We are the 'Tales from the Borderlands' Dev Team, AMA! (Over)

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    1. How do you guys have such great tastes in intro songs??? I'm not huge on music but all 5 opening songs are officially on my phone on shuffle forever.

    2. Did you guys plan the cliffhanger at the end from the very beginning or was it originally supposed to be revealed what happen to Rhys and Fiona?

    3. Why did you guys replace Sam Witwer with Troy Baker? And are there any sound clips anywhere where we can hear his original performance as Rhys? (I LOVE baker but i'm just curious)

  • Destruction planęte ? Leluch you mean Planet ?

    You silly ...

    Leluch123 posted: »

    Ok first and foremost thanks for this awesome game now 1 will there be s2 of that Marvel? * Was Rhys and fiona supposed to fight? Ep

  • Sup writer gang! I'm going to start off on the positive: TFTB has been a really fun ride to invest my time and emotions into. The cast and dialogue were a lot of fun, and for the most part I had a good time playing. So it's a bummer, but I have to say I really didn't enjoy ep 5. I mean it's out and over now, it's the way you decided to direct the story, and nothing I do or say is gonna change that. I'm not entitled enough to think that someone else's writing should be changed to appease me, or anything. But maybe answering some questions will at least help give me closure?

    Biggest question is was there a big chunk of this episode cut? I played as a pro-Jack fanboy, fully keyed up to reap the negative consequences of my bad decisions regarding Rhys (because who doesn't love drama?) but...it just ended up being basically the same result as an anti-Jack playthrough, with both of them doing a complete 180. It was especially jarring for Rhys (saying things like I knew you were nuts, can't wait till I can kill you, etc) I mean I expected betrayal because Jack, but I expected it in a way that made more sense with what I'd been shown so far, I guess.
    The episode just in general feels like it ignores a pro-Jack playthrough, with that branch being cut off right from the start, and everything railroaded into it being as if you were anti-Jack, or at least neutral, the whole time. I think I would have enjoyed things a lot more if my playthrough had been this, but the option was given to me to play either way. Why was I given that choice if there was only one story you wanted to tell?

    My other question is (if you're allowed to answer) was there another direction you originally wanted to take this story originally? Everything leading up to this point, even the preview image for the chapter, seemed to be gaining steam for a showdown between Fiona and Rhys, and how that played out would depend on who you let Rhys trust in. But the actual chapter itself had almost nothing to do with this, with all previous buildup being swept under the rug. Why did the story go in this direction in the end?

    Sorry if I seem like an ass with these questions. At the end of the day this story is yours and you get to tell it however you want, but I'd really appreciate knowing some of the thought process and decisions behind it, because it all left me very confused and kinda let down.
    Thanks for your time!

  • First of all, a huge THANKS to all of you guys for bringing us this gem of a game!

    Now, onto the questions!

    1. At the beginning of Episode 1, we see Rhys looking for Fiona. What made him look for her? Also, what was the whole "we can work this out" thing about?

    2. Was it hard picking those amazing soundtracks for those intros? Every single intro was mind-blowing, in my opinion.

    3. When it comes to shipping, was Sasha going to be the only choice? Or was it always your intention to allow people to pick their ship?

  • It's true though dude... :'(

    Poogers555 posted: »

    2.) Do you feel like fans will treat the idea of a possible Season 2 to being the 'Next wait for TWAU S2'? Oh jeez, please dont answer that, thats just making me feel bad for a Wolf Season 2 and a Tales Season 2

  • Is Rhys packing a super sick bod with his super slick tats?

  • PierreTTGPierreTTG Telltale Alumni

    Legend has it that he's still firing that machine gun to this day...

    VERY IMPORTANT AND TOTALLY SERIOUS QUESTION: What happened to the Tector Gun Scene that appeared in the previews for episodes 2, 3, and 4?

  • Are there any plans for a short story DLC or season 2 for Tales

    "Short stories from the borderlands"

    I would pay all my money.

    kristi78968 posted: »

    1) Why was Claptrap held off until the finale of Tales from the Borderlands? 2) Did you take feedback from Rhysha and Rhyiona shippers wh

  • While we totally know what happened to them, it would be no fun to give it all away.

    :'D Are they at least alive and well?!

    NickTTG posted: »

    I'll be the worst and have my first answer be bs. While we totally know what happened to them, it would be no fun to give it all away. We'd

  • That's a lot of ammo!

    PierreTTG posted: »

    Legend has it that he's still firing that machine gun to this day...

  • We know who already...

    Duck_Hunt posted: »

    Who do you ship?

  • I mean planned but the auto correct made a number on me

    SzymeG posted: »

    Destruction planęte ? Leluch you mean Planet ? You silly ...

  • PierreTTGPierreTTG Telltale Alumni

    She told you that you were leaving her to die! You were warned! It was your decision!

    So, no. She goes down with the ship. :(

    Toffe posted: »

    Did Yvette escape the cell or did she go down with the ship? ^^

  • Haha great response :D

    PierreTTG posted: »

    Legend has it that he's still firing that machine gun to this day...

  • Could we expect to see any of the new characters in a new borderlands title and not just as a side mission reference but actually part of the main story?
    What a game btw! Definitely my GOTY

    1. Now that Tales is over, is this the same story you guys had in mind or did you guys had to make big changes to it? If so, i would love to know the original story.
    2. I love you all for making this game.
    3. Who's the real MVP in the dev team?
    4. Did anything funny happened to you guys while making the episodes?
      4.1 And finally, do you guys see the Tales squad as future NPC's in BL3? Or well, at least Sasha or Vaughn, since Fiona and Rhys are in, well, whenever that Vault took them.

    K bye!

  • how long does it take you to think about all of the punchlines and hilarious character quotes in each episode?

  • NickTTGNickTTG Telltale Alumni

    Thanks for the love Frozen!

    The romance with Sasha was planted because we thought it would be an interesting element for both Rhys and Fiona to have something to say about. Having two player characters presents a lot of challenges and opportunities to play the game in weird ways. It takes a certain type of person to play Rhys as someone who's interested in Fiona's sister and then flip to play Fiona as a character who would be against it. Just seemed like a fun possibility space.

    And I think second seasons are always a possibility. A lot of it is determined by sales and public interest, but nothing ever gets ruled out altogether. I know Telltales got some really cool stuff on the horizon so it's just a balancing act.

    Thanks for the questions!

    Frozen posted: »

    First of all: Thank You for Your hard work at this wonderful series. It's the best game from Telltale Games and IMO one of the best video ga

  • edited October 2015
    • When he returns in Ep5, Vaughan's appearance reminds me a lot of Athelstan from Vikings. Is this intentional?
    • Will I ever be able to buy my own Gortys robot a la Sphero BB-8?
    • Can we have a DLC focused on Springs and Athena's wedding?

    On a more serious note...

    • I really liked the way the early episodes riffed off Borderlands' loot systems, and the unreliable narration moments, but these kinda fell off in the last two episodes. Why was that?
    • Are there any particular end states that you'd consider canon?
    • Writing good comedy is really hard, but you nailed it. Did the scripts and overall plot go through a lot of iterations?

    Loved loved loved TFTB, Telltale's best work, you folks are beyond amazing, I want to give you all fist bumps.

  • NotSaracenNotSaracen Telltale Alumni
    edited October 2015
    1. In the original draft of the season script, we pitched Rhys and Fiona escaping Helios in a Hyperion ship (you can see the remnants of that design in the shelter where Rhys/Fiona/Stranger wait for Vaughn). But early in development, we knew that we wanted to go bigger, and also remove the possibility of AI Jack remaining on Helios in some form. So we pitched Anthony Burch and Matt Armstrong that we wanted to crash THE ENTIRE SPACE STATION, they talked to Randy Pitchford, and voila: we were cleared to crash all of Helios into Pandora.
    2. We knew that people would have their own attachments to various relationships, and we wanted to service them in small ways wherever possible.
    3. Then Episode 2 would have been even MORE AWESOME.

    I have at least 3: * Helios originally appeared in the present scenes prior to update before Episode 5. Was Helios' destruction always

  • MarkDarinXMarkDarinX Former Telltale Staff

    When Tales from the Borderlands was first announced, people were confused at the choice to make a Telltale game from something like Borderlands. With the game being as successful as it is, how good does it feel that you were able to make a compelling story and go against expectations?

    The universe created for Borderlands was so right and wonderfully weird, it was easy to imagine any number of stories taking place within it. We knew it was going to be strange for people to go from a game where you shoot everything to a game where to talk to everything! But then, we had the same fear when we started The Walking Dead. When you hear Zombie Video game, you think 'shoot everything that moves', but we pulled off something very different and people responded very positively!

    How was the process of fleshing out the Borderlands universe to add a more human and endearing side?

    Again, with such a rich universe, it was not too challenging. We started with the idea: In Borderlands, Vault Hunter's tear through the towns shooting and blowing up everything around them! But what about the people who live in those towns? People are people no matter what universe they live in, and people always have wants, needs and drama!

    How much did fan feedback play a role into writing the later episodes?

    Fan feedback is ALWAYS considered when we move forward with a series. We listen directly from the forums, but also we look at the number of people making choices... how many people are flirting with Sasha? How many people warned Felix? We make decisions based on that too to ensure all players get the best possible payoff for their choices.

    Does Telltale have real life office finger gun fights?

    Is that a challenge?!

    * When Tales from the Borderlands was first announced, people were confused at the choice to make a Telltale game from something like Border

  • Are you guys planning a physical Rhys (Oh hi release) sometime this year?

  • PierreTTGPierreTTG Telltale Alumni

    The sickest, bro.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    Is Rhys packing a super sick bod with his super slick tats?

  • CONFIRMED THAT RHYS IS RIPPED A F!!!! XD

    PierreTTG posted: »

    The sickest, bro.

  • JaredEJJaredEJ Former Telltale Staff
    edited October 2015

    But what is your PREDICTION guys?! Star Wars? Back to the Future? Actual Voltron? I wanna know what 2020 has in store for us.

  • Was Yvettes betrayal planned from the start or you came to the idea when writing Ep.4?

  • NotSaracenNotSaracen Telltale Alumni

    The creatures living in the Traveler are Guardians, often found in and around Vaults. All I can say about them is what is currently public knowledge:

    http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Guardian_(enemy)

    There's some more information about the Lilith/Athena relationship in the TPS DLC... you should check it out! They're all really good.

    Gearbox is free to use our characters and stories in their future games (and I hope I see them there!)

  • PierreTTGPierreTTG Telltale Alumni

    For the most part the best jokes take the least amount of time to come up with. But we definitely do punch up passes if a scene is feeling flat, so it all depends on whether it was flowing the first time out.

    JamDodger21 posted: »

    how long does it take you to think about all of the punchlines and hilarious character quotes in each episode?

  • If you can say, how late into creating the story did you decide the identity of the Stranger?

  • Another question what the hell was up with that cat statue Cassius had?

  • PierreTTG posted: »

    She told you that you were leaving her to die! You were warned! It was your decision! So, no. She goes down with the ship.

  • edited October 2015

    First off, thank you for what may have been the most pleasant and wonderful gaming experience I've had in a loong time!

    1. My most important question: How does Tales From the Borderlands feel as a whole to the team? I've heard it hailed as Telltale's Best and even a mangum opus many times already. It's been called better than The Wolf Among Us and even the groundbreaking Walking Dead What do you think? Did it live up to your expectations?

    2. With such an amazing and expansive ensemble, which original TFTB character did you guys have the most fun writing for? And which returning Gearbox character did you have the most fun with?

    1. Was it hard thinking of a way to bring about Jack's demise?
    2. Are you familiar with the Borderlands character whose name rhymes with "Jimothy"?
  • MarkDarinXMarkDarinX Former Telltale Staff

    1) Why was Claptrap held off until the finale of Tales from the Borderlands?
    Claptrap is like sweet sweet candy. Delicious and terrible at the same time. We saved him for desert... and ONLY if you're good! ;)

    2) Did you take feedback from Rhysha and Rhyiona shippers when it came to making the last episode?
    We were considering the shippers the whole time. We knew there were different camps so we could never quite delve too deep into those relationships without destroying the nature of the story. Be we were conscious of never forcing the player into a relationship they didnt want to be in. The final moments of the game was crafted to allow you to put a button on the relationship and state where you stand as clearly or as ambiguously as you wanted.

    3) Are there any plans for a short story DLC or season 2 for Tales?
    Nothing to say at the moment... I still need to take a vacation after finishing this season!

    4) Did you expect the reception that Tales from the Borderlands has gotten; and the fact some claim it to be their favorite over the critically-acclaimed The Walking Dead?
    I expect nothing. We set out to make a good story and a good game and hope that respond. I find if you love and respect the thing you are working on, people will respond positively. That or I'll get fired.

    kristi78968 posted: »

    1) Why was Claptrap held off until the finale of Tales from the Borderlands? 2) Did you take feedback from Rhysha and Rhyiona shippers wh

  • NotSaracenNotSaracen Telltale Alumni

    Thank you so much for your kind words! We're blown away by how amazing this community is, and we're so thankful to Gearbox and 2K that they let us play in their space.

    If you watch August's vignette, you'll see him threaten a character with metal legs. That's Duncan! In an earlier version, he was the bartender at the Purple Skag, and had a part to play in the season. He was cut for pacing and other reasons, but we brought him back to the Skag for one last scene.

    ImUrban posted: »

    So the original thumbnail for episode 4 was two loaderbots fighting. I've been curious ever since the episode was released what the original

  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni

    Nick predicted Power Rangers but failed to specify beyond that. Preserving the mystery.

    JaredEJ posted: »

    But what is your PREDICTION guys?! Star Wars? Back to the Future? Actual Voltron? I wanna know what 2020 has in store for us.

  • Who calls it better than TWAU?

    Not me... It's on par with TWAU though!!! XD

    First off, thank you for what may have been the most pleasant and wonderful gaming experience I've had in a loong time! * My most impor

  • MarkDarinXMarkDarinX Former Telltale Staff

    Gortysbot

    Duck_Hunt posted: »

    Who do you ship?

  • Also, What scene or episode was the most fun to make/write?

  • NotSaracenNotSaracen Telltale Alumni

    I still think Vaughn could take him.

    PierreTTG posted: »

    The sickest, bro.

This discussion has been closed.