TellTale Virginity

[SMU420Stone]

I've trolled these forums for a couple weeks now, but aside from that I know nothing of TellTale. I'm a TWD fan, and that's about the only reason I stumbled here. I used to watch alot of Homestar Runner cartoons when I was in high school, I'm surprised that there are Strongbad games, I had no idea. Anyway--

I know the release date is just days away now, with people standing infront of their respective platforms now frothing at the mouth waiting anxiously like... something that wants to eat something else, can't think of anything to compare at the moment I just have a few questions:

1) I could be totally wrong here, but there's a post down farther with a title like "Could TWD be the second TT game to get past a second season?" or something like that. What would happen to the PC/Mac users that pay the full price for the game should TWD not be popular enough to merit a 2nd/3rd/4th/5th season? I think there's enough of a fanbase to eliminate that possibility, but I dunno, there seem to be a couple of people that don't have alot of faith in TellTale-- AT ALL. I don't think the game is botched, from what I've seen I think it's great, or will be great, atleast for awhile (And that's the intent right? 1-2 hours, a couple of replays, then wait for the next episode?) but there are those that think it was handled wrong.

2) I think this has been touched on before, but I just want to clarify. Will a new episode be released every 4 (translation 6-8) weeks? Dependant on the response you get.

3) Again, this has been answered more outright, I just want to clarify. It will be the same gaming experience across all platforms, right? The same scenarios and whatnot? I know every choice is a new path, please don't tell me that anymore :P It's really cool, and it's ALOT of work to work down all those paths and make the game behave in a way that makes sense. I just want to know that I'm not missing out on something that a Mac users will get.

Best of luck on the 24th, I'm gonna go hurl rotten eggs at 1 Microsoft Way until they put TWD on XBLA.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by SMU420Stone

1) I could be totally wrong here, but there's a post down farther with a title like "Could TWD be the second TT game to get past a second season?" or something like that. What would happen to the PC/Mac users that pay the full price for the game should TWD not be popular enough to merit a 2nd/3rd/4th/5th season? I think there's enough of a fanbase to eliminate that possibility, but I dunno, there seem to be a couple of people that don't have alot of faith in TellTale-- AT ALL. I don't think the game is botched, from what I've seen I think it's great, or will be great, atleast for awhile (And that's the intent right? 1-2 hours, a couple of replays, then wait for the next episode?) but there are those that think it was handled wrong.

Well I'll do my best to explain this one. Telltale's last few games were flops. Back To the Future had a good story, but crappy gameplay, and Jurassic Park just flat out sucked. That is why the lack of faith, but for the lack of faith on the second season, that is true, only one other telltale game got a second season. Sam and Max. None of their games really sold that badly. Homestar Runner topped sales for a long time and Monkey Island crashed their website from sales. They just don't seem to make sequels that much.

Originally Posted by SMU420Stone

2) I think this has been touched on before, but I just want to clarify. Will a new episode be released every 4 (translation 6-8) weeks? Dependant on the response you get.

5 episodes, once a month. That's about it really.

Originally Posted by SMU420Stone

3) Again, this has been answered more outright, I just want to clarify. It will be the same gaming experience across all platforms, right? The same scenarios and whatnot? I know every choice is a new path, please don't tell me that anymore :P It's really cool, and it's ALOT of work to work down all those paths and make the game behave in a way that makes sense. I just want to know that I'm not missing out on something that a Mac users will get.

No its the same for all.

[Irishmile]

I do not think calling back to the future a flop is fair.. It disappointed some fans because they were expecting a harder game... Doesn't mean it was a bad game though... I liked jp.

[RAnthonyMahan]

BttF was a financial success (there's an article somewhere where Telltale says BttF was their best-selling game), but critically...not so much. It was definitely the start of Telltale's (hopefully temporary) downhill slide.

Also, OP, if you like Homestar Runner, definitely get Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. It's a contender for Telltale's best game.

[Drowning witch]

Originally Posted by Gman5852

Jurassic Park just flat out sucked

when i finish a game in a single sitting, and enjoy every moment of it, that's called success. JP was one of the best interactive experiences i've had in recent times.

It wasn't an adventure for monkey island traditionalist conservatives, that's for sure.

[thesporkman]

Originally Posted by SMU420Stone

I could be totally wrong here, but there's a post down farther with a title like "Could TWD be the second TT game to get past a second season?" or something like that. What would happen to the PC/Mac users that pay the full price for the game should TWD not be popular enough to merit a 2nd/3rd/4th/5th season? I think there's enough of a fanbase to eliminate that possibility, but I dunno, there seem to be a couple of people that don't have alot of faith in TellTale-- AT ALL.

People who pre-order the game are only buying the first 5-episode season and are almost 100% guaranteed to get all five of the episodes they pay for. Telltale has never failed to finish a season that they've started*. A second multi-episode season of the Walking Dead would be sold as a separate game. People who bought the first season wouldn't be automatically entitled to get it for free; they'd have to buy it separately just like everyone else. So in answer to your question, if the Walking Dead isn't popular enough to warrant multiples seasons, it wouldn't in any way affect the people who bought the first, because they only bought the first. Hopefully that makes sense.

*Jurassic Park was kind of a weird exception. After they had started taking pre-orders but before the first episode was to come out, Telltale decided to delay the game and release all of the episodes at once as a sand-alone game at a later date. People who had pre-ordered the season were refunded their money and later given the finished game for free.

[SMU420Stone]

Ya that answers everything. I was wondering because my gf is thinking about getting the PC version while I'm sticking with Xbox. I read that post n thought "I don't want her to buy all the episodes when it's not guaranteed that 5 episodes will be made." Seems stupid but I had to ask.

Thanks all

[RAnthonyMahan]

Originally Posted by thesporkman

Telltale has never failed to finish a season that they've started*.

Bone.

They haven't done it since then, though.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Bone.

They haven't done it since then, though.

And you didn't buy it all at once, you bought it one episode at a time, so that wasn't a big deal.

[BlankCanvasDJ]

Also, even if TWD doesn't get a second season, don't worry. A Telltale season isn't like most TV show seasons, where it ends on a big cliffhanger and then you're waiting anxiously, hoping it'll be picked up again to continue the story. Telltale tells a complete story in each of its seasons. Sometimes they leave a little room for continuation at the end, but you'll get closure to the main story of the game. At least that's been true of every other TT game. Calling them seasons is a little misleading in that regard.

[big-augen]

Originally Posted by BlankCanvasDJ

Telltale tells a complete story in each of its seasons. Sometimes they leave a little room for continuation at the end, but you'll get closure to the main story of the game.

Yep, that's right. good thing is that it's possible that Lee dies, because it's The Walking Dead! The second season could tell another story with another main character.

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by SMU420Stone

(translation 6-8) weeks?

Maybe not THAT extreme actually, but you're on the right track here.

Originally Posted by big-augen

Yep, that's right. good thing is that it's possible that Lee dies, because it's The Walking Dead! The second season could tell another story with another main character.

Possible, huh. I'd be surprised if neither Lee nor Clementine died at the end. It's a zombie story. There are rules...

The only way to escape this rule would be multiple endings, but I'm not sure if that could work. The zombie world goes on, so it's either Clementine dies, Lee dies, or both die. If both survived, it would be hard to perceive this as an "ending". But let's see!

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Bone.
They haven't done it since then, though.

The idea that Telltale could possibly not finish an announced "Season" was brought up with the fear that a season a customer had paid for in full would not be completed. This indeed has never happened. No one has paid for a full "Bone" season and then only got two episodes (I'm not even sure if Bone was ever advertised as a "season", although it is of course correct to assume that they wanted to go on with this series and not leave it at that).

[Jake]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Bone.

They haven't done it since then, though.

Bone was never announced or sold as a season! They were marketed and sold as one off episodes you bought one at a time. Sadly not a lot of people bought them, but that was six years ago! The first time we did a proper Season of episodes was with Sam & Max Season One -- listed as a multi episode long season you could preorder up front with a guarantee that you'd get the whole story -- and have been following that model since then! (Jurassic Park's switch to retail excepted as has been said.)

Walking Dead is very much a traditional Telltale episodic season as far as release goes, like the three seasons of Sam & Max, Strong Bad, Wallace & Gromit, Tales of Monkey Island, Back to the Future, and Law & Order games.

Just for posterity:

1) The first season of the Walking Dead includes five episodes. That's what is for sale.

A second season has not been announced but were ever to hypothetically happen, it would likely be another five episodes, for a price similar to this one (and past Telltale seasons). A second season would effectively be "the sequel" to the first season. No second season of Walking Dead games is announced though. (We're still busy building the back half of the first season of games! Our production model is very similar to a TV or comic production -- it's all staggered, for instance we could be at a point hypothetically here the first episode is done, the second one is finishing up production, the third episode is being prepped in preproduction, the fourth and fifth are being written. That's not exactly accurate to our real production schedule, but hopefully paints a picture.)

2) Our release schedules are traditionally monthly or close. Mileage varies from series to series and episode to episode (sometimes something does slip a little, though we are usually pretty okay about avoiding that industry pitfall). Walking Dead episode release dates aren't announced yet past the first one.

3) The game is the same across all platforms. PC/Mac, Xbox, PS3, even iOS customers will be getting the same dialog, scenarios.. The same game The controls and on screen interface are of course different between gamepad, mouse/keyboard, and touch controls, but you're always playing the same game and story. There aren't secret Mac-only side quests or anything!

[ADavidson]

Any hope of an Android port in the near future, or too many hardware limitations and variations? And still no word on 3DS possibility too

[Goldrock]

last 2 games flops um nope not really they are adventure games and thats what their gameplayw as intended for so yeah gameplay wise guess what POINT and CLICK whats what telltale ressurected with most their past games so dont go crying bad gameplay for what they were intended for. BttF i though was really awesome for a Point and click game. Jurrassic park well they attempted a diffrent style of gameplay its was a QTE based game for what they intended it for. Telltale is aimed at the adventure based gamers and by that point and click puzzle solving.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by ADavidson

Any hope of an Android port in the near future, or too many hardware limitations and variations? And still no word on 3DS possibility too

I would never say never, but we don't have anything announced (or in development) for Android, or 3DS!