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Telltale: Episodic drop-off 'substantially less' on iOS
That stack of semi-completed games on your coffee table is either a reminder of how you habitually abandon good entertainment, or a teetering celebration of your healthy, well-prioritized life. (But this is a video game blog, so we think it's the first thing.) In the case of Telltale's episodic downloads, you don't even have the haunting benefit of physical leftovers. "In episodic games, usually the first episode ends up selling the most and it's one of the key reasons we have come to sell our game series primarily in the 'Season Pass' format where you get all the episodes for one purchase price," Telltale Games Producer Dave Felton told Gamasutra. While the practice offers no guarantee that you'll play every episode, Telltale can at least ensure that you purchase all of them -- except on the iPhone, where a "Season Pass" has yet to be implemented within the company's lineup. (In comparison, season passes exist on PSN, but not on Xbox Live.) Felton suggests that iOS devices are unique in that episodic drop-off is "substantially less than we have seen on any other platform to date," and suspects that the synergy between Apple's devices and its App Store "work together to drive that difference." Unlike Xbox Live Arcade, for instance, games on the App Store can easily be pushed into visibility by customer reviews and feedback. Telltale found that Hector: Badge of Carnage, its first externally developed series, even saw sales rise between episodes. It's Telltale's job to curb player ennui in their game design, but Hector's momentum indicates that a fluid marketplace can be just as important for bite-sized content.
It's time for Back to the Future episode three on iPad
Telltale has set loose the third episode of Back to the Future: The Game on the App Store, giving iPad owners looking for their next fix of Marty McFly adventures a $6.99 bit of relief. In this latest episode, Marty finds himself stranded in an alternate version of the '80s. The biggest change: the apparent lord of all, "First Citizen Brown," pictured above. He looks like he's never taken guff in his entire life.
Rayman Origins to be 'a big event,' Ubisoft CEO says
Pictured above: Rayman, floppy-haired hero and decliner of limbs, along with dim-witted partner in mischief, Globox. They've been missing since December 2010, but we're happy to report that they're not dead. In an MCV interview published today, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said Rayman Origins was "very much" a Michel Ancel project. So, a bizarre information blackout following a promising announcement was to be expected. "There will be a new Rayman game, Rayman Origins, by Michel Ancel," Guillemot said. "It will be HD in 2D and it will be a big event for the whole industry." It's unclear whether the game will still be episodic, as originally planned, or if it will still be a downloadable title. Ubisoft has not answered any of our specific questions regarding Rayman Origins during the last three months. Aside from being a return to Rayman's roots, the game serves as a showcase for the UbiArt development framework, which allows the incorporation of detailed drawings from a variety of sources into a skeletal animation system. In other words: game so, so pretty.
Back to the Future Episode 3 out now on Mac and PC
The plight of young Martin McFly continues today, with the PC and Mac launch of the third chapter in Telltale's Back to the Future adventure games, subtitled Citizen Brown. This time around, Marty finds himself in an alternate universe-version of 1986 Hill Valley, where he'll have run-ins with darker versions of the Doc and Jennifer -- the latter of which is voiced by the film's Claudia Wells. The release of this third chapter provides some compelling evidence as to why these games are better than the films themselves: See, if these were the movies, the third chapter would be the last one we get. Telltale's got two more installments in the chamber, because that's how they roll.
Telltale's Jurassic Park opening on PC and Mac this April
Telltale Games has updated its website to host the latest tourist-eating attraction, Jurassic Park: The Game. The five-episode series will debut this April on PC and Mac, and can be pre-ordered for $29.99 (representing a $5 discount off the regular price). There's also a brief trailer of the game, which is -- as designer Dave Grossman implied last year -- utterly devoid of talking cartoon animals. It's clearly representative of a darker, more serious approach to storytelling than we've come to expect from Telltale, and isn't likely to be conducive to our usual point-and-click perambulations. "I don't want to have it be a game about hanging around and solving thinky puzzles at your own pace," Grossman said. "It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do for that." You'll hear more about Jurassic Park and how it works later today.
UnDead Online coming for your braaaaaaaains
When it comes to zombies and gun-toting fun with friends, most people would probably immediately think of Left 4 Dead or perhaps Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare DLC. When it comes to MMOs, though, you've got limited choices for horror -- and many of them aren't even out yet! Today you have one more title to add to your listing of horror MMO games that are shambling toward you at some point in the future: UnDead Online. This brain-splattered game is being developed by indie studio JumpCore Productions. The studio was formed in 2007 by Cameron Petty, who was part of the founding team behind Cryptic Studios. According to JumpCore, UnDead Online will be an episodic MMOFPS hybrid that will have its first showing at the upcoming Games Developer Conference in March. A statement released by Petty explains further; "Each episode of the FPS game series will tell the story of a character that exemplifies one of the character classes in the MMO game. The player will experience that character's journey from his or her previous existence into the post-Apocalyptic world brought to life in the UnDead Online MMO, while exploring the unique game play aspects of that character's class along the way." Ultimately, we're glad to see another horror title planned for the MMO genre, and we will certainly be expectantly waiting to chew on the developers' brains about what we can look forward to in their game. In the meantime, the UnDead Online site and forums are awaiting the presence of any interested zombie hunters.
Rayman Origins a no-show for holiday 2010
Rayman Origins, a beautiful 2D adventure created within Ubisoft's UbiArt framework, was scheduled to launch on HD consoles by the end of this year. While the official website still believes that to be the case, it's now clear that the release has been delayed. Planned as an episodic series, Rayman Origins examines the mischievous beginnings of Michel Ancel's famous limber-yet-limbless hero, and his friendship with Globox, a boisterous frog-type ... thing. Ubisoft has made no announcement regarding a delay, but a company representative confirmed to Joystiq that the first Origins episode would not make it out this year. (Obviously.) Provided Rayman Origins doesn't vanish behind a veil of secrecy, Ancel fans should have a good year in 2011, which also promises a high-definition update of Beyond Good and Evil for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.%Gallery-96983%
Handmade adventure The Dream Machine available for pre-order
Though even games with multimillion-dollar budgets can claim to be handmade at some level -- those keyboards don't type themselves! -- very few can claim to be made from physical materials like cardboard and clay. It's fair to say that The Dream Machine, a painstakingly photographed point-and-click adventure by Anders Gustafsson and Erik Zaring, is a game with more substance than most. The gorgeous indie adventure will be released in five episodes, and the first two are available now as part of a pre-order program. For 11 Euros (that's after a 20-percent discount for early buyers), you'll gain access to the first two parts and all that follow in the future. The Dream Machine isn't tethered to any specific device -- it's playable online from any computer (Mac, Linux or PC) and stores your save files and inventory safely in that great Cloud in the Skynet. If you're curious, you can try the first episode for free right now. And if you wanted the whole thing for free, remind yourself that two guys have spent over two years squishing clay and cardboard into a game.%Gallery-111737%
Back to the Future peels out Dec. 22 on PC and Mac
The ball begins to drop. It's December 31, 2010, 11:59:50 and Devon and Samantha are breathless. All night long, Grandpa Steve has promised to display a long-dormant ability for time travel. More over, at precisely midnight, he has promised to take them into the future. "Five!" the room shouts. "Four! Three! Two! One!" Devon and Samantha close their eyes, brace for it. ... Nothing. "Ta-da!" Grandpa Steve looks very pleased with himself. "I took us all into 2011!" The kids take the awkward three seconds, when all the couples kiss and the single people stare, to process this new information. "... Bee Ess!" Devon shouts, just quietly enough that his mom won't hear over the champagne-soaked rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" on which the guests conspire. "Yeah, bee ess!" says Sam at the same volume. "I thought this was going to be time travel like in Telltale's Back to the Future, released on Mac and PC on December 22!" Devon piles on, "Yeah, and your stupid trick didn't even come with a collector's DVD which Telltale Store shoppers got!" Grandpa Steve shrugs with an impish smile and slinks to the kitchen, leaving Devon and Sam to reflect on how 2011 has nowhere to go but up.
Telltale's Back to the Future touts Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown
You can breathe a little easier if you've been eagerly anticipating Telltale's five-episode Back to the Future series, as USA Today has just confirmed some of its key inclusions: 1. Marty McFly and Doc Brown 2. Christopher Lloyd voicing Doc Brown 3. Hill Valley 4. 1985 5. BttF screenwriter Bob Gale's guidance 6. The DeLorean We've worked with a team of experts to prepare a list of things we still need confirmed for the episodic game to allow our hearts to open and our expectations to run free, like majestic, time-traveling ponies: 1. Hoverboards. 2. Huey Lewis Seriously guys, what's up?
New Silver Lining chapter out in September, old King's Quest games on GoG now
Phoenix Online Studios announced that the second chapter of its Activision-approved(ish) free King's Quest game, The Silver Lining, will be released next month. In a post on the game's site, Phoenix's Cesar Bittar notes some of the improvements that have been made based on feedback from those who played the first game. Thanks to you, Episode 2: Two Households will have better pathfinding, the option to switch between "extended" and "short" narration, new walking animation (with a walk/run toggle), more subtitle options, and widescreen support. In terms of gameplay, there are 17 new locations, a roughly 4-hour-long quest, and "puzzles a-plenty to keep you entertained." If you want to catch up on this King's Quest business so you can understand why fans would go to the trouble of making a tribute game, GoG.com just added a King's Quest 1-3 bundle to its shop, for $9.99. You can get a pack with 4, 5, and 6 for the same price. We'll warn you now: these games look and sound quite vintage.
Telltale surveying fans' favorite Back to the Future elements
There's a lot to love in Zemeckis' time-space continuum-altering Back to the Future trilogy -- it makes sense that Telltale Games wants to know what aspects fans are hoping to see in its upcoming episodic game adaptation of the films. Fans can now participate in a quick survey, choosing some of the time periods, characters and a handful of scenarios which reference iconic moments from the films which they'd like to see in the games. Click past the jump to see some of the sample scenarios presented in the survey. You can access the questionnaire through Telltale's site, but be forewarned! If you vote for an adventure set in the 1800s featuring Doc Brown's Wild West offspring, and which doesn't feature Biff or hoverboards or time traveling of any sort, we'll come through the internet and open-hand slap you in the face.
Fable 3 targeting 5M sold, episodic release will follow retail launch
Peter Molyneux, the king around Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Games Studios' European creative director, told GI.biz that the company is "driving" for Fable 3 to sell more than 5 million copies and make profit "in excess" of $150 million. Molyneux expressed the reasoning behind the parameter: "We have to do that because if a franchise doesn't reach that level it will inevitably wither." Hmmm, "wither" sounds like a long process. Can we still get Fable 4 even if it doesn't hit that mark? In response to the "massively successful" nature of Fable 2's episodic release, Fable 3 will also release in an episodic format "soon after the retail launch." The first chapter, which is approximately an hour of the game, will be entirely free. You can then purchase the next episode -- for "an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars" -- or the whole game. Molyneux claims the first episode of Fable 2, which released about a year after the game's launch, reached 1.6 million downloads and "$15 million in contribution margins." %Gallery-70430%
Telltale's Jurassic Park games to be 'cinematically much more serious'
Ever since Telltale announced an agreement with NBC Universal to develop an episodic series of games based on Jurassic Park, we've been kept awake at night, wondering just how one goes about defeating a Tyrannosaurus Rex using nothing but an umbrella handle, a lightbulb and a unicycle. There are at least seven ways to do it -- trust us -- but Telltale design director Dave Grossman informed us at E3 that Jurassic Park won't quite fit the company's traditional adventure structure. "... in the case of Jurassic Park, we've wanted to kind of step out and do something that's cinematically much more serious than the kind of.... you know, we feel like we're getting pigeonholed a little bit as a company that makes funny cartoon games about talking animals, whereas really what we think of ourselves as is a company that makes games about cinema," Grossman said. "And so we want to explore some different territory. How is the gameplay supporting the tension of the scene, and what kind of tension is it? How is the game paced? And so you're going to find all of that stuff in the Jurassic Park series." While Jurassic Park will feature adventure mechanics deemed "appropriate," it seems its focus won't necessarily be on laid-back lateral thinking. "I don't want to have it be a game about hanging around and solving thinky puzzles at your own pace," Grossman explained. "It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do for that." And while that might seem to suggest an action-oriented approach, Grossman wasn't willing to characterize it to such a simple degree. "You can definitely expect tension elements, let's say. Whether they're action or, well, there are a lot of ways to do that. I think there'll be a liberal mix of stuff in that game." Let's hope we learn more before Telltale's Jurassic Park begins its monthly excursions from Isla Sorna Nublar this winter.
Episodic Jurassic Park game due from Telltale this year
The episodic adventure aces at Telltale Games have set sail from Monkey Island and are soon to arrive at Jurassic Park, Game Informer reports. According to the magazine, Telltale has struck a deal with NBC Universal to develop games based on the media giant's properties, with the Michael Crichton created "dinosaurs in modern day" franchise being the first to get the interactive treatment. The Jurassic Park games will make up one "season," which has -- as GI points out -- historically meant as many as six monthly "episodes" where series such as Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People were concerned. No word on a platform or platforms, but it has been confirmed that what Telltale boss Dan Connors calls "the ultimate cinematic adventure" will be uncaged before the year is out.
Telltale: 'Pilot Program' allows for new ideas at less risk
Telltale recently introduced its "Pilot Program" for episodic games with the reveal of Puzzle Agent, claiming that some of its future franchises (starting with PA) will live or die by the initial episode's reception among players. And last last week, the company's CEO Dan Connors took to G4 to give more detail on the initiative's future, as well as its raison d'être. "The Pilot Program allows us to try some new ideas without having to [take as much risk] and learn more what people like about it before we commit to doing the whole thing." He said that committing to an entire season for a game is, in many cases, far riskier than creating a one-off pilot that may or may not succeed. Additionally, team sizes on the pilot episodes are much smaller, but can be scaled up depending on how the audience responds. "Right now, I think the Grickle [PA] team is probably about a third of the size of an average team to get this started," Connors said. According to him, 50 percent of the work for a series is done up front -- going into full-scale production on PA would require little adjustment for Telltale. That said, he seems more interested in spitballing ideas for additional pilot games in the meantime, saying that the studio is still "in the idea phase" for more pilots. We'll see just how well that first idea pans out when Puzzle Agent becomes available this June.
Sam & Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak media needs a shave
Click image to check out our 'stache of screens Telltale has sent over some media from Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse's second episode, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, which takes the duo down a decidedly gentlemanly path. Sure, there's only the one in-game screenshot where Sam is sporting some bushy whiskers (good show, old boy!) but there's still other items to leisurely peruse, perhaps while sipping a fine Earl Grey tea. There are also several pieces of art for your eyes to appreciate, including a posh train and rather down-on-his-luck-looking Max, if that's more to your liking. So, put on your most dashing outfit and be sure to head into our gallery for a sophisticated look at the upcoming episode. Tally-ho! %Gallery-92554%
'Doctor Who: The Adventure Games' premieres June 5, teaser revealed
The Doctor Who adventure game will premiere on June 5, 2010, according to the BBC. In the first of the four free interactive episodes, the new Doctor and his companion find themselves in a destroyed version of 1963 London, battling (shock of shocks!) the Daleks. For those who aren't up on their Who, almost the entire series is now on Netflix -- available on demand through all current consoles, personal computers and TARDIS interfaces. The new series is currently airing on BBC America, Saturdays at 9PM. Interested web travelers will find a trailer for the game embedded after the break. [Via Videogamer]
Sam & Max's Future Vision would make a great present
Or it does. Or it ... did? Ever since I peered through Future Vision -- an amazing ocular toy employed in the first episode of Telltale's latest adventure, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse -- my awareness of time has been (was?) sullied. In fact, I will never be more convinced that I'm staring through the device in this very moment, plagiarizing every word my future self was writing ... later today. Yes. Now I will write, I feel like I'm being watched. %Gallery-88038%
BBC bringing Doctor Who: The Adventure Games to PC, Mac
The interesting thing about BBC's announcement of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games -- instead of it sounding like farmed-out licensed schlock -- is there appears to be some actual creative weight behind it. Beginning in June 2010, four original "interactive episodes" will release for free on the BBC Doctor Who website. The episodes feature the current cast, and are executive produced by new show-runner Steven Moffat and Broken Sword designer Charles Cecil, with story and script by Doctor Who and Torchwood alumni. It's being developed by Sumo Digital. Piers Wender, head of drama for BBC Wales and executive producer for Doctor Who says, "There aren't 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year, there are 17 - four of which are interactive." The BBC had previously stated it was looking into multiple "experiences" for Doctor Who games. Depending on the quality of the final product, this certainly opens up new trans-media opportunities for network television beyond Flash games and webisodes. And yes, we still wish Telltale Games were involved.
