Like XSEED, Telltale Games only had one game to show us this year at E3, but we begrudge them not for it; they still had plenty to talk about. Telltale is very proud of the work it’s been doing, pioneering a downloadable, episodic model of games and doing it correctly, as well as being able to work with such well-known properties as Strong Bad and Wallace and Gromit. They’re so proud, in fact, that they offered everybody present at the meeting free copies of Sam & Max Season One and Season Two, as well as a Sam & Max comic book collection, thus winning them the E3 Swag Award forever and ever. It should be noted that a third season is on the way, as well.
The new series that Telltale is working with, as was announced right as E3 began, is Tales of Monkey Island. As it turns out, many Telltale employees have experience working on the Monkey Island games, being alums of the adventure game division of LucasArts; it was only recently, though, that they got permission to work with the license again. The games, as is the norm, will be arriving once a month; this was apparently a bit of a tricky decision to come to, since they wanted the game to have an epic scope and overarching storyline for all five episodes of this season. They ended up going with smaller sub-plots within a larger story, and they warn that the games probably should not be played out of order.
Our protagonist, Guybrush Threepwood, finds himself stranded on Flotsam Island with a rather nasty voodoo infection in his hand. With the helpful guidance of a strange voodoo lady, he’ll have to find a way off of Flotsam Island in the first episode. A ship exists on the island, built by the washed-ashore pirate inhabitants, and they like to take turns seizing it from each other to pass the time; this is your only ticket off the island, it seems. Once you get off it and complete the first episode, you’ll continue on your quest to find the Sponge Grande so it can clean up the massive voodoo spill in the ocean over the course of the five episodes. Telltale confirmed that perpetual bad guy Chuck would make a reappearance, and that Guybrush will still be pining for his Elaine. Additionally, you’ll be heading to different locations in each episode, instead of continually bumming around Flotsam Island.
Instead of the point-and-click controls of SBCG4AP, you’ll control Guybrush’s motions with the nunchuk, though you’ll end up pointing to things on screen and using A to check them out, if I recall correctly. You’ll be given dialogue trees when conversing with characters, filled with witty responses and requests for information. Humor plays a rather important role in this game; Guybrush’s attempts to seize the ship from its current owner end up being rather slapstick. They noted, though, that there will also be serious overarching themes in the game, to keep things more interesting.
Tales of Monkey Island should premiere sometimes next month, and it will be arriving on WiiWare regularly like the series that came before it. If people preorder a boxed season of ToMI, they’ll receive a special edition boxart designed by Steve Purcell. Once the Monkey Island conversation was over, I got a chance to speak with a Telltale rep about their work with WiiWare. I didn’t have a voice recorder on me at the time, unfortunately, so I’ll be summarizing the major points below.
- When asked which episode of SBCG4AP was most popular, they responded that the first episode was the most downloaded by far. When people see an episodic series like that, their first inclination is always to start at the beginning, for the sake of continuity and preventing confusion.
- The average playtime of an episode of SBCG4AP is about 5.5 hours, a couple hours longer than Telltale had expected.
- Telltale is typically 2.5 episodes ahead when an episode of a game is released; this means they get the opportunity to take feedback from fans and apply it to games within the same season.
- Why was SBCG4AP on WiiWare, but not on other systems? Telltale wanted to make sure they got it right on their first try, and it’s easier to get things set up if you only need to fuss with one console. They chose the Wii because, frankly, they are Wii fans. Incidentally, they are hoping they’ll have the chance to deliver a second season.
- Nintendo never dictated any terms to Telltale as to how things needed to be, or what content had to be like; they don’t interfere with the development process. They only stepped in when "certification stuff" came up.
- Is it different developing for a console than it is for the PC? The main difference is the 40MB limit on WiiWare games; this forces them to be very careful when cramming stuff in. Quite a challenge, they said.
- Maintaining a strict release schedule is of the utmost importance to Telltale. They take the promise of regular episodic releases very seriously. Comparisons to another company involved in "episodic" gaming were made once or twice during the appointment, with no names being mentioned.
- What does the future hold for WiiWare and Telltale? They mentioned that right now, they’re working hard to get consumers more informed about their gaming model; spreading the word is one of the most important things they’re working on. Gamewise, they’re trying to push the boundaries of what a console can do, though the rep didn’t go into details; it does sound promising, though.
I unfortunately didn’t have time to ask many more questions, as 1) I had another appointment to head to, and 2) a lack of sleep, due to a rogue fire alarm the night before (check tomorrow’s posts for more information there), left me rambling more than I would have liked. I felt that the appointment went quite nicely, though; I am excited to see what else Telltale has in store for Nintendo fans.
Keep your eyes peeled for more E3 impressions as the week wraps up.
