you hijacked Christianity and turned it into a ritualistic mega-church with a standing army. You massacred millions. There is a reason why that era was called the Dark Ages.
We liberals countered with the Enlightenment. The Renaissance. It is a fact that all the writers, all the artists, all the great men to come from this era were liberals. Many were seen as enemies of the Church and State. But as always, we liberals brought you conservative fools out of the darkness. We dragged you out, kicking and screaming, as usual.
We showed you the wonders of evolution, of science, and you hate us. We are showing you the miracle of stem cell research, the promise that it has, and you want to shut it down. We have showed you the dangers of global warming, whether it's man made or not - and you still refuse to believe.
We tried to free the slaves. And you fought us. We crafted the world you Republicans live in. Your 40 hour work week, getting paid for overtime, no child labor, Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid... We created all of it. We created the very world you live in. The art you see, the movies you love, words on the page that stir your heart. And still you fight us.
You Republican fools would let a simple TV ad stop you from purchasing a product that would probably benefit you. As usual, you cut off your nose to spite your face. Typical. But completely expected. After all, when your heroes are Hannity and Limbaugh and Beck, you must live a sad, hateful life. Anti-everything that makes sense - and pro-everything that doesn't make sense.
I guess that's why you fools support this war, even though it makes us less safe. We're fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here! Genius.
So, continue to hate the liberals and progressives among you. Just be sure to step out of the way as we lead humanity into this next century.
Oh, and hate Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak - two of the people responsible for you even typing on your computer. By the way, they're both big-time liberals.
Love,
Mac users
This is great news! I love the Sam and Max episodes that they've done and I can't wait to get my Season 1 DVD. Having been a computer gamer since the days of the Atari 2600, Telltale is just proving once again that a small company that makes games for the love of making games can be just as good if not better than an international, gaming mega-corporation that shoves the same crap down our throats year after year trying their best to milk a sports franchise.
;)
Congrats, Telltale! Now, if you could get into talks with Ron Gilbert and bring back a certain pirate franchise that was also under LucasArts' wings, that would be even better!
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
The thing I liked about the new Sam and Max games was that they were ACTUALLY episodic, as opposed to HL2 "episodes," which have taken over a year each, or SiN Episodes of which there was one. I hope TellTale sticks to the episodic content model for their next project because they seem to handle it well - After this project, I'm sure they've become more used to the different schedule demands of periodically producing content rather than one big push.
I can't imagine a group of developers that deserves it more. Good luck with the infusion, guys!
The ______ Agenda
I've pirated all your Sam & Max episodes, but they're still good stuff. Best wishes to you and Demonoid for the future!
From the official press release: "Funds will be used for new titles, expansion to additional hardware platforms, and additional staff"
Which additional hardware platforms is a bit early to speculate on (and only one of their goals), but I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking into the Wii and/or Mac.
I wish I could get the recent Sam & Max to run under WINE. But, you know what? They're good enough to justify keeping a Windows image around.
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Dislike our episodic content producing companies.
It reminds me too much of x-files, lost and prison break, where you will not get a coherent and planned out product, but a " Let's throw it against the wall and hope it sticks" formula, where more stuff will be thrown if something will stick.
I DO like the concept of downloadable games tough. But only when they're 'full' games. Only thing holding me back is my disliking of credit cards, which is probably a cultural thing (Europe).
I think they've all but confirmed that Sam & Max will come to the Wii. I'm happy!
Also, the DS is turning out to be a great platform for Adventure lovers. And to think, after all these years, our favourite genre is having a bona fide revival! :-D
The issue with TV series like Lost, Heroes or Prison Break is that the creators never know how long their series is going to run. So they have to start out with a story that could go anywhere from one season (or even less) to pretty much an infinite number of seasons, and could at all times provide some kind of satisfactory ending if the show should be cancelled. Which leads to meandering plots that never quite go anywhere and are always ready to end at a moment's notice.
24 and Dexter get around this by having a fresh story each season, so they only ever have to plan a fixed number of episodes ahead.
As long as games stick to "24 style" episodic content, where each season provides a finished story line, I have absolutely no issues with episodic content.