By Quintin Smith on December 3rd, 2010 at 9:39 am.
First we had news of Telltale’s Back To The Future adventure game. Then, we had pictures. Today, we have… moving pictures. What will come next? Nothing, I think. We’re at the top of the tech tree, gentlemen. It can’t get any better than this. Watch the eerily expressive eyes of Marty McFly after the break. The break… to the future!
Five episodes! They’re selling doc’s stuff! A 3D recreation of that comedy amplifier! Why does the Doc have that amp, anyway.
03/12/2010 at 09:54 Monchberter says:
Slightly slow mo?
03/12/2010 at 09:56 MadTinkerer says:
BOM BOM BOM BANAAAAAA!!!!! BANA BA BANA BANA!!!!!
…
Which makes this look like a post about bananas, but really it’s about BTTF.
03/12/2010 at 09:59 Jonathan says:
I’m somewhat amused that because I don’t have sound on my work computer I can’t continue the tech tree to include talkies.
I’ve been excited by this since it was announced — I’m a big BTTF nerd, and my heart jumped a little when the DeLorean showed up — but I’ve only just realised that this has the potential for time jump puzzle shenanegans à la DoTT. I hope they try to use that mechanic or something similar.
03/12/2010 at 10:21 Giant, fussy whingebag says:
I hope you’re right about the DoTT-style time puzzles. Telltale have already been experimenting with such things, in S&M season 3. I think they’ll have really missed the point if they don’t use them here.
03/12/2010 at 09:59 MarkSide says:
Woooo! Hope it lives up to the brand! Slightly more excited by this than I thought would be the case. That’s the power of love, I guess.
03/12/2010 at 10:05 bitbot says:
I hope they have some of that sweet 80′s music in the game too.
03/12/2010 at 10:06 Niels Walta says:
Well blimey! A BTTF game with all the proper licensing in place? All the way down to Huey Lewis and the News? Sign me up!
03/12/2010 at 10:26 c-Row says:
I think this rumored new stuff that’s called “Demonstration Version” (or demo for short) might push the tech tree’s boundaries at some point, but that’s still science fiction and won’t happen anytime soon for sure. Mark my words.
03/12/2010 at 10:29 Kieron Gillen says:
GREAT SCOTT.
KG
03/12/2010 at 11:29 Wulf says:
Blast you! I was going to do that. I was rather hoping no one had remembered to. At least, this time.
03/12/2010 at 17:26 Pseudonym says:
Heavy
03/12/2010 at 17:26 Renzatic says:
This is heavy!
RZT
03/12/2010 at 19:38 Bret says:
There’s that word again; “heavy”. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull?
06/12/2010 at 04:30 TheTingler says:
I still love that moment in Part III where Doc and Marty swap these exclamations.
“Holy s**t!” still works for me though.
03/12/2010 at 10:37 spork says:
Could someone PLEASE explain what kind of game this is? And I don’t mean “oh, it’s an adventure game”, I mean HOW DO YOU PLAY IT? Do you control your character or do you just point with the cursor and click where you want to walk like old games from the early 90′s? Do you actually have any type of control of “moves” with your character or is it just point and click?
I know nobody’s played it yet, but some of you must have played this company’s other games. How do they work? Looks like these games may be interactive cut scenes?
03/12/2010 at 10:51 Berzee says:
The other Telltale game I’ve played (Sam and Max, Strong Bad) were point-and-click-to-walk-around-and-use-things-from-your-inventory-or-talk-to-people dealios.
03/12/2010 at 10:52 Theblazeuk says:
HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS
WHAT YEAR IS IT
WHERE AM I
All valid questions for BTTF.
03/12/2010 at 10:55 Thermal Ions says:
Other games are all point and clicky, although you can bind keys to move around instead if you prefer.
Yes, that means “..you have to use your hands? That’s like a baby’s toy”
03/12/2010 at 11:21 Hidden_7 says:
Unfortunately, if Sam and Max season 3 and Tales of Monkey Island are anything to on, it will be a direct control scheme, with you either clicking and dragging to have your fellow move (not good) or use the keyboard to have them walk around (better, not great). Interacting with objects will still have you “pointing” and then “clicking” on them, just like how FPS’s control (I might be getting terms wrong here).
I hope I’m not the only one desperately hoping for a right mouse button click for “examine” rather than our only interactivity being a binary “do something” or “don’t.”
03/12/2010 at 13:30 Baggypants says:
You use your Hands?? That’s a babies toy.
03/12/2010 at 16:38 Dominic White says:
Having an entirely mouse-based control setup is actually pretty limiting. It means that you basically need the entire screen laid out as a panel of possible things to do, but if you’re controlling the movement of the character as you walk around, you can do a lot more with dynamic camera angles.
03/12/2010 at 16:48 lokimotive says:
Fuckin’ Adventure Games: how do they work?
03/12/2010 at 22:57 Barnaby says:
There’s magic everywhere up in this bitch!
Sweet reference loki.
04/12/2010 at 01:20 Subjective Effect says:
Har har. Well played loki, well played!
03/12/2010 at 10:41 MonkeyMonster says:
Wooooo, even the noise of the delorean engine sends shivers down the ol notocord…
03/12/2010 at 10:47 konrad_ha says:
The music is superb, but the character animations look like they’re from the 80s.
03/12/2010 at 11:38 Wulf says:
So, what if they used Unreal Engine instead, where everyone is stiff and dead-eyed? Polygon count isn’t everything, though some might think it is. To be honest, I still think that after all these years, the two heading up the industry in this regard are Valve and Telltale. Their engines tend to bring about the most genuinely emotive characters I’ve ever seen in a game.
Poker Night at the Inventory really did the Heavy justice, and all of the characters had a wide range of expressions. In fact, this seems to be technology directly lifted from Valve, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is. Their animation tech has come a hell of a long way since Sam & Max: Season 2. And some time around either Wallace & Gromit or Tales of Monkey Island, it really spiked and became quite impressive. It’s been getting better with every new game series.
Again, given their relationship with Valve, I would not at all be surprised if they’d borrowed some of Valve’s face animation tech. Since the only games I can think of that match the emotiveness of Telltale’s current offerings are those of Valve. And if you compare TF2′s Heavy with the Heavy of Poker Night at the Inventory, then, truth be told, there’s not a hell of a lot of difference.
The moral of the story is: Higher polymogon counts, higher resomolutive textures, and prettier graphics overall do not more emotive games make. The game may visually appear to be old technology, but the animations are great stuff, especially their facial animation tech.
03/12/2010 at 11:48 Joe W-A says:
Note: Facial animation has nothing to do with what engine it’s running on, Unreal or Telltale’s engine are as capable in that regard as Source. Valve seem to be the only people who bother with it though.
03/12/2010 at 12:11 MadTinkerer says:
My problem with the game? You use your hands to play it. That’s like a baby’s game.
And what’s with the terrible old-people music? It’s like Telltale have never heard of Hip-hop!
04/12/2010 at 07:54 Bret says:
I guess you guys aren’t ready for this sort of music, yet. But your kids are gonna love it.
03/12/2010 at 10:49 Thermal Ions says:
The amp is to entice teenage “slackers” to visit him at his home. These days it’d be viewed as a bit creepy probably.
03/12/2010 at 11:41 Wulf says:
And here I innocently thought the amp was for bizarre sociological experiments involving the effects of hamster chittering broadcasted across a large area over a period of time.
…I’m imaginative, I admit, but this one I didn’t come up with. A college friend of mine has been running various experiments with sound, and using his entire college dorm as guinea pigs.
03/12/2010 at 11:50 adonf says:
“Marty, if I die BURN MY HOUSE !!!”
03/12/2010 at 11:51 adonf says:
Nice trailer. I’m glad they spared us the film’s theme song.
04/12/2010 at 10:15 Matt says:
Gotta get BACK. IN. TIME!
06/12/2010 at 04:40 TheTingler says:
Did you just use the word “spared” in reference to the Back To The Future theme tune? I think you should consider editing, you’ve made a mistake there.
03/12/2010 at 12:10 JB says:
Yay! Staring eyes!
03/12/2010 at 12:23 muki says:
“come to my rescue in the past” is against Doc’s philosophy. Fail.
03/12/2010 at 12:38 Lukasz says:
Oh yeah. Because he didn’t send Marty to the past to save himself?
He didn’t take Marty from present to the future to set right what once will be set wrong?
03/12/2010 at 18:39 Wulf says:
Doc constantly goes against his philosophy. It was a piss-take of the Star Trek prime directive. Someone doesn’t get the joke. That someone is muki, just in case I’m not being too clear, here. :p
03/12/2010 at 12:41 icupnimpn2 says:
Participated in a VGSurveys marketing thing about this months ago. At that time, Telltale proposed a number of storylines and asked what elements of BTTF were most iconic / essential to the experience. It will be personally interesting to see what the devs did with that info. From the questions they asked, it was clear they had put some good thought into the franchise.
03/12/2010 at 13:05 reticulate says:
My only complaint is that the lip-syncing is horrendous.
Otherwise, the sound of that car revving up will always remind me of my childhood, and further prompt me to ask how much of my monies they want.
03/12/2010 at 13:31 frenz0rz says:
Lip-syncing? Where we’re going, we don’t need lip-syncing!
>__>
03/12/2010 at 18:36 Wulf says:
Nnnno… I don’t think it is. I think the problem is actually the trailer. If you watch carefully, it actually looks like the video and the sound (this is especially noticeable with the DeLoreon) are actually a little bit out of synch, in regards to everything. This might subconsciously lead one to believe that the lip-synching is off. In fact, watching it again, it’s even noticeable at the start where the little jingle plays not synched with the Telltale logo reveal. Something is off with the audio-video synching throughout in the trailer. It’s a problem with the trailer, not the lip-synching.
Watch it again and see if you can’t see it.
04/12/2010 at 10:46 Rich says:
Doesn’t mean that Marty’s idle expression isn’t really gormless.
03/12/2010 at 13:40 Theory says:
The lack of Michael Fox stands out a lot, but only because everything else is so spot on. Why couldn’t they get him? Has his voice changed a lot?
03/12/2010 at 13:48 Rick says:
He’s not in that great a condition to be voice acting anymore is the drift I got; his endorsement of the project is letting them use his likeness.
03/12/2010 at 14:16 reticulate says:
Yeah, I think he’s more or less retired at this point. Cue my continuing sadness about a man so well known for his youthful looks ending up with a disease people usually expect in old people.
That said, the guy they’ve got doing the voice is pretty spot-on as far as I can tell.
03/12/2010 at 17:19 Fergus says:
Yeah, MJF’s health has deteriorated a bit too much for him to be up to doing this kind of thing. If only this game was on a cards 2-3 years earlier.
03/12/2010 at 14:19 ZenArcade says:
Whoa. This is heavy.
03/12/2010 at 15:00 Shariq says:
I sincerely hope that Huey Lewis and the News music will be featuring in the game and not just the trailer.
03/12/2010 at 15:00 Shariq says:
*FEATURED, not featuring.
I am dumb.
03/12/2010 at 18:01 Theory says:
“Will be featuring” is fine.
03/12/2010 at 16:40 Xercies says:
That opening little bit just puts shivers down my spine. I love back To The future! really can’t wait for this!
03/12/2010 at 17:02 P7uen says:
The second they let me give them my money, I will do it..
03/12/2010 at 20:21 spork says:
Thanks to those who commented on what type of game this will be.
What a bloody shame that the only BTTF game to come out in like 20 years is gonna be a stupid point and click adventure. This series deserves so much more than a hackneyed game mechanic from 1991.
Someone needs to make a BTTF mod for a REAL game that you actually PLAY.
03/12/2010 at 20:46 Kryopsis says:
You’re right. BTTF needs more quick timer events and corridors.
03/12/2010 at 21:02 Newblade says:
They gotta turn it into an action name. That’s not hackneyed in the least.
03/12/2010 at 21:50 Sassenach says:
Maybe a hoverboard based racing game. or at least minigame.
03/12/2010 at 23:01 Scandalon says:
So spork, you wanna let us in on this amazing design you have that you “actually play”?
03/12/2010 at 23:52 KillahMate says:
I’m thinking an FPS would be best. Possibly with some new kind of Flux Capacitor, like a Russian version, one that might fit on, say, a glove. Such a glove might feasibly be pointed at things to make them jump through time; make young people old, perhaps even return old, ruined machinery back to its previous functioning state! Also some monsters. Why? Fucked if I know.
Now that would be much better than this stupid point and click game; a singularly original design, even!
04/12/2010 at 00:04 BAReFOOt says:
@KillahMate: So you want to make it “better” by changing everything that makes BTTF what it is? Yeah, you sound like one of those annoying fanfic people who do their own “episodes” that are just like this. Suddenly Kirk was actually an alien in a suit all the time, the Enterprise can travel time, all canon is thrown away, Earth never existed, and the Klingons are pink elephants who do it to themselves with their trunks. :P
04/12/2010 at 01:41 KillahMate says:
@BAReFOOt: Ooh, a sarcasm detection failure! Haven’t had that happen to me for the longest time.
Tediously straightforward explanation: in line with the jokey suggestions above me, I basically described Singularity, a Raven Software FPS. Which seemed funny to me because it had absolutely nothing to do with BTTF, and therefore I assumed it could be used to gently mock the original post. I tried to signpost it by overtly punning on the game’s Singular nature. In retrospect, referencing a lesser FPS in a thread full of adventure gamers wasn’t the brightest of ideas. I’ll try better next time.
See? See how dull it is when it’s laid out like that? Let’s all agree to do better next time so we can avoid these awkward situations.
04/12/2010 at 06:04 Oak says:
Shoes? Where we’re forking, we don’t need shoes.
04/12/2010 at 06:05 Oak says:
Haha, a reply fail! Isn’t that funny? I’m gonna go stand in the corner and cry quietly to myself.
04/12/2010 at 06:44 Crumpled Stiltskin says:
Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn’t by this game that he’d melt my brain.
04/12/2010 at 08:05 Trains O Scale says:
You know, they never did finish releasing the Sam & Max season of games on the iPad. Checking the app store, the first episode continues to live on by its lonely self. Here’s to hoping that BTTF will receive better treatment.
04/12/2010 at 16:27 Frankle says:
I’ve just had a thought. I know I shouldn’t, it’s terrible for my health but anyone else think it would be a good idea if telltale had a go at making simon the sorcerer or discworld games? I know another company apparently murdered the simon games but I reckon they could pull them off.
04/12/2010 at 05:11 Corporate Dog says:
“Hey, McFly! Your shoe’s forking.”