Summer of Sam & Max: The scourge of soda abuse
Posted by jake July 17, 2007
The Summer of Sam & Max is barreling along, well over the half-way mark now, with no sign of stopping!

What's happening this week: This week brings all things Episode 4: Three new commentary tracks - one by the design team, one by the development team, and one by the guys at Bay Area Sound - as well as the usual bevvy of concept art, a Q&A with Dave Grossman, and Brendan's latest "Play it Again" list of the dusty corners you might have missed on your first Abe Lincoln playthrough.

The reason you care: This update is also a momentous occasion because it's the first one to feature an appearance on the commentary tracks by yours truly, mumbling about the war song or something. Everyone else is extremely insightful and entertaining, and totally unafraid to mention every time Sam or Max does a "point up" animation, so you should probably get watching while the watching is good.

...

Bonus marketing message: Of course, it's also worth mentioning that all the video content appearing during the Summer of Sam & Max is also available in super high quality archival form as part of the Season One disc which we're selling on our store! (or giving to you for free if you already bought the full Season One download set)

The disc has all six episodes of the game (free of online activation to boot!) along with a DVD video layer containing all the aforementioned Summer commentary tracks, as well as trailers, machinima shorts, and a bunch of other video goodies you'll have to find for yourself. So, check that out, too.
Tagged Game Design, Game Media, Sam & Max Digg this entry Send this to a friend 20 Comments
The part Jake didn't mention is that a whole slew of DVDs showed up on our doorstep this morning. We would have taken a picture but of the six or seven cameras that exist in the office, all of their batteries were dead. If I didn't know any better I'd say it's a conspiracy.

So, yeah! The discs are real! And they're awesome! If you ordered already, it'll be in the mail soon. If you didn't order yet, why not? Go do it!
Comment by Emily July 18, 2007, 12:06 am
I haven't ordered it yet, because with all the taxes and shipping & handling, it actually gets more(or at least just as) expensive to get it for free from TTG than to buy it in a local store. Import laws sucks, so I have to think a little closer before ordering it, and I will probably have to order some other stuff as well at the same time to make it worth the tax I have to pay. Ones I can see the final covers/arts to the other products, I am ready to go.
Comment by marsan July 18, 2007, 3:12 am
Are the Case File's ready yet? I ordered both the DVD and the Case File :)

And yes, marsan, import taxes suck. Nevertheless I ordered them as I don't know if these items will show up in the Netherlands...

Marc
Comment by barchetta July 18, 2007, 3:17 am
What's going to be in the store is different than the Telltale disc. Besides, the disc is free plus like 10USD shipping. Are the taxes that high?
Comment by tobar July 18, 2007, 3:42 am
I just ordered it, and strangely DR didn't charge me any sales tax this time around, not even for the merchandise (or actually what I find strange is that I did have to pay sales tax earlier; apparantly downloadable items are subject to harsher tax laws). I might still get charged import tax by my local post office, but that seems unlikely (IIRC that only happens on packages totalling well over $100 value).
Comment by Harald B July 18, 2007, 5:18 am
The only country I know of that charges a tax on the free disc is Australia, and that's actually on the shipping, not the disc itself. Taxes are all calculated automatically for us by Digital River and I have no idea why tax is charged on downloadable goods and not hard goods. It's a little weird but that's how it works.

The case file innards are starting to come in (yesterday Jake picked up the Alien Love Triangle Times from the printer -- they're awesome!) but due to some unexpected delays we will not be able to stuff them before leaving for Comic-Con next week. We're getting a few of the case file pieces shipped directly to Comic-Con and will be stuffing some there. When we get back, we'll set up a big old assembly line to do the rest and I'm hoping we'll get them out to our warehouse by the end of the first week in August. So to make a short story long, case files are a little behind schedule.

Also, new merchandise will be showing up in the store next week! We'll be adding some new stuff during Comic-Con.

Also, details about the retail release (including where you can get it) will be coming to this very blog later today. Also this is the longest blog comment ever.
Comment by Emily July 18, 2007, 7:14 am
Emily,

You did it again, overzealous with "The Double Post"! Keep the excitement to a minimum until you get to Comic-Con, then let it go like a twinkie in the microwave.
Comment by Chris July 18, 2007, 8:41 am
Oh boy oh boy oh boy, Episode 4 commentaries! :D
Comment by AdamG July 18, 2007, 9:08 am
Aww man, when I saw the Telltale Alert in my inbox, I immediately thought that the disks have shipped. :|
Oh well, this is pretty good too. :) BTW, since you appear to be behind on the case files, what will happen to us people who ordered one with the disk? Are you just going to delay shipping it until the case files are done?
Comment by dg10050 July 18, 2007, 9:21 am
Yeah, we can't split orders, so your order won't ship until the last thing in it is ready. If that bugs you a ton and you want stuff ASAP and don't mind paying shipping multiple times, you can write to support@telltalegames.com and they'll help you cancel your order and re-order things separately so they'll ship one at a time.
Comment by Jake July 18, 2007, 9:38 am
@Emily:

Here you have to pay tax on a package you recieve if the sticker price(you know, the white/green sticker you have to fill out when you sending things overseas) says the product inside the package is worth more then 34.91USD. Since I can't be sure DR won't put 34.95USD on the sticker, it really depends on luck if I have to pay taxes on it or not. If I have to pay taxes, it will suddenly be a 22.69USD extra in custom fees and taxes... Of course, if they send it as a gift I don't have to pay taxes on it unless the price is above 87.28USD, but the laws says only private people can send gifts. The only way I can be pretty sure I won't have to pay taxes on it, is if DR sends the package without giving a value of the product inside(or sets the value to $0), and just writes the descripton on the package...

Anyway, if I add some extra goodies the tax won't be that bad. The worst part is the charge they take just for it being stoped in the customs. I'll probably just order some extra goodies at the same time.
Comment by marsan July 18, 2007, 1:06 pm
Keep the excitement to a minimum until you get to Comic-Con, then let it go like a twinkie in the microwave.


You might be mistaking mania for excitement...
Comment by Emily July 18, 2007, 1:06 pm
Also, we've been told that the price on the customs form will be $10 (and customers have confirmed this in test orders), so those worried about import taxes should be okay.

Oops, there I go double posting again.
Comment by Emily July 18, 2007, 1:08 pm
Well, I guess I can wait. If I have to. :P
I don't want to pay for shipping multiple times. However, what's the current situation with the soundtrack? Is that gonna delay my shipping even further? You guys at Telltale...always promising more than you can deliver. :P
Comment by dg10050 July 18, 2007, 1:08 pm
thanks, Emily :)
Comment by marsan July 18, 2007, 1:13 pm
The soundtracks are printed and are shipping out to Digital River's warehouse either right now as I type this to you, or tomorrow. So, woo!
Comment by Jake July 18, 2007, 1:45 pm
Yays! Just curious, but have you guys ever considered releasing Sam and Max on other OS's as well? I know there are a ton of people out there who would be willing to pay for the season again just to get it to run on their precious Mac/Linux desktop. (Including me. Linux please.) :D
I know this isn't exactly an overnight decision, but have you even thought about it?
Comment by dg10050 July 18, 2007, 6:10 pm
Of course we've thought about it. :)
Comment by Emily July 18, 2007, 11:42 pm
marsan: where do you live, with such a low tax threshold? Here the goods have to be over around US$280 or so before anyone cares enough to charge import tax on them...
Comment by Miral July 19, 2007, 4:28 am
How long can this epidemic continue?
Comment by DanH July 19, 2007, 9:47 am
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