Sam & Max To Return

Though it won't be officially announced for a week or so, Telltale Games has signed an agreement with Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell to make a new game series based on the dog and rabbit duo. The two comics characters were previously immortalized in 1993's classic Sam & Max Hit the Road. In a widely publicized and criticized maneuvre, LucasArts recently cancelled a sequel to that game, entitled Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Though Purcell owns the character and scenario rights to that game, all the script, code, and assets belong to LucasArts; this Telltale project is a whole new production. Telltale Games also recently finished up work on Bone, based on the comics property by Jeff Smith, which should be available for download within a few days. The surprising news was announced at an otherwise innocuous event called The Future of Digital Entertainment. I cornered Steve Purcell to chat with him a bit about Sam & Max and the deal itself, which was signed only days ago. Purcell's specific role in the game's development has not yet been ironed out, but it is most likely that while he will not take the lead design or writing duty he will supervise the development to make sure that the game is true to the characters and the writing is up to par. He will hold down his day job at Pixar while being "as involved as I can be." The deal has been in talks for some time, but it wasn't until LucasArts' license to the game's characters and scenarios expired and reverted back to Purcell that it was possible. Regarding Telltale, Purcell claims that "if there's a better match, I don't know who it is." Many members of Telltale are veterans of LucasArts, and several worked on the cancelled Freelance Police. When asked how he felt about the incredible internet response to the cancellation of the sequel, Purcell said, "it was great for me"--he was so taken aback by the level of fan support his characters received that he "didn't have to feel bad about it." Rather intruigingly, Purcell and Telltale chief technology officer Kevin Bruner expressed their interest to experiment with some of the different, possibly darker, art styles Purcell has employed in his paintings and sketchwork. Bruner felt it might be good to "make it look different from both Bone and also Sam & Max [Freelance Police]." Purcell agreed, clearly excited by the prospects. "With Bone, we're sticking to the books and we have this epic story to tell. With Sam & Max, we can do anything," continued Bruner. "We have a lot of freedom." Like Bone, the game will be distributed online, and in all likelihood will also follow an episodic model, which suits the original comics-based nature of Sam & Max. Finally, I asked Purcell if there are any plans for a reprint of his anthology, The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway, which frequently sells for well above $100 on the internet. "It definitely will be reprinted, but I would feel guilty about putting it out without any new material," he admitted. New Sam & Max game, as well as new Sam & Max content in a reprint of an old Sam & Max book? Sign me up.