Please tell us some words about Telltale Games. How many people work there, what have you done since 2004 June and so on?
Dan Connors: Telltale was founded in June 2004 by Kevin Bruner, Troy
Molander, and myself. We all met at LucasArts where we worked together for
years. We left LucasArts in order to start a company building games based on
great stories and specializing in dramatic content. Since that time we have
funded the company and launched four products (Telltale Texas Hold'em, Out
from Boneville, The Great Cow Race, and CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder
will be launching the first season of Sam & Max games on GameTap and
Telltale's site this fall. We have about 25 employees right now.
Why did you choose episodic content?
Dan Connors: Times are changing, and they're changing fast. As a company
building a business, it doesn't make sense for us to continue with the
existing model. We would much rather be in a position to help define what
interactive entertainment looks like in the future.
Approximately how long will be one episode and how often will we get a new
one?
Dan Connors: It depends on the person playing, but they will be shorter than
The Great Cow Race. We are planning on releasing them monthly.
When did you start to work with Steve Purcell, the father of all Sam & Max
games? How close do you work with him?
Dan Connors: I met Steve back at LucasArts during the production of the
first Sam and Max game, which is when he taught me how to ice fish. We
worked together again on Freelance Police.
How will the interface looks like in the game? Almost the same as the good
old LucasArts game or there will be major changes (I mean not graphically
but in functionality)?
Dave Grossman: The games use an intuitive and fairly minimal point-and-click
style interface, with an inventory and a few other whistles to support
things like driving Sam and Max�s extremely cool car, shooting, and other
mayhem. It's similar to the point and click interface used in Sam & Max Hit
the Road, and also in our Bone games.
Will we have a playable demo before the final release of the first episode?
Dan Connors: We haven't decided yet.
Who is your personal favorite character (Sam or Max) and why?
Dan Connors: Max, I mean Sam.
How many episodic stories you already have in the lab? I bet minimum three.
Could you tell us something about this?
Dave Grossman: This first season of Sam & Max will consist of six separate
episodes, each of which contains a complete case and is playable on its own.
But the cases are also all connected by a larger story arc which spans the
entire season.
What do you think, why did LucasArts dropped the project after they almost
finished the game? The game had a very good story, funny characters, unique
idea. Is this only business thing? Not enough expected profit at the end, or
what?
Dan Connors: I don't know. You will have to ask LucasArts about that.
When will we get more about the game after a single screenshot and a very
short teaser? When the big marketing machine will begin to work?
Dan Connors: The big marketing machine will be rolling very soon. A few more
renders were released last week, and we have a lot more planned between now
and October.
