Using Wiimote as mouse "would be a waste" - Telltale

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 April, 2007

Fortunately has other ideas.

Sam & Max developer Telltale Games is enjoying its work on Nintendo Wii, and won't stop at simply using the Wiimote as a replacement for the PC mouse.

"I had this great idea where you strap the controllers to your legs and walk around," senior designer Dave Grossman told 4 Color Rebellion.

"Which we're not doing, unfortunately, but we are doing more than just using the pointer like a mouse. That would be a waste of an opportunity."

"Designing for the Wii is pretty interesting, by the way - it forces you to think in a different way than you're used to," he added.

Elsewhere, Telltale CEO Dan Connors was asked whether the developer's Wii content would be released through Virtual Console or retail. "This hasn't been decided yet," he said. "We'd be open to either."

Don't expect to see Telltale games on the DS in the same timeframe, though. Telltale is porting its PC development tools over to consoles so it can get to work, but Connors says that the technology on DS is so different to PC and other consoles that it's prohibitive.

"We would have to completely rework our development tools, and that's not something we're doing right now," he said - although he admitted that Telltale is watching the progress of Deck13's DS port of adventure game Ankh closely in case it turns out well.

One thing Telltale will be doing in the future is revisiting the Bone series of adventure game episodes.

Connors said that while the developer's focus has understandably been on Sam & Max and "nailing the episodic model", lessons learned there have put them in "a great position to take advantage of the Bone licence" even though the dev-teams are busy right now.

"As the company grows we will revisit Bone," he added.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • lambtron #1 5 years ago

    Well thank fuck at least one person isn't going to just do a boring PS2 port ;).

  • RE*AC*TOR #2 5 years ago

    FFS!! Just use it as a mouse! The console is made for it.

    We don't need more gimmick nonsense.

  • Genji #3 5 years ago

    "I had this great idea where you strap the controllers to your legs and walk around"

    OMG that's so awesome.

  • Kazzahdrane #4 5 years ago

    Thank god someone is looking to not just port existing PC games to the Wii and replace all the code that says "mouse" with "Wii remote".

    Yes, it makes sense. Yes, it would be the death of innovation. The Wii needs clever games that use its controller in interesting, fun ways. Case in point: Capcom's Treasure Island Project Z (not sure I got the name 100% right, it's just a working tit;e anyway) - check out the videos for that, looks like a cross between Monkey Island and Abe's Oddysee.

    I didn't buy a Wii so I could play the same games as on my PC, and I've already bought S&M Season One for PC so I wouldn't be buying a port anyway. Telltale have shown they have a strong creative spark, I'm looking forward to seeing how they apply that to the Wii.

  • the_dudefather #5 5 years ago

    strap a couple of wii remotes to your limbs, one on your head, and wear a small tv in front of your face and you got a ghetto VR game!

    make it happen someone!

  • OnlyMe #6 5 years ago

    Whack-a-mole!

  • rudedudejude #7 5 years ago

    At last one company that is actually using their BRAIN with the remote apart from Ninty

    + Respect to these guys.

    Punch in the face to EA.

  • The_Programmer #8 5 years ago

    "I had this great idea where you strap the controllers to your legs and walk around,"

    Well I hope he doesn't get into sex games as I can't imagine where he might strap the Wiimote.

  • Nova5lag #9 5 years ago

    Up the Wii!

  • Irien #10 5 years ago

    Makes you wonder why all the old adventure game developers haven't been chomping at the bit to pump out endless wii adventure games. Those Myst-type games seem to sell by the bucketload to the casual gamers, so where are they? Also ports of old RTS/FPS games would seem like easy money. And lightgun shooters...

  • CallousB #11 5 years ago

    "Makes you wonder why all the old adventure game developers haven't been chomping at the bit to pump out endless wii adventure games. Those Myst-type games seem to sell by the bucketload to the casual gamers, so where are they?"

    Same was said about the DS but they never happened (not legally anyway).

    Lucasarts must hate money..no Super Star Wars ports for the GBA, no point and click adventures for the DS, no virtual console support. Money for nothing..and they just don't want it. Ports that people want and that actually make sense just don't happen.

  • PuffyPipe #12 5 years ago

    why not strap the wii to your cock?

    More fun then most of the games that have come out for the system of late.
    Edited by PuffyPipe at 26/04/07 @ 12:56

  • Daikon #13 5 years ago

    Read my lips: I-CAN'T-PICK-THAT-UP!

  • smelly #14 5 years ago

    Personally I think using the wiimote as a mouse in "the godfather" worked REALLY well. Certainly the best fps aiming i've played on a console ever.

  • ph101 #15 5 years ago

    The headline is deceptive. It suggests they wont use the wiimote as a mouse. Then when you read ther article it suggests they will, but will do more besides. Hence the comments.