Gaming enthusiasts around the world are excited about Tuesday the 18th, the day when the second episode of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse series – called the “The Tomb of Sammun-Mak” – will release. As writer and lead designer for this episode, I’m…well, I was about to say I was the most excited of all, but judging from some of the postings around the web, I’m not even in the top ten percent. Sam & Max have some pretty excitable fans. But I’m right up there.
For those new to the series, Sam & Max are the Freelance Police, a team that is to crime what BP is to the Gulf of Mexico. The Devil’s Playhouse, architected by Chuck Jordan, based on the characters created by Steve Purcell, is a mind-bending mélange of sci-fi, horror and really demented comedy all centering around a mysterious box containing Toys of Power.
Like an HBO series, The Devil’s Playhouse has a continuing storyline delivered in regular installments, one that builds to a shattering climax. Each episode within the continuum has its own story arc, yet it must build on the ones that came before and set up the ones that come after…no small challenge for the designer.
Episode 2 is essentially the “back story”. While “The Penal Zone” premiere episode plunged the player directly into the action without a lot of explanation, “The Tomb of Sammun-Mak” takes a step back to clue the player in on just what the hell is going on. In fact, we’ll literally be stepping back—109 years, to the time of our protagonists’ great grandparents Sameth and Maximus. It was a lot of fun to give America’s best-loved dog-and-lagomorph team a steam-age makeover. We answer a few questions raised in episode 1: just how did an interdimensional toybox wind up underneath our heroes’ office building? And while we’re at it, we sketch out some origin stories for several of the other denizens of Sam & Max’s off-kilter world. A monthly episodic gaming series is brand new to PlayStation Network, and we hope you’ll take a look. If you’re keen to sample before buying, check out the trial download, also available on PSN.
Awesome news! My first season of Sam and Max and very much enjoyed Episode One :) Look forward to playing this at the weekend.
awesome news…but more importantly, where is the modnation racers ps3 demo!!!!
Telltale Games created a epic video game/series… The Sam & Max:: Devil’s Playhouse series is worth looking into… a 8 out of 10… THE FAZEONES LOUNGE
Kwl, But all I care about is the ModNation Racers demo :P
How about some downloadable games that aren’t over-priced..
@5 chuckbait
yeah because we all know $20 for about a 10 hour game is FAR overpriced
The demo was superb, if I had some cash laying around I’d buy it for sure, I’m eventually gonna get it anyways.
demo for modnation PS3 is the most important of todays store update
Sounds awesome, I’m still playing through the first one though. I am slow :(
Hey, What time does the Playstation Store update? Is it at noon from blog time? for me it’s 1:46 right now.
Hey , any chance of this game being available at the discounted pre-order price again ?
I didn’t want to commit to a $30 game without a demo and the demo didn’t come until after the price went up .
since I’d never played a Sam and Max game I needed the demo to know how it played – and now I tried it and liked it but would like the original $30 price .
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
@10
the store updates between 5pm and 8pm eastern time usually , sometimes later .
Your useage of this double entendre promoting Sam and Max in your weekly PSN update is a literary joy…….or mistake. I wonder what Grace thinks?
Dude, Rocket Knight and EP2 today?! OH YEAH.
Got almost 100% of the trophies on the first one. Loved it!
Can’t wait to go home and download the new episode.
Huzzah!
@ FJ1100: Try the demo and if you love it, I can only say that it gets better and better from there. Five episodes (lasting 5+ hours each) for $30 — it’s a steal my friend.
Hell yes. Between this and Modnation Racers demo, this may not turn out to be such a bad day after all! Now if I could just get some food…
@sam_i_am
yeah but now it’s $35
I was hoping to get the $30 price but without a demo didn’t want to buy it , the demo came after the price went up
yeah it’s only a $5 difference but for $5 I could buy a soundtrack or another game .
More Monkey Island please!! I want a remake of parts 2-5 as well as the 6th entry you’ve already done! No particular order!
I laughed so hard at the BP reference. Nice!
Oh, and thanks for bringing episode 2, I am sure it will be just as much fun as episode 1, now if only I could get out of work early….O_o
Damn this update is not looking good for Tecmo Bowl Throwback fans.
Sam & Max Episode 2 & Modnation Demo = great store update. Also I hope there’s some more Record of Agarest War DLCs too which i’m doubting right now.
PS3 is getting major love now thanks to the Tuesday switch! I LOVE IT!
Lost Planet 2 Helghast skin pack DLC
Sam & Max Episode 2
Mod Nation Racers Demo
A crap load of cool gamer videos for stuff like PS Move, and new games announced for PS3…….
Also: Can we get a PoP demo from Ubisoft? Their game got a IGN score of a nice solid 8.0…….. Seems it was worth it after all! I look forward to that game as well when I get some more cash, sadly I only have enough to drop on 1 more pre-order and I’m done for my PS3 for a while. But It looks like I’ll be getting a cool fighting game!
@ FJ1100 – I would venture to say that spending the extra $5 on Sam & Max is going to provide more value to you than a soundtrack. $7 an episode, which lasts longer than most DLC out there by quite a margin. I would go for it if I were you.
Well, that’s weird. I can’t find anything on the PSN that’s supposed to be released today, at this time of writing (5:25 PM EST). I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer for it to get fixed.
this game soundz good but soz, me not interested =1
Episode 2 is great so far, still amazed at how much the lighting and facial animation improvements add to the experience. This new episode seems to fix some of the framerate issues from the first episode, as well. It’s also really nice that the audio encoding is improved, so the dialogue isn’t nearly as lispy on the high end and boomy on the low end. I hope Season 1 & 2 get released for PS3 with these improvements. Maybe a box set of all three seasons at retail?
My only complaint is that there’s no platinum trophy for getting all the the trophies in all the episodes. Since the whole season is priced about the same as a retail release (which is totally worth it, btw!), a platinum trophy only seems fair. (I had this same complaint with Blue Toad Murder Files.)
Keep up the great work!