Telltale Games is gearing up to release the first game in its episodic series of Sam & Max adventure games. Recently, a flurry of rumors sprung up regarding the possibility that Sam & Max might also be heading to Nintendo's upcoming Wii console at some point in the future. I
sat down with Telltale CEO Dan Connors to talk about this recent development, as well as about Xbox Live Arcade, Telltale's view of the industry, and the whole episodic thing. We'll also have a full preview of Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock coming soon, so look out for that.
Shack: How do you feel about other developers starting to move in the episodic direction? Does that feel like a vote of confidence at all?
Dan Connors: It's a vote of confidence without a doubt. The fact that we're in the same space as Valve is reassuring. The fact that Penny Arcade, as web savvy as they are, are jumping into episodic gaming, too. Those are some other people we have a lot of respect for. It definitely reinforces the idea that this is a good way to go and there are more people there. From a business standpoint, there is a critical mass around episodic gaming that needs to be achieved, so that it's not foreign to consumers. The more things that pull people into playing an episode, and sustaining that episodic feel where you're always getting new content and stories, that's growing. You know, on Monday I can play Sam & Max, on Tuesday I can play Half-Life, on Wednesday I can play Penny Arcade, and on Thursday maybe I can play the new Simpsons game. It starts to validate it as a way of getting content in a way that's an intelligent evolution from television, gaming, web surfing--bringing it all together. There is a critical mass approaching.
I hope this is good. :)
"Games continue to niche-ify themselves with their complexity, to the point where it can't support all the creative inklings of all the developers out there. I hate to blame it on first person shooters or something, but for whatever reason it's become that you need such a level of hand dexterity just to even play is really limiting the audience. I think what Nintendo is doing with the controller is contributing to make it an accessible experience to everybody out there. You can just sit down there and start pointing and have fun. At the end of the day, everybody points and clicks at this point. That's always been my feeling on it."
I may be taking his comments too literally, but the Wii also has it's own accessibility problems. What about people that can't move their arms well enough for the point and click interface to work? The problem isn't only FPS's becoming too complex it's that developers are neglecting to provide alternate control setups for those who can benefit from accessibility features. Just today on Gamasutra a great article was posted about game accessibility issues and what devs can do to make their game playable by those with various impairments.
I also think the puzzle designs in most adventure games is a limiting mental factor to most players. It's no fun dealing with the illogical puzzle designs in some of these adventures and it makes me want to give up on the genre because I see that mistake over and over and over again.
So, the way I see it, there's still a lot that needs to be done and the Wii (as much as I'll buy it and enjoy it) isn't the answer to getting adventure games to be mainstream.
Oh yeah, here's that Game Accessibility article: http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml
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