This seems like a pretty ambitious undertaking...

[serializer]

Just noticed the new forum title, I love The Walking Dead - saw the TV show last year and then went and read the entire comic series which I'm now a subscriber to. Really looking forward to the possibilities of a game adaptation, Robert Kirkman is an excellent writer and I hope his style translates well to game writing. I'm imagining something very much comic style similar to Puzzle Agent. I just hope you (as with the TV series) make the plot run a little differently to the comic books, so there are still some surprises!

[DaleCooper]

I have no idea how this is being tackled, but a game based on The Walking Dead will probably be incredibly hit or miss, no matter who's doing it.

The comics are quite relentless & uncompromising. How will that translate to a game?

One thing that always pisses me off is how in every story hardly everyone ever dies, no matter how dangerous & seemingly impossible the situation is.

The Walking Dead is just the opposite. Some of the deaths I REALLY wish hadn't happened... but they did. And they made sense. And there's nothing anyone could have done about except for the authors.

No amount of criticism about touchy subjects, real or imagined, has made any difference so far... That's what makes this comic so great.

I imagine any game will be a watered down version of it.

And to be frank, much as I've questioned Telltale on the finished quality of their recent products, choice of controls & artistic direction, none of that is really bothering me at all right now.

What's really hanging on my mind is the quite simply question... how brutal are you gonna be? How unforgiving? Will your set of balls be as huge as everyone's who's involved with the comics? Or will you deliver a safe approach?

Telltale zealots, please bear in mind that this is a question I'd ask any company involved with a Walking Dead game & I am not trying to foster a discussion here about anything else but that one question.

Cheers!

[Gman5852]

Yeah with zombie things like L4D no one has died from the story(with the exception of that old guy) and they fight HUNDREDS of them.
Where as in this, one zombie can pluck them off.
And another thing. I happened to notice ALL of my favorite characters stinking die. What I find hilarious is that during the "prison series" I created a list of "people I dont want to die" and ALL of them die during the governors attack, not one person that I disliked died, it was all of the characters I liked, with the exception of Carl who(so far) is alive(where Im at, PLEASE dont tell me if he is dead in the series or not)

[Rather Dashing]

Use spoiler tags.

[DaleCooper]

That's exactly it. It doesn't matter how unfair it is, things happen.

Being popular doesn't save a character... nothing does.

How many game companies are willing to put out a game that relentless & unforgiving? Is Telltale willing to do it? Or is it gonna be a friendly zombie game where nothing really bad ever happens & the bad guys get punished & good guys triumph just because it's fair?

This can be an instant classic if done right. I'd really like to know the approach being taken with this.

And yeah, spoiler tags for anything closely plot related would be nice.

Cheers!

[Gman5852]

That's exactly it. It doesn't matter how unfair it is, things happen.

Being popular doesn't save a character... nothing does.

How many game companies are willing to put out a game that relentless & unforgiving? Is Telltale willing to do it? Or is it gonna be a friendly zombie game where nothing really bad ever happens & the bad guys get punished & good guys triumph just because it's fair?

This can be an instant classic if done right. I'd really like to know the approach being taken with this.

And yeah, spoiler tags for anything closely plot related would be nice.

Cheers!


I heard the creator actually wants to kill off Rick eventually

[DaleCooper]

I have no idea how he lasted that long...

I always figured we were living through Rick. After reading that bit too, I guess it'll continue.

Fine by me either way, it doesn't really take anything from the "realism" of the series.

Funny... I never liked stuff to be very realistic. Mainly because the more realistic something's trying to be, the faker it turns out to be.

Oh, by the way...

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/987/zombiesurvivaltest.jpg

Guess I've learned a bit from all these years of zombie stuff. Heh.

Cheers!

[serializer]

I heard the creator actually wants to kill off Rick eventually

What he actually said (in the letters page) was along the lines of "nobody's guaranteed to survive, not even Rick..." - so it's not a definite confirmation either way, I think he just likes to play with the fan's emotions :)

[serializer]

I always figured we were living through Rick. After reading that bit too, I guess it'll continue.


I read someone else's idea (might also have been in the letters pages?) that we're actually living the story thru Carl :)

[Gman5852]

I read someone else's idea (might also have been in the letters pages?) that we're actually living the story thru Carl :)

That does make sense.

[seanvanaman]

All good points in here. :D

[Rather Dashing]

That Sean and Jake are on this project definitely gives me a lot of hope for it. Their work is always some of the best from this company. It's definitely an undertaking, but I'm pretty hopeful for it.

[Gman5852]

I have no idea how he lasted that long...

I always figured we were living through Rick. After reading that bit too, I guess it'll continue.

Fine by me either way, it doesn't really take anything from the "realism" of the series.

Funny... I never liked stuff to be very realistic. Mainly because the more realistic something's trying to be, the faker it turns out to be.

Oh, by the way...

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/987/zombiesurvivaltest.jpg

Guess I've learned a bit from all these years of zombie stuff. Heh.

Cheers!

Just took that quiz too. I got the same resaults which is wierd because
A.In every game I get where I control people I almost always walk them to thier deaths at some point(which is why I love Pikmin:D)
B.Everyone I know says I would be the last guy they want as a leader.
C.I chose the options that usually involved murder.

[DaleCooper]

All good points in here. :D

And just what is that supposed to mean?

I'll hold you onto that, don't you think I won't.

If this game turns out to be complete crap, I'll say that the van man promised that it would be like the comics, but it's not, even though you didn't really said it, but implied it, even though you really didn't, either.

Anyway, a promise is a promise is a promise.

In all seriousness, I do hope that what you posted is a sign of DAMN good things to come.

Cheers!

[DaleCooper]

That Sean and Jake are on this project definitely gives me a lot of hope for it. Their work is always some of the best from this company. It's definitely an undertaking, but I'm pretty hopeful for it.

I've read somewhere that Kirkland is kind of involved, too.

I'm still a bit anxious about the whole thing, though, but can you blame me?

NO ONE has ever released something as brutal as the Walking Dead, not even the most "hardcore" gaming companies.

Sure, we've had blood & guts & sadism & holocausts & genocides & what not, but the enemies have always been discardable, generic, faceless mobs, never one of your own, that you care for AND need to survive.

THAT is what made the Walking Dead brilliant, in my opinion. A murder is a murder, something with consequences & repercussions...

Little Carl summed it up best in one of the earliest uncomfortable & questionable moments in the story - "It's not the same as killing the dead ones, daddy."

And in truth... it never should be.

Cheers!

[DaleCooper]

Just took that quiz too. I got the same resaults which is wierd because
A.In every game I get where I control people I almost always walk them to thier deaths at some point(which is why I love Pikmin:D)
B.Everyone I know says I would be the last guy they want as a leader.
C.I chose the options that usually involved murder.

A couple of my friends took the test & what came out wasn't very different from their overall personalities, so it made for a good half hour of guffaws about how we'll have a rounded team when the zombies finally strike.

Cheers!

[Rather Dashing]

NO ONE has ever released something as brutal as the Walking Dead, not even the most "hardcore" gaming companies.

Sure, we've had blood & guts & sadism & holocausts & genocides & what not, but the enemies have always been discardable, generic, faceless mobs, never one of your own, that you care for AND need to survive.
I'm sorry, but this simply isn't accurate. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Planescape: Torment, Sanitarium, Harvester, Darkseed, Silent Hill 2, etc etc, were able to deal with very dark, psychological subjects. While not the SAME as Walking Dead, I'd argue that many of these get far darker and more personal and intelligent.

[DaleCooper]

I'm sorry, but this simply isn't accurate. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Planescape: Torment, Sanitarium, Harvester, Darkseed, Silent Hill 2, etc etc, were able to deal with very dark, psychological subjects. While not the SAME as Walking Dead, I'd argue that many of these get far darker and more personal and intelligent.

Well, I erred by saying "no one" instead of "no game I played".

I Have No Mouth & Sanitarium were very disturbing indeed, and I loved every minute of it. But no matter how cruel they are, you have a goal, to escape & restore your sanity. The Walking Dead gradually chips away at your sanity. There's no beam of light to hold onto there. Just despair & the "keep surviving for as long as we can, but yeah, we're all gonna die." I guess it's that "nowhere to go, but keep trying anyway" attitude that endears me to the comics.

Planescape couldn't have been more brilliant, but like every RPG, the fact that you have to focus, albeit minimally, on its mechanics, it doesn't allow you to delve as deep into its story as you'd want.

Don't get me wrong, the Baldur's Gates, Icewind Dale, Planescape, Neverwinter Nights & Dragon Age, etc. have been some of the best stories I've seen in games. And there's very few games besides that gave me such a great feeling of accomplishment as they did. But the stressful & emotional moments are often lost in the mechanics & objectives of the game.

I realize that I'm expecting too much of this game & I'll only have myself to blame when it comes out & I become severely disappointed.

But I've read comics as all my life & I had never experienced what I did with the Walking Dead.

Mind you, I'm not saying they're the best thing I ever read, far from it. But it was different from anything else.

That's what I expect from this game.

Cheers!

[Calbeb]

I was just thinking the same thing as the OP. Taking on Walking Dead is tough. Tougher imo than Jurrasic Park or Back to the Future. The comic is so brutal, on a purely human level.

I don't even think that the show, which was relatively succesful so far, got anywhere close to the level of dark human nature that the comic regularly walked into

Balancing the desire that some purchashers will have for a fun zombie adventure, with a comic that had a storyline like the one with the "Governor" is going to be tough. I wish you the best of luck :)

My advice, just remember it's not about the zombies.