Game of Thrones Season 2 Announced (Future news will be found at the new Pre-Season news thread)

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  • To be honest I can't help but feel that Telltale games would be leagues better if they weren't trying to make half a dozen all at the same time.

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited January 2016

    They have move than tripled in size since Walking Dead: Season 1, and their games are not as complex to make as typical AAA retail titles. I think they will be fine working on multiple titles, and that people grossly overestimate how much influence that Telltale not releasing other titles had on Walking Dead: Season 1.

    Speaking of Walking Dead: Season 1, that game was announced alongside Fables (later revamped to Wolf Among Us to include the choice system), King's Quest (puzzle adventure game cancelled for Walking Dead: Season 2), Puzzle Agent 2, and that Hector series... and this was when Telltale was already working on Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, and Law & Order. That's 8 projects announced and at different points in production, and this was years this was years before Telltale massively ramped up in size after the success of Walking Dead: Season 1.

    TEWR2 posted: »

    To be honest I can't help but feel that Telltale games would be leagues better if they weren't trying to make half a dozen all at the same time.

  • Twd s2 should have been switched with king's quest. Telltale only has like 300 people. And with newer more hyped up games, I am so worried and worried to be disappointed. I think the reasons why tftb episode 2 and Game of thrones episode 6 were delayed. They were both heaavily rewritten. I have no excuse for 'twas episode 2.

    They have move than tripled in size since Walking Dead: Season 1, and their games are not as complex to make as typical AAA retail titles. I

  • I'd rather have 1 Absolutely stunning game than 2 "good" Games. (TFTBL was Absolutely Awesome But GoT in the other Hand...). Of course the more People Are working on a project, the more "disagreements" will accour. (Best example is TWDS2 with too many writers) But TTG should Do something to reduce the "Recycling" feel. They should Do something about the Engine wich Runs badly on XBox One. And they should Do something about the formula so it's Not that Predictable. They should Slow the Pacing in their Games with hubs or If it makes sense Even puzzles. I think the TTG Are becoming like "Call of Duty". Fast-Paced Entertainment without much "control-ability". And in the meantime WE have another Game, wich gives you the opportunity to dive right in to the World. (theoretically, Because that other Game does a piss-poor job of writing good characters or a Relatable Story.) I just don't want TTG to end, Because of that. They have to Show us, that they still give a f**k about their fans.

    They have move than tripled in size since Walking Dead: Season 1, and their games are not as complex to make as typical AAA retail titles. I

  • I'm not necessarily saying that they aren't good games all on their own, but it's just that I feel like I'd rather have an outstanding game with a huge range of story potential -- because let's be honest, Telltale games wrap up all choices as being the same no matter what -- rather then a few good games that I play once for the story and then just headcanon the shit out of because playing them again doesn't hold anything new to me.

    I mean I'd still headcanon the shit out of them even so, but I dunno.... I guess I'm just suffering from a lack of decent RPG games out there that have an interesting universe with great characters, well-written stories, political intrigue, and Dwarves (Dwarves honestly help a lot).

    They have move than tripled in size since Walking Dead: Season 1, and their games are not as complex to make as typical AAA retail titles. I

  • Telltale sells all their games with season pass so if you are afraid you will forget about the game just buy it with the season pass and episodes will be automaticaly downloaded.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    Oh right. Steam only Sells whole seasons...But you could replace "Steam User" with "Consoles User". Then it would Be Right.

  • Tha Witchar

    TEWR2 posted: »

    I'm not necessarily saying that they aren't good games all on their own, but it's just that I feel like I'd rather have an outstanding game

  • edited January 2016

    Of course the more People Are working on a project, the more "disagreements" will accour. (Best example is TWDS2 with too many writers)

    I disagree, TFTBL had more writers than TWD S2, and Tales was the far superior game. TWD had:

    1. Nick Breckon (Episodes 1, 2, and 5)
    2. Andrew Grant (Episode 1)
    3. Pierre Shorette (Episodes 3 and 5)
    4. Eric Stirpe (Episode 4)
    5. J.T. Petty (Episode 4)

    Meanwhile, TFTBL had:

    1. Pierre Shorette (all episodes)
    2. Adam Hines (Episode 1)
    3. Eric Stirpe (Episodes 2 and 3)
    4. Chuck Jordan (Episode 2)
    5. Jeremy Breslau (Episodes 2 and 4)
    6. Anthony Burch (Episodes 3, 4, and 5)
    7. Zack Keller (Episode 5)
    GSSalvador posted: »

    I'd rather have 1 Absolutely stunning game than 2 "good" Games. (TFTBL was Absolutely Awesome But GoT in the other Hand...). Of course the m

  • Then the TWDS2 writers were just Bad At writing.

    Of course the more People Are working on a project, the more "disagreements" will accour. (Best example is TWDS2 with too many writers)

  • You had two of those people who are "bad at writing" write for TFTBL, and one of them (Pierre Shorette), who wrote what many call the worst episode of TWD (In Harms Way), was one of the season heads of the game. Mark Darin, who was another season head for TFTBL, designed and worked on TWD S2 as well.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    Then the TWDS2 writers were just Bad At writing.

  • And? They did a poor Job writing twds2 And an Amazing Job At TFTBL. Some Are good At writing dramatic Games And others Are good At writing comedic Games. TTG should now Know, that they Cant just take One Writer from a TTG Team to Write a completely different style of Story And say "That'll work".

    You had two of those people who are "bad at writing" write for TFTBL, and one of them (Pierre Shorette), who wrote what many call the worst

  • edited January 2016

    I am glad that Pierre Shorette and Eric Stirpe proved themselves to the fans for what they can do in Tales from the Borderlands. I hope that Pierre will be one of the writers for the upcoming Batman game.

    You had two of those people who are "bad at writing" write for TFTBL, and one of them (Pierre Shorette), who wrote what many call the worst

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited January 2016

    Some of those same writers also worked on Wolf and/or Walking Dead: Season 1, though, which fans loved. It's not a matter of writers working on different genres, Metallica just pointed out TftB as a particular example.

    Personally, I would imagine it had to do with Telltale trying to release Season 2 right after Season 1.

    Some Are good At writing dramatic Games And others Are good At writing comedic Games. TTG should now Know, that they Cant just take One Writer from a TTG Team to Write a completely different style of Story And say "That'll work".

    Why not? It worked beforehand. Before Walking Dead, Telltale was notable for comedy games. Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman, who many people consider the poster children of Walking Dead; Season 1, had spent their time beforehand making comedy games for Telltale that the old fanbase loved. By your logic, having Jake and Sean work on Season 1 of Walking Dead by writing and directing it should have been a horrible idea in concept.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    And? They did a poor Job writing twds2 And an Amazing Job At TFTBL. Some Are good At writing dramatic Games And others Are good At writing c

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited January 2016

    And they should Do something about the formula so it's Not that Predictable. They should Slow the Pacing in their Games with hubs or If it makes sense Even puzzles. I think the TTG Are becoming like "Call of Duty". Fast-Paced Entertainment without much "control-ability".

    They are doing that because that's what they think people liked after Walking Dead: Season 1's huge success. Beforehand, Telltale released monthly episodes with 3-6 hours of gameplay where each Season had far more puzzles, hubs, etc (minus choices of course). However, in Telltale's eyes, they have directly said multiple times that they think Walking Dead: Season 1 confirmed that people like less interactive games where you focus on choices instead of puzzles or interacting with the game. They also previously thought that people liked short episodes, which is why they tried to pass off 90 minute episodes as a selling point during Walking Dead: Season 2 and Wolf Among Us, because they thought having longer episodes would be bad for people trying to play the game in one sitting so that it would feel more cinematic.

    These changes are on purpose because Telltale is trying to make their games feel more like interactive cinema as opposed to traditional games. Before you point out that Walking Dead: Season 1 had more puzzles, hubs, etc, keep in mind that Telltale even had this mindset not only during Season 1 but also a year or so beforehand. As I said, Walking Dead: Season 1 validated a lot of their beliefs about heading in this direction.

    I personally think they could have used some improvements earlier along the way (cough getting rid of 90 minute episodes cough), but my point is that Telltale was never trying to pass off Walking Dead as a puzzle game with hubs - those were just on the backburner. They currently think that the modern fans want less interactivity - not more, so if you want more interactivity like puzzles, hubs, etc in modern Telltale games, then post feedback on the forums and hope Telltale listens.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    I'd rather have 1 Absolutely stunning game than 2 "good" Games. (TFTBL was Absolutely Awesome But GoT in the other Hand...). Of course the m

  • Again the "Cinematic reasoning' really is a stupid made up concept. No they did not release them for cinematic reasons, that is the completely stupid and I think you made it up

    And they should Do something about the formula so it's Not that Predictable. They should Slow the Pacing in their Games with hubs or If it m

  • It's what they say virtually all the time. I wasn't making anything up - they want their games to be interactive cinema, and Walking Dead; Season 1 validated their decision after games like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park acted as the baby steps for Telltale to head towards that direction.

    I personally like both formats, but I'd also love for Telltale to embrace variety in terms of how people interact with their modern games.

    Again the "Cinematic reasoning' really is a stupid made up concept. No they did not release them for cinematic reasons, that is the completely stupid and I think you made it up

  • They never said anything about more cinema than games. they should have just kept what they had in Twd s1 and they fucking changed it. Jesus, the idea of having 90 minute episodes were never things telltale wanted. Why did'nt telltale listen to the praises of Twd s1 and the fricken criticisms tthat are crapped on like Jurassic park or back to the future. Jesus if the. Cinematcic reason was true, why is game of thrones still super short, why is mine craft short, telltale keeps making constant mistakes

    It's what they say virtually all the time. I wasn't making anything up - they want their games to be interactive cinema, and Walking Dead; S

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited January 2016

    Just for proof in case you think I made their reasoning up:

    Article about Minecraft: Story Mode:
    http://motionographer.com/2015/11/17/telltales-minecraft-story-mode-changing-the-game/

    “Telltale’s goal has been to reference or translate cinema into a playable narrative,” says Job Stauffer, Head of Creative Communications for Telltale, in a Skype interview with Motionographer. “It’s great to work in a medium that can usher in such a big audience, both new and old. It’s also pretty surreal to make games that can be played either on a console or phone or in a theater on an 80 foot screen.”

    Kevin Bruner interview about Season 2 of Game of Thrones:
    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-telltale-season-2-842311

    I'd say that's been a defining approach here at Telltale over the last 10 years, as we've always envisioned our games as more in line with interactive drama and playable cinema than what most might traditionally think of as "games." So while we cannot say exactly how far along season two is right now, we can say that there's never a shortage of sticky notes on the walls around the studio.

    Fan asks why they moved away from puzzles in their games in Minecraft: Story Mode Reddit AMA:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/3ow502/were_telltale_games_makers_of_minecraft_story/cw10ql0

    I think we just like the story, role-playing parts of the games more than the classic puzzle parts. Sometimes the puzzles are just to obtuse and frustrating. We started focus more on the story side and people seemed to like it!

    Interview with Dan Connors (previous Telltale CEO) in 2013:
    http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/telltale-games-ceo-dan-connors-on-the-walking-dead-fables-and-building-a-television-studio-model-for-games/

    Yeah, I think The Walking Dead really separates us from the past. Whereas I think previous games were trying to do it, but weren’t different enough [to] see that this is its own thing. I think we tried pretty aggressively with [Jurassic Park] to break the mold in many ways. In some ways that didn’t resonate with people, but a lot of what did work in JP is a lot of what became The Walking Dead. That kind of transitionary period of Back to the Future, JP, and The Walking Dead I think is where we really found the unique Telltale voice. Where I think Monkey Island had its roots, its deep roots, in the types of LucasArts games that kept Telltale as the ‘little LucasArts’ that I think people used to call us. Even though it did great things with storytelling in cliffhangers and emotion and characters that you could love and care about, it didn’t have the play experience that made it stand out from what came before – versus The Walking Dead, which I think did.

    Interview with Kevin Bruner about the Wolf Among Us:
    http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/16/telltale-on-wolf-among-us-following-the-walking-dead/

    RPS: You recently mentioned that Telltale sort of “begrudgingly” adds adventure game-y elements to its stories. You’re trying to,er, tell tales first and foremost. Compared to Walking Dead, is this even less puzzle-heavy?

    Bruner: Yeah, I’d say it’s less puzzle-heavy, but that’s because the core narrative, being a mystery, has more intrigue built into it. I think some of the same questions that a puzzle, in a more traditional adventure games, might pose in your head, like “How am I going to do this?”, it’s more like, “What does this information that I have right now mean?” In some ways it’s like a whodunit kind of thing. I think you feel a lot of the same things you might feel if there were more puzzles, but it’s not a puzzle game, in the same way. I think it’s mentally challenging in the same way as a puzzle game, but that’s more because of the whodunit nature of the tropes.

    Various results I found through lightly skimming Twitter's search function:

    We have a preferred style for mechanics and creating interactive stories through the language of cinematic storytelling.

    TV & Telltale thrive in consumable, single-sitting content. I'm at hour 3 of installing Fallout on PS4, longer than Michonne Ep 1.

    Article: How Walking Dead turned Telltale into the HBO of Gaming:
    http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/10/5193494/how-the-walking-dead-turned-telltale-into-the-hbo-of-gaming

    Early series like Sam & Max Save the World and Tales of Monkey Island felt a lot like those classic adventure games, humorous adventures with lots of puzzles to solve and witty dialogue to navigate. As Dennis Lenart, director for season two of The Walking Dead puts it, they were often aiming to stimulate the player's brain with challenging puzzles. That finally changed in 2012 with the first season of The Walking Dead.

    "With The Walking Dead, one of the reasons it’s been so successful is because we focus less on the head and just aim straight for people’s hearts," Lenart explains.

    Again the "Cinematic reasoning' really is a stupid made up concept. No they did not release them for cinematic reasons, that is the completely stupid and I think you made it up

  • edited January 2016

    I don't know, I'd much rather him work on TWD, and him working on Batman may prevent that. But yeah I agree, I knew these guys were great writers, despite all the shit that they got for working on Season 2, and Tales definitely proved that.

    I am glad that Pierre Shorette and Eric Stirpe proved themselves to the fans for what they can do in Tales from the Borderlands. I hope that Pierre will be one of the writers for the upcoming Batman game.

  • Still does not help or prove anything. It is fine to admit telltale made a few mistakes with writting, you don't always have to hide behind someone's back, i got your back and you have mine

    Just for proof in case you think I made their reasoning up: Article about Minecraft: Story Mode: http://motionographer.com/2015/11/17/te

  • edited January 2016

    Like what Blind Sniper said, many of these people also wrote or worked on both TWAU and TWD. Pierre Shorette wrote Faith (Episode 1 of TWAU), Darin wrote Starved for Help (Episode 2 of TWD S1), Nick Herman was also involved with both TWD S1 and TWAU, Chuck Jordan was also involved with S1 to an extent, and Vanaman and Rodkin worked on games like Monkey Island before doing S1 of TWD. To add to that, J.T. Petty is a video game writer, screenwriter, and author who traditionally works within the horror genre (he was one of the writers for Outlast). While The Walking Dead is not traditional horror, it's still within his genre.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    And? They did a poor Job writing twds2 And an Amazing Job At TFTBL. Some Are good At writing dramatic Games And others Are good At writing c

  • OzzyUKOzzyUK Moderator

    Just to add to what you wrote here there is also this old buzfeed article talking about their cinematic game lengths and the reason why they aim for around 90 mins, the article is fairly long but i put the part below where the author mentioned Job's explanation.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/the-after-dinner-video-game#.rfE55JQ10r

    Telltale’s senior PR manager Job Stauffer told me, that the company aims to create narratives that can be started and finished in the time after dinner and before bed; the hours in which most of us do our Netflix binging. Pierre Shorette, a writer at Telltale who worked on the last episode of The Walking Dead and is now working on the followup, The Wolf Among Us, told me that there is no set length for an episode of a Telltale game. Rather, he said, the studio takes however long is necessary to tell the given story.

    Just for proof in case you think I made their reasoning up: Article about Minecraft: Story Mode: http://motionographer.com/2015/11/17/te

  • I appreciate what you are saying, but I cannnot agree what you moderators are trying to proof. Why is game of thrones season 1 an hour long, why is mine craft story mode episode 1 100 minutes but episodes 2,3,4 60 minutes long. I just cannot believe what you guys re saying at all.

    OzzyUK posted: »

    Just to add to what you wrote here there is also this old buzfeed article talking about their cinematic game lengths and the reason why they

  • It's normal PR bullshit. They don't Do Longer Episodes/ Puzzles or whatever Because it's Slows Pacing. No. They don't Do it Because they're Not capable to Do it. Because they want to develop a Series "Live". Wich i personaly think is something, they shouldn't Do anymore. I can understand why they did it, But we can't always say "Thats Not right or that character should Be like this". The only Time i can remember, that they actually changed something was Gortys. But other than that? Maybe some Minor changes, But i don't think it's worth the much longer wait. But Thats my opinion. But One thing is for certain: TTG needs to change Things.

    I appreciate what you are saying, but I cannnot agree what you moderators are trying to proof. Why is game of thrones season 1 an hour long,

  • They used to release episodes that were 3-6 hours long with lots of puzzles, hubs, gameplay, etc. It's not PR speak - they genuinely try to shorten episodes so that people can play them in one sitting ever since they pursued cinematic games with Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Walking Dead, and everything onward. They even mentioned this as far back as shortly before Walking Dead: Season 1 premiered - except, then, they shortened episodes to around 2-3 hours on average instead of 90 minute episodes during Wolf and Dead: Season 2.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    It's normal PR bullshit. They don't Do Longer Episodes/ Puzzles or whatever Because it's Slows Pacing. No. They don't Do it Because they're

  • they genuinely try to shorten episodes so that people can play them in one sitting

    Who wants that? And more importantly, why does TTG think, that a sitting would only Last 90min.? I Know it depends on the Job, Family etc. But it's like that they'd think: "Less Content for the Same Price!" And in MCSMs case: "Less Content for a higher Price!".

    They used to release episodes that were 3-6 hours long with lots of puzzles, hubs, gameplay, etc. It's not PR speak - they genuinely try to

  • To be fair, I can understand trying to keep episodes somewhat short, at around 2-3 hours for a cinematic feeling (so that you don't have to take long breaks/quit the game and resume later, and disrupt the pacing of the story in the process), but that being said, I think 90 minutes was a bit overkill and I'm glad to see they have since gone back on that.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    they genuinely try to shorten episodes so that people can play them in one sitting Who wants that? And more importantly, why does TT

  • Thats true, though. TFTBL EP.5 was Pretty Long. And MCSM EP.4 Took me about 2H to Beat, too. I just Hope that they don't Release a 70min. Episode ever again.

    To be fair, I can understand trying to keep episodes somewhat short, at around 2-3 hours for a cinematic feeling (so that you don't have to

  • Yeah, and I think Episode 1 of either Tales from the Borderlands or Game of Thrones was almost around 2 hours 30 minutes.

    GSSalvador posted: »

    Thats true, though. TFTBL EP.5 was Pretty Long. And MCSM EP.4 Took me about 2H to Beat, too. I just Hope that they don't Release a 70min. Episode ever again.

  • More cinematic talk

    Yeah, and I think Episode 1 of either Tales from the Borderlands or Game of Thrones was almost around 2 hours 30 minutes.

  • what hbo actors do you guys want to see in the 2nd series?

  • None

    what hbo actors do you guys want to see in the 2nd series?

  • so you hate fact that hbo actors voice their characters in tell-tale series? huh, can I ask why?

    None

  • played the first one on my laptop and liked it, but said laptop couldn't even get the second one to finish downloading and it was the only decent gaming rig I had that -- theoretically -- should've been able to handle it. But then its USB ports all died some months later so I'm stuck using the touchpad mouse and... well.... I refuse to play any games on my laptop with a touchpad mouse.

    It's only a little over a year old too, which makes me sad. Warranty expired just before the USB ports all died and... well.... idk what to do to fix it beyond buy a new laptop when I get the money.

    MOBZIKK posted: »

    Tha Witchar

  • I think the main problem with some of them (this is mainly Ramsay but could apply to anyone) is that they stick up unbeatable, unblock able obstacles in our path - we knew we couldn't do anything to Ramsay because he had plot armour for days, just like we knew Tyrion would end up arrested so all our work would be completely ruined.

    If used correctly or in minor ways I think they can really help - but so far I think (could be wrong) most of them have been very heavy-handed in being unreasonable, invincible or just very unhelpful. Hilariously, the notable exception is Cersei who actually helped us get rid of Andros.

    so you hate fact that hbo actors voice their characters in tell-tale series? huh, can I ask why?

  • Praise Queen Cersei! The unexpected honorable character of the canon cast in the game! :D

    Blockb0ys posted: »

    I think the main problem with some of them (this is mainly Ramsay but could apply to anyone) is that they stick up unbeatable, unblock able

  • the fact the hbo characters are cannon. I understand. but do you think the next series will go smoothly with none hbo characters returning? aren't the Foresters have enouncing with the main characters in the book?

    Blockb0ys posted: »

    I think the main problem with some of them (this is mainly Ramsay but could apply to anyone) is that they stick up unbeatable, unblock able

  • I feel like this can be compared very easily to Agents of SHIELD.

    It was a TV show set up by marvel - in the early days of the show, it stumbled because it felt the need to constantly pay service to the rest of the MCU, referencing movie events etc. Once it started moving away from that and only including meaningful ties to the movies, it managed to grow as a show and become far better than before.

    I'm completely on board with helpful ties to the canon show characters that help to drive the story, or even facilitate it in meaningful ways... but the fact is that many of the ties so far have set back the story, rather than helped it (E5 ramsay, E4/5 hateful danaerys, etc.). I admit there are some cameos that really enhanced the story - the scenes with Cersei in episodes 1 and 5 significantly ramped up the tension of Mira's story and let us feel like we were well and truly part of the game... some ties would be nice, but I'd be completely fine with far fewer, or even none.

    The story is strong enough to stand on its' own.

    the fact the hbo characters are cannon. I understand. but do you think the next series will go smoothly with none hbo characters returning? aren't the Foresters have enouncing with the main characters in the book?

  • It's crazy right? XD

    Daenerys backstabbed us, Ramsay made no sense at all in E5 (I let you keep half the forest... except that half got stolen by the whitehills and you didn't do shit until you magically teleported in within 24 hours of us imprisoning Gryff and a handful of hours telling Ludd. Then Jon Snow acted like we were blood-crazed murderers in E4 even if we did nothing wrong).

    And margaery was no goddamn help at all. Seriously. Cersei was the only one who offered help and actually delivered. I exclude Daenerys because she turns on you for executing one person who definitively deserved to die and - even if you do help - she betrays you and provides no company (leading to us getting a far smaller fighting force).

    Praise Queen Cersei! The unexpected honorable character of the canon cast in the game!

  • Damn, you must be pissed. I'm guessing even a professional couldn't fix it ?

    TEWR2 posted: »

    played the first one on my laptop and liked it, but said laptop couldn't even get the second one to finish downloading and it was the only d

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