Quality Spike in Episode 4?
In this twitter thread, Ian from Skybound mentions Melissa Hutchinson recording lines. Someone in this thread pointed out that it was stated previously that dialogue recording for Episode 4 was essentially complete.
Normally if something like this were to happen under the umbrella of Telltale, it would mean that writing for an Episode would be either be replaced or cut out completely (At Least That's My Guess). But Skybound on the other hand is different, because they are not limited by the same financial restrictions that Telltale use to be. If additional lines are being recorded it could mean that lines are not being cut out or replaced, but ADDED to what had been previously written, suggesting of a possible Increase in Quality (Length, Branching, Etc.) going into Episode 4 rather than decreasing as was the case with prior seasons. What do you guys think?
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Not all of the lines for ep 4 were completed so I don’t think it means anything
It's already been stated that the main characters lines were done. That includes Melissa. If Melissa is recording again, they must be adding stuff.
I think it was stated that the first round of voice recording was done for certain characters, I don't think they will be adding anything more as the scripts have been completed since September, and adding more simply because they can could make it feel disjointed and out of place with everything else that is already there
Good to know my first general guess was in the right direction.
No, what would truly be great is if they reinsert cut scenes from the previous episodes via patches.
Now I’m no voice actor, but I’m sure there’s a bunch of different rounds when it comes to recording lines, and certain rewrites or revisions that naturally take place over the course of the development process. Her initial, first round recordings might not have been enough, or something that was originally written on paper may not have been successfully adapted on screen, so they go back and rework certain aspects of it, and this would require the VA’s to come back and record new lines or re-record the old ones. I’m sure there’s many different stages in the development process, especially in voice work, that would require the Va’s to come back.
So want to add to this but it's not time yet
But for real tho you're just gonna be disappointed. I'm fucking weird
MetallicaRules is exactly right. We do about three rewrites an episode, one for each major milestone. We’re doing 404 pickups this week, after some nips and tucks done just after we got back.
Stop pretending, it was mentioned recently that rewrites for ep4 were done, how do you expect them to have the new lines without voice acting?
Plus, they could be polishing stuff.
On the other hand, James Windeler said that he's now done with writing shortly before the Christmas Break, so ...
Wait who are you? Hello!
Hey! Michael Kirkbride, Season Lead Designer for TFS. We do quite a bit of the writing, as well.
Well it's very nice to see you here! Are you satisfied with the last episode, anything that could get me hyped up?
Also I'll quickly ask if you know anything about the future of this site too.
Oh sweet. You and the entire team have done amazing work on TFS.
(Just real quick, I can verify this is indeed a legit account. Telltale is down, so of course, there is no web team to add a "Telltale Staff" or "Verified" tag, but this is indeed a real staff account.)
No idea what’s going to happen to the site.
I think 404 is pretty fantastic.
Awesome, thanks! Btw paying $20 for this and the Collection for free is a steal, I believe it's worth much more than that, so I thank Telltale for their generosity when games like Life is Strange 2 are being priced at $40.
Life is Strange 2 has a much higher budget, though, and is considerably longer, too. I think 40$ is justified. I only played the first episode once and it took me exactly 4 hours.
I find the debate - wether or not the price of a game like LiS2 is justified - pretty saddening. Sure, not everyone can afford it right away, but the work that has been put into these kinds of games often don't match the pricing. Especially in later titles, such as Batman: The Enemy Within, The Walking Dead: The Final Season or Life is Strange 2, that feel much more advanced compared to earlier games.
Finally, a rewrite that's probably for the better
One question Michael, if you could use one word to describe the Ending of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, which word would you use
Sorry for bothering you, keep up the great work
Do you know if we will ever know what telltale's ending for season 4 was? Since I expect sky bounds take is new and revised.
Skybound is telltale workers. So if before closure they had an idea but it got rewritten, that means it probably would've been rewritten anyway, no matter the leadership.
The Ending is most likely going to remain the same I think, Skybound help in developing the Story, so they may already know how Clementine's Story ends, and may intend to keep to it. But I can be wrong
i love you
40$ For Life Is Strange 2 is a complete joke,doesn't matter how much work has been put into this it's way too much for a game like this,and they never said why they did that,i would've been ok with 30$ but 40$ ? Jesus.
3 rewrites a week? Does that mean you rewrite the game for a James romance pls?
For real tho, do you guys rewrite only a couple bits of an episode, or change the whole thing?
Since I''m on break at the moment, I'll go ahead and say my [speculative] piece on this:
My understanding when it comes to official rewrites is that it's generally done to tidy things up with the story, characters, and themes. Some rewrites involve minor things like reworking lines to make more sense, while others can be as major as considerably changing a plot point that is no longer very conductive to the current vision. But ultimately, it comes down to getting things just "right" and "tight" for the way things have to be at any available point.
If they really are rewriting things 3 times a week, however
this could any combination of the three, but primarily based around adjusting any notable rescues from the cutting room floor, reworking certain key moments to be appropriate on impact, and just generally making sure the final product is "perfect."
The ending is the Telltale ending.
Back atcha.
Not every week, every milestone: Table Read, First Playable, Ratings. Sometimes (okay, usually we do small pickups in the lead up to final recording, too).
Rewriting Minor bits of Dialogue is One Thing. Rewriting entire Episodes and Plot-Points is quite another.
They don't need to tell you why they charge that much money for it. Play it and you'll realize how much there is in this one episode.
The budget is much higher compared to the first game. Why wouldn't they charge you accordingly?
$40 for five 2-3+ hour long episodes is completely acceptable. $40 really isn't a lot of money and players should be willing to pay full-price for a creative game that has a lot of work put into it and actually makes decisions matter. Good sales will encourage developers to continue making these high-quality story based games, as opposed to everyone cheaping out over a couple bucks and using YouTube/waiting for sales like what happened to Telltale.
YES,it is.
I'm sorry ? Your choices matters in Life is Strange ? Ha ! That's new.
But sure have fun paying 40$ for this,i bought the first episode for 4$ and i'll wait until the episode 2-5 bundle is on sales.
A one-time $40 purchase is truly not a lot of money at all compared to the average working adult's day-to-day expenses. If an occasional $40 purchase is a lot of money to you and could actually affect your life then you're probably at a point where you shouldn't be worrying about video games.
Have fun waiting around and scrounging for discounts and sales just to save a whopping $20 tops.
40$ for a game like this is a joke,i would not pay that much even for a telltale game that's it.
This is not a AAA game,this is an episodic game,the writing sometimes is..cringe,the story is..well there's no story,it's just let's run away from the cops and let's go to Mexico that's the plot,epic.
So yeah i'd rather wait for the episode 2-5 bundle to be on sales and not pay full price for this shit.
Looking at this after spending $100+ on Rdr2 recently, I feel so goddamn privileged. Man I bought so many copies of Twd.
Rdr2 deserved every penny it got because it made me and many people play it for months....40$ for lis that can be beaten in 15 hours max and anf that can be beaten in 7 hours is a complete trash of a price....but then agian we have games like cod bo4 that's costs 200+$ so spending shit ton on twd isn't the worst thing u can do.
And who is VoidGhost? You've done a great job with TFS, whoever you are.
It's still him just on a different account.
Exactly, it's laughable that this game is more expensive than games like A Way Out. Tbh the Engine has carried the project. And even then it doesn't look that much better than LiS 1. I get that they change the scenery a lot, but it is very dumb that this is a very close price to Triple A games. There's nothing mindblowing or respectable about LiS 2 so far, and I'm excited for Gaming Sins to cover the many plot-holes. You know what, it's fine that it's $40, but Telltale should've at least made the game $25. You're getting the Collection for free, you might aswell.