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Time to Tally the Score

TelltaleGamesTelltaleGames Former Telltale Staff
edited 1:32PM in The Telltale Blog - Archived
It is once again that time to reflect on the successes and failures of the previous year and to make (mostly futile) promises to oneself for the year to come. I like to call this ritual "Tallying the Score"�. Life is much like a game, with every year a turn. Scoring is fairly subjective as it is up to the player themselves what they consider advancing or falling back in the game. You arrive at the first of the year, tally your score from the previous turn, and strategize how you might do better this time round.


2005 was a very solid turn for Telltale. It would be difficult, in fact, to list all the great advances that won us over-brimming buckets of points. Just trying to enumerate them in my head causes my brain to tumble and spin. Releasing Telltale Texas Hold 'Em and Bone: Out from Boneville scored us gargantuan numbers of points. We were able to announce our up-coming CSI and Sam & Max projects, in addition to carrying on work with some of our new favorite characters in our second chapter of Bone. We moved from our tiny claustrophobic sardine can to a nice new office and our numbers swelled from less than 10 to about 20. We received health insurance. Babies were born. Our web-site was made all shiny and sleek and comics and blogs have amused and informed. Our fan base has grown larger and even more vocal that ever.image


There have been set-backs too of course. The loss of Dave's chair touched us all deeply, and Gregfrank hasn't been the same since his excursion over the blue line. Not a one of us were able to anticipate the sudden treachery of the coffee machine. We lost several PCs to spontaneous combustion. But, when the numbers are put down and the score tallied, we have clearly come out ahead.


I have spent much of the following week in meditation and prognostication and I feel that 2006 is going to be an even bigger turn for our little troupe of storytellers. 2005 we were just building steam. This year its full speed ahead. The office is full of excitement at the possible twists and turns that await us.


After the reflection part of the "tallying"� ritual comes the New Year's Resolutions part, also known as "good intentions which by the end of the year feel more like vapid lies"�. Here are my personal resolutions which you may choose to use as inspiration to develop your own list of good intentions:


1) Find and purchase a copy of Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS. (Which seems to be sold out across Atlanta and the greater SF Bay Area).

2) Complete Psychonauts before opening my new shiny copy of Shadows of Colossus.

3) Get around to buying Sea Monkeys for my desk.

4) Decrease caffeine consumption.

5) Defeat Gregland at Chess (or at least appear coolly detached at the inevitable result.)

6) Finish writing blogs before 5pm on Tuesdays.

7) When asked by other game developers, strive* to be more humble about where I work and how truly fabulous it is.

8) Resist* the urge to divulge my sinister plans before I complete them.

9) Be a part of the creation of games that we all feel proud of making.


2006 has so far been murky and gray here in San Rafael, but the year itself promises to be a bright sunny one for Telltale. It is our pleasure to invite you all to enjoy it with us.


Happy New Year!




*Remember, when creating your own list of resolutions, that terms like "resist"� and "strive"� are -- by the nature of their non-committal tones -- extremely useful.

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