Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A few weeks back we heard the splendid news that LucasArts alumnus Mike Stemmle had joined Telltale. As one half of the team that created the original Sam & Max: Hit The Road, who better to get involved? So we got in touch and spoke to the man, finding out what he’s been up to in the meantime, what it’s like to return to S&M after all those years, the potential for the modern adventure, and how former colleague Sean Clark should have been a lot more careful at Mike’s wedding.

RPS: The last time I saw you was in the depths of LucasArts, midway through the development of Monkey Island 4. So my first question has to be, does your office still look like this?

(Click for the full glory)

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During GDC, gaming uber-blog Joystiq had the rather splendid idea of asking adventure game developers to solve their own “obnoxious” adventure-style puzzle. The victims were Ron Gilbert, Steve Purcell, Mike Stemmle, Eric Wolpaw, and Ragnar Tørnquist. Each solves the challenge – getting past a robot bear to enter a cave – in their own distinct style, and they’re all worth a read. And then along comes Tim Schafer.

Taking the challenge a little more… not seriously, but intensely than anyone else, Schafer’s approach is to treat the challenge as a text adventure, emailing Joystiq his commands as they find themselves having to work very hard to keep up. The results are excellent. Here’s a taste:

>get tiny guards

You scoop up the tiny guards in one motion and deposit them safely into your pocket.

>get tiny me

Are you sure you want to do that? You may want to save first.

>give rubber chicken to tiny me

You clumsily try to hand over the rubber chicken, but only end up crushing your tiny self beneath a mountain of artificial poultry. Whoops.

Here’s some interesting news. Telltale, they behind the recent Sam & Max episodes, have hired Mike Stemmle, one half of the LucasArts double-act who created the original Sam & Max: Hit The Road.

(I should stress, I took this photo eight years ago, and he looks nothing like this now. But his office is worth remembering. Click the pic to see the full-size. Oh, and this hung from the middle of the room.)

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