I'm worried about you, Telltale
Telltale, we need to talk.
I'm worried about you. Not dissapointed, not angry, (at least not yet), just worried. I love your work, but recently the second season of The Walking Dead and episode 4 of The Wolf Among Us have gotten me worried about the future of your games, and this is mainly related to the IPs you've recently picked up. I don't know how big your studio is, but I can't imagine it being very large. One studio making four games at the same time? That just doesn't seem like a good idea, no matter how talented or how numerous your staff is. I don't know who made this decision; I imagine it could have been Skybound forcing projects down your throats, or you (rather foolishly) bitting off more than you can chew. Either way, it's having a clear impact on the quality and length of your games that are currently having episodes released for them.
Season 2 of TWD hasn't been as lengthy as S1. And I know people are going to say that it doesn't matter how long each episode is, only if it's good, or that the episodes are long enough that I shouldn't complain. But here's the thing: Telltale games are based on story and characters. If each season is only around 5-8 hours long (which I fear is going to happen in the future), that's not nearly enough time to make an interesting story or let you interact with possibly well-written characters that I might come to care for. In season 2, the latter happening in the eyes of many TWD fans I've spoken to. Hardly any quiet moments to sit down and talk with these characters and really get to know them. Because of that, when something big happens to them a lot of players just don't feel anything. And for a game built on a good story this is a huge downfall; the last thing I want to see is that happen. For me, personally, I'm getting to know these characters enough to care for them, but compared to how much I cared for the characters in season 1 it's noticeably less. Episode 4 of TWAU has been one of the shortest episodes so far, with most people clearing it in an hour. Yes, it's only one episode, but I'm deathy afraid of this becoming the norm. It's just not a good thing for the quality of Telltale's work, especially considering how amazing their work can be.
One small point: the lack of puzzles is a big reason why game length has gone down as far as I can tell. Having to spend a few minutes to explore an area and solve a simple puzzle would be a big help to making each episode just a bit longer and feel more satifying. I realize the main focus of these games is story, but having them there would be a big help.
I don't hate Telltale. I don't want this wall of text to seem like a big rant or, worse yet, as hate or me just "trolling". I still love you, Telltale, and I want to see you continue to make excellent games that offer something different and unique in this industry. And I don't think you're just being lazy; given that four game work load I can't imagine you guys not working your asses off, no matter if this work load was given by Skybound or if this happened due to bad decision making on your part. This work load must be next to unbearable for you guys, so in no way do I want to seem like I'm demading more out of you; I'm sure you're giving your all to get these games made.
It's only been a few episodes of both of your currently running series where I've been getting worried, but the thought that this is just the beginning of a major decline in quality worries me. As I said before, it doesn't anger me or make me dissapointed, just dreadfully worried.
What's the solution to this? I honestly don't know. If you guys were just working on 3 games and getting some new people working for you and/or creating a system where each game could get a good amount of effort put into it (close to or equal to the amount of effort TWD season 1 had), I would be just fine. But four? It just seems too much. I hope you guys have a plan, becaue as I've said many times, I'm worried about you and I don't want people as talented as yourselves getting screwed over to due too much work.
I'd like to see if anyone else has these same concerning the future of Telltale. I also apologize about any spelling/grammer mistakes in this rank/speech/walloftext/whatever, and how unorganized my thoughts are.
Thanks for your time.
Comments
In the end, they will do as they will. Quite a lot of people have no problem with all of this, and Telltale seems determined on keeping things this way.
Welcome to the forums, by the way.
Thanks for the welcome.
I realize Telltale's going to just what they want to do, but I just don't see that as a good way to carry foward. Short games with little characterization is going to turn a lot of fans (myself included) away. Their games are always going to be popular and turn enough of a profit to continue seasons, but this really isn't for the best.
Telltale has many projects in the pipeline (and definitely even ones that they haven't announced yet), and they always have. They had around 6 in the works when The Walking Dead: Season One was announced, but because they lost the King's Quest license due to the delay of Jurassic Park, they understandably don't announce them years ahead of time anymore).
But that doesn't mean that they're working on all of their projects full time. They start the projects when they get the license, but it is just concept art and storyboarding at first, and then they ramp up production by taking staff from a team of a game that just finished (but they only take large amounts of staff from that team when production on that season ends). At the time of The Walking Dead announcement, they were a smaller company as well, and they still managed to get out most of the games they announced (except for King's Quest, which wasn't their fault as Activision pulled the license from them before their game was released).
People were concerned about Telltale overstepping their means back then too, but the quality of those games didn't suffer, as many of those games I mentioned above are regarded by Telltale fans as some of the best games Telltale has ever released (including me), such as Hector: Badge of Carnage, The Walking Dead: Season One, and The Wolf Among Us (although, admittedly the jury's still out on this one, as the last episode hasn't been released yet). Puzzle Agent 2 and Law and Order: Legacies, while being more niche than the other titles, were enjoyable as well.
The streamlining of episodes is to remove puzzles and reduce exploration is a conscious decision by Telltale, not one imposed by making too many games at once. They had gradually done this already done throughout The Walking Dead: Season One, and by the time episode 5 had released, it was about the same as it is in Season Two. There have been many threads created about how people didn't like that the streamlining of games have shortened game play time, so Telltale knows that fans don't like the complete lack of puzzles and lack of exploration, so they'll almost certainly refine it for Tales of the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, and beyond. Fans didn't like the gameplay in Jurassic Park, as it was almost completely quick time events, but this was refined and expanded upon in The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. Telltale's games have always been experimenting with styles and adapting for user tastes, ever since their first adventure game (the gameplay and design of which was changed based on user and critic feedback in future games). The beauty of being an episodic game developer is that they can take chances and learn from the things that fans didn't appreciate, and build on them in future seasons.
What other games was Telltale working on during TWD season 1's production? I looked it up on Wikipedia (I know, I know, it's Wikipedia, but bear with me) and the only games that were being produced around TWD season 1's development time was Poker Night 2 and Law & Order: Legacies. I know you said that concept art/storyboarding happens first, but even if we count those two there were 3 games being made around the time TWD season 1 was in development, which is a far cry from the 4 being developed currently. And I imagine the type of work being done on other games during season 1's development cycle weren't complete games.
Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying season 2 of TWD and season 1 of TWAU, but compared to how season 1 of TWD was handled, TWAU and TWDS2 just aren't as good. I realize the lack of puzzles could be Telltale continuing to refine the experience to match what fans want, but I can't fathom anyone thinking the lack of character interaction as a good thing. It would lengthen the games and make you care for the characters that much more which would help the quality of their games.
Length is a big factor with my worry as well. I just don't want to see hour long episodes become the norm, as I mentioned in the OP; it'd be very disheartening and is one of the main sources of frustration I've, personally, heard from fans (the other being the lack of interaction with other characters). And with the lack of puzzles and characterization, and the decrease in episode length correlating with Telltale picking up so many projects, it's a pretty safe inference that cutting those two mechanics was done in an effort to decrease development time, which saddens me to no end.
Is this really what's happening at Telltale? I don't know, but at the least with damn near no time for talking with these characters (again, because getting rid of this would be a horrible idea all around) it's the conclusion I'm reaching.
I guess if I had to ask a question to one of the developers at Telltale, I'd ask about the decrease in episode length. Is it because of the cuts in exploration/puzzles, or is it something else?
All five games that I mentioned above were announced to be in development at the same time as The Walking Dead: Season One (even The Wolf Among Us, which released afterward but was announced at the same time as The Walking Dead: Season One). Also, Telltale announced that they were making a game based on The Walking Dead in 2011, while Back to the Future: The Game was still in development. As I said, the quality of these six games didn't suffer, even though they were all in various stages of development at the same time. So, there's really no need to worry about the four now, especially since Telltale has more employees now than they did in 2011.
I think you misunderstood my point about refining the mechanics. They did this to find a sweet spot narratively, but like Jurassic Park, they tried out something new, and the fans have been reacting almost universally negatively. So, as they did in The Walking Dead: Season One when they refined The Walking Dead's mechanics in comparison to Jurassic Park, they'll adapt future seasons to try to find a sweet spot with fans (by adding more interaction and exploration), since they know they went a bit over the mark with the refinements in regards to fan tastes. If you look at their history, you'll see that even as far back as Bone, they've refined future titles based on feedback from fans and critics, and that refinement has led to some of their best games. The ability to experiment and adapt based on fan tastes is the major upside to being an episodic game developer.
Alright, I'll admit you're making sense. In the end, however, until I see improvement I'm going to be worried, but I have a bit more hope for the future.
There is a thought that just popped into my head: recently I saw a forum post on these forums from someone who brought up the fact that if Telltale wants to finish season 2 in the same amount of time that season 1 was finished, they would have to release 2 episodes in less than 2 months. This delay is one reason why I have been concerned about the aforementioned work load being too much for Telltale to handle. Should have brought this point up earlier, but I'm only now remembering it. Do you have any idea what might have caused this delay?
I guess the main point of creating this thread was just so I could voice my complaints in a place where Telltale is going to be the most likely (although the chance of this happening is still fairly small, I realize), and to see if anyone else agrees with my complaints. Don't know how successful this was, but I thought I'd say something. Hopefully there is some change in the future.
By the way, thanks for your responces Jennifer.
Kevin Bruner, the founder of Telltale revealed in this post that there were several things that came up behind the scenes during the Christmas holiday that caused the delay in The Wolf Among Us. This might have caused the delay of The Walking Dead: Season Two as well, since the exact causes weren't revealed and they could have effected the whole company rather than just the Wolf Among Us team.
They did say that they still plan to have both games out by the end of Summer though (which ends on September 21st astronomically, which is how the United States bases their seasons), so the Christmas delay should only cause a few months difference at most.
Solution: work on 1 game at a time. TWAU would be finished already. We would be somewhere around episode 2 of TWDS2 but all the games would have turned out to be great.
That seems very reasonable. I guess there's only one thought left on my mind: why the decrease in episode length? Is it due to the exploration/puzzles getting phased out or is there another factor involved?
I don't understand why won't they listen. I'm enjoying both of the games but Telltale needs to tell us what's up with them doing all of this.
Do you want the cynical or the argumentative answer?
I've heard the cynical answer before, believe me. The argementative answer is pretty interesting. Good to know that Telltale is really trying to listen to fan's criticisms. Hope something good comes from this.
Yeah... I used to be an optimist like you, then I took a-
Wrong game.