Many are loved Telltale Games declared itself bankrupt and ceases to exist – such information appeared on the network on September 21, 2018. The owners of the studio dismissed 90% of the workers and canceled previously announced projects, and the last twenty -five people remained on the state only to finalize Minecraft: Story Mode. True, two weeks later they sent them in search of a new job: the fate of the interactive series for Netflix is now also in question.
Following the official news, the revelations of former Telltale employees – developers offended by dismissal without warning, complained about terrible working conditions and a cruel leadership poured. True, other market players hastened to take care of Blizzard , Insomniac Games , EA , Riot Games , 2K and other large companies arranged a vacancies fair for dismissed workers right on the roof of the former Telltale office. There will probably be a decent use to the talents of the scriptwriters and gamemeraduers of the broken studio, but the fact remains: the world said goodbye to TTG in the form in which we loved it, and therefore, it is time to remember that she left behind.
Telltale specialists in the industry, as it turned out, is
A little story
Telltale Games released their first project in 2005 – as much as thirteen years ago – and it was a card game about poker Telltale Texas Hold’em. Yes, the creators of all kinds of interactive cinema, known to the world, did not start with him at all. The first successful projects of the studio, about which you most likely have already heard, were games about detectives Sam and Max. A reckless rabbit and a dog in a suit fell into stupid situations, joked on the verge of a foul and decided non -trivial puzzles.
Sam and Max for many years, but thanks to a simple visual style, everything looks good now
In addition to primitive gambling and hilarious quests, in the tracking list of TTG you will find a detective series CSI , Single Back to the Future: The Game , Jurassic Park: The Game and other remarkable games like Tales of Monkey Island. But even in early games, the characteristic handwriting of the studio is already visible. Firstly, TTG does not create their own worlds. Throughout history, the company only used completely original characters twice – for the mentioned poker simulator and for the early Puzzle Agent , – In the future, Telltale scriptwriters chose to work with already successful franchises. Secondly, the narrative and then most often crushed on episodes and served the player portioned.
Before the recognizable “comic” style, the projects Telltale looked like this
The most popular and replicated series of the studio submits to both of these rules – The Walking Dead. Game-Kino about zombie apocalypse brought Telltale unprecedented success and glory: the narrative with an emphasis on the variability that interspersed QTE turned out to be an ideal format for filing a tense script. The players had to think about each answer in the dialogue and any side effect, because at any sneezer of them could answer not promising anything good inscription “% of the character% this”. All the tragic deaths of the heroes were completely on our conscience, like any troubles – or, conversely, successes.
Big story in four pictures
The audience took a new product well, and the production of such projects was put on the stream. The Wolf Among Us , Tales from the borderlands , Game of Thrones , Minecraft: Story Mode , Batman, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy , Continuations of “Walking” – TTG managed to tell a dozen excellent (or at least good) stories about the characters familiar to the general public.
True, none of the subsequent games was able to repeat the stunning success of the first season The Walking Dead. Due to the financial failure of the story about the storage seekers, the second part of the Tales from the borderlands had to be canceled, although the ending of the first season was left open clearly in the hope of continuing. Cubic adventures in the Minecraft setting survived two seasons. But it was the zombie-epaupe that lasted the longest: at the moment, three full-fledged seasons have been released in the series, one additional storyline and two episodes of the final fourth season, in the midst of the release of which TELLTALEA just stopped work.
And the planned continuation of the cult “wolf”, about which fans prayed for years, and hints for the future game in the universe "Very strange things" covered with a copper basin. Why the company went to the bottom so sharply? Was it really impossible to anticipate bankruptcy? It is still unclear. They say that the studio had important negotiations with Netflix , who could pull Telltale from a financial pit – well, or at least let her hold out a little more on the edge of the abyss.
But the problem was clearly not only in money: immediately after the wave of the dismissal of top managers of the company, the company began to accuse of the lead attitude towards employees who were put out the door without a weekend and with expiring medical insurance (former employees even filed a collective lawsuit), and insids also appeared About endless crises and monstrously unprofessional leadership.
Telltale also did not prepare for the completion of the already begun development processes. The Walking Dead: The Final Season With sin, the studio was handed over in half Skybound , Having promised that the season will still be completed, and the rest of the projects simply abandoned.
Finances and permanent emergency
In June 2007, Telltale Games attracted $ 6 million investments, and until 2012, investors were not sure of the justification of their investments. Only the success of The Walking Dead finally convinced them: its sales surpassed all expectations and finally brought the company to a new stage of development. During the period from 2012 to 2017, the number of TellTale workers increased from 100 to 350 people, the company began to develop and release several games at the same time, and investors only grew up.
At first glance, everything looks like a success story. But the company's leaders did not know how and never learned to manage such a large number of people, projects and finance. Perhaps TELLTALAL has failed precisely this.
Usually, when creating AAA projects, the Avaral period (when everyone works almost seven days a week 11-14 hours a day) lasts several months until the game is completed. But over the past seven years, due to the episodic structure of the games, the developers of the studio have been in the state of Abrala constantly. The profit grew, but still did not correspond to the rate of development of the company, and a considerable percentage of sales also got DC , Gearbox , HBO and other copyright holders of popular franchises.
In 2017, the post of president of the company was occupied by the veteran of the video game industry Pete Pit Hawley. He tried to keep the Telltale ship afloat: he set the task to reduce the number of games produced in the year, while increasing their quality. Under his leadership, they also conducted “restructuring” – then 90 employees were fired from the company. But, as we now know, it was too late: a year later, Telltale could no longer pay salaries of any of the remaining employees. It is hoped that their sad experience will serve as a lesson for novice game developers.
Shortly after the studio closed the network, working fragments from the nameless project on the series “Very Strange Things” flowed into the network, which many called the ideal setting for the mechanic Telltale
In search of fans
Why the players arose so sharply and the interest in TellTale projects disappeared as sharply, you can only guess. Their interactive cinema never had arid haters – but, as it turned out, and the fans of the studio also lacked. It is impossible to say that the mechanics, which have not changed for the past few years, has outlived themselves: the genre of interactive cinema is difficult to invent again, and they play TTG projects, in the end, not at all for the sake of exciting fights in QTE. At the same time, prices remained within the rational, and the graphics did not require the last generations of iron, and it was possible to plunge into the atmosphere of the beloved world at least on an old laptop or even a smartphone.
The illusion of variability can also not be called a serious drawback: it was difficult to build an intelligent clinging plot on extensive “rails” has been said more than once or twice. And what, in the end, the difference, how much your https://admiral-shark-casino.co.uk/ decisions affect the endings, if you are still regularly panicked in every episode, frantically trying to choose the smaller of evils? Telltale games are tied to themselves not with bright finals, but precisely a sense of immersion in personal history throughout its development. Not only the brightest settings of the studio, but also weaker projects like the “Game of Thrones” coped with this.
Experiments with a visual style did not always turn out to be successful. Plasticine "Guards" did not impress few
The catching stories that the glory of The Walking Dead did not disappear: of course, frankly passing games appeared with the expansion of production – the same “Guardians of the Galaxy” greatly disappointed the fans of the Universe and the admirers of Teltale, but with examples of The Wolf Among us and Tales from the borderlands The studio convincingly proved that it is able to give quality content far beyond the framework of the Universe of the Walking.
Nevertheless, neither one nor the other paid off. TTG tried again and again, opening the “branches” in other popular universes, but, apparently, this was precisely what they drove themselves into the coffin: perhaps, the studio on the deepening of their most successful projects, it would have escaped a sharp growth and future bankruptcy.
It is unclear what exactly made the studio leadership so drive all its employees. What they chased for? The realization of the creative potential of the universes who fell to them under the section? For awards, portfolio, experience? For frankly modest profits?
Now it doesn’t matter: no matter what the Telltale is driving, it forced them to forget that in the long run intensive development is more valuable than extensive. No matter how much franchises they take, it turned out the same game with the old engine and a weakening illusion of choice. From time to time, an old song – for a new one they simply had neither time nor effort.
It's a shame, friends. Telltale's once bright minds were a revolution in the field of an interactive narrative – but the fruit of this revolution, the same “game from Telltale”, condemned the studio leadership of the fatal fear of any risks. Having invented something truly innovative, the team stood in the place of dug in the spot: having in his hands so flexible, supple formed for adaptations, he undertook to look for thousands of contents. But it did not work out – and it would never have happened.
Because the gaming industry is like one big arena shooter: if you are standing still, then you die. Perhaps not at once, but for sure – Telltale understood this too late.
For those in the tank: the three best project TellTale projects in the history of the studio
Tales from the borderlands
If you like it Borderlands ( or at least not annoying specific graphics), this is a game for you. And it doesn’t matter if you know the original universe – you will enjoy the pleasure in any case. This is a very appropriate combination of black humor, romance, references, touching moments and completely elongated adventures, during which it is impossible not to laugh into the voice. The soundtrack for each episode will almost certainly get to your player: the musical accompaniment is so consistent with the atmosphere of the universe that the songs begin to be associated with it tightly.
Play, unlike other TELLTALE projects, is immediately for two: a cunning, but naive Riza programmer, who, before a visit to Pandora, is called, did not smell powder, and a charming fraudman Fiona, who feels like a fish in the criminal atmosphere of a dangerous planet in the criminal atmosphere. water. Both dream of her inconspicuous wealth and life without worries, both unclean are on hand and are ready to go on the heads (each other). Together with them, the player will survive a great adventure with alien technologies, treasures, intergalactic scams and virtual handsome Jack – the most charming villain of all times and peoples.
The Wolf Among Us
“Wolf among us” is a game of Fables comic book not very popular in Russia (by the way, they began to publish it only after the playing premiere of Twau), where fabulous creatures are trying to survive in the real modern world. Princesses, terrible monsters and talking animals are building joint life in a small community, gradually use magic, somehow earn a living-and try not to stand out with anything.
But can a district be calm, where Cinderella, a monster, a blue beard and, say, Mowgli live? The harsh sheriff of Bigby (aka Big Bad Wolf, the same evil and terrible wolf from a fairy tale about Red Hat) is trying to keep his diaspora in a relative order. Together they monitor order and observance of laws, punish bad guys and reveal ominous secrets.
The Wolf Among us proudly wears the title of detective: the plot here holds in tension to the end, and in the final itself, it still gives to the heat, turning the whole story upside down. Deception, conspiracies and slanderers are waiting for the sheriff at every step, and magic confuses all the evidence: what seems to be an irrefutable fact in the first episode already in the second becomes a trap. Fortunately, Bigby is not only strong, but also smart: he is dug up over and over again to the bottom of what is happening, occasionally allowing the player to draw conclusions about the motives of the characters. It is unfortunate that the second part of the story will not work: the first season is over, as it is easy to guess, in the most interesting place.
The Walking Dead
Who in 2018 has never watched the "walking dead"? Or did not read a comic book? If you are at least somewhat not indifferent to stories about survival in the zombie apocalypse (and even if your quality bar was forever lifted up to heaven The Last of Us ), evaluate The Walking Dead: The Game is a story about friendship, betrayal, humanity and thirst for life.
Former teacher and eight -year -old Clementine met during the attack of a living dead man on the girl’s temporary shelter – and gave the players a duet that could melt the heart of even the most severe critic. They travel, save each other, learn to survive, find new friends and defeat enemies. In general, a kind story in which someone is sure to die from time to time.
The game perfectly conveys the dense atmosphere of constant danger: the walking dead roam everywhere, and the last surviving people, driven into a corner with a big trouble, strive to stick a knife in the back. You never know who can be trusted and who is not, and the scriptwriters use this with this.