I still can't believe this is happening...
It is with a... heavy heart, that I write these words now.
Earlier today, as I was cycling home from work oblivious to what had been going on with TellTale recently, my best friend sent me a curious message (he is well aware of my love for The Wolf Among Us and TellTale games in general) It was an image of Kratos yelling at a computer monitor and underneath he had written "Must be your reaction to telltale games shutting down. Shit sucks"
As you can imagine, I stopped there and then at the side of the road only a minute away from my house, and searched for telltale online... And that's when I saw it, my worst fears realised. TellTale was indeed shutting down having laid off all but 25 of it's workforce.
All it's announced projects up in the air and labelled as 'cancelled'
My friend tried to cheer me up by saying that if the company went into administration then there was a glimmer of hope that it could be saved. But this is the real world, there is no Big Bad Wolf that can make this all ok with a swinging fist and an angry growl...
I don't want to write these things but I need to let it out. As some of you know, my first exposure to TWAU was not long after my 19th birthday in 2014; I had seen the first episode advertised the year before and didn't think it looked appealing, especially as I was eagerly awaiting the release of Ep.1 for TWD S2. It looked silly and I hardly read the blurb about it being based off of a comic book series that I had never heard of... So on that day in 2014, I downloaded the free trial of Ep.1 due mostly to TWD S2 Ep.3 not being out yet; and I started it up.
The first thing was that opening song against the pink/purple background, it starts out slow and then goes into something I could only describe as mystical, like that tune was drawing me in with the promise of fairytales and adventure. Then came the menu itself, and I saw our protagonist. Bigby Wolf, smoking and weaving through the people, his eyes turning yellow whenever he walked through the darkness. There and then I knew this was going to be good.
I start up the episode, and when Mr Toad's first words were "Oh shit!" I knew once again that I had missed out on a treat. I replayed that trial 3 times purely to beat the crap out of the Woodsman and marvel at the excessive violence, interesting characters and no doubt gripping story therein. I bought the season pass that same night and downloaded the episodes rapid.
At the time Ep.3 was out, but it was the wait for Eps 4 and 5 that were the most joyful. Talking incessantly with my friends about how great the game was and showing it off to the friend in question above, who took an instant liking to the lore and universe of Fables...
Ep.5 came and went, and then came down to a fun decision: buying all of the Volumes of the Fables comics, spin-offs included, and joining this forum. To this day, much to the chagrin of @CoolGuyJ I'm sure, I still have not read all of them. But they remain in perfect dust free condition in the cupboard by my bed, and every now and then I read through the main series to get a reminder of the universe (and to rekindle my gleeful enjoyment of watching the relationship between Bigby Wolf and Snow White play out on the pages. To this day they are still my favourite fantasy couple) Afterwards came the dive into writing fanfiction; and 4 years later I still have not finished my best project The Devil Among Us... Guess now I have more reason than ever to finish it.
Sorry to bore you with all this detail. But knowing that TWAU S2 may never be released saddens me more than never playing Eps 3 and 4 of TWD The Final Season.
I have made some great memories on this forum, and it's best to leave it that way. Here's to hoping for a miracle to happen just like in a good book. I'll stick around until the end and try to keep in touch with people... Who knows? Maybe our prayers will be answered.
@Poogers555 @armis37 @TheZorkij @pudding_pie @Jacol
It's been a great ride
Comments
what did we do wrong for this to happen
Nothing man. There is a person to blame, and they know what they did...
I blame @Poogers555 ....him or Kevin Bruner.
Was it him or the new CEO??
100% Bruner. Most employees Ive seen on twitter's main problem is how they were suddenly laid off but most employees I've seen seem to say he was just put in a pretty shitty situation. That shitty situation being what Bruner left behind.
Poogs is right...normally when a company has a mega-hit like TWD S1...they take some of the money and reinvest in new tech and work on new systems to keep gameplay fresh. TWD came out in 2012...the graphics really did not improve until Batman S1...that is a long time...and even though I love Batman S1...it plays just like TWD S1, TWAU, TWD S2, TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS(and that was a fucking great game) Game of Thrones...so on and so forth. And Bruner was a man who drove his people to work so much overtime...as a normal way of working the turnover rate at Telltale was stupid.
Bruner cared about 1 thing...himself. He thought he was a better writer than his own people and would rip the soul out of their stories causing voice over work to be thrown out and they would have to bring back the artists...that is not cheap. It was not until he was canned and the got the new CEO that they started to try and right the ship as it were. Going to the Unity Engine after TWD was done would have seen an impressive graphics upgrade. TFS has far better writing than ANF because the new CEO trusted his writers.
Bruner drove it into the ground...and I think the new guy tried his best to fix it.
Hey man, thanks for the post. Reading though your Wolf memories got me emotional and almost brought me to tears.
I'd actually still like to keep in touch with the fellow Wolf fans even when this forum shuts down. We've all been through so much, and us all departing, saying goodbyes just cause this forum no longer exists, would make this currently sad situation even more sadder.
Jacol is 100% sure of setting up a forum (or board), or some place where every Wolf fan (and even possibly other TT games fans) can meet up, so things are being discussed.
While fate is unsure of Wolf, but who knows. Maybe we can make some noise online to somehow convince someone to get us a sequel (like final season episode 3 and 4 of TWD might be saved by an external partner).
And mate, no worries about you not completing reading the rest of Fables compilation yet. Whenever you say that, I always think to myself, "he'll read them when he's ready."
So no chagrin from me.
Haha
Yeah man just send me the details and stuff and I'll be there
I was thinking last night of which other companies could make TWAU: Dontnod is an obvious choice (but please bring in other people to write the scripts) Hell isn't Cory Barlog linked to TellTale somehow? Maybe Sony Santa Monica Studios could take up the project.
Naughty Dog perhaps? Hell, Ubisoft would be my last choice but still!
Cheers dude. I need to purchase the TWAU comics, Fables Everafter, and The Unwritten/Fables crossover to re-complete my collection too.
I just get immersed in other things now and put the comics to the back of my mind. 4 years I've had those Volumes haha Kinda like my fanfics: years in the making with no end in sight because I write like 1 chapter every 6 months haha
Not sure following companies do narrative action adventure games (like Telltale, Dontnod, Campo Santo), but I can see it possibly working if they acquire TWAU license from DC Vertigo:
There should be more.
Discussion about this is ongoing on Jacol's discord.
Ayy Hazza thanks for the mention! I got worried you'd miss all the shenanigans that were happening lately. I am going to link you up to our new TWAU forum once I get it running in a few weeks, so hopefully we'll stay in touch (I still got you on Steam regardless)
In regards of the devs who could take over those are my two cents:
Dontnod is also the first thing that came to my mind, and I do agree that they should get better writer (preferably the old TWAU writers team but that's just a dream I guess)
NaughtyDog would be awesome but I don't see them making such a game, plus I would hate if TWAU would be an exclusive title. I do not have a console and even if I had, I'd still prefer for the game to be available on as many platforms as possible rather than narrowing its audience. Plus not sure if ND would pull off the comic book vibe properly, but we'll never know.
Ubisoft is a publisher and the dev branches are... meh. I don't see them taking this kind of game and it's probably for the best.
Rockstar Games are okay devs but they don't really seem to give a sh*t about their fanbase quite as much, plus like Ubisoft I doubt they'd me in a market for this kind of storytelling.
Activision is also a publisher and ugh DON'T even get me started on that one. That and EA. Don't even think about it again. Just mentioning that name makes the blood boil in my veins.
And Campo Santo... well they're Valve now and we know how awesome management at Valve is.... or rather the lack of it. Even tho they could easily afford it, I don't see them doing anything like that. If they wouldn't sell out to Volvo then CS would be where I'd go for more TWAU. So I guess dontnot is the only viable option as of now. Either that or some indie dev who knows what they are doing and got enough funds to get through the entire season.
From Twitter:
...
lol that was me.
You are CoolGuyJ this is CoolGuyJ84, clearly two different people!
Hmmm... I did enjoy Firewatch. Maybe they should give it a go.
Oh man I haven't been on my Steam account in a long time!
I have a PS4, the only reason I got Steam was to play Microsoft titles that were exclusives like Splinter Cell Conviction etc.
There has to be at least ONE developer out there that can give us this game!?
Well great. If Bill Willingham is giving up hope that quickly then why the fuck should I hope for it?
Dammit man, this game would've sold so many copies! Made so many fans happy! Why the fuck did this all have to happen?!
SaveTWAU2
Well, we spoke about it already. Bill bluntly shutting down CoolGuy doesn't really change much since he doesn't have much power anyway. DC Vertigo is who legally owns the rights to the Fables franchise and thus probably TWAU aswell, at least in some way (and after TTG dismantles they would have the sole ownership of that series)
So we're still going to move on with our discussions in regards of making noise in the media to show that our interest in the TWAU is still high, and that we're willing to allow another dev to take over the series. Of course if you want to wave white flag on your own then you can to do that... but I thought you wouldn't give up so easily. Come on, man... we've been through almost as bad during 2014-2017 period and we came out victorious when TWAU2 finally got announced. If we show persistence, who knows! Maybe DC, maybe other dev or publisher will get a wind of this and realize that with fanbase so strong and dedicated, there is business to be made.
I'm not giving up dude, I'm just annoyed that the creator of Fables (and fan of TWAU) is not voicing his own support as much... I will continue to hope for the games release, whatever the form it takes, and yeah you're right; we had it way worse during those years of uncertainty
Ok, since I was the one to post that quote from twitter here, I feel that I should post this one too:
So as You can see, it's not that He doesn't support it, He just simply has no influence on TWAU's fate. I personaly have misinterpreted His 1st twitt, but right now it looks like, He just really can't do anything to change the state of things, but it does not mean that this is the end of hope for TWAU.
A fair point @JmoooX
I think what got to me was the bluntness of his tweet, not even bit more expressing a desire for it to be made, just "Nope. Sorry" Just got under me skin a bit...
Vertigo needs to get it's head out of it's ass for once and make a decision on this game!
Alright, hey I'm just making sure our little TWAU fam stays strong
And yeah like I suspected, Bill doesn't have much power over the future of TWAU. Again, DC Vertigo is the one legally holding the rights so we should pester them about licensing TWAU to some other dev.
Also, I'm starting to work on the new forum to migrate to after this forum drops dead. I will let everyone know when it's done and ready but it might take a few days if not more.
Family is important now
Vertigo have to do something... Jesus, if I was a millionaire I would buy the rights off them immediately!
I think I'll stay around this forum until it closes, but keep me informed regardless
Left them a tweet couple of days ago:
No reply. Sighs....
Hey guys! Like all of you I am very impacted by the Telltale's announcement that they are shutting down. I was really looking forward to The Wolf Among Us Season 2. Ugh. I have a question though. Will we lose access to the game if we bought it from the Telltale website? In other words, can we still download it even after the studio closes? We did buy it so it belongs to us, right? Will the website be shut down too and thus no longer have access to the download files? I'm worried about that too.
No reply could mean one of 2 things:
They are considering another studio
OR
They don't have it in them to tell us the bad news
MFW TWAU S2 confirmed and then unconfirmed in a matter of a few months...
Well, at least it was indeed a very good ride and we survived until the end. Cheers, my friends!
Dude don't give up!!
In all honesty, I'm rather tired of endlessly waiting. At this point, I'm glad I grew to appreciate TWAU S1 for the amazing game it is and the fact that we got to play it.
The only thing that I really want right now is for Clementine's story to be properly wrapped up - she is, after all, the best character they've created in all those years, the one that brought them into spotlight. After that - may TT rest in peace.
Telltale may rest in peace but I don't think it has to mean that it is a definite end of TWAU - and many of us are still willing to fight for some sort of continuation - either made by a different studio, or even in another format such as a comic book or an audiobook or something else.
But it's your choice if you want to stick around or not, so I'm gonna respect that.
I know how you feel. Waiting can feel endless.
Back then, I was actually one of those people who basically gave up on TWAU season 2 saying "If Telltale announces season 2, then I'd be overjoyed. But unless they make a formal announcement, I'm gonna assume there won't be season 2. (i.e. Telltale won't make TWAU2)"
Imagine my surprise almost a year after saying that Telltale announcing TWAU season 2.
I'm not saying we're definitely gonna get TWAU2. Saying such a thing would be foolish.
All I'm saying is, that we never know what the future may have in store for us, and me, Jacol, and several others wish to continue fighting to get a Wolf sequel - we may or may not succeed, but even if we do fail, I think I'll be proud of the fact that I at least went down fighting for Wolf.
But all in all, it's your decision, so like Jacol, I'll respect what you decide.
Ok, does anyone know where this image is from?
Adam Harrington posted it on his Instagram. It looks like its from S1 but it seems so strange that this was a picture he had and the strange resolution. I cant find whatever this was (Im assuming its a fan art thing but I just low key want to think this is actually Bigby in Season 2 and that they were going to use the exact same style)
No, it's not Season 2 stuff for sure. It's clearly a shot of Bigby from Season 1, and judging by the framing I'd say it is some sort of an old icon (looks like achievement icon or Book of Fables shortcut)
Argh! So close
Thats what I thought too but it doesnt match the frame. If anything its probably old content or something which is also interesting, Im just curious where its actually from.
Mirror, Mirror, this rhyming is dumb,
But show me where this image came from.
https://www.deviantart.com/zorasteam/art/Bigby-Portrait-459366809
thanks for finding fam squad. Didnt think it would go anywhere but I was a bit curious if it could have even been something beta form of Wolf S1 (seeing as a few unreleased Telltale stuff has been out there from former staff including some beta models)
Oh I'll definitely stick around, if these forums won't be deleted, and I'm in a Discord group with quite a few people I met in Telltale forums, so that's still going to survive. I'm just saying that, well - CoolGuyJ put it in a great way - I'm just going to assume TWAU is dead until proven otherwise and thus not bother myself with waiting. I've done my share of it, keeping my hopes alive for, what, 5 years? It's a bit too much to go back to that again.
If there's ever news of it, you can bet I'll be there.