Telltale Needs Help Developing Back to the Future Games

[FungiGamer]

November 5th, 2010. Working together, Teen Marty, Doc, and Present Day Marty finally corner the man who made off with Doc's Time Train. While they argue about what to do with the well-intentioned time-hopper, a scary black vehicle appears out of nowhere. A familiar bulky presence steps out and confronts them. 'Detective Tannen, Temporal Preservation Squadron.' I'm afraid you're all under arrest.'

Oh God, what a HORRIBLE concept. Does Telltale even care about the various flaws with this scenario?!?

Is there something in particular you don't like about that concept or just the whole shebang?

Personally, I picked this as my favourite scenario, mainly because it isn't setting Biff/Biff's ancestor as the bad guy per say. He could just as easily be working for a shadowy evil organisation as genuinely working as a kind of time-cop. And it makes a perverse kind of sense really, besides the other characters, who else has had such a connection to the time warping events of the series? Albeit mostly un-knowlingly, Biff, and Biff's ancestors have been significantly affected by those events, and even affected them themselves in the elderly Griff's case. So it's rather fitting that another of his ancestors should be in such a position.

Doesn't mean though that he has to be a likeable guy, he could still be a royal jerk, just on the side of the law. And remember, being on the side of the law doesn't always a good guy make.

You're overlooking the problem, you're implying that the Tannen's are smart enough to be TIME DETECTIVE material. Not only that, but since Doc Brown invented time travel, HE should've Created the Temporal Preservation Squadron. Really, I could get by this idea if it was someone else, like Marty's kids or even better, Jules or Vern (Doc Brown's children), but a TANNEN?!?

 

[The Random One]

Wow, they'll actually be listening to the fans before diving into it. That's a cool move.

I have possibly unreasonable faith on Telltale's ability to pull this off. Kudos to them.

 

[GothmogII]

November 5th, 2010. Working together, Teen Marty, Doc, and Present Day Marty finally corner the man who made off with Doc's Time Train. While they argue about what to do with the well-intentioned time-hopper, a scary black vehicle appears out of nowhere. A familiar bulky presence steps out and confronts them. 'Detective Tannen, Temporal Preservation Squadron.' I'm afraid you're all under arrest.'

Oh God, what a HORRIBLE concept. Does Telltale even care about the various flaws with this scenario?!?

Is there something in particular you don't like about that concept or just the whole shebang?

Personally, I picked this as my favourite scenario, mainly because it isn't setting Biff/Biff's ancestor as the bad guy per say. He could just as easily be working for a shadowy evil organisation as genuinely working as a kind of time-cop. And it makes a perverse kind of sense really, besides the other characters, who else has had such a connection to the time warping events of the series? Albeit mostly un-knowlingly, Biff, and Biff's ancestors have been significantly affected by those events, and even affected them themselves in the elderly Griff's case. So it's rather fitting that another of his ancestors should be in such a position.

Doesn't mean though that he has to be a likeable guy, he could still be a royal jerk, just on the side of the law. And remember, being on the side of the law doesn't always a good guy make.

You're overlooking the problem, you're implying that the Tannen's are smart enough to be TIME DETECTIVE material. Not only that, but since Doc Brown invented time travel, HE should've Created the Temporal Preservation Squadron. Really, I could get by this idea if it was someone else, like Marty's kids or even better, Jules or Vern (Doc Brown's children), but a TANNEN?!?

Huh...but the Tannen Timecop doesn't necessarily have to be smart (even though Griff was a pretty wily guy, though that probably came with age), he just needs to be able to pilot his own time travel vehicle, or have a partner perhaps that can. The TTc could still be the asshole bully, but, just ostensibly working for the law. Also, the scenario doesn't say TTc was the one who founded it, just that he was an agent of it. He could still be a dirty cop, or even just a bull headed one if he's not going to be an outright bad guy.

Second, I agree with you, if anyone was going to set up such a society it would be the Doc, as a founding member at the very least. I was thinking though...what if that Doc Brown was also the 'villain'? So the Doc Brown the player encounters in game is the one your helping, and yet at odds with the one trying to protect the timeline. So, both Doc Browns would essentially be enemies (possibly unaware of the others actions), and neither may be evil exactly, but rather, opposed to each other in some way.

I don't know, just speculating, there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with the Back to the Future universe, the scenarios presented by Telltale so far are most likely just to try and gauge the general direction players would like to see the games go, not really concrete plot points.

 

[FungiGamer]

November 5th, 2010. Working together, Teen Marty, Doc, and Present Day Marty finally corner the man who made off with Doc's Time Train. While they argue about what to do with the well-intentioned time-hopper, a scary black vehicle appears out of nowhere. A familiar bulky presence steps out and confronts them. 'Detective Tannen, Temporal Preservation Squadron.' I'm afraid you're all under arrest.'

Oh God, what a HORRIBLE concept. Does Telltale even care about the various flaws with this scenario?!?

Is there something in particular you don't like about that concept or just the whole shebang?

Personally, I picked this as my favourite scenario, mainly because it isn't setting Biff/Biff's ancestor as the bad guy per say. He could just as easily be working for a shadowy evil organisation as genuinely working as a kind of time-cop. And it makes a perverse kind of sense really, besides the other characters, who else has had such a connection to the time warping events of the series? Albeit mostly un-knowlingly, Biff, and Biff's ancestors have been significantly affected by those events, and even affected them themselves in the elderly Griff's case. So it's rather fitting that another of his ancestors should be in such a position.

Doesn't mean though that he has to be a likeable guy, he could still be a royal jerk, just on the side of the law. And remember, being on the side of the law doesn't always a good guy make.

You're overlooking the problem, you're implying that the Tannen's are smart enough to be TIME DETECTIVE material. Not only that, but since Doc Brown invented time travel, HE should've Created the Temporal Preservation Squadron. Really, I could get by this idea if it was someone else, like Marty's kids or even better, Jules or Vern (Doc Brown's children), but a TANNEN?!?

Huh...but the Tannen Timecop doesn't necessarily have to be smart (even though Griff was a pretty wily guy, though that probably came with age), he just needs to be able to pilot his own time travel vehicle, or have a partner perhaps that can. The TTc could still be the asshole bully, but, just ostensibly working for the law. Also, the scenario doesn't say TTc was the one who founded it, just that he was an agent of it. He could still be a dirty cop, or even just a bull headed one if he's not going to be an outright bad guy.

Second, I agree with you, if anyone was going to set up such a society it would be the Doc, as a founding member at the very least. I was thinking though...what if that Doc Brown was also the 'villain'? So the Doc Brown the player encounters in game is the one your helping, and yet at odds with the one trying to protect the timeline. So, both Doc Browns would essentially be enemies (possibly unaware of the others actions), and neither may be evil exactly, but rather, opposed to each other in some way.

I don't know, just speculating, there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with the Back to the Future universe, the scenarios presented by Telltale so far are most likely just to try and gauge the general direction players would like to see the games go, not really concrete plot points.

Oh, that sounds like a pretty creative plotpoint, like an alternate timeline version of Doc Brown where he uses science for evil as a typical mad scientist. I agree though, the whole time-travel aspect opens up a lot of possibilities, and hopefully these were the ideas that they weren't completely sure about and the better ones are being saved for the actual product

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

Am I the only person who raised a quizzical eyebrow at the idea of a Tannen being an authority figure?

EDIT: Obviously not...