What is the Telltale Production System?
I was wondering about how telltale produce their episodes, how they do it without going off and end up delivering a good product...
Do they take a quick rest after finishing an episode or they start working on the next one right after its release? maybe the second option is the correct because they do the episode and also a bit of the next one (or just the necessary parts to expose the teaser)
I don't think they do the half of the next episode because so much things change and we end up not seing or getting some modified scenes that we saw on the teaser
And do they write the whole season before starting to produce the game or they just use the old model to do the script (how does it start, how does it end, what is the goal) and they just start adding the elements, troubles misteries and character development among the episodes?
Comments
From what's been revealed in interviews, they come up with ideas in prototype form. Then they use that prototype to pitch the idea to franchise owners (for instance, The Walking Dead started out as the Pilot Program zombie prototype, and they then used that prototype to pitch the idea for a zombie game based on The Walking Dead license to Skybound).
Once a license has been secured, they then begin to flesh it out with a small team to sort out what the season wide story will be, and to begin concept art and basic design. While another season is in process, they'll expand that idea out more, still with a small team, creating art assets and beginning to design a script.
Once the season that is in production at the moment begins wrapping up, they'll move to production on the first episode of that series, pulling in some staff as needed from the teams that are dwindling down due to them finishing up production, but they still won't have a full team on the project.
Then once the season for the previous in production game is in the final stages for the final episode, the game will begin full production, the game will receive a full team, and focus will be shifted to that season.
The episodes really are made as they go on in a season. The script and recording voice overs for episodes might be two episodes ahead, but art and animation assets are being created right up until it's released, and sometimes the coding for an episode can go on right up until the day that an episode comes out.
Telltale's CEO Kevin Bruner stated that "Telltale's approach to game development is much more like television than most other game developers. Across all of our series — The Walking Dead, Minecraft: Story Mode and more — the development process at Telltale spends a significant amount of time upfront in the writer's rooms not just with writers, but designers, directors and creative input from all across the studio. It's not unusual for our games to exist longer on whiteboards and sticky notes and in scripts than they do in traditional game production. It's incredibly similar to how TV often spends so much time in preproduction and planning before moving into actually shooting."
Thank you for the answer, that had clear a lot of my doubts
To add to Jennifer's answer, the general and broad details of a Season's entire story are planned out at the start of a Season, so they know the general direction they are heading in. They change minor to moderate details in response to fan feedback when they work on future episodes.
Different staff members can work on multiple current seasons, but even so, they only work on one episode at once and then move onto another episode. For instance, a writer/director/artist/etc can work on Episode 1 of one game, Episode 3 of another game (once they finish work on their last episode), and then Episode 5 of the first game.
Ohh I have a doulbt now, do they write what will happen on the episodes before releasing the game? because after releasing the game they show to us the name of all the 5 episodes and an image that reveal that something like that will happen in some part of the episode
They have a general season outline of how the season will work out before going in (and the episode names are locked in stone before they begin the second episode), but they write the script itself as the season goes on. They have confirmed that they have changed aspects of the story based on how fans and critics reacted to certain characters or situations in earlier episodes.
So just one more question, do they have the plot for each episode already settled before releasing the game? And if I undestood this part, the other details of the episodes they write accordingly they go through the season, basing on the community feedback and the choices they make among the previous episode
If you mean they have the plot for the whole season settled before releasing the first episode, no, I don't believe so, not beyond a general outline (as they have revealed that they have changed things around based on feedback). But, they do have the plot down for the next episode before any in production episode is released, since they often do voice overs for episodes one or two episodes in advance, and the story would already have had to be written out for them to do that.
Okay, Thank you for your patience and attention, your answers had clear my doubts