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''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' was a graphic adventure computer game developed by LucasArts from 2002 until its cancellation in 2004, and the final game in the company's adventure game era. ''Freelance Police'' was originally intended for release for Windows in early 2004 as a sequel to the 1993 title ''Sam & Max Hit the Road''. The game was based on the characters Sam and Max: an anthropomorphic dog and "hyperkinetic rabbity thing" who debuted in a 1987 comic book series created by Steve Purcell. ''Freelance Police'' was announced in August 2002, and showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2003. Like its predecessor, ''Freelance Police'' was designed as a point-and-click adventure game, but used a 3D game engine in place of the SCUMM and GrimE engines used in older LucasArts adventure games. The project's development was led by Michael Stemmle, one of the original designers for ''Sam & Max Hit the Road'', while Steve Purcell assisted in developing the game's plot and providing artistic direction. Although the game's development appeared to be proceeding towards completion without difficulty, LucasArts abruptly canceled production of ''Freelance Police'' in March 2004, citing economic and market conditions. The game's cancellation was received poorly by fans of the series, Steve Purcell, and the video game industry media. Many journalists viewed this move as a culmination in the decline of the adventure game genre. LucasArts later terminated its adventure game development, and many of the ''Freelance Police'' design team left to create Telltale Games and continue development of such adventure games. Steve Purcell moved the ''Sam & Max'' franchise to Telltale Games in 2005, prompting a revival of ''Sam & Max'' video games. ==Overview== ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' was designed by LucasArts as a graphic adventure game and sequel to the 1993 title ''Sam & Max Hit the Road''. The game was to feature 3D computer graphics rendered in real-time. The game engine contained elements from other LucasArts games, including those from ''Gladius'', ''RTX Red Rock'', ''Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels'' and ''Star Wars: Obi-Wan''.〔 Graphical features such as shaders, bump maps and lightmaps were used to give a 3D effect to 2D textures in the game.〔 Little was revealed of the gameplay, other than that ''Freelance Police'' would not follow the same control scheme used in 3D LucasArts adventures ''Grim Fandango'' and ''Escape from Monkey Island'', but would return to point-and-click mechanics used in the 2D LucasArts games.〔 As in ''Sam & Max Hit the Road'', ''Freelance Police'' would contain a mixture of optional and compulsory minigames, 19 in total.〔 The game was designed so that the player character could not die or reach a dead end.〔 Few details were revealed about the game's plot. In a January 2004 interview, lead designer Michael Stemmle provided a rough outline: the game's story was "really six stories, loosely held together by a thrilling über-plot".〔 Each individual story contained a separate case for the Freelance Police, taking place in a variety of environments, including a space station and a neopagan bacchanal, and featuring "freakish bad guys".〔 Stemmle stated that the intention was to keep the "über-plot" concealed for a while, but noted that it contained "all the barely plausible grandeur that fans have come to expect from ''Sam and Max''".〔 Steve Purcell, the creator of ''Sam & Max'', assisted in the development of both the plot and the artistic direction, producing concept art of various characters and locales.〔 Besides the return of the titular characters, only one other character, Flint Paper, was confirmed for the game. Described by Stemmle as "the Freelance Police's rough 'n' tumble private detective neighbour",〔 Paper is briefly featured in ''Sam & Max'' comics and makes an offstage appearance in ''Sam & Max Hit the Road''. Stemmle had Paper planned for a "critical role" in the game's plot. Due to the nature of the story, LucasArts considered releasing the game in episodic fashion and using digital distribution, an option favored by the development team but opposed by the management division, who preferred the more traditional methods of retail distribution. Post-release bonus content was also considered; Stemmle remarked that such content would include new power-ups, minigames and "maybe even entirely new interactive ''Sam & Max'' cases (player ) can download".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sam & Max: Freelance Police」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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