Telltale making something Original

[ace2020boyd]

Ive just thought of this when talking to my brother. Telltale so far has only made games on a Past properties and other ones. When do you think Telltale will make a game that has an original story, characters, plot. Don't get me wrong i love all there other games like S&M,PokerNight,ToMI,JP,BTTF but would be nice to see something that they can come up with that is new.

[Syd]

I don't know, licensed games are kind of Telltale's thing. Probably saves a lot of development time if they don't have to conceptualize the game's world and primary characters, too, and saving time could be a big deal to a company that specializes in episodic gaming.

[Darth Marsden]

Honestly? Never. They seem to be doing pretty well (commercially, at least, if not critically) using existing franchises. I can't see them straying from a successful strategy any time soon.

[der_ketzer]

Also you always get a certain fanbase involved. They won new fans with ToMI and even with Jurrassic Dildo.

[GaryCXJk]

Don't you mean Your-Ass-ic?

[Darth Marsden]

Jurrasic Fart?

Depressing Park?

Jurrasic Rain?

Geriatric Park?

...take your pick, I got more.

[KuroShiro]

I choose none of the above.

It seems that Telltale will never try to make an original property. It's just not what they do.

[MusicallyInspired]

Many of us have been begging Telltale for an original IP since they got started. We figured they were just getting on their feet with Bone, Sam & Max, and Homestar Runner. Then when Wallace & Grommit came out and later Tales of Monkey Island I began losing hope. They created Puzzle Agent and then said that they considered that an original IP. Eyes were rolled. But the BTTF and Jurassic Park Universal licenses campaign proved that they will never ever do anything original ever. They just can't make anything original I guess. Or think it's a waste of time/money. They'd rather churn out sub-par material and ride on the fame of others' work than start on something really special and original.

[RAnthonyMahan]

Pre-existing names sell. It's simple as that. Every big movie these days is a sequel or adaptation (or both!). Every big game is a sequel too.

Telltale only does licensed games because it's an easy way to draw attention to their work. I'm willing to bet just about everyone on these forums discovered Telltale by hearing about someone making an (insert license here) game. (It was Homestar Runner for me, by the way.)

I agree that seeing an original game would be nice, though. It seems like sometimes they have to compromise their games in order to be respectful to the license. In the Back to the Future movies, messing around in the past is dangerous, so in the game we didn't end up with a lot of exploration.

Still, chances are we won't see an original game unless Telltale becomes big enough that they can sell a game on the fact that they made it alone.

[MusicallyInspired]

Not me. I came here because I knew they were all mostly ex-LucasArts employees looking to keep adventure gaming alive. Clearly that has all changed and they are not what I expected them to be.

[Fealiks]

Yeah, a lot of us have been waiting forever for Telltale to do something original. For each period after a release that they're quiet for a few weeks, people start salivating over the idea that they might be secretly cooking up something of their own.

Honestly, I hope they do soon. It's got to be kind of a strain on creativity making other peoples' games for years on end. That strain is starting to show, I think.

[Jennifer]

They did have Telltale Texas Hold'Em. I'd love to see a Theodore Dudebrough adventure game (his character is actually pretty fleshed out (http://www.dudebrough.com/)).

[Irishmile]

I would love it if they created an entirely new world and new characters... but I know it probably wouldn't be nearly as profitable as already established franchises...

Artistically it would be amazing, financially it would be a gamble.

[DAISHI]

Hey Telltale, fund my game and release it as an original under your Pilot Projects endeavor.

[GaryCXJk]

I would pay a lot for a Dudebrough game.

[MusicallyInspired]

"Pilot Projects" *chuckle*. That was a joke, was'nt it?

[DAISHI]

"Pilot Projects" *chuckle*. That was a joke, was'nt it?

Unfortunately that's what it's turned out to be.

[Irishmile]

"Pilot Projects" *chuckle*. That was a joke, was'nt it?

Yeah ... Puzzle Agent and Hector were pretty funny games.... Like a good joke.

[RAnthonyMahan]

"Pilot Projects" *chuckle*. That was a joke, was'nt it?

Is the pilot program even still active? We got Puzzle Agent and Poker Night (only the former of which got continued afterwards), and it hasn't been heard from since.

[DAISHI]

Maybe they should have done a real adventure
Game

[blueskirt]

Long ago I thought Telltale were using Sam And Max, Monkey Island and King's Quest in order to build themselves a financial security and a fanbase big enough to sustain them and then they would jump into wholly original games. I also thought they would figure out why we loved old adventure games, and the rules and interaction complexity would ramp up until we got something more or less similar to Grim Fandango or Curse Of Monkey Island.

Whoo boy, I was so damn wrong.

I don't think Telltale will ever produce original games on the same level as their franchise works. Any original games will be either small experiments or made by other studios and published by Telltale. Their business and creative decisions are much closer to big publishers than what you would expect from the successors of the greater half of LucasArts. And if they do, I'm thinking it will have something to do with Double Fine Adventure's success, once again "Let's do the same, it worked for them" a typical big publishers decision.

I thought these typical big publishers decisions were a mean to reach an end, which was producing adventure games like they used to be made, like what Double Fine's doing. Turns out they were the end, and not the mean.

[DAISHI]

Speaking of finances, just HOW secure are Telltale's financial?

[Irishmile]

I do not think they have EVER released any numbers or sales... I have always been curious to know just how well the games have done..