[Tramboi]

They won't develop new Bone episodes for 6/8 months to concentrate on Sam&Max.

http://www.clubic.com/actualite-3793...x-gametap.html
(In French)

Reactions?
I am a bit sad because this confirms that episodic games are not reliable, and if it happens to Bone, it could happen to Sam&Max too.

[samIamsad]

Care to translate that article?

Telltale putting Bone on hold doesn't confirm anything. Or maybe it does. That it's hard for a small team like theirs to work on two projects at once. Or something along the lines of that. But even if that is the case, and we don't know if it is, what has that got to do with episodic gaming as such?

[jannar85]

It's because they are a small team, and want to make quality products they only focus on one game at the time. I think the team will increase if the episodes will sell enough.

Oh, I've read somewhere that they wanted to work on several games in the future, at the same time, so we get a new game another month or something like those lines.

[jp-30]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

They won't develop new Bone episodes for 6/8 months to concentrate on Sam&Max.

Reactions?

There was a 5 or 6 month gap between BONE 1 and BONE 2 anyway, so this really is a non-story.

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by jp-30

There was a 5 or 6 month gap between BONE 1 and BONE 2 anyway, so this really is a non-story.

Wasn't it supposed to accelerate?
Mmmh two episodes per year for 10 episodes is a bit longer that what I can wait for playing through the whole Bone story.
Let's hope that the engine will evolve during this time.

Anyway, whether Agon or Bone, I wasn't satisfied with the pace of episodic adventure games, but this is a personal thing I suppose.

[Dale Baldwin]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Wasn't it supposed to accelerate?

It probably would have had Telltale not got the S&M license.

[Solid Snake]

That's how the episodic games mostly end like so it's not a surprise at all.

[custard]

Bone game - Sam and Max season - Bone game - Sam and Max season and so on would be fine by me

[bysmitty]

I'm very disappointed by this news. I guess the episodic curse lives on. I know it is only delayed and not canceled but it still shows the problems that exist with this design style. I want the S&M games and I want Telltale to make quality products... but I also want to be shown consideration from the developers when I invest in a series and not have them get sidetracked whenever they feel like it. Maybe I'm unfairly judging this news due to my AGON experience but I don't see how this could be considered a good thing.

...bysmitty

[Erwin_Br]

Is this news official?

--Erwin

[Kolzig]

Well at least it isn't yet, no major news site has reported about this.

[TheGreyMatter]

Originally Posted by jp-30

There was a 5 or 6 month gap between BONE 1 and BONE 2 anyway, so this really is a non-story.

do not forget the last bone game was released in april.
which means the gap between Bone2 and Bone 3 will be over a year! not very encouraging consdering the fact that we are still talking abput episodic gaming.

[Junkface]

This is disappointing, but as has been said before I think it relates far more to Telltale's status as a small company than one dedicated to episodic gaming. I've seen Bone being on hold mentioned in a few other articles but nothing specifically saying it would be for 6-8 months. It may be a misunderstanding due to the language barrier. I just hope that resources aren't being diverted to some Bruckheimer inspired guaranteed mediocrity. At any rate, something's definitely happening with Bone, what with Jeff Smith's blog entry discussed here and the Bone Gold! announcement at Leipzig (I can't see how the games could be sold for 40 Euros without significant changes.)

[eriq]

I would, personally, rather see Telltale focusing on Sam and Max and, hopefully, another completely original new title. (crossing fingers for a space adventure game.) They are such a talented crew and, while I loved Bone 1&2, I would love to see something fresh.

[Owskie]

i dont like episodic games anyway, takes away from my immersion, and as far as im concerned ... shorter.

[Lunatik]

Well, I still have faith in Telltale Games. Although this is very sad news, I'm sure if they do something like this, it will be for the better (for both Bone and Sam & Max).

It's still a young company, you know.

[Udvarnoky]

This is really not breaking news if you've been reading interviews of late. Telltale's eventual plan is for each series to have their own teams and thus be able to be produced independently of each other, but it's apparently still too early and their team too small for that goal to be realistic just yet. Keep in mind that they're the first to try this approach, have been at it for a short time (as far as I know the first year was building the engine and Texas Hold'em) and that they're made up of about 20 people. It has nothing to do with their not being "reliable," and there's no reason to suspect that Sam & Max won't be released as scheduled. Bone never had an official release plan for all the episodes, whereas Sam & Max does. In order to meet that it would seem they need the focus of everyone, and I wouldn't be surprised if the success of Sam & Max's new model will have an effect on Bone when (not if) they continue it. (Also, it's pretty obvious why Telltale's giving Sam & Max favor over Bone as far as order of release. Were most people really hoping they would delay Sam & Max to finish all the Bone episodes first? They're giving us Sam & Max first because that's what everyone obviously wanted.)

Telltale will still have released an episode 5-6 months after its last one, even if it is from a different license, and soon we'll be seeing episodes much faster. It's not proof of a "curse" nor is it a "problem with this design style" because they aren't yet at a point where they've reached the model they want. I think some of you are just looking for ways to confirm your feelings that episodic = bad.

[Scoville]

Originally Posted by Udvarnoky

Keep in mind that they're the first to try this approach

What? Episodic games have been tried many times. People have already mentioned AGON. Sega tried it with Shenmue more than five years ago, but stopped after only 6 of the planned 16 chapters. Crystal Dynamics tried it with the Legacy of Kain series. They faired a little better as the last game brought some closer, but they still have not ended the story. Also, their plan for having faster episodic releases completely failed to materialize. Core planned for it with Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness but it never happened. Quantic Dream attempted to make Indigo Prophecy episodic, but backed out. The one success story is Xenosaga, which has its final episode shipping out today. But, thanks to misinformed conjecture sweeping across the internet and becoming fact in the mind of most of the series' fans, people think that series was cancelled prematurely despite their being no proof of that.

[Udvarnoky]

I know that episodic gaming is nothing new. I thought it was a given that I was talking about the particular approach Telltale's taking with Sam & Max ("seasonal" monthy releases), which is in fact unprecedented. So is their ultimate goal of having an episode of any given series being released every 5-6 weeks.

[Solid Snake]

Well,I hope we don't see a thread of "Bad news of Telltale: Sam'N Max on hold " any time in the future.