the 18th amendment: a poker night documentary

GHub Platform · Гайд · 0 ответов · 19 просмотров

Before we get going, here's some brief context on why I actually made this. Originally, I planned to make this into a short video where I go over the history, all the characters, the companies involved, etc. However, it ended up being a much bigger project than I thought it would be, and as I kept going it just got more and more interesting. This guide is essentially the script for that video (which is still being made, but is just taking a while!) which I've finally gotten around to releasing. You can watch the full 39 minutes in all their glory above this paragraph - or, if you prefer, skip around and read about the parts you're particularly interested in here on Steam. I posted this guide on the 11th anniversary of Poker Night (it was released on the 22nd of November, 2010), since I thought that'd be a good time to show off something appreciating it. Even with the video out, this guide contains some extra content in places to keep you all sweet, so feel free to skim around a bit. Hope you enjoy! Grandma: So, Theodore, I’d guess that you’re about 15, am I right? Theodore: Nope! I’m 22 years old, dude! Grandma: I was referring to your IQ, actually... I’m out. My chips want me to spend more time with them. I love you, babies. Harry: I’m gonna pretend I didn’t just see that. What you're looking at right now is a game of poker. To be more specific, it's a poker game developed by the now somewhat infamous company Telltale. Founded by a group of disgruntled designers who had recently left Lucasarts after it had moved away from the adventure genre and had firmly geared it's video game efforts towards more established series - namely Star Wars - Telltale was later responsible for adventure classics like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Batman: The Telltale Series . When you hear poker and Telltale in the same sentence, you're likely to think of their later promotional hit, Poker Night at the Inventory . But, clearly, that was far from their first foray into the world of gambling: that title goes to Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em Functionally speaking, the game is pretty straightforward, so long as you know the Texas Hold Em’ rule-set. You play against computer AI, start with $10,000 as a mysterious character known only as “the player” , and win once everyone else on the table has been busted out. Visually and stylistically though, Telltale’s first game was much different to their later works. The line up in Hold ’Em is completely original rather than using or adapting characters from elsewhere. Compared to their future endeavours, the game’s graphics were a little lacklustre, but given the size of the dev team at the time and the intended scope of the project, it’s aesthetics are forgivable. HQ visuals were never a primary focus for early Telltale games anyway - their sights were pretty set on perfecting their storytelling and creating dynamic characters. Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em was made as more of a demo to showcase and experiment with the studio’s new engine, the Telltale Tool . The game was primarily aimed at trialling complex character interactions with NPCs operating on their own dynamic AI, reacting to each other and the player's own actions in a variety of ways. When it was released, Telltale CEO Dan Connors interviewed with online adventure game store “Adventure Gamers” and discussed the rationale behind creating TTHM [mixnmojo.com] : Telltale Games is about great characters and stories; Telltale Texas Hold Em is about characters. The reason this is the first product released by Telltale Games is because it is much more straightforward then launching a full adventure game based on a license. All the work we are doing on characters now will definitely benefit the quality of our adventure games...The Telltale Engine and Toolset will be used to build all of our products. It is focused on elements required for 3D storytelling and character presentation. The reason why we chose Texas Hold Em as a game mechanic is that poker is all about nuances in the players. Everything we have done with the engine for Telltale Texas Hold Em will be iterated on in our future games. The game wasn't initially intended for commercial release, but when development finished, the team decided they liked it enough to put it up for sale. They added a nice bit of music to the final product, which was easy to license since it was recorded by the father of Telltale designer Heather Logas. If you ever want to give Jerry Logas and the Reunion Band a listen, you can either check out their Bandcamp page [jerrylogasandthereunionband.bandcamp.com] or just buy TTHM - no word of a lie, he does make some pretty nice jazz tunes. Telltale’s first game did produce one recurring, albeit seemingly faceless character. Artie Flopshark , the man who allegedly wrote the tutorial guide for Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em , is mentioned multiple times to be an outspoken “poker guru”. Harry Weinhead , one of the players at the table, will make frequent reference to him, citing Artie as his “poker instructor”. Long after his debut, Artie was given plenty of mention in Poker Night at the Inventory - both as a ranking when the player goes into debt from losing too often, and by Max on multiple occasions, but usually when he’s telling the story about how Flint Paper killed Artie in cold blood. Telltale Hold ‘Em’s cast was a little strange - there’s the pompous Harry Weinhead , voiced by Nate Schaumberg, a past employee of Lucasarts who subsequently worked on the Lara Croft series. There’s the easily intimidated Grandma Shaky , voiced by Wendy Tremont King, who went on to voice another old woman for Telltale’s first “Bone” game. You’ve also got Boris Krinkle , voiced by Carter Coleman, who later makes a cameo appearance in Sam and Max: Save The World. In that game, he seems to have a different alias - Leonard Steakcharmer - but Max says he looks more like Boris Krinkle. Meanwhile, at the 2005 poker table, other players will say he looks more like a Leonard Steakcharmer. In both games, other characters feel the need to say that they think Boris is a pretty ugly guy. Theodore Dudebrough allegedly stars as “himself”, but is actually the alter-ego of Telltale designer Brendan Q. Ferguson. Ferguson is credited as Dudebrough whenever he does voicework in Telltale's games, meaning he is occasionally seen twice in credit reels under different names. His character also briefly appeared in some early Poker Night promotional material, but we're getting ahead of ourselves now. Telltale’s Texas Hold ‘Em is not a great game, to be honest. However, it is an interesting proof of concept. Given that the developers were creating the project as part of an early engine experiment rather than making something with an active retail audience in mind, Telltale’s Hold ’Em is passable given it’s present day price . At least you can still buy it from Telltale, unlike it’s more successful spiritual successor... About four years later, in May of 2009, Telltale put out a poker themed survey [mixnmojo.com] to gauge interest for a new potential game. To incentivise respondents, Telltale gave a free copy of TTHM to anyone that completed the questionnaire. It was a little vague - options on the form asked whether people wanted a game which involved “dogs playing poker” or if they were more interested in “unprofessional poker”. It wasn’t completely clear what Telltale was alluding to, but many fans of the company interpreted the move as an indication that Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em 2 was in the works. Development on a new poker game wouldn't start until over a year later, however, in September of 2010. Work on their new long rumoured project finally began; in November, teasers and announcements of the new game's content became more widely available to the public. The characters to be seated at the table were gradually announced, some PAX exploits were had, and a snazzy trailer was put out. Oh, and there were TF2 freebies! Who wouldn't want exclus