Telltale, learn from a veteran company like Naughty Dog that working on multiple games is impossible
A new interview with Naughty Dog's president almost sounds like a direct jab at Telltale.
In a recent interview with Naughty Dog's president he describes what it was like making two games at the same time, and the way he described it... well, it's the polar opposite of the way Telltale describes it. In case you're wondering, Naughty Dog is a gaming company. A very well one, I might add. They made great games like Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us.
Here is the interview. In case you don't want to watch the video, here is the transcript of the important parts:
"Staffing two full teams was just impossible. We just couldn't recruit the talent in order to accomplish that so we ended up with about a team and a quarter, maybe a team and a third depending on the time of year."
"We've certainly given up any dream or fantasy that we'd ever be able to fully accomplish the two full teams."
"In order to maintain that number of people (200) in that high level of talent and to be able to grow beyond that without diluting the talent... it's not important enough for us to get to a two team situation and we're very comfortable now with being able to GIVE OUR FULL EFFORT TO ONE BIG PROJECT and then be ready for the next game after that."
Now, over the past few years, Telltale has been saying the opposite.
TTG says they have multiple teams and that's why they're able to make multiple games simultaneously. But Naughty Dog, a veteran company that receives nothing but praise, just explained that this doesn't work because the teams become unbalanced. TTG says they have grown and have more staff (around 350, more than ND) which work on these multiple games. Now this seems reasonable but when you look at Glassdoor reviews and then look at what Naughty Dog has said about multiple project, this doesn't work. It often results to the hiring of an abundant amount of freelance employees, or staff being thrown from project to project. Also not to mention at one point Telltale wasn't working on 2 games at the same time. Not 3. But 4.
I just wanted to point out how much these two company's contrast each other. Not just with the way they do things but their quality as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not just out to get TTG or some sinister shit. I'm only saying this because I miss how it used to be. Season 1 had magic. During season 1 there were around 50 staff members, all if not most focused on that one game. So please Telltale, realize that multiple games is doing more harm than good to the quality that you are producing. Nowadays when people hear "Telltale" in the name, it's more of a "really, another one?" rather than something they know will become special, and that's not something to strive for.
Comments
You just want them to take inspiration from Naughty Dog so they make Clementine a lesbian like Ellie cus you hate Clem x Gabe
BUT CLEM X GABE WILL NEVER DIE.
NaughtyDog said it so it must be fact!
Look, I have nothing against NaughtyDog but just because it doesn't work for them doesn't mean it can't work for Telltale. Lately people will shit on Telltale with any excuse, sure. But all their games are fantastic so what they do seems to work, at least in my opinion. This all just my opinion so if anyone's about to belittle my opinion by accusing me of blind fanboyism, just don't. You don't have to agree with me, but don't attempt to explain to me why I'm wrong.
Why bother trying to oppose my claim if you're going to use no evidence but something that is purely an opinion? Even when I backed mine up with some pretty damn good evidence?
I don't need to belittle your opinion by accusing you of blind fanboyism because you just did it to yourself.
I won't attempt because I know you'll refuse to accept it anyways.
[carvers voice] "You have a good day now."
It's not "evidence" it's NaughtyDogs own policy (policy doesn't feel like the right word, but I'm sure you know what I mean) on working on more than one game at once.
Not only Naughty Dog's own policy. I mentioned Glassdoor reviews in my original post. Take a look at those when you get the chance, I'm sure you'll find them rather fascinating.
TBF, Telltale and Naughty Dog don't share the same playground. It is a "big indie" developper versus a first party AAA(A) company. When one makes a bad / mediocre game it's a "Ugh, Telltale plz" reaction while a "not critically acclaim GOAT" Naughty Dog can directly hurt the PlayStation brand. Therefore the production pipelines and allocated ressources for each projects at the two companies are hardly comparable. On a ND scale, managing several big projects is not the same deal (I say big because today they are working on two games: TLOU P2 & Uncharted TLL which is a smaller project).
There might be (probably? is?) a management issue at Telltale and they can't make new games yearly as much as they want but today the company is basically a factory: Each new game has the same backbone as The Walking Dead Season 1, it's almost a re-skin / mod everytime. Each new project don't require efforts and renewed creativity on every level of production.
That being said, thx for the link. Saved for later!
Edit: That being said (2) :
That's... really a lot. I mean, if I make a dumb division it's almost 90 people on a project. How can all these people been working on one single game that is never really "from scratch"? For comparison, Around 30 people on average worked on DONTNOD's Life Is Strange (50 max during some parts of dev). Maybe DONTNOD outsourced some things but that's still a lot of people to keep busy on each projects on Telltale's part.
I thought Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us worked pretty well. What's even funny is that IGN gave both of them 10/10 and both had separated teams.
I like telltale games too but you really can't be serious when you say just because it doesn't work for naughty dog it'll work for telltale. Because if that were true, we wouldnt be having this inconsistent drop with choices mattering. Look at it this way, the team that worked on tales did a lot of things that most of their games don't have. For example choices mattering in a big way like deciding which characters you are able to bring with you, or even the small things like having scenes where there are noticeable differences. I could go into a lot of detail but to be honest I forgot a lot of the different things that could happen big or small but if you've played it you'll know what I mean. Thsee are the things that could make a great telltale game. Now seeing as how a fraction of their team could make tales, imagine their whole damn company working on ONE game. Imagine all the things from each of their games that made it good or improved on the telltale formula, all in ONE game.
It worked for Telltale so far, every game since TWDS1 has garnered somewhat of a success so why should they change it?
Okay, it's April 2nd, it's not funny anymore.
Really? None of their titles have reached the amount of publicity and success that TWD s1 had. And amid the countless delays, the bugs, and the fact that the majority of their seasons finish on cliffhangers that are never resolved, I can't help but imagine that focusing on just one game at a time would be beneficial.
You can definitely see TT going downhill, but they need to realize themselves. We've tried to help with the feedback, criticism and ideas, and look how that worked out.
So let me see if i got this right... You think that if they dont separate their team to make 2 games then all of their games will win Game of the year?... That s not how it works...
From this interview, I understood it to be much more of a struggle for the company and the employees, although the end products themselves didn't suffer from it. There were also delays.
Is this what people really want, season after season of The Walking Dead and nothing else? Thank you, no.
I don't think switching up teams would really benefit Telltale.
A lot of people blame the writers themselves for negative aspects of TWD.
I mean... It is what it is.
Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us are better than any game TTG has or will ever make.
According to you.
How did you come to that conclusion?
Funnily enough, The Last of Us was made by a secondary team.
Oh its you again. Of course.
I understand the whole quality>quantity thing but I think telltale does this because of financial reasons since they make games in episodes at $5 it's not as much as a game priced at $60 would make the more games the more $$$ plus I think there games are just fine.
Sorry wrong thread.
This isn't the first post Ive read imploring the studio to work on one game at a time and it's almost always about taking time and resources from the Walking Dead. Since that series is already three seasons strong with no indication of letting up, it looks like it would be a one game studio. Otherwise, they could work on another game for a year and have people grousing about getting back to The Walking Dead. That is what I don't want.
I think you put this in the wrong thread.
Woops lol.
And that team essentially became UC4's team. Hell, a lot of them were already part of UC2's team.
I agree. Although I like their newer games, they are just not as good as they used to be.
But it's not really fair to be comparing Telltale to Naughty Dog, am I right?
Well, this isn't totally true for Telltale.
Naughty Dog and Telltale's games are very different.
You're comparing two completely different experiences of games. In fact, after Uncharted 2, the team split. One part worked on UC3 and the other, The Last of Us.
While I agree that focusing the entire team as a whole can be beneficial, and I encourage TTG to do so in the future... possibly for the [cough] super show [cough]. And while this can help have more people create more resources and spend more time combined on one single project, this isn't really the same case for both companies. ND needs all that manpower to fulfill their Big-Budget, attention-to-detail, AAA shooter. TTG can separate the work because their games require less of what ND has.
It's funny I actually thought that when I heard about Guardians of the Galaxy, another one? The Walking Dead isn't even finished yet.
I guess you've got a point. Telltale's games would take a lot less to make.
You forgot to add the Story Driven part in there, too.
Also, I've completely forgotten about the Super Show. I wonder when we'll get more details on that.