the 18th amendment: a poker night documentary

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 Luca

sarts 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. Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em was made as more of a demo to showcase and experiment with the

studio’s new engine, the Telltale Tool. Grandma: As much as I want to fold, I suppose I'll check... 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: "Telltale Games is about great characters and s

tories; 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 cho

se 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 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 re

ference to him, citing Artie as his “poker instructor”. Harry: My mentor, Artie Flopshark, once said: "better to let your opponent have his pot than to build him a new one"... Host: "The player wins the pot!" 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. Tycho

: Did he say why? Max: Just that they were going to put him in a bunch of water, you know; give him the old cement shoes, drop them in the bay. It doesn't matter though, because Flint paper got to him first! Oh-wee, did he make him pay... 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 K

ing, 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. Leonard: What do I look like? Max: You look more like a... Boris Krinkle. Meanwhile, at the 2005 poker table, other players will say he looks more like a Leonard Steakcharmer. I

n 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 n

ow. 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 theme

d survey 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. However, development on a new poker game wouldn't start until over a year later 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! Poker Night at the Inventory is pretty much what it says on the

tin, but it has a bit of lore: you, "the player", go to a secret club called "The Inventory", a historical venue which was set up in 1919 as a response to early drafts of 18th amendment which threatened not only to prohibit alcohol, but also ban many games and activities - poker, of course, being one of them. The Inventory is kept a secret so that people can always enjoy amusements there in case word of similar legislation circulates again. Tycho: You know this place has been around for almost 1

00 years? Max: Wow. That's older than some frozen burritos I've sucked down! Tycho: This was the original location of Dixon Kent's games and amusements factory, founded in 1899. Tycho: When Kent found out that an early draft of the 18th amendment contained a clause outlawing the sale of games and amusements, he opened this place in secret so makers and enthusiasts would always have a place to go. Hence the tight security and pat down at the door. Max: I just thought they were being courteous! Th

e other players have already arrived at the table - you sit down to play a full game of Texas Hold 'Em poker and hope that you're able to bust everyone else out by the end of the night. A refreshing deviation from the studio’s usual episodic style, Poker Night was developed as part of the “Telltale Games pilot program”, which trialed new kinds of games with different structures to their typical format. Puzzle Agent and The Walking Dead (originally titled as “the zombie prototype” internally) wer

e also a part of this pilot program. The idea to reprise Telltale’s Poker efforts came straight from the top; CEO Dan Connors pitched the idea to his company, and then pitched it to their industry connections to see if the concept could take off: "We've had the idea for some time of [exploring] what video characters do when they're not ‘on the clock' in the games we play...We pitched the idea to friends in the industry and it really resonated. We all had a great time imagining what these guys wo

uld banter about while slinging cards – from there Poker Night at The Inventory was born." Telltale designer Sean Vanaman has also gone on to say the game was very much “an excuse” to get a bunch of characters they like together and have them interact in a 'behind the scenes' environment. With regards to this, Vanaman also noted the importance of the games neutral social setting, putting the characters in a space where they could express themselves naturally while having ample room to interact d

ynamically with each other. Creating "The Inventory" and giving it a separate history while making it pertinent to the thematic setting meant that none of the crossover franchises would unfairly impose on one another and dominate the poker table, ensuring more balanced banter all around and avoiding cliched characterisations of the franchises present. Telltale managed to get the green light from Steve Purcell, The Brothers Chaps, Valve and the creators of Penny Arcade to star their IP’s in a new

poker game - but they didn't just ride the loaned licenses for all of their worth. Telltale took a very cautious approach when writing dialogue for the game and regularly consulted with the creators of the original characters in order to make sure they represented them correctly. This was an issue which the development team were especially trepidatious about, given that none of these properties belonged solely to Telltale, and they had never written dialogue for two of the characters before. Th

e Brothers Chaps, creators of Homestar Runner, wrote a lot of the dialogue for Strong Bad. Tycho’s creator, Jerry Holkins, gave direct feedback thoughout the production of the project with his changes often exaggerating the humour already written for the character. "'We're fans of all these franchises,' notes Vanaman, citing the difficulties inherent to breathing life into such established characters. 'We ran into Valve's Robin Walker here at PAX, and we were like 'Robin! Oh man, we won't mess i

t up!'. He's really excited, but it's daunting -- when I'm sitting there writing dialogue for the Heavy, I have hundreds upon hundreds of chances to sell this character out...'" "The most hands-on the license holders have gotten, though, has been two very different experiences. One is Matt Chapman, who's the voice and co-creator of Strong Bad, and with him, you write the script -- and we knew this working with him on Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People -- you write the script, and then

he goes into the studio and becomes Strong Bad, and it comes out different, but still the same...And working with Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, we just really hit it off...I finish the script, I send all the Tycho stuff to Jerry, and three days later, he sends me back edits -- and it would all really be just tweaks, like 'This word is really something more that Tycho would say,' or he might kind of spin the conversation in a different direction." Telltale’s comprehensive understanding of the li

censed characters and the intricate worlds they hail from helped forge a unique Poker experience, the likes of which had never really been seen before. Let's discuss those characters, the histories behind them, and how they came into contact with Telltale. Winslow: Max has...two pair. The player has...a pair of sevens. Max wins the hand! Max: I'm gonna buy me a scepter. And I can't promise I won't wave it around in front of you forever reminding you of this moment. Voiced by William Kasten, the

first player to your left is Max of Sam & Max fame. His playstyle is somewhat random, and he will constantly remind you of the fact that he doesn't understand how Poker works. Max: I don't know a lot about card games truth be told, but uh, I take it you're a bit of a beginner, yes? Strong Bad: Are you talking to moi? Max: You betcha! You're as green as the bologna and Sam's mini-fridge! Strong Bad: Shut up, Stitch. His moves are generally unpredictable, meaning he is the most likely out of anyon

e to pick the nuclear option at an inopportune time with no regard for what cards he thinks you have, or even the cards he has. All this said, Max becomes a more formidable opponent when you're playing on hard difficulty as his AI has a much better grasp of how poker actually works. Sam & Max started out as a run of comics in the 80’s, making Max the oldest IP sat at the poker table. Fun fact: the credited creator of Sam & Max, Steve Purcell, technically wasn’t the original creator of Sam & Max.

When he was a kid, the characters were drawn in a couple of doodles and comics by his younger brother Dave. Steve would finish off Dave’s stories whenever he hadn’t the time to complete his strips, with Steve emphasising the more quirky aspects of their style and having the duo parody themselves in an attempt to annoy Dave, as siblings do. From here, the humour which attracted people to the Sam & Max franchise was born, with it’s sprawling universe spawning from Steve’s vivid, over-the-top exag

geration of the characters and their respective dialogues. For his birthday one year, Dave gave Steve the rights to the characters as he had eventually grown bored of them. Steve Purcell went on to art school and continued drawing Sam & Max comics, eventually writing them for his university newsletter. This was until publisher Steven Moncuse took more of an interest towards Purcell’s works in 1987. In 1988, Purcell found himself working as an artist and animator for Lucasarts, playing a part in

the creation of their adventure games. Four years after his original hire, Lucasarts offered to make an adventure game called “Sam & Max Hit the Road”. It was released to critical acclaim and is still praised as one of the best adventure games of the 90s. Purcell would continue to work on a variety of Lucasarts games until the company approached him in 2002 to make a Sam & Max sequel. Infamously however, the development of this game was cancelled by Lucasarts in 2004 as a result of their change

in game direction, much to the dismay of Purcell and his fans. A year later, he took the franchise to a new game company on the block which had formed from other ex-Lucasarts employees - this company being Telltale, of course - and they began working on a sequel. After Telltale picked up Sam & Max, the series ultimately transformed long-term and became more closely associated with video games than any other media. Max was hitting the peak of his internet popularity and seemed like an obvious cho

ice for a game like Poker Night - a character the Telltale designers were already very familiar with, Max freely makes frequent reference to the strange beast that is the Sam & Max lore. Surprisingly, despite the fact that he never shuts up, all the other players at the table seem to get on with him quite well. Tycho and Heavy are often interested in his general exploits, while Strong Bad tries his best to reach out to Max to discuss their recent “exploitation” by Telltale... Strong Bad: I dabbl

e in nefarious activities. Like the time I stole the Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People source code from those Telltale chumps. Max: Ooh, that sounds criminal! Strong Bad: Oh yeah, I pulled it off without a hitch. Got the code over to my boys at Videlectrix who turned the game into a triple-platinum triple-pixel best seller! In...Guam... Sat next to Max, Strong Bad - voiced by his co-creator, Matt Chapman - is probably the worst player at the table. If he's ever winning, it's usually b

ecause he's just been dealt some lucky cards. More often than not, he's the first person to walk away from the game. His play-style is overly aggressive and he will regularly play weak hands until the end of a round if he feels he can afford to. He doesn't change much on hard mode and he continues to be one of the weakest players despite his unearned over-confidence. The gloved brainchild of The Brothers Chaps, Strong Bad is one of the main characters in Homestar Runner, an iconic flash series w

hich made loads of videos and animations before YouTube was even a big thing. Back in the old 2000s hey-day of weird internet creations, Homestar Runner was like an interactive, dynamic flash sitcom type thing which stood out among the crowd of early online animations. IGN: Describe, in your own words, the Homestar universe. Matt Chapman: ...that is the worst first question I've ever heard...I don't know, it's a world full of weird, sort-of-human characters that are missing a lot of limbs... Mik

e Chapman: And facial features. Matt:...that interact and sometimes behave kind of like they're in grade school, sometimes like they're in college, and sometimes like they're old married couples - it's kind of its own thing. It references the real world, but stays pretty general in those references, so it's kind of its own universe. And...I don't know, that sounds like the worst thing I've ever heard of! That's why I don't like answering that question.“ Looking for more licenses to collaborate w

ith, Homestar Runner caught the attention of Telltale, and in 2008 they reached out to The Brothers Chaps by e-mail. Telltale went on to share the PAX make-a-scene spot with the Chaps the same year and released a game with them not long after - “Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People” - which was released on PC, PSN, and also as a Wiiware title. "Matt: Joel, their marketing dude, just e-mailed the general e-mail address on the site. And when we saw that, it was like 'Hey, we're from Tellta

le games.' And I already had a subscription to Sam and Max: Season 1... Mike: And we had played the original Sam and Max and all the other LucasArts games growing up...So he was like 'I'm from Telltale Games, we just wanted to talk about potential projects with you.' So we were like, 'That's a perfect pairing.' If you were to ask me what game company I would want to call us I would say the guys that made Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, and that's who e-mailed us." Interestingly, Strong Ba

d is the only character who physically can't swear at the table. In game, there's a setting in the options which allows you to censor profanity if you desire. The subtitles are always censored regardless of what you pick, but the characters expletives - mostly just Tycho's expletives... Tycho: Think of how boring this game would be if I didn't know I was going to get f**ked until the end ...will be bleeped if have this turned on. Voice-lines which use swears have two versions in the game files -

one where the word(s) in question are censored, and the other original version without the bleep. The only time Strong Bad attempts to swear is when Heavy is telling his somewhat infamous story where he tortured the BLU Team's Engineer - regardless of what setting you choose, though, you will not hear Strong Bad's swear. (“That is some bleeped up bleep, man!” is allegedly what he actually said anyway) Strong Bad is the most meta character of the four, breaking the fourth wall to no end. He's co

nstantly ripping on Telltale and - much to the annoyance of Tycho - ripping on the Penny Arcade Expo and their respective website. Strong Bad: hey nerd-rancher, how many hits does your little fansite-for-babies that I hate get a month? His best relationship on the table, albeit unintentionally, is probably with the Heavy, who thinks Strong Bad is a boxer due to his gloved hands, referring to him fondly as “tiny Heavy” from time to time... Heavy: Tiny Heavy, who is your favorite to kill in war? S

trong Bad: Hmm, in war? Probably those green helmets. You know the guys that don't have any cool weapons or gimmicks and come in a discount three-pack. Heavy: To kill Spy is glorious thing. How about you, Max? You are killing type. Max: My favorite enemy? Heh! That's like asking me to choose between my children! Heavy: Heughhahahaha! You crack me up little bunny. Voiced by Gary Schwartz, and perhaps the most iconic character of the four, The Heavy is one of the most recognisable mascots from Val

ve's Team Fortress 2. At the poker table, Heavy will usually play aggressively and will openly mock what he calls “baby bets”. Heavy: I promise, if you fight me, it will not last long. I kill quick, but not cleanly. I'm sorry. If you're in a hand with him, he's going to intimidate you as much as he can, trying his very best to make sure you're busted out before you even get to the river. TF2 had only been out for 3 years when this game was released, making Heavy the youngest IP at the table - al

though his original character was conceived way back in 1999. The Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress Classic wielded a crowbar, two different shotguns (single and double barreled), and an assault cannon. He couldn't be pushed around much by other classes, immune to knock-back and donning the strongest armour. When Valve officially took the Team Fortress name into their own hands, “after 9 years in development”, Heavy was functionally a pretty similar class to his original iteration. The main d

ifferences saw him wielding one shotgun instead of two, switching out the crowbar for his fists, and his “assault cannon” became the iconic minigun - “Sasha” - that we know and love today. Telltale had a lot of options when choosing someone from TF2 to come sit at the poker table. A more mysterious character, like the Spy, would have fit right into the Inventory’s low-key jazz aesthetic. A more relaxed and sophisticated character, like the Engineer, might have juxtaposed the chaotic nature of th

e others quite well - according to Heavy, his teams Engineer introduced him to the Inventory one night. Tycho: So how long have you been with those Team Fortress fellas? That seems like steady work. Heavy: I do not understand. Tycho: The game's been on Steam for, like, three years. I imagine there was an audition process? Heavy: Ohhhhh, YES, I understand. I kill many men VERY quickly. Tycho: Excuse me? All this said, Heavy is the obvious "face" of TF2, serving as it's prime mascot. Jake Rodkin,

one of the developers and community managers at Telltale, said they picked him since, despite his occasional outbursts, he's more the "still waters run deep" type when he's off the battlefield. He's the only character which can make the whole table cry - his sense of sentimentality is certainly stronger than usual. Heavy: I pick up sparrow and hear his last breath before digging him tiny grave... [tycho sobs] Strong Bad: That's not even a little bit funny, man. Heavy: No, it's not. Poker Night a

t the Inventory let us see the more intimate and knowledgeable side of Heavy, making his character more complex than Valve usually lets on. Heavy: I have PhD in Russian Literature. One of the main markets for this game was TF2 players - it’s promotional items were one of Poker Night's USPs and is what hooked a huge portion of it's playerbase. After winning poker tournaments and knocking out opponents, players could obtain items like the Lugermorph and The License to Maim, The Enthusiast’s Timepi

ece, The Iron Curtain, and “Dangeresque, Too?”. The Dealer's Visor, another promotional cosmetic item, was given to players who pre-ordered the first game, and can still be acquired pretty easily via trading. The other items can only be unlocked via the achievements in Poker Night. The staff at Telltale were avid fans of TF2, and the studio created a small team called "The Telltale Seals" to compete in a number of TF2 tournaments - in the Poker Night game files, you can actually find an admitted

ly low-res image of the "seals" posed together. Through this team, Telltale made quite a few connections, the most notable friendship being sparked with Valve themselves. Having already listed many of their products on the Steam store, Telltale was set to have a fruitful relationship with Valve. When Telltale released "Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse" on Steam, an 11 day promotional period ran where owners of the game would also receive the now infamous Max's head cosmetic, a tradable Lugermorp

h, and Sam's revolver, "The Big Kill". Players clamored for these rare items, and to this day people pay upwards of $75 for Max heads. Alongside other expensive cosmetics like earbuds, Max heads were to be a staple of unusual trading, used as de facto in-game currency among rich traders. There's a callback to this in Poker Night at the Inventory - Heavy makes vague reference to the cosmetic when he gets annoyed at Max. Heavy: ...I will make hat from you, little bunny... Promotional items drove u

p sales for Telltale's games and helped spur on a trading frenzy in the world of TF2, which helped forge a stronger commercial relationship between Telltale and Valve. Actually, Telltale was the first non-Valve entity to put promotional items in TF2, and they inspired quite the trend over the following years. Many avid players of TF2 cite Poker Night at the Inventory as their first foray into any poker game, with community reviewers on Steam often talking about how they first learned Texas Hold

‘Em from playing Poker Night. Heavy will show varying degrees of aggression towards all the players on the table at some point, but for most of the game he gets on relatively well with the others. He proposes what he believes to be useful services to Max and Strong Bad, recommending Scout's “Force-a-nature” to Max and offering to murder for the King of Town for Strong Bad. The Heavy is especially suspicious of Tycho, however, worrying that he is secretly a Spy from the Blu Team, wary of what his

sweater and his general demeanor convey... Heavy: You wear BLU sweater. Tycho: Yep, pretty much all the time. And I mean ALL the time. Ask the wife. Heavy: What ARE you? Tycho: Haven't we been over this? I know your head is the size of a grapefruit, but come on... Heavy: You are not Scout. Maybe very tricky BLU Spy. Maybe new class. Tycho: I can use a keyboard to sabotage your team, steal your intelligence, and mail order your sister to my goddamn doorstep all in an afternoon! Yes, I'm a new cl

ass. I have a technical prowess beyond your wildest imagination. Heavy: This is true? That brings us to the second non-Telltale IP at the table - Tycho Brahe from the webcomic Penny Arcade. Rather than hailing from the world of video games, he comes from the land of comics about video games. Penny Arcade is perhaps more famous for hosting the Penny Arcade Expo - commonly referred to as PAX - at which Telltale is a regular attendee and host of it's iconic, fan led event "make-a-scene", a largely

improvised animated creation made in collaboration with the audience, who provide ideas for the script and sometimes lend their voices to the strange creations made live. PAX was a great site for Telltale's promotional material and so their relationship with the events organisers became an indispensable industry connection over the years. After hearing about the Poker Night pitch, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik - the artists behind Penny Arcade - decided to send Tycho to the table, probably bec

ause he has a much better understanding of how Poker works than his co-star Gabe does. In terms of playstyle, Tycho is the smartest and most conservative player of the bunch. He will usually only buy in if he begins with a good hand. He's not immune to bluffing, and will occasionally be forced to bluff himself when in a tough spot - but he is likely to fold the most out of anyone during a typical game. As a result, he's the most likely to stick around longest and see games to the bitter end. Dur

ing early development of the game, Tycho was going to buy in with his signature sweater. Tycho: "Whoever knocks me out of the tournament is the proud new owner of that slightly used garment". The Enthusiast's Timepiece was chosen instead, a recurring watch from the comics that has been quite the source of conflict between Gabe and Tycho since '99. Contrary to popular belief, Poker Night wasn't Tycho's game debut, nor was it the first time he was given a full 3D model. A couple years earlier, Tyc

ho was given that graphical treatment in the game series “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness”. The game was still blended with 2D elements, however - the dialouge was represented in the usual comic format that Penny Arcade was used to, so there wasn't much need for voice actors aside from it's in-game narrator. Narrator: "Suppose it can't be helped..." This meant that when it came to voice acting, Tycho was sort of the odd one out on the table. It was rumoured for a

while that Tycho's creator, Jerry Holkins, would voice Tycho's character given that Tycho is mainly based on Holkins himself. Instead, Andrew Chaikin was invited to voice Tycho at the table. Better known as musician Kid Beyond outside of his VA work, Chaikin is often referred to as a Telltale veteran, having already done plenty of work for previous Telltale titles such as Bone, Sam & Max and Puzzle Agent. Actually, Chaikin had voiced Max himself during the first episode of Sam & Max Season One

before William Kasten filled his role. Chaikin as Max: "I'm still working on getting the rest of the darts from the police impound!" Kasten as Max: "I'm still working on getting the rest of the darts from the police impound!" Chaikin was a fan of Penny Arcade before work started on Poker Night, so he already had a pretty good idea on how he should depict Tycho and the world he was a part of. When casting Tycho, the development team was worried that no matter who they chose fans would be upset wi

th their decision, with avid Penny Arcade readers having potentially read Tycho's voice as Jerry's or in their own ideation of his voice. Since they were essentially starting from a blank slate, Telltale was under pressure to pick the right “first-time” voice actor for an IP which wasn't theirs. However, Chaikin ended up being a popular choice - already relatively well-known amongst Telltale fans, they welcomed him as the first actor to “officially“ portray Tycho Winslow: Tycho has been eliminat

ed from play. Tycho: Ugh, fine. Time to just-- ...to just finish the second half of this chewy granola bar guaranteed to cheer me up after losing a king's ransom! Jesus crunchy Christ! Heavy: Oh. Max: Whoopsie! Strong Bad: Hand it over. In some very early promotional material well before the game was released, Tycho was briefly voiced by Telltale designer Joe Pinney as part of the make-a-scene at PAX 2010. In this video, we can see all sorts of game development treats and even a cameo from Dudeb

rough at one point. We can get a pretty good look at an early version of Tycho's new 3D model in this clip. Meanwhile, poker host and pirate Reginald Van Winslow's model looks like it's been ripped straight from Monkey Island - his new model made especially for Poker Night might not have been finalised or even thought about yet. The clip was about Sam investigating a murder at the inventory - in the game files, there are some unused lines where Winslow announces a death at the club, too. Winslow

: "It appears there has been a MURRRDEERR!! Some people thought this could have been a whole other aspect of the game which ended up being disused, others thought it might be a reference to a sequel, but in all likelihood, it was just an unused easter egg in the game. Winslow: So, welcome, and enjoy yourself. Come to think of it, we haven't discussed our pirate friend in depth yet. Voiced by Roger Jackson, Reginald Van Winslow from the Monkey Island series assumes this role - a bit of an obscure

choice, but one that probably had a lot of sentinental value for Telltale. Monkey Island was an iconic adventure game series which many of the developers for Poker Night would have worked on in some manner back when they were at Lucasarts, and in 2009, Telltale had finally been able to revive the licence in collaboration with the new Lucasarts staff. Winslow isn't an immediately obvious choice, but his soft-spoken demeanour and his pursuit of largely trivial knowledge makes him a quality pick w

ho fits right in with the quirky aesthetic of the game. Aside from Winslow’s presence at the Inventory, Portraits of various Monkey Island characters can be seen across the club, including a picture of Bruner, Fisheyes, and a Merfolk. To date, this is probably Winslows’ most prominent role in any game - his character serves as Telltale’s way of saying “thanks” to all those fans who supported their earlier works at Lucasarts years back. Aside from the main characters, there's plenty of cameo appe

arances in the background - you can spot Buster Blaster and Flint Paper near the bar. During the introduction, you can spot many Telltale characters, including Sam, Monty Muzzle and Trixie Trotter. After Winslow takes you down the stairs, you can also spot Momma Bosco sat with Girl-Stinky, both on their phones. This game was really a gold mine for avid Telltale fans, sneaking in all kinds of franchise appearances across the Inventory. Winslow: Can you imagine? Games, outlawed?! Nevertheless, thi

s club has been here in secret ever since just in case those in charge get another bee in their bonnet... Before we move on from discussing the characters present at The Inventory, it's worth taking a moment to look at how the AI functions in game. Lead programmer Tulley Rafferty was the main guy behind, well, programming the AI that powered the characters. This informs how they respond to the players actions, how they play the cards they've been dealt, and how much they value the pot at stake.

Rafferty wanted to have the playstyles of the characters reflect their personalities, making some players more erratic and aggressive than others - each character at the table presented a different challenge to the player who would have to wise up to their antics. Accurate predictions of their moves and reactions would help a lot when it came to winning the pot. "The main difference between normal & hard is that on normal the AI is more likely to bluff/play bad cards, and is easier to scare off

pots when it has a hand (ie more likely to fold to a raise even though it has good cards). Beyond that, we are talking about degrees. I’ll spare you the boring details, but every AI decision runs through a tree, with weights based on its skill level. The smarter the AI, the better decisions it will generally make. ...Each character has both skill and aggression. Skill is the major decision factor, usually aggression just affects size of bets (although it will sometimes alter the decision entirel

y). Tycho is the smartest and most conservative. Heavy is slightly less smart and slightly more aggressive than Tycho. Strong Bad is slightly less smart and considerably more aggressive. Max is actually as smart as Tycho (on hard difficulty, he is the dumbest on normal) but his aggression changes from hand to hand (unlike the others, who only change aggression on various semi-rare game conditions). So while Max technically is tied for the smartest, his erratic aggression causes him to make quest

ionable plays and act dumber. For what its worth, I didn't originally set out to go left to right, I just tried to make play styles that I felt fit the personalities." Poker Night also used an intricate tell system to help indicate what kinds of hands the other players at the table might be able to make. This further complicates the difficulty of the game, but in a positive manner: for instance, while Strong Bad may be the weakest overall player due to his over-confidence, it's more difficult to

notice his tells compared to other characters since he has less expressive facial features. On the other hand, Heavy might be a better player than Strong Bad, but his tells are generally more obvious as he is an especially expressive character. And of course, you can't solely rely on tells, either. Remaining vigilant and engaged with the game is a good strategy which can help you win without you having to rely on luck and/or complicated AI maths. But just like real life, sometimes you'll see so

mething which isn't really there. Max: You know, the music in this joint reminds me of the time a bunch of hippos escaped the zoo fell into league with a criminal blues band and started transporting illicit goods across the East River! Perhaps the most underrated part of Poker Night is it’s musical score. The music was composed by Telltales go-to session musician Jared Emerson-Johnson, who had previously worked on Sam & Max and later made music for Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among

Us. Joining him in the studio was Bill Storkson on guitar and bass, Jesse Wickman on drums, and Jordan Wardlaw on saxophone. One of the tracks in Poker Night, “Office”, was originally written by Jared for Sam & Max Season 1 and was re-arranged for Season 2, meaning Jared was covering a song he created and had plenty of experience with. The original “Office” already has a pretty jazzy feel, so it was well suited for the soundtrack. For songs from Strongbadia, Emerson-Johnson covered “The Theme fr

om Dangeresque II” and “Trogdor”. The cover for Dangeresque was just slowed and jazzed up a little, so it fits in pretty well. Trogdor, however, sounds wildly different to it’s original iteration. [trogdor!] Production of the music started in mid-September and finished up about two months later in mid-November - Emerson-Johnson worked right up to the deadline, only finishing the tracks just before the game's official release to the public. This was apparently common practice for Emerson-Johnson

during his early work with Telltale, only finalising his works right before the set release date. However, this was also indicative of a wider issue regarding Telltale's usual development process for their games... Winslow: The Heavy wins the hand. Tycho: Ooooof course you do. Max: I'm just talking about a little work on the side... Strong Bad, interrupting: So, Tycho, I hear you fancy your fancy self a bit of an internet celebrity-- Tycho: There's a distinct difference between... Strong Bad, in

terrupting again: I can't hear you, because of all the traffic. Heavy: I hear no cars. Strong Bad, interrupting HIMSELF (?!?!): I'm talking--this guy thinks he's--crazy web traffic, Ivan!--with his Geocities account. Tycho: We have a convention-- Strong Bad, interrupting yet again: --your attendees weighed as much as sixty million people Tycho, talking over Strong Bad: Well, we'll be sure you don't get a pass next year Strong Bad: Ha! Like any convention is worth--- Tycho, interrupting: *******

chuwero. Strong Bad, continuing anyway: --a thousand gamer dorks without me. A cause of concern for some fans was the speed at which the game was developed. According to the Telltale devs present at PAX East 2011, the final release was an “unmitigated disaster” Poker Night at the Inventory was made in just 80 days, which meant the team couldn’t quite iron out all the visual bugs, nor could they implement some of the more ambitious features originally planned for the game. In Rock, Paper, Shotgun

’s review series “Wot I Think”, a variety of gameplay issues were found - glitches regarding the cards meant some hands were near unplayable, animations were sometimes clunky and didn't finish properly, and the UI was widely criticised. The lack of polish in key areas alongside the game’s tendency to repeat certain strings of dialogue ad nauseum had critics divided over the quality of the final product. Ultimately, it faced a lot of the same criticism that Telltale’s Texas Hold ‘Em had faced pri

or: Repetitive, a bit janky, and somewhat predictable. Many of the major issues which seriously affected the gameplay were patched in an update during the month after the original release - but long-term Telltale fans raised audible concern about the development process and the precedent this set for the studio’s future works. Perhaps those fans were right to be worried. Winslow: Tycho wins the hand! Tycho: I'm just gonna turn my DS on and you guys keep giving me your money. This is an incredibl

e system we've got here. As you may recall, Telltale sort of collapsed in 2018 due to a variety of financing troubles. You might also recall earlier on in this script, we briefly covered how Telltale had successfully trialed episodic formats for their games and their success with it. Their repetitive strategy combined with their outdated engine meant Telltale was getting bogged down - the studio was not innovating enough with new ideas or new approaches. Telltale wasn’t making those high sales n

umbers anymore; their typical game structure had become old news to consumers. An anonymous source from Super Bunnyhop’s video on the studio’s insolvency - a video which is definitely worth a watch - said the following, which sums up the source of Telltale’s downfall pretty well: “It was always about shipping more episodes every year: just push out more episodes, and we’ll make a huge profit...[our previous CEO] decided that we should churn out as many games as possible while treating the employ

ees like dirt...” Taking on too many employees and training them to use arcane, outdated software meant the company was unable to deliver quality products to represent the brands they had negotiated those big licensing agreements with. Combined with punitive charges aimed towards them as a result of repeated press leaks which breached non-disclosure agreements, it was only a matter of time until the studio hit deaths door. And yet somehow, nobody saw it coming, really - even internally, the news

of closure was a shock to many. With the whole Telltale team having been laid off in record time, many of their games were shelved and could not be purchased on Steam or from their site - a lot of their games involved complex licensing agreements that the company could no longer uphold. After lying dormant for a while, Telltale was put back in business during the second half of 2019. The company which bought them (LCG Entertainment) put quite a few of their old games back on the Steam Store. Ho

wever, both Poker Night at the Inventory and Poker Night 2 did not see a return. On it’s old support page, Telltale said that the game “has been withdrawn from sale on digital platforms due to the expiration of our digital distribution agreement”, and that they “currently do not have any plans to renew this agreement”. Recent tweets from the new team indicate Telltale is still preoccupied with rebooting their more acclaimed franchises - particularly The Walking Dead - and that bringing Poker Nig

ht back to traditional retail sale is low on their list of priorities. Today, the only way to get your own copy of the game (legally) is to buy an existing Steam key. These used to be relatively cheap, but have recently shot up in price - and there is no guarantee that you’d actually get a working key from some of these vendors. There is one other way to play the game and bag the items, though. Steam Family Sharing, a feature which was released way back in 2013, allows users to let other people

on their friends list play games from their Steam library. While playing, the recipient of the share - the “sharee”, if you will - has all of their achievements logged to their account, with separate saves uploaded to the Steam cloud. So, because you can still get these achievements via family sharing, you can still get the exclusive promotional items. All you need to know is somebody who owns the game. From this, a sort of small sub-economy has spawned to capitalise on family sharing of the gam

e. Across TF2 discords and the Poker Night Steam community forum, plenty of people are popping up and making threads, willing to let others play the game if they pay with a key or two. This is probably the best and cheapest (legal) way to play the game today. Max: Mister Weapons, how do you like your line of work? Heavy: It is good. There are many benefits. Max: Oh, like a free pass to snuff out bad guys or a waffle bar in the commissary? Heavy: Both. And full dental. In a way, Poker Night at th

e Inventory was Telltale’s way of celebrating their achievements over the past five years. They had managed to revive the Sam & Max series, bringing a beloved hit into the third dimension for the first time; they had made indispensable industry connections with creative minds like The Brothers Chaps and the critically acclaimed titan of PC gaming, Valve; they had secured key spots at PAX which allowed them to interact directly with their growing fanbase; they had been able to work on a new Monke

y Island game, the series which held a lot of nostalgic value for much of Telltale’s staff; and they tied this whole homage up in a neat little package that referenced their first official studio release way back in 2005. So, it’s a bit of a shame that the legacy of Poker Night has been muted somewhat by the TF2 items which originally helped promote it. Today, lots of people who play for the first time simply speed through the game with consecutive all ins until they're lucky enough to bust ever

yone out and get their goodies. Tycho: Damn, son! Some use programs like SAM - the Steam Achievement Manager - to unlock the items without even launching Poker Night. The Inventory has largely become a means to an end for TF2 players, a place where they can quickly bag some Demoman shades and a couple of cool guns. For a quirky if short experience with so much unrealised potential, and one of the few genuinely fun PC poker games out there, it's a shame that Poker Night now lives in the shadow of

a Valve title. Before it’s release, Telltale CEO Dan Connors said that Poker Night would have to shift somewhere in the region of 100,000 to 200,000 units to see a sequel. If SteamDB is any guide, the original Poker Night clearly thrashed that goal big time. As a result, Poker Night 2 was released 3 years later, seating a whole new cast of characters and introducing a new robotic dealer. But the development history of that game is a story for another day. For now, I’d recommend you boot up the

original if you have it, and find a way to get a hold of it if you don’t, because I doubt there will ever be another game that’s quite like Poker Night. oh, man, that took ages...been here for like an hour and a half... Heavy: It is your turn! We wait!