Sam And Max The Devil's Playhouse - Blog Posts

Well, here’s something after not posting in a while. (Spoilers for The Devil’s Playhouse)

Well, my drawing tablet needed repairs, so it’s led to me doing a lot of sketches and drawings on paper, this one inspired by the ending of The Devil’s Playhouse. I know it’s probably stupid for me to draw these two in any sentimental nature, particularly Max, but I always assumed even with how chaotic they can be, they also has a soft side. (mostly coming from my personal experience of being the absolute fucked up person I genuinely am that still has space for affection sometimes) So here they both are paying their respects to their alternate selves who lost their lives after being turned into giant monsters and mercy killed in the aftermath of using their psychic abilities to save the world from a great otherworldly evil. I genuinely do think Max was more negatively affected by this than he was letting on. (“Fun” fact: Lagomorphs in general have a tendency to hide any vulnerability they have, which first evolved to protect them from predators)

Also I’m probably going to be taking a break from Tumblr. It’s not giving me joy like it used to, and anyone can report an art piece for no reason and get it blocked for some fucking reason. I’d wish the Sam and Max fandom well, but I don’t want to make this post more emotional and sappy than it already is.

Aww! Look at the clown bunny- oh wait…

I FINALLY got the motivation to finish an art piece! And it’s of the Sam clones from Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse!

Also this: https://youtu.be/1X4v3WmpNo8?si=aQa6vHdYO0W-IuqD

SPOILERS FOR SAM AND MAX: THE DEVIL’S PLAYHOUSE

(Also a rough personal vent based on how much this game resonated with me. Trust me, it’s not for the faint of heart. Warning: contains instances of childhood trauma and the many other mental health conditions it came with)

This game did so much justice for Sam and Max themselves, considering how this game is the first time anyone has seen these two in this multi-layered light since the original was released by Telltale back in 2010. I could go on about how this game has very much given me even more appreciation for Sam, because it has! But I really do want to talk about what was confirmed in this game about Max.

First of all, I love that when we’re in the Museum of Mostly Natural History in the episode They Stole Max’s Brain, we get an exhibit on how “the world will end” which shows a display of a giant monster destroying a city and the scene mechanically rotating into a desolate wasteland where the city used to stand. Mostly because of how well it works as foreshadowing for what was to come, (that foreshadowing also happened in The Penal Zone where Sam and Max first discover the Toybox) which ended up being Max turning into that giant monster that was predicted to bring the end of the world by the end of The Alley of the Dolls.

In the grand finale The City That Dares Not Sleep, when we’re literally inside Max himself, we end up learning his own Super Ego hates him and wants him to die. The Superego isn’t a separate entity, he is very much a part of Max’s own mind. I’m pretty sure every other Sam and Max fan who’s played this game has pointed out Max being as depressed and self-loathing as he is, and hiding it behind his sense of humor and his iconic smile. (He even brings up earlier in The Tomb of Sammun-Mak that he likes to fall asleep to the song “Tears of a Clown” which if you’ve heard of it, it’s 100% because he relates to that song. That’s just more good foreshadowing)

Honestly, I’m just going to say this, this 100% is something I deeply relate to. I’m probably going to vent a lot, but it’s important to understand where I’m coming from. During my childhood, I kept finding myself in these special Ed programs that I hated being in, they never truly felt like they were safe, but I had no choice but to put up with them since as far as my parents knew from the people who misinformed them, kids are completely incapable of truly understanding what is best for them. There were several times where I knew something was wrong with the way my life was, but I couldn’t put my finger on it since I was so young and constantly surrounded by people gaslighting me because I was that young. My autism diagnosis was something I deeply resented because it put me into these programs where I was objectified and told how the way I am and behave is wrong and should behave how THEY instruct me to. A lot of pressure was often put on me to behave with this standard of “perfection”, often leading me to be punished for not perfectly following that standard. I had no choice but to bottle up those imperfections because of the teachers of Special Ed that would constantly watch me like a hawk and sometimes even follow me around when I’m just trying to get on with my school day and get to my latest class in time. It didn’t help that I also kept getting prescriptions for medication that did more harm than good for me. One of the pills caused me to rapidly gain around 20 pounds in the span of a few weeks as a 9 year old, (making Sam pretty damn relatable in his own right too.) and another prescription REALLY messed with my brain. (If you want an example to how I acted on that awful drug, just think about how Lemongrab from Adventure Time was like) All this along with a few other reasons I might bring up someday ended up getting me to first develop suicidal thoughts at age 10. And as soon as that happened, I was taken to a children’s psych ward in a hospital where for some fucking reason, some “responsible adults” thought it would be a good idea to put the kid that thinks they’re a freak of nature that never should have existed in the first place in to a children’s psych ward made up mostly of kids that were surrendered from their parents for then being drug addicts and committing crimes they’re now in prison for. My much pickier childhood self when it came to the foods I ate (which is something a lot of autistic people are known for diagnosis wise) and the people running the ward didn’t give a damn and I spent my time malnourished lying in bed waiting for myself to starve to death and finally end everything I was going through up to that point. It took my mother INSISTING constantly that she bring food that I like so I could finally be more well nourished. But I can assure you it was hell, a hell I was stuck in for 11 days.

A bunch of other messed up stuff happened too, but I think this information has the gist of why I’m like this. It really wasn’t easy for me to type out, let alone have the nerve to publish on a public site. Honestly, I’d say Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse resonated with me in a similar way Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 did. (If any of you have also seen that movie, you’d know EXACTLY what I mean. What I brought up also made Rocket Raccoon’s story resonate with me as much as it did.)

I’d like to thank the people of Skunkape for remastering this game so more people like me can have access and experience this masterpiece of a game. It was just what I needed now, and I couldn’t be more grateful of it happening!

I finally finished Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. I’m not gonna have spoilers in the game on this post, (that’ll be for another post) but I think TDP might have one of my favorite stories in a video game, right up with Insomniac’s first Spider-Man!

Also, as soon as I was finished, I gave my Max plushie the biggest hug I could and just let it all out. 😭

“And yea the Devil Bunny, not knowing his true purpose, would unlock the mysteries of the Toybox.”

“Hey, Sam! It likes me!”

I love The Devil’s Playhouse so far! Also, this took way too long to finish.

To celebrate the announcement of Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered’s release date, I drew this! Had a good amount of fun making it too!

I’m looking forward to getting Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered! So here’s Max flexing his psychic powers!