Wii Tales of Monkey Island (Telltale Games)

[IceKimi]

niiiiiice

EDIT: Wait what! ele chamou "wife" à Elaine? NoOoOoOoOoOoO!

(guybrush do monkey island pós-monkey island 3 then?)

O Tales MI passa-se entre o Escape MI (o 4º) e um possível 5º que pelo que parece está planeado pela LA.

 

[I_Eat_All]

O Tales MI passa-se entre o Escape MI (o 4º) e um possível 5º que pelo que parece está planeado pela LA.

Yup, mas as primeiras informações sugeriam que se tratava de um guybrush entre o Monkey Island 2 e 3. É pena que não seja.

 

[Darknut]

Pelo que percebi este passa-se depois do enventual 5º, o que é no mínimo estranho (ou não é já que falamos de Monkey Island).

 

[I_Eat_All]

Entrevista com Dave Grossman:

Why Monkey Island, Dave? Did you, as an original member of the LucasArts team, have something to do it?

Dave Grossman: Strangely no, I didn't really push for that. I sort of felt like I had my opportunity to chip my teeth on Monkey Island long ago, but that wasn't true for everybody at the company. Some people felt like they weren't finished and we could do more with it.

It's actually something we've been talking to LucasArts about as long as the company has been in existence. Just now is the start of the line properly; the right people were interested at the right time on both sides.


Were LucasArts being sneaky and sitting back, waiting for you to prove yourselves before offering the golden goose?

Dave Grossman: I suppose that could be true, but I also have to give Darrell Rodriguez - the new president at LucasArts - some credit; I think he's been a personal champion of these little adventure game licenses. It's not just Monkey that they're doing: they're actually doing something with the old Indiana Jones game, too. They released that as an unlockable bonus in Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.


Years on, there are plenty of people who haven't played Monkey Island. Can you, Dave Grossman, explain the magic?

Dave Grossman: Well, Monkey Island is a charming and very funny series of games about being a pirate. In a nutshell, that's it. What more do you really need?

The inspiration was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Ron Gilbert had wondered, "What would it be like to step off that ride and meet the characters who were there in the little dioramas?" It came out of that to begin with.

Moment by moment the series is quite funny, but the overarching stories are generally pretty serious. The Secret of Monkey Island is about a young man trying to achieve his life's dream and find love on the way. There's nothing inherently funny about that. And I think those two things - serious broad-stories and moment-by-moment humour - combined to make something really quite special.


You mentioned Ron Gilbert there who, along with Tim Schafer, played a key role in the Monkey Island series. What have they had to say about Tales of Monkey Island? Are they helping?

Dave Grossman: Ron did. As soon as I was allowed to tell anyone I called Ron on the phone, because I know the series does mean a lot to him, and he was the original guiding force behind the first games. He looked around and said, "Could I come down there and brainstorm with you?" And I was like, "Great! That is absolutely the best thing you could do."

So he came down and spent the better part of a week with us, just tossing around ideas. We bounced the broad-story stuff off of him; he had some comments about how we were handling Elaine in our first draft that got us to make some changes; and probably a few of his bubbles are in there as well. He had to go back to his regular job as the creative director at Hothead where he's doing his own game Deathspank, which also looks pretty cool. But he did get his chance to put his two-cents in.

I didn't wind up calling Tim because getting Ron involved turned out to be so much trouble - there's a lot of legal wrangling around that. I figured if I'm just going to be able to pick one of them, then it's going to be Ron.


Legal wrangling?

Dave Grossman: Well, he's a full-time employee of another studio, so there are lots of bits and pieces around us borrowing his brains. And all the while we were trying to keep a lid on the whole thing so that we could really come out with a surprise announcement when the game was ready to go.


Ron's had a bit of influence, then, but how do you go about replacing such key talent?

Dave Grossman: Well, we have a pretty talented staff of designers and writers here at Telltale and mimicry is an important skill for a professional writer. We did go back and play the old games again and think, "What are the important things here?" And get the characters back in our heads, so that we would be able to write in the proper voice. It's the same kind of process that we would do with any other licence. But in this case we had a head start, since lots of us have worked on different incarnations of Monkey Island before.


Is there more pressure because people cherish the Monkey Island IP so?

Dave Grossman: I suppose so. I'm feeling it a little bit.


What are the cornerstones of Monkey Island that need recreating in order to maintain the magic of the series?

Dave Grossman: There's that thing that I mentioned already: how the overarching story is a more serious pirate story and the underlying bits are more humorous. There's lots of deft wordplay and snappy one-liners.

The essential nature of the characters: when I watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movie I got to thinking that the two principal characters - Will [Turner] and Jack Sparrow - were the two sides of Guybrush's personality. On the one hand he's the young, fresh-faced guy that is enthusiastic and out to get stuff done, but on the other side he's incredibly selfish, and willing to sell out just about anybody to achieve the most trivial of goals. That comes out of the whole adventure gaming aspect of it - he'll steal a guy's precious monocle and leave him there blind just because he needs it for some puzzle he needs to solve.

Also, the relationship between Guybrush and Elaine is important. She's a very empowered, intelligent woman, and always seems to know more about what's going on than everyone else.


Does Guybrush really die and come back as a pirate god? Tell us about the story, Dave!

Dave Grossman: Sure. It's set a couple of years after Escape from Monkey Island. Guybrush is oming in to save the day, thwart Le Chuck's plans and rescue Elaine. In the course of doing that - and this is your introduction and tutorial mode for the game - you solve some puzzles and Guybrush showboats at exactly the wrong moment, messing something up.

He's trying to enchant this cutlass on the instructions of the Voodoo Lady and because he makes the substitution, things go a little bit wrong. LeChuck is just supposed to explode when [Guybrush] hits him with it, but instead, the voodoo part of him explodes and spreads all-over, and infects Guybrush's left hand with this weird LeChucky Pox. People around the Caribbean start catching this. You can see it in the air; it's like this green, swirly stuff. And they all start behaving a bit like LeChuck, including some of the people you've met before.

Each episode cliff-hangs into the next one, and we always leave you with some burning questions. There are lots of developments of trust: you have to work with people you don't like sometimes across the series. Everybody's got a take on this Pox and the cure. The line between good-side and evil-side is not so strikingly sharp.


A curse. A dead hero who rises again. That sounds like Pirates of the Caribbean. Did you pinch the idea from there?

Dave Grossman: No, not really. You may recall Guybrush died before. It's interesting to watch Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island go back and forth. I heard rumours at one point - I can't confirm them - that there was a Monkey Island movie being worked on with a script by the same guys that, a few years later, went on to write the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. And those had some notable similarities.

So I felt like, "OK, now I've seen the Monkey Island movie! It's pretty good. I like it." Everybody on the team probably has seen those movies, so more stuff has leaked into our consciousness and dribbled into our game. There's probably some back-and-forth inspiration there.


What's your favourite part of the Tales of Monkey Island series so far? I imagine not all episodes have been made.

Dave Grossman: Hmm. My favourite bit; wow - so many good ones. I hate it when I have to think of something! I'm going to pick a whole episode. We've been working on the middle one - the third one: "Lair of the Leviathan" - and I think just the way the puzzles and scenes are arranged in that episode is really cool.


Classic Monkey Island?

Dave Grossman: Um, no, it isn't! And that's sort of what I like about it. In classic Monkey Island usually given a great big goal to work with and a lot of territory to cover. And in [Lair of the Leviathan] you feel like you're in a scene all the time, and that the gameplay is based around whatever is going on in that scene.


Is Episode 3 where you're up to, development-wise?

Dave Grossman: Correct. We're working on the design of Episode Four. Three is being written. One is about done and Two is into production.


How long does it take to make an episode and how often are they going to come out?

Dave Grossman: Oh they're going to come out every month. The productions overlap. Each one probably takes us about four or five months to finish, plus a little bit of upfront time.


The first episode, "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal", launches for PC on 7th July. When are they going to appear on WiiWare?

Dave Grossman: We don't actually have a WiiWare date yet. We're shooting to make them as close to simultaneous as possible. There are many factors involved with that as there's a third party involved, so I'm not exactly sure how that will turn out.


Why did you decide not to put Tales of Monkey Island on Xbox Live Arcade?

Dave Grossman: We didn't so much decide not to put it on Xbox Live Arcade as we decided not to put it on XBLA now. Normally what we do is PC and one of the other platforms, and we've been bouncing back and forth between them. We've got the first season of Sam & Max coming out on XBLA, so we feel like we've got that covered for the moment. And we want to give the Wii a little love as well.


So there's a possibility of Tales of Monkey Island heading to Xbox Live Arcade?

Dave Grossman: Yeah, I mean I wouldn't rule it out. We might do that one later on.


And what about PlayStation Network? Why have you left that platform out?

Dave Grossman: We just haven't gotten there yet. Ultimately, we would like to be on every downloadable channel there is. We wound up doing Xbox, but maybe later we'll do PlayStation - we'll see.


What about Mac or Linux ports?

Dave Grossman: Oh, wow, I don't know about that. I will say that our CFO is a Mac guy, so we'll get there, but it's a matter of how and when and can we actually afford to do it. But I'd like to see that, too.


Telltale is doing very well out of episodic gaming. You must be making a lot of money. Are you just reusing technology but changing the content?

Dave Grossman: Well no, we're always making some improvements to the engine. We have the same engine that runs all our games, but it's always in development and we're always adding new rendering features for each series, because they all have to look a bit different. For Tales of Monkey Island we added a new thing where there's greater facility for facial expressions and lip-syncs to work together.


Now you are successful and have attracted big IP like Wallace & Gromit, like Sam & Max, like Strong Bad, and now Monkey Island there must be no stopping you. What's next?

Dave Grossman: Ha ha! More! More, more, more. I've always wanted to do the works of Kurt Vonnegut but I think it'll take us a while!


Is there a particular LucasArts IP or any game you would love a bash at in the future?

Dave Grossman: Um, I try not to be too picky. If I was going to do one of those little Lucas properties I might even do Loom. Not sure how popular that would be. I always thought it was good.


You mentioned Indiana Jones earlier. Is that what you want to do next?

Dave Grossman: Uh, jeez. No comment. Actually, I love Indie - I would certainly do that one. Raiders of the Lost Ark was my favourite movie for many years until Pirates of the Caribbean came along.


Do you like the new Indiana Jones film?

Dave Grossman: I would put it at number three in the set of four.

Fonte: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/a-tale-of-monkey-island-interview


Entrevista com Mike Stemmle:

Many adventure fans had thought that Lucasarts had forgotten their old franchise but now that seems far from the case. How did Monkey Island end up being licensed to Telltale?

Mike Stemmle: From what I can gather, there’ve been behind-the-scenes talks going on for a long time. The first time I heard anything substantial was late last year, when Dave Grossman [Telltale Design Director and co-writer on the first two Monkey Island games] discreetly pulled me into a darkened conference room and asked me if I’d like to work on Monkey Island.


Some of the people now on the Telltale staff are the same folks I used to talk with excitedly in IRC chatrooms about the Monkey Island series, before even the third game came out. What is it like to have such people watching over and being part of the development?

Mike Stemmle: It’s like being in a fishbowl, but it’s one of those really cool fishbowls with bubbling deep-sea divers and shipwrecks and treasure chests that open and close every few seconds. Now if only we can make sure not to get Ich all over everything ...


I've heard comments that some screenshots released at E3 look a lot more 'finished' than others. Is there some more visual polish to be done or are we seeing the final look of the game?

Mike Stemmle: One of the blessings and curses of the Telltale “Insanely Rapid Production Process” (that’s IRRP™) is the fact that we’re constantly tweaking the visuals until the very last moment. For example, the little bits of the season prologue that we leaked at E3, as cool as they were, now look approximately 9500x cooler a mere three weeks later. I mean, they’re freaking gorgeous.


Some fans feel like the sentence line ('Use key in door' etc.) is a classic element of the series. Will we see it return in Tales?

Mike Stemmle: Since we really only have one uber-verb (“use”), we decided to forgo the sentence line in Tales, which really makes our localization guys happy.


Some of the puzzles in, say, Sam and Max and the Strong Bad games, are rather surreal as befits those series. What are you doing to make the puzzles feel familiar in style to long time Monkey Island fans?

Mike Stemmle: From both a story and puzzle perspective, we’re all trying to keep in mind that, although the individual plot and puzzle points of Monkey Island can get rather silly from time to time, the high level story lines tend to be rather serious. This keeps us from going way off into goofy-land.


What is the secret of Monkey Island... ... ...'s long standing appeal?

Mike Stemmle: It’s all about Guybrush. When written well he’s the perfect adventure game everyman, with just enough character to be charming but not so much character that he overwhelms the player’s natural desire to “be” the player character.


These characters have been around for nearly twenty years now. Is there a difficulty in introducing them to players who have never played a Monkey Island game before?

Mike Stemmle: Hopefully, our intro will tell you all anyone needs to know. There’s a nebbish, cocksure pirate wannabe, his patient, resourceful wife, and an evil undead pirate. They have a history.


Finally, the series has been described as a sequel to a Monkey Island 5 that was never made --do you think there's a chance that game would ever be made, or is it best left to the players' imaginations?

Mike Stemmle: Oh, I think it’s really best left to the player’s imaginations. From what I gather, the initial design incorporated several controversial retcons (Stan is Guybrush’s Father!?), time travel, and an extended sequence in which Guybrush argued (in Pig Latin) about the fairness of Pirate Tax Codes.

Fonte: http://www.destructoid.com/tales-of...h-telltale-designer-mike-stemmle-137500.phtml



Also:

Monkey Island: Special Edition may hit another platform

Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition producer (Derrick) teased the announcement of yet another platform for the remake:

Well, we never said we wouldn't be on Wiiware or PSN now did we. The truth is, though, Xbox LIVE offers a great user experience and downloadable service to gamers and we think it's a great platform to launch the game on. And, of course, the game will also be available on PC via digital download, plus we may have another platform announcement to make very, very soon.

Fonte: http://www.destructoid.com/monkey-island-special-edition-may-hit-another-platform-137890.phtml

Wiiware release? yes please

 

[I_Eat_All]

Preview Shacknews:

Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 Impressions

It's been a while since LucasArts' infamous trademarked pirate made his last appearance in 2000's Escape from Monkey Island. Now the adventure series has jumped ship to Telltale Games, with Monkey Island co-creator Dave Grossman at the helm of a new episodic effort.

The pilot episode, "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal," begins with protagonist Guybrush Threepwood boarding the ship of zombie villain LeChuck to save his wife Elaine--a scenario that series regulars will be instantly familiar with. Guybrush is soon swept away to a breezy tropical island, trapped there until he can discover a means of escape.

Telltale is trying very hard to make these sound like authentic Monkey Island games, and in many ways "Launch" achieves that goal. Dominic Armato reprises his role as Guybrush, lending competent voice work to the dialogue. Jokes range from chuckle-worthy to cringe-inducing, with most falling somewhere in the middle--a sniffle here, a roll of the eyes there. Accompanying the conversation is a MIDI score from original Monkey Island composer Michael Land.

Unfortunately, outside of the crisp menus, Tales doesn't much look like a Monkey Island game. The title largely suffers from a bland, plasticine graphical style--a far cry from the warm, detailed art that established the franchise.

Secondary character designs are forgettable--two of three characters in town could be identical but for a mustache and a paintbucket color swap--but it's the bizarre appearance of Threepwood that is most offensive. The Satanic sharpness of Guybrush's goatee lends an obnoxious fratboy look to the character. Maybe it's the setup for a facial hair swordfighting joke, but in the meantime, it stands as an odd choice.

Players have the option of using the keyboard for movement, or a mouse-based "click and hold" solution. Neither feels like a perfect scheme, and I quickly yearned for a point-and-click option. Another quibble: the game's mouse sensitivity is painfully low, and there is no way to turn it up.

The puzzles are typical adventure game fare--"combine the juice with the thingy, then use it on the donkey"--and were mostly logical and satisfying. The episode's first major quest leads Guybrush to one of the episode's more amusing characters, an "expert treasure hunter" that reveals himself to be a Klingon-quoting action figure collector.

The collector quickly gives up a map, which leads to a familiar puzzle set in a Zelda-like maze that resets following a wrong turn. As a videogame puzzle it's immediately recognizable, but there are instances where the game fails to indicate that the player has diverted from the correct path, leading to some unnecessary confusion.

In fact, the word "unnecessary" came to mind more than it should have during my playthrough. It's likely that Telltale will improve some of these elements with later installments, as it did with the Sam & Max series. Whether another Monkey Island game is unnecessary altogether is another question.

There were few moments in what I played of Tales that took me by surprise. Instead, this is exactly what I imagined a Telltale version of Monkey Island would be like--a simple Telltale adventure game with a couple dozen hit-or-miss jokes. It doesn't quite recapture the essence of the original games, but it's not bad, either.

Of course, considering that games these days are dominated by humorless, blood-soaked treadmills, Tales' shortcomings may be easier to overlook than if the episodes had been released in 1998. If you're in need of a lighthearted change of pace from the open-world action genre, Telltale's latest is worth a look.

Fonte: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1161


EDIT: Review N-Philes:

REVIEW: Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a decade since Lucasarts brought the world a new installment in the Monkey Island series. Known for its witty humor, talking skulls and adventure on the high seas, Monkey Island has been a cult classic amongst PC gamers since the early '90s. The series stars Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate, as he continues his everlasting battle against the evil zombie pirate Le Chuck and attempts to rescue the love of his life, Elaine Marley. Now, thanks to new developer TellTale Games, the series is making a grand return in the form of five separately sold episodes: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, The Siege of Spinner Cay, Lair of the Leviathan, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood and Rise of the Pirate God. I'd love to tell you about all of them, but I'm afraid I'm limited to the first episode for now. So let's get this Screaming Narwhal started.

For those die-hard Monkey Island fans that are worried about a different developer taking over the series, or that the game's episodic nature will make it shallow or cheapen the story, let me put your mind at rest. This is just as much a Monkey Island game as any other in the series. The story continues on from the previous game, Escape From Monkey Island, with Guybrush (voiced by Dominic Armato) again attempting to rescue his wife from Le Chuck. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal begins with Guybrush finding himself with a zombie-infected hand and stranded on Flotsam island, a sparsely populated place with a mysterious and suspicious weather system that prevents anyone from leaving. Without trying to spoil too much, it's up to Guybrush to enchant his cutlass with root beer, search for buried treasure, battle an insane French surgeon, commandeer a ship and return to the high seas with a barrel of grog. And hopefully all before bed time.

Newcomers to the series shouldn't need too much background information to get a jist of what's happening in the story, though they'll definitely miss a lot of the inside jokes. Old characters make cameo appearances, and Guybrush seems to think every skeleton he sees might be his (other) arch-nemesis the evil, mighty demonic skull, Murray. Guybrush also references some of the events that happened in previous games, such as his stints on Melee Island and endless run-ins with the mysterious voodoo lady that's always more than willing to help him out.

The game's control system is a bit of a mish-mash of previous games in the series. Earlier Monkey Island titles were entirely mouse-driven, and you simply clicked where you wanted Guybrush to walk, look, interact, etc. The fourth game, probably due to it being co-developed for a console release, had a more archaic keyboard-based control scheme that never felt particularly intuitive. Tales of Monkey Island has the best of both worlds by giving you control over Guybrush's movement and actions being performed. It's not quite the same as the old point-and-click adventure style, but it's close enough.

I was originally a little disappointed at first that Tales would be 3D. The previous game, Escape from Monkey Island, was the first time the series went 3D and was a huge disappointment after playing through the beautifully drawn interactive cartoon that was Monkey Island 3. Characters looked incredibly basic, and the environments were made up of blurry backgrounds stitched together. The resulting game looked and felt like it should have skipped the third dimension entirely and kept to the series' roots. Luckily videogame graphics have moved on significantly since then, and Tales does look pretty damn good. The game has a simplified, blocky art style, and looks and feels like a true MI title. The character designs have moved on a little bit too. Guybrush has clearly aged a bit, and is now sporting a rather fetching pirate goatee.


Overall Comments

Whether you're a die-hard Monkey Island fan, a point-and-click adventure enthusiast, or just somebody that enjoys swashbuckling while exchanging witty insults, I'd definitely suggest giving this one a go. The game has been split into episodes, and at 1000 points a pop, you really don't have much to lose in at least trying the first one. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is a fine installment to the Monkey Island series, and while it's not particularly long, you'll be able to download the next episode in no time. And with a cliff-hanger like the one at the end of Narwhal, you'll find it hard to resist.

Fonte: http://www.n-philes.com/news/4774/review-tales-of-monkey-island-launch-of-the-screaming-narwhal/

 

[I_Eat_All]

Impressões Retronauts:

Three Reasons Tales of Monkey Island Got It Right

I'm a huge fan of old-school PC adventure games; you can probably chalk this up to the fact that I got into the genre just as it peaked. By the time my family bought their first PC, LucasArts started offering most of their classics in affordable bundles. So, throughout the mid-to-late 90s, I fully submerged myself into a previously-unknown world of gaming, and had one hell of a time in the process. Keeping my adventure gaming past in mind, it shouldn't surprise any of you that I immediately leapt on Telltale's new Sam and Max games the very day the first episode hit the Internet, but something truly unexpected happened along the way: I got sick of adventure games. Maybe it was just me, or maybe the dog and rabbit duo's shtick had gotten old after nearly a dozen adventures, but I couldn't even force myself to start up the last episode of Sam and Max's second season.

So when Telltale games announced Tales of Monkey Island a little over a month ago, I was excited, but cautious. Even though I wasn't sure if my adventure game burnout was terminal, I still bought it, if only to support a genuinely great developer. And after playing through ToMI's first episode, I can safely say that adventure games are fun once again. So how did Telltale do the impossible and once again capture the spirit of a beloved series that hasn't seen life in almost a decade? I'm glad you asked.


Guybrush Is at His Guybrush-iest

Rest assured, fans of Guybrush's characterization from the third game onward; in Tales, he's still the slightly-patronizing goof you've grown to love. Tales also presents Guybrush at his most animated since the all-too-brief cinema scenes from Curse of Monkey Island--in fact, he's probably the most convincingly expressive Telltale character yet. Add in veteran Guybrush voice actor Dominic Armato, and you've got a protagonist that's a pure joy just to watch, even when he's just spouting one-liners.


Michael Land Returns

Veteran video game composer and iMUSE co-creator Michael Land hasn't done many soundtracks outside of the LucasArts canon, but his work is absolutely stellar. It's hard to imagine what Tales of Monkey Island would be like without him, because so much of the game's atmosphere is wrapped up in his songs and the neat little musical transitions that date back to the first Monkey Island. If you don't get goosebumps when the stirring Monkey Island theme plays over Tales' opening credits, you may be dead inside.


Telltale Hits New Heights

Nearly all of my (very few) complaints about the Sam and Max series have been addressed with the design of Tales of Monkey Island; notably, the game sets up an epic story and gives you some real motivation to see what happens next--as well as a huge cliffhanger that's sure to drive many people crazy until next month. And unlike Sam and Max, Guybrush isn't so ironically detached and uncaring about his own goals--though he's still an amusingly huge jerk whenever the need arises. Even the puzzles of the game seem a little "smarter" when compared to what Telltale has done in the past; there are a few unintuitive moments when you're forced to find a certain item or talk to a particular person before the game lets you move on, but the one island per game approach that Tales is seemingly taking means that it's not too hard to eventually stumble into the right solution.

I do have a few complaints about Telltale's take on Monkey Island, but I'll save those for another blog post. Until then, consider Launch of the Screaming Narwhal to be wholly recommended by yours truly. And if any Telltale folks are reading this, please note that I will give you my first born if you decide to make Tales of Maniac Mansion. And since I'm currently without children, maybe I can bake you guys a loaf of banana bread instead?

Fonte: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8998329&publicUserId=5631527