Tales of Monkey Island

[MrHoatzin]

Does the pay-shipping-and-get-the-disk version generally contain higher quality assets?

[Jake]

Have you done any camera or character animations in the game other than scene transitions?

A little here and there. I did the lighting on the final scene of ch 2 (except for the humans, whose lighting was ported over from the prologue of chapter 1), and the shot of Flotsam island for the cutaway back to DeSinge (I did some cleanup cinematography for that cutscene as well, including DeSinge walking out the back door and looking over the balcony), and a few other little things here and there. I did the cannonball effects when Spinner is under attack, for instance. I wanted that to be a bit beefier but ran out of time. It does its job, though, I think. I'm working with the cutscene and choreography guys a lot more starting with chapter 3. Nearly full time working with them on cutscene direction, and in-game effects.

Is there a way to "update" games you've downloaded? Or is there a way to discover if there's a new version out?

If you downloaded the game from the Telltale site, the easiest way to update it right now is just to install the new one right over the top of the old one. We don't have dynamic updating or version checking right now.

If you're on Steam I dont think the revised pack has gone out but were it to go out, restarting Steam should do the trick.

Does the pay-shipping-and-get-the-disk version generally contain higher quality assets?

It depends on the series and the schedule (especially: how much QA time is available to test through a seasons worth of new builds), but I wouldn't be surprised if the Monkey DVD assets were a little less compressed than the download ones. TBD I think.

[Thyroid]

So...do you animate, Jake, or do you code things like a transition? Or is it both? (I'm Googling to find out, but I'm interested in what you did for Tales, to learn.)

Also: Pixies in November. Wow. I'm envious.

[toblix]

Also: Pixies in November. Wow. I'm envious.

What?

[Patters]

What?

Band I believe.

[Jake]

So...do you animate, Jake, or do you code things like a transition? Or is it both? (I'm Googling to find out, but I'm interested in what you did for Tales, to learn.)

I do a lot of that stuff using the in-house game editing tools, which are neither code nor animation. I do a little bit of light-weight animation type things in the engine but nothing anyone would really consider actual animation (eg not things like character walk cycles or whatever). The Internet probably won't tell you a lot about the Telltale Tool, because we generally aren't allowed to tell anyone what it's composed of or how it works. Sorry! If we do commentary tracks for Monkey hopefully we'll go into a little more detail.

[elmuerte]

The Internet probably won't tell you a lot about the Telltale Tool, because we generally aren't allowed to tell anyone what it's composed of or how it works.

Hmm... so it runs on bunny feet, kitten entrails, and pony eyes?

awesome \o/

[Thyroid]

Sorry! If we do commentary tracks for Monkey hopefully we'll go into a little more detail.

This would be excellent! I hope you guys do it!

[Thrik]

New piece of awesome:

Incidentally, I watched all three Pirates of the Caribbean films for the first time this last weekend. Man, talk about the script's origin being obvious! Davy Jones is probably the coolest character I've seen in ages, though.

[ThunderPeel2001]

If you downloaded the game from the Telltale site, the easiest way to update it right now is just to install the new one right over the top of the old one. We don't have dynamic updating or version checking right now.

I haven't checked, so I'm just being lazy, but is there a way to tell the version number before you download it? That way I could compare it with the version number in the launcher, I guess.

Update: The is no thing on the site to let you know what version is available... might be worth adding! (?)

Edited September 5, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001

[syntheticgerbil]

New piece of awesome:

Incidentally, I watched all three Pirates of the Caribbean films for the first time this last weekend. Man, talk about the script's origin being obvious! Davy Jones is probably the coolest character I've seen in ages, though.

Amazing! This stuff really needs an art book. Even a small one...

[Ben X]

Amazing! This stuff really needs an art book. Even a small one...

I'd totally buy it if they published the unmade script as a coffee table book, with loads of concept art etc in there.

[Roderick]

Coming late to the party, still wanted to give my tuppence about Spinner Cay. I still love how it feels like Monkey Island, with the cast being splendiferous. Now that Elaine has a larger role, it becomes obvious how fantastic her in-game model is, coupled with the great voice acting. She's genuinely cute! That doesn't happen all that often with a 3D character in a game!

However, on the whole I thought this episode was less good than Screaming Narwhal. Mostly because the puzzles were of pretty poor quality: lots of fetch quests (

the bait tickets

) and puzzles that had only a single step. The few moments of brilliance (

getting LeChuck to perform a puzzle, which was hilarious

) weren't really exploited well from a puzzle perspective either. The foundation was there, but it wasn't used to its fullest.

I'm also starting to think that the lack of production values (which isn't a taboo term, I hope!) is hurting the game more than I initially thought. The cloned characters really don't do the universe justice and during parts like

the blockade with the ships surrounding the Jerkbait islands

, which should have felt epic and grand, it becomes almost pathetic because the graphical oomph is lacking where the game pretends there is. The result is that oftentimes I get the feeling I'm playing a great concept of a game, with an execution that doesn't do it justice.

I understand this is because of the budgetary and time constraints, but the reasonable argument that I shouldn't complain because it's only 8 Dollars per episode is irrelevant. When I'm playing, I don't calculate how much money I've spent on it, I just feel the potential of a game and whether it fulfills on its promise.

As it is, I'm really enjoying the experiences, and there are plenty of touches that are great (that transition from the tiny islands to the ship, wow!), and the characters are great, but there's also a lot lacking in the execution, both qua puzzles and production values.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Good lord he's still making those silly videos:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/901-Tales-of-Monkey-Island

Can't say I especially agree with most of what he says, but he can be ever so amusing.

[Nappi]

I played through the second episode a couple of days ago and mostly enjoyed it. Elaine was excellent and the

good

LeChuck as a plot-twist didn't turn out to be annoying like I had suspected it to be.

My major complaint about the episode is stupid. It is this: I didn't like the, however humanlike, non-human characters. They weren't nearly as bad as, say, the Jamaican monkey-fish-seahorse creatures in Sam & Max: Moai Better Blues, but they still didn't quite fit my Monkey island "universe". I can handle the zombie pox just fine, I only hope that the Season doesn't turn into a freakshow.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yeah, we're definitely going in a more fantastical direction this time around... Not sure where it's going to end up. While Merfolk/Mermaids/Mermen are at least pirate-lore, the creatures that appeared at the end (that led the way)... What were they supposed to be?

I mean, if they're just larger/more intelligent versions of real animals then cool, but if they're just some random fantasy sea entity (which is what I felt they were) then that's just a bit wrong.

Why not just have dolphins or something instead?

[Twilo]

the creatures that appeared at the end (that led the way)... What were they supposed to be?

[Thrik]

Monkey Island has always been at the high end of fantastical when it comes to depicting pirates, really. I mean it's not like ghosts, zombies, demons, and voodoo feature in your average pirate story — unless you count the Pirates of the Caribbean films which were pretty much derived from Monkey Island anyway.

The mer-things are just yet another weird thing in this rather unique universe Monkey Island has constructed for itself, and they didn't seem at all inappropriate to me. Hell, it's not like this is the first time mer-people have been hinted at in a Monkey Island game, even if they were previously more general references to pirate legend.

I wish they were more like Davy Jones' awesome crew in PotC, though.

[ThunderPeel2001]

If it wasn't for the photographic evidence, I would have insisted they were fictional!

[lobotomy42]

I thought this episode was inferior to Screaming Narwhal.

The main reason that jumps out at me is that this episode took a strange turn towards more adult/juvenile humor that seemed totally out of place in Monkey Island. The mer-people, whose faces looked a bit like over-made-up transvestites and who spoke and behaved like weird stereotypes of gay people ("Hello sailor," constantly flirting with an awkward-reacting Guybrush) were off-putting, to say the least. That, combined with Winslow's comments about loving the ship, the "Isle of Ewe" and "Nice Cans" jokes, and the Guybrush-Elaine-LeChuck jealousy triangle, shifted the tone of this episode away from "piratey" and into "Network TV Sitcom."

It wasn't *bad*, but it definitely felt strange for a Monkey Island game. Still looking forward to the rest, though!

[ThunderPeel2001]

Transvestites? Gay stereotypes? Wha...?

[eljay]

Well it seemed like they were aiming for creatures of ambiguous gender, which naturally gives masculine females or effeminate males. Both of which can be interpreted as the stereotypes mentioned above.

[Twilo]

Well it seemed like they were aiming for creatures of ambiguous gender, which naturally gives masculine females or effeminate males. Both of which can be interpreted as the stereotypes mentioned above.

David Bowie with gills would have been cool.

[thorn]

Played it when it came out but somehow forgot about this thread.

I don't know what's wrong with my ears but I've never noticed any issue with the sound.

Absolutely loved the sword fight section with LeFlay. Was my favourite part of the game. The 'Isle of Ewe' gag made me laugh so loudly that a shout came from the other side of the house asking me if I was alright. I agree with the others: I absolutely loved the transition from the islands back to the map.

I wasn't a huge fan of the mer-people as a fantasy species in the MI universe, but I loved the design of their town. It just had fantastic (in both meanings of the word) atmosphere and I loved the idea of a town that was stuck halfway between the underwater and above-surface worlds. I'm ashamed to say that for the first time in my life, I considered writing some fanfiction set in the mer-city. Thankfully, I took a deep breath and that feeling went away.

Question for Jake: There were several dead ends in the forest that looked out of place. Were these always planned as dead ends or were they going to be like the confusing parts of the Screaming Narwhal forest where an exit from a location takes you to a totally disconnected part of the forest?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Question for Jake: There were several dead ends in the forest that looked out of place. Were these always planned as dead ends or were they going to be like the confusing parts of the Screaming Narwhal forest where an exit from a location takes you to a totally disconnected part of the forest?

Not sure what bits you mean, but it might have something to do with the planned "treasure hunt" thing?