Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

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MusicallyInspired
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Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#1 Post by MusicallyInspired » Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:26 pm


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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#2 Post by pbpb33 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:54 am

This is a big deal!! Will these be "adventure" games? It appears so!! I bet these games are going to be available for the iPad. Things are looking up for adventure gaming!! Hopefully these big franchise games do well, get lots of attention and lead more companies to take chances on adventure games... particularly those with great and original stories.

I love their trailer. They're promoting themselves so effectively!

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#3 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:15 am

Back to the Future is my favourite movie EVER. I know every little detail inside out and back to front! So my feelings on this announcement are a little mixed.

Firstly, Back to the Future was actually a title I'd always wanted to work towards seeking a license for and making a game of at some point (if we ever got into a position to do so) so I'm a little miffed. But I'm also excited that something new is coming out of a franchise that REALLY deserves more attention, especially when we keep seeing endless Star Wars and Indiana Jones clones. Although, I really don't know how well Back to the Future would translate over to a slower-paced adventure game. I love BTTF and I love adventure games, but if I were to make a BTTF game, I wouldn't design it as a pure adventure game and I wouldn't make it episodic in nature. The movies are fast-paced and tense, and I'd think a BTTF game would be better suited to an open-world GTA-like sandbox environment (perhaps mixed with adventure game elements), especially for potential skateboard/hoverboard chase scenes, rather than an adventure game world with typically limited scenes and screenspace.

Secondly, I really hope TellTale don't make a game with cartoony models or comic bookish in style like Sam and Max or Tales of Monkey Island. I hope they replicate the film's look, rather than the cartoon series. All previously released BTTF games have been complete and utter crap, so it's about time the franchise received an above average game. Yet, I think in order to do the films justice, a BTTF title would really need high-quality models as well as the voices of the original cast -- including Michael J. Fox (like in the recent Ghostbusters game). Anything less would simply not do the game justice and would feel "cheap" in the minds of fans who have waited a long, long time for something of this caliber. Maybe Telltale will surprise, but I don't know if their graphical technology and their pull with SAG is "there" yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'd buy the game either way because I love the franchise and want to support anything BTTF, plus I'm also interested to see how TellTale handles it. But they have selected a film with a very, VERY detail-minded fan-base. People will analyze absolutely every aspect of this game and compare it to the films for accuracy. Hence, they have taken on an enormous responsibility here and it could backfire just as easily as it could succeed. I really hope they do the franchise justice!

Telltale, you need me as a consultant on this! :lol

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#4 Post by pbpb33 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:26 am

I used to go to a gym (originally a retail department store) inside a mall whose parking lot was where an important scene from the original movie was shot. I didn't know the movie was filmed there until recently.

here are some pics some guy posted on youtube:


better scenes are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mLn2fwnxi0 ... you can see them matched up with the actual movie footage at the end of this clip.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#5 Post by Erpy » Sat Jun 12, 2010 10:50 am

When Chris, Sean and I visited Brit in the US, we visited several places where BTTF was filmed as part of a pilgrimage of sorts. (ironically, I didn't watch the films until afterwards so the impact was partially lost on me :) ) Among the locales we got to were Doc's house where he lived in 1955, Marty's house, the Burger King near Doc's garage where the first movie starts and Lorraine's house. (the bird watching tree was still there)

Image

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#6 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 11:22 am

BTTF.com wrote:CEO Dan Conners describes each game not as sequels, but rather as new interpretations of their worlds for new mediums, teasing that the Back to the Future game might include the DeLorean traveling to 1970.
Marty: No! Oh Please God no! This can't be happening. This can't be...

Doc: I'm afraid it is happening, Marty. All of it.

New interpretations? Oh, boy, this doesn't sound good. Why am I reminded of the BTTF ride all of a sudden? *GULP*

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#7 Post by pbpb33 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 11:47 am

I would rather see new interpretations than scene-by-scene recreations or storylines that pick up exactly where the movies left off. There's so much potential there for all kinds of new stories and different twists. Sort of like with the new Star Trek movie... they took it in a new direction, and it really paid off! Let's hope they get some great writers for the games. I'm less concerned about every detail being absolutely in synch with the movies than I am with the games being well-written and engaging, as long as they stay true to the spirit of the original movies' characters and world.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#8 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 12:36 pm

In my opinion, the only way that should be done is if Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale personally write the storylines, so that they could be considered official BTTF canon. When other writers start re-interpreting the story it can easily become a watered-down spin-off that contradicts the original franchise... Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull notwithstanding. (I know we released the King's Quest II remake in this fashion, but that was originally an unlicensed and unofficial game.) In such cases, it's often best for the game/film/spin-off not to be made at all. For example: how can the Delorean go back to the 1970's? For what reason, when Marty, Doc, and Biff were the only ones who knew about the time machine? Why would Doc allow further time travel if they spent the 2nd and 3rd movies 'fixing' the chain reaction of disastrous repercussions caused by the events of the first film? See, the BTTF movies make a perfect trilogy with a clear message behind them. That's why no more film sequels were ever made. By allowing further time travel that's not constrained to the events of the movies, they risk watering down the events of the film and weakening the message behind why Doc ends up wishing he never invented the time machine in the first place. BTTF Fans (particularly the non-gamers) will be more likely to see this as a cash-in on the franchise if it strays from the plot boundaries and rules that the original film's writers have defined. This is also the problem with both the BTTF ride and the cartoon series and why most fans disregard them.

In light of this, I can just see them doing a "Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude", where you don't actually play the game as Marty, but as a new character instead. If TellTale want this to succeed like they hope it will, they can't contradict the plots of the films. BTTF fans are too picky!

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#9 Post by pbpb33 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:03 pm

Well, I absolutely loved your KQ2 game, just as I loved your other games, so to me that game is an argument in favor of taking chances at reinterpreting classics. Sure, a reinterpretation can be done badly... but it can also be a success and an achievement in its own right. I hear what you're saying, but think that if they get very talented writers to do the BTTF game, they could have a great product. Would you rather have no BTTF game at all if the original people cannot be involved? That seems like a shame. There are plenty of creative, talented people out there... why not give them a crack at it. Why would the Delorean go back to the 70's? I don't know, but I'm sure a creative writer could come up with something. I just hope they put a lot of effort into finding excellent writers. I think that will make or break the whole thing more than the graphics and animation (though I, too, hope they avoid a too-cartoony look). What did you think of the latest Star Trek movie? Did you think the new interpretations were a bad thing?

As for LSLS:MCL (and, to a greater extent, LSL: BOB), the biggest problem for me wasn't that the main character was different, but rather that the games were just not anywhere near as fun as LSL7, the style of humor of the original games was nowhere to be found, and there were hardly any plot-driven puzzles. I'm willing to accept reinterpretations here and there, as long as the new products are good in their own right and are made in same the spirit of/are mostly faithful to the original. The new LSL games were just LSL games in name only, in my opinion.
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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#10 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:34 pm

I'm not a Star Trek fan, so I didn't see the latest movie. But most film remakes and sequels that I have seen in the past decade or so have been abominations that should never have been made. If you're going to release a sequel to a popular franchise, you'd better be 100% sure you can pull off a Terminator 2 effort and not a Terminator 3 one! >D As I mentioned, you need to handle it with as much respect as possible, so as not to disappoint the core fanbase. Saying "We have an official license, so we have permission to change whatever we want!" doesn't wash. A good writer and designer will always respect the original creator's rules.

In retrospect, if we were licensed to make King's Quest II as an official, commercial product, we wouldn't have included the Father storyline in it, simply because it's not canon and it doesn't adhere to Roberta Williams' original plot. Regardless of whether her story or ours is better, I think it's asking way too much to force players to 'officially' re-adapt their perception of an entire series, just so that a new writer can accommodate their non-canon ideas. Unless the original writer has given permission or endorsed it personally, this undermines their intentions. I'm not against new writers contributing to something if they are skilled, but if even the very best writer breaks canon, then he's making a poor business decision by disappointing and turning off the most loyal part of the fanbase - the die-hards.

If Telltale made a BTTF game that stayed safely within the confines of the original plot, then I wouldn't be opposed to some new content or new scenes being added. For example, in the first film, Marty spends a week in 1955, and we don't get to see *everything* he does in that week. So there's the potential to add new quests in between the key plot moments that we're all familiar with.

But going back to the 70's, the prehistoric era (Jurassic park cross-over?), the ice age? Blarrghhh. It's cheesy and won't work in the context of the original films, regardless of how smoothly they try to write their way around it.

With Magna Cum Laude, you'll find that one of the biggest complaints from original Larry fans was also the new player character. The fans who were comfortable with a new player character seemed to be the minority... so why take the risk by experimenting? If it makes sense that people will be more willing to buy a product if they're already familiar with the main character, that's what companies should be doing to maximize sales. But who knows, maybe TellTale will let us play as Marty McFly. One of the reasons I thought they might include a new player character, would be to get around the hurdle that Michael J. Fox possibly might not be able to provide the voice on account of his Parkinsons.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#11 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:53 pm

In a press release somewhere TTG said that this would be an opportunity to experiment with other "genres and gameplay types."

And don't worry, AGD2, your concerns (and hosts and hosts of others) are bombarding the TellTale forums right now. A lot of them quite ridiculous. But everything you can think of and more has been brought up over there.

I hope it's fairly realistic or at least a stylized realism (like Star Trek Online), but has anyone seen the BTTF cartoon or comics?


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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#12 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:01 pm

So, it seems Telltale have actually gotten Bob Gale on board to help with the writing, as well as the agreement of Christopher Lloyd to provide the voice of Doc Brown. Impressive!

http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-660

Still no word on Michael J Fox's vocal involvement, but fingers crossed!

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#13 Post by MusicallyInspired » Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:48 pm

I like the art style as well. Looking forward to this!

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#14 Post by Lambonius » Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:35 pm

Oh wow, that concept art is amazing! I could be wrong, but that looks a lot like it was drawn by Steve Purcell, which blows my mind in such an awesome way. :)

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#15 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:22 pm

The article says the concept art is by Ryan Jones. I'll be very interested to see whether the in-game models end up resembling this style!

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#16 Post by Lambonius » Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:30 pm

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:The article says the concept art is by Ryan Jones. I'll be very interested to see whether the in-game models end up resembling this style!
Whoops, you're right. Not sure how I missed that. :) The two art styles are fairly similar though.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#17 Post by MusicallyInspired » Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:28 pm

I think Ryan Jones was the same guy who drew concept art for Tales of Monkey Island. The style is certainly similar.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#18 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:10 am

I love the details on the drawing of Marty, right down to the accuracy of the two shirts he wears under his "life preserver", and his marrone t-shirt.

The only thing that bugs me is the missing Nike swoosh on his shoes. ;)

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#19 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:59 pm

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:I love the details on the drawing of Marty, right down to the accuracy of the two shirts he wears under his "life preserver", and his marrone t-shirt.

The only thing that bugs me is the missing Nike swoosh on his shoes. ;)
intenional I'd say. Not only for copyright reasons but I don't Nike's going to make good on those self lacers in 2015.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#20 Post by navynuke04 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:53 am

Quest For Glory Fan wrote:...I don't Nike's going to make good on those self lacers in 2015.
That made me chuckle.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#21 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:49 am

They recently patented the idea.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#22 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:25 am

Wow, you're right!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/ ... g-sneaker/

Also, Nike did make a replica version of the 2015 shoes a few years back. They were limited editions (only a few thousand or so pairs rolled off the production line), and they also looked pretty horrible, in my opinion. The worst part was they didn't use the power laces, and didn't look exactly like the ones from BTTF2. Also, the price tag was some crazy amount like $2,000!

Image Image

More information:

http://www.myairshoes.com/nike/nike-mar ... dunks.html

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#23 Post by navynuke04 » Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:10 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBBw9E2Q ... ata_player

Pasting this from my iPhone, so I hope it works.

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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#24 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Thu Oct 14, 2010 7:57 pm

Telltale have been tweeting some great stuff recently about Back the the Future. Since this year is the 25th anniversary of the first film, they're also preparing the trilogy for release on BluRay as well as the cinematic re-release. Here's a great video with Michael J Fox and Lea Thompson (who played his mother, Lorraine McFly) from a recent reunion photo-shoot they did:


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Re: Telltale Games take on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park

#25 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Tue Oct 26, 2010 10:53 am

The Back to the Future game is now available for pre-order for $24.95 from TellTale:

http://www.telltalegames.com/bttf

I've pre-ordered mine. It's a pity they weren't able to get Michael J. Fox to perform the voice of Marty. That would have really added a lot of authenticity to a game that has been a long time coming and would have added the icing on the cake for the die-hard BTTF fans. I'm sure the sound-a-like actor they've got will do a very good job... but it's not really the same. Considering Fox still does the occasional episode of Scrubs, and that this year also marks BTTF's 25th anniversary, I'd really hoped they would have been able to pull out all the stops and make it happen. Bummer.

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