Telltale should make an Indy game

00Kevin

Indyfan
Telltale games have produced a number of licensed point and click graphic adventure games in the past few years (back to the future, jurassic park, the walking dead, fables, game of thrones) which have been met with critical acclaim. They have cemented their name in the industry as the modern masters of the graphic adventure.

There may be connections between telltale and Indiana Jones. Telltale was formed in 2004 by a number of Lucasarts employees after Lucasarts abruptly canceled the graphic adventure they were working on. Telltale are are said to have many ex Lucasarts employees. LucasArts had made several Indiana Jones graphic adventures around the early 1990s including The Last Crusade, The Fate of Atlantis (for many the best Indy game ever), Desktop Adventures, plus two canceled graphic adventure games, and not to mention the numerous action games made at the time. So it's possible that some of the people at Telltale have experience working on an Indy game.

I think a telltale graphic adventure would be perfect for Indy. The real question is if Telltale would want to do an Indy game. I read an article from January that they are interested in James Bond and considering their tenancies to make games for licensed franchises and their connection to Lucasarts, Indiana Jones seems right up their alley.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Theoretically speaking, the sort of interactive series in the vein of the Walking Dead or the Wolf Among Us sounds like a pretty nice fit for the Indiana Jones franchise. Episodic adventures full of witty quips and peril, each ending in some kind of cliffhanger would nod nicely to the roots the IP has in the old serials. And Telltale has a pretty good track record of working with both old Spielberg IPs like BTTF and Jurassic Park (though these weren't actually acclaimed at all, on the opposite) and LEC stuff, giving us more Sam & Max and Monkey Island. Indy would arguably fit this continuity pretty nicely. But. This was all before the deal with Disney.

I did some quick due diligence - it doesn't appear that any of Telltale's former works have Disney connections. New avenues can of course always be opened... but it doesn't look likely that we hear this kind of news any time soon. To a sharp observer, it's quite obvious that Disney intends to rejuvenate Indiana Jones at some point, given the pains they went through to acquire the rights from Paramount, but I'm guessing ATM they don't have a clear direction on what to do with what they've got.
 

IAdventurer01

Well-known member
I agree the Indy angle would be hard for Telltale to approach - from a business angle that is. Due to the Disney purchase, they're probably in decent shape to do more with other LucasArts IPs since Disney likely has no plans for them. It's hard to argue with, "Let us make something you barely know you have right to. You'll get paid!"

Still Telltale's newer Walking Dead format of game probably would lend itself pretty well to an Indy adventure. As much as I prefer their older more traditional adventure games, an Indy adventure is more fitting for their new format.
 

Lambonius

New member
Oh dear God, no.

I'm not so desperate for a new Indy game that I'd want to see it shoe-horned into Telltale's interactive movie QTE bull****.

If someone wanted to make an Indy ADVENTURE GAME, however, I'd be very interested. ;)
 

HenryJunior

New member
I like their commitment to the source material on games, but their style would make the action segments incredibly underwhelming. They would be a good fit for a booby-trap/puzzle kind of game, but you also need some action for Indy.
 

Lambonius

New member
HenryJunior said:
I like their commitment to the source material on games, but their style would make the action segments incredibly underwhelming. They would be a good fit for a booby-trap/puzzle kind of game, but you also need some action for Indy.

I'd argue that they'd be a pretty bad fit for all aspects of an Indy story, with the possible exception of characterization. Telltale doesn't DO puzzles. There'd be no riddles to solve or mysteries to unravel, at least not any in which the player took an active role in solving them. Every interaction the player had through the game would be Indy talking to people. If you want a straight-up animated Indiana Jones movie, where you have to do the equivalent of pressing "Play" every so often, then by all means--Telltale's your company. ;)
 

IAdventurer01

Well-known member
Prior to the release of the Last Crusade adventure game, Lucasarts' adventure games were pretty much exclusively talking to people and some item combining without any action. They slapped on a crude fighting system to that game. Tweaking it a bit further, and pairing it with a fantastic story, they made Fate of Atlantis, which I believe is still widely regarded as the best Indiana Jones game ever made.

Does Telltale's current format exactly match an Indy adventure? Perhaps not, but with a few minor tweaks and a really good story, yes, I would be fine with a "straight-up animated Indiana Jones movie"


That said, the best style of play for an Indy game would be more like Uncharted, and I think few people debate that fact. However, the Indy franchise is versatile enough it can fit well into more than one style-of-play.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Telltale makes both kinds of games mentioned here. Traditional adventures - it's what they started with, after all, and more recently, this stuff I suppose you could call "interactive movies".

And the gripes presented by HenryJunior and Lambonius are both correct. Conveying action in the traditional adventure game format is a little difficult and often underwhelming. And the other type doesn't really involve much of what you'd traditionally understand as "gameplay". You get to pick responses and there are QTEs and sometimes you may see different lines and different outcomes because of that, but you hardly still feel you're directly responsible of the actions of your player avatar.

That being said, creating a "perfect" Indy game is an extremely tall ordeal, as the character does not fit into a single facet. You can't just make a shooter and have Indy gun down hundreds of mooks. Trying to concentrate on his brainy side often leaves the necessary action sequences quite lacking. And even if you do manage to mar things together, facets like action and exploration might work well together, but the puzzles involved would very likely be highly simplistic. Or if you upped the ante on them, the gunplay would suffer... and so forth. Also, such a game wouldn't exactly be marketable. I'm not saying there wouldn't be folks who could enjoy all the facets, I know I would, but there would still be plenty of adventure gamers who want to test their brain, not their reflexes. And the dudebros would soon get bored when they'd have to solve riddles before getting back to gunning down nazis.

Telltale's interactive story format would be far from perfect, but it looks like one of the better compromises to convey all aspects necessary. And I have to say, even if you're not a fan of the medium, griping about it would be shooting your own leg if you still are a fan of the character. As there also would be plenty of people genuinely excited about the prospect - and said excitement just might propel further interest to bring Indy back in a more preferrable form as well...
 

RedWhirlwind

New member
And they need to get Doug Lee back like they did with The Infernal Machine. ;)
They should also have Robert Tinkler play the sidekick this time.
 

TheFedora

Active member
I'm thinking if TellTale did an Indy game, they should have it be a fate of Atlantis remake. Or something similar, but have it modeled a lot on the wolf among us and the Walking dead as well.
 

Lambonius

New member
TheFedora said:
I'm thinking if TellTale did an Indy game, they should have it be a fate of Atlantis remake. Or something similar, but have it modeled a lot on the wolf among us and the Walking dead as well.

I think you and I have very different definitions of the word "remake."
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
I wouldn't mind the original FoA being given the same facelift as they did to Monkey Islands 1 & 2. But to turn it into what is practically a whole another game... nah. There's really no point in recycling the story in that case. If they really were to give Indy that Telltale's "interactive movie" treatment, there's little point in not going for a whole new story. Ought to call it a wasted opportunity, even.
 

Bjorn Heimdall

Active member
If Telltale would make an Indy game in the style of Tales of Monkey Island, I would be all over it. They seem to have moved away from that style of games, however.
 

mrman7

New member
Great idea

Telltale seems to be carrying the torch for the legacy of "graphical adventures" and since that is the genre that Indy games have always worked best in, I think this would be a great fit. However, I don't see how the business side would work on this. Although Disney is working with third-party developers on Infinity 3.0, I think if we see an Indy game soon it will be done in-house (and we probably won't see it until a new film comes out either). :mad:
 

Shane Henry

New member
Lambonius said:
Oh dear God, no.

I'm not so desperate for a new Indy game that I'd want to see it shoe-horned into Telltale's interactive movie QTE bull****.

If someone wanted to make an Indy ADVENTURE GAME, however, I'd be very interested. ;)

Naughty Dog? That would be great cause there're so much adventure about Indy can be produced, but they got nate, hahaha;)
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
I'd be quite happy with a story-driven Indy game. It's not like it will somehow preclude the action-oriented games from other studios that will inevitably supplement it. And anyway, let's not pretend that the action/adventure efforts to date have been mindblowing. They've been solid Tomb Raider ripoffs at best.
 

The Tingler

New member
Infernal Machine blew my mind.... :D

But yeah, I'm totally on board with Telltale making an Indy game and I'd play the hell out of that. I'm convinced they actually tried to do just that after Tales of Monkey Island but with LucasArts combusting yet again the Universal deal lead them to do Back To The Future and Jurassic Park instead.

Now though I'm sure Telltale has their pick of licenses. They've got Batman and maybe Marvel in the near future, as well as more Game of Thrones and Walking Dead, but I would not be surprised if they added a LucasFilm property to their list.

In all honesty though as usual it'll probably be Star Wars... :(
 

dprog

Active member
I'm not sure. Because episodic games are kinda flops.(Half Life 2, Hitman 2016 etc)

If we ever get a telltale style indy game I don't think episodic format is a good idea.
 
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