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2nd Bone episode price slashed to $12.99
Telltale Games have announced the second episode in their ongoing Bone series, Bone Act 2: The Great Cow Race, will carry a new, more attractive price point of $12.99, an impressive 35% drop from the first offering's $19.99 price. Telltale CEO Dan Connors defines their competition saying, "We will expand the audience for games enormously by setting a price that competes directly with DVDs, music CDs, books and cable television." They've already discussed other aspects they've sought to improve upon from the initial episode, including the oft-criticized length. In blunt terms, Telltale's sophomore effort hopes to deliver more game for less money. They are clear to specify this only applies to the upcoming Bone episodes: "As of today, the company is lowering all episodes in the Bone series distributed through its digital download channel to the new lower price of $12.99 each in line with the new structure." Either this price might not apply to the forthcoming episodic Sam and Max game or, more likely, Telltale has simply avoided making any promises for a product that isn't ready to ship yet. Bone Act 2: The Great Cow Race will be available later this month.
Bone: The Great Cow Race drops in April
Telltale's first foray into episodic distribution was last year's Bone: Out from Boneville, based on Jeff Smith's epic comic of the same name. While nostalgic gamers were ecstatic that classic point-and-click adventure gaming lived on (in the capable hands of the ex-LucasArts crew at Telltale no less), they were disappointed with the title's short length and beginner's difficulty. Luckily, the whole idea of episodic gaming allows for this sort of thing: in their press release CEO Dan Connors says, "We identified a number of things we wanted to improve upon–such as the length of the experience, the nature of the mini-games and nuances in a number of areas–and the team is doing an outstanding job exceeding our expectations."We're watching to see how the second installment of the first major episodic series goes, if episodic content lives up to the promise of adapting to user's demands. More importantly perhaps, this is what we can expect with their their handling of the Sam & Max franchise... don't let us down Telltale!
Telltale gets funding for episodic adventures
Next Generation reports that Telltale Games, creators of the episodic adventure game Bone and the proud home of the upcoming episodic Sam and Max game, has received $825K in funding "to expand its technology development, marketing and investment efforts." The investment brings their total seed funding to $1.4 million.The purview of Telltale Games was to reduce costs attributable to publisher overhead by delivering games directly to audiences episodically. The point and click adventure game genre was thought to be unprofitable leading, in part, to the continued delays and cancellations of the Sam and Max games. Thanks investment group for helping to get our favorite dog and rabbity-thing duo back on track!See also:Telltale, Bone, and Sam and Max at WonderconSam & Max stage a comeback -- for real this time
Telltale, Bone, and Sam and Max at Wondercon
Gamasutra has a feature up about Telltale Games, the independent developer working on episodic adventure games Bone and Sam and Max. CEO Dan Conners and Telltale compatriots--all LucasArts alums--participated in a panel at the Wondercon comic convention in San Fransisco, touching on topics ranging from episodic gaming to collaborating with artists like Jeff Smith and Steve Purcell. Conners fielded questions concerning episodic gaming, and the ability to tailor content to suit consumer response. Gamasutra writes, "In response to one early question, Conners explained how feedback helped to shape the second Bone game. Although they had consciously designed the first game to be linear and relatively narrow in the options available to the player, the team received lots of complaints from experienced gamers who found the game clunky and a little tedious; partially as a response, they rebalanced the second game to offer 'more choices, more options.'"
