Telltale Games

**Jake** · 04/04/2011, 08:47 pm

Hey guys, I know it's still early days on this project, and we're a ways off from talking about anything concrete, but it seemed like as good a time as any to start an official Q&A thread!

In all honesty there isn't a lot we can talk about yet -- we were going to do press for the game at PAX East last month, but held off when we realized that our answer to almost any conceivable standard press question would be "no comment, yet" -- but I trust you guys to rise above the standard questions, and come up with some Walking Dead stuff we can discuss, so have at it. Ask away!

**Jake** · 04/04/2011, 08:47 pm

Sample, easy question (since I already wrote up the answer): Who is making the game?
The project is being written and designed by Sean Vanaman (best known around these parts for writing and designing Wallace & Gromit: Muzzled, and writing and co-designing Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan), Chuck Jordan (lead writer, and lead designer of Sam & Max the Devil's Playhouse, writer/designer of Strong Badia the Free and 8 Bit is Enough, writer of Puzzle Agent 2, and a lot of other things), and me (maybe know as director on Lair of the Leviathan and Rise of the Pirate God, and director on Sam & Max: The City that Dares Not Sleep, also Telltale's community coordinator and UI/graphic designer for many years among other things). We also have a slowly increasing group of programmers ferreted away, and our art team (led by our art director, Derek Sakai) is currently busy drawing up a storm. So, as you can see, the team size is still small, but it will be growing at a surprising rate pretty soon, here!

Hopefully some or all of those folks will be around for me to harass into answering any questions we're allowed to answer

*GuruGuru214* · 04/04/2011, 08:53 pm

That's just the sort of name-dropping I can get excited about!

**Jake** · 04/04/2011, 08:57 pm

That's a slice of the season-wide crew. More writers and designers and directors (and all sorts of other folks) will come on board as it gets under way, of course.

coolguy721 · 04/04/2011, 09:13 pm

How much is the comic influencing the game?

**puzzlebox** · 04/05/2011, 04:34 am

Hey, Chuck Jordan is back for this? Good stuff.

Will you keep the same level of gore, or tone it down (or up!) for the game?

Gman5852 · 04/05/2011, 04:43 am

If it is based off of the comics, will we be replaying key parts in the story, or will the comics be on hold for this story? Will we be with a whole new group?

Icedhope · 04/05/2011, 11:05 am

Oooh! SNAP! Now I can't wait for the game...but I do have to wait to read the comic book..so i can get caught up.

Gman5852 · 04/05/2011, 05:10 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icedhope

Oooh! SNAP! Now I can't wait for the game...but I do have to wait to read the comic book..so i can get caught up.

Have you read it?
I was pretty lucky finding the entire series(nice) so I can tell you it is defenently a good series.

Also, if you could at this stage, name one game that would be similar to this one(aka Jurassic Park is similar to Heavy Rain)

Smokemonster · 04/06/2011, 08:51 am

Can you say please when we'll can see first screenshot(s) from the game? I can't wait to see what is like!

Jon NA · 04/06/2011, 10:53 am

The Walking Dead comic series have a q/a column with Robert Kirkman at the end of each issue.
Are we going to have something similar to that for every TellTale episode? Like a podcast with Rob Kirkman answering questions a la Damon and Carlton in LOST?

Bloody Eugene · 04/06/2011, 01:23 pm

My usual question:
Languages?

Sorry, I'm still Italian. :P

Ribs · 04/06/2011, 02:10 pm

Are there attempts to get the Television actors involved, or are you going to attempt a completely new cast?

*GuruGuru214* · 04/06/2011, 09:08 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokemonster

Can you say please when we'll can see first screenshot(s) from the game? I can't wait to see what is like!

If it's in such an early stage of development that the team is still this small, screenshots are likely a decent while in the future.

thesporkman · 04/06/2011, 10:25 pm

So is Chuck back at Telltale then?

Bloody Eugene · 04/07/2011, 01:58 pm

1) How the gameplay will be different from JP?
2) Visually what do you think it has to achieve?
3) What does interests Chuck so much to return for this game?
4) For this game do you think you'll have more time than the usual TT developing cycle now that TT is getting bigger?
5) What's the biggest fear for a game designer working with zombies?

RAnthonyMahan · 04/07/2011, 02:31 pm

Let me think. It's hard to think up a good question since I know most stuff you're not at liberty to answer. Hmm...

OK, here's one. I always found one of Telltale's biggest selling points to be the humor. You've mostly dealt with silly licenses (Sam and Max, Homestar Runner, Monkey Island) in the past. However, The Walking Dead is a very serious work, and what little humor it has is of the dark variety. Are there any particular challenges with taking on a serious franchise (this applies to Jurassic Park as well as The Walking Dead)? Do you think the people who play Telltale's products to laugh be able to enjoy this as much as your previous, lighter efforts?

*seanvanaman* · 04/07/2011, 06:04 pm

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm readin' these and there will be answers IN YOUR FUTURE!

Gman5852 · 04/08/2011, 12:03 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanvanaman

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm readin' these and there will be answers IN YOUR FUTURE!

OMG!! You are so hinting that there will be a tie-in between this and BTTF aren't you.

Tjibbbe · 04/08/2011, 12:57 pm

Great to see Chuck Jordan back in action!

I don't really know what to ask in here. Perhaps you guys could tell us a bit about what makes making a Walking Dead game exciting to you, and what you're hoping to achieve with your game. Can we expect a regular adventure game, or something a bit more action-oriented like Jurassic Park, or something else entirely? Also, how involved is Kirkman in all this? I watched a couple of panels about the tv series from various conventions on youtube, and he's a pretty cool guy. I fully support Milkman's suggestion that he should be on some sort of Telltale podcast.

Also; Kirkman was going to guest star as a zombie in the tv series, but he didn't want to shave his beard so it didn't happen in the end. This raises a couple of interesting questions: Can zombies have beards? Will Kirkman be cameoing it up in the Telltale episodes? What would Dave Grossman and his awesome new beard (as seen in the april fools video) look like as a zombie?

Anyway, I can't wait to see what a Telltale game based on such dark material will be like, and the team looks like a collection of my favorite Telltale designers so far. So yeah, back to work, slackers. Make me some entertainment.

04/04/2011, 08:47 pm	#1
Jake Telltale Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 5,874	Questions for the Walking Dead team! Hey guys, I know it's still early days on this project, and we're a ways off from talking about anything concrete, but it seemed like as good a time as any to start an official Q&A thread! In all honesty there isn't a lot we can talk about yet -- we were going to do press for the game at PAX East last month, but held off when we realized that our answer to almost any conceivable standard press question would be "no comment, yet" -- but I trust you guys to rise above the standard questions, and come up with some Walking Dead stuff we can discuss, so have at it. Ask away!

04/05/2011, 04:43 am	#7
Gman5852 The smartest moron Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: under your couch Posts: 5,951	If it is based off of the comics, will we be replaying key parts in the story, or will the comics be on hold for this story? Will we be with a whole new group? __________________ Sign up for Tribes:Ascend, its free FOR THE NEWBIES: Blue names=normal member Grey names=community mod(As in, NOT a Telltale employee, they just keep the peace here, that's it.) Red names=actual telltale employees.

04/05/2011, 11:05 am	#8
Icedhope 007 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: IL Posts: 3,299	Oooh! SNAP! Now I can't wait for the game...but I do have to wait to read the comic book..so i can get caught up. __________________ Good things come to those who wait, bad things come to those who hate, girlfriends come to those who date, children come to those who mate. ~ Haggis "Requiescat in pace my father and nephew" Now Playing: ~~MGS3~~ - ~~Portable Ops~~ - Peace Walker - Metal Gear - Solid Snake - Metal Gear Solid - MGS2 - MGS4

04/06/2011, 10:53 am	#11
Jon NA It's N/A. Jon, N/A Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Semnān, Iran OldName: Milkman08 Posts: 625	The Walking Dead comic series have a q/a column with Robert Kirkman at the end of each issue. Are we going to have something similar to that for every TellTale episode? Like a podcast with Rob Kirkman answering questions a la Damon and Carlton in LOST? __________________ Is Stan an anthropomorphic purple crocodile in disguise? ~ apenpaap Good night! Don't let the Basij bite! ~ Comrade Pants

04/07/2011, 02:31 pm	#17
RAnthonyMahan Hyperkinetic Humany Thing Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 1,625	Let me think. It's hard to think up a good question since I know most stuff you're not at liberty to answer. Hmm... OK, here's one. I always found one of Telltale's biggest selling points to be the humor. You've mostly dealt with silly licenses (Sam and Max, Homestar Runner, Monkey Island) in the past. However, The Walking Dead is a very serious work, and what little humor it has is of the dark variety. Are there any particular challenges with taking on a serious franchise (this applies to Jurassic Park as well as The Walking Dead)? Do you think the people who play Telltale's products to laugh be able to enjoy this as much as your previous, lighter efforts? __________________ None of your damn business, Sam. My new book! My old book! My writing blog!

04/04/2011, 08:53 pm	#3
GuruGuru214 Crazy Windmill Mod Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Kakariko Windmill Windmill Status: Going Around Posts: 6,377	That's just the sort of name-dropping I can get excited about!

04/04/2011, 08:57 pm	#4
Jake Telltale Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 5,874	That's a slice of the season-wide crew. More writers and designers and directors (and all sorts of other folks) will come on board as it gets under way, of course.

04/04/2011, 09:13 pm	#5
coolguy721 Banned Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: USA! Posts: 695	How much is the comic influencing the game?

04/05/2011, 04:34 am	#6
puzzlebox Telltale Team Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 3,742	Hey, Chuck Jordan is back for this? Good stuff. Will you keep the same level of gore, or tone it down (or up!) for the game?

04/06/2011, 08:51 am	#10
Smokemonster Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 2	Can you say please when we'll can see first screenshot(s) from the game? I can't wait to see what is like!

04/06/2011, 01:23 pm	#12
Bloody Eugene Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 620	My usual question: Languages? Sorry, I'm still Italian. :P

04/06/2011, 10:25 pm	#15
thesporkman Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 961	So is Chuck back at Telltale then?

04/07/2011, 01:58 pm	#16
Bloody Eugene Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 620	1) How the gameplay will be different from JP? 2) Visually what do you think it has to achieve? 3) What does interests Chuck so much to return for this game? 4) For this game do you think you'll have more time than the usual TT developing cycle now that TT is getting bigger? 5) What's the biggest fear for a game designer working with zombies?

04/07/2011, 06:04 pm	#18
seanvanaman Telltale Designer Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 132	Just wanted to let you all know that I'm readin' these and there will be answers IN YOUR FUTURE!

04/08/2011, 12:57 pm	#20
Tjibbbe Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 564	Great to see Chuck Jordan back in action! I don't really know what to ask in here. Perhaps you guys could tell us a bit about what makes making a Walking Dead game exciting to you, and what you're hoping to achieve with your game. Can we expect a regular adventure game, or something a bit more action-oriented like Jurassic Park, or something else entirely? Also, how involved is Kirkman in all this? I watched a couple of panels about the tv series from various conventions on youtube, and he's a pretty cool guy. I fully support Milkman's suggestion that he should be on some sort of Telltale podcast. Also; Kirkman was going to guest star as a zombie in the tv series, but he didn't want to shave his beard so it didn't happen in the end. This raises a couple of interesting questions: Can zombies have beards? Will Kirkman be cameoing it up in the Telltale episodes? What would Dave Grossman and his awesome new beard (as seen in the april fools video) look like as a zombie? Anyway, I can't wait to see what a Telltale game based on such dark material will be like, and the team looks like a collection of my favorite Telltale designers so far. So yeah, back to work, slackers. Make me some entertainment.

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