The Blog About Blogs
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
In honor of last week's illustration of little guys sitting around a table playing games with even littler guys sitting around an even littler table, this week we are bringing you a blog about blogs. Okay, it's not quite the same, but I really like that picture.
So, blogs. Those of you who have been following Telltale from the beginning are already aware of the rich storytelling tradition that spawned in the annals of the Telltale Blog. For those who have joined us more recently, let's just say that starting about seventeen minutes after the company's birth, the fine writers here have been taking time out each week (err... usually) to dish the dirt about what's going on behind the scenes and between the walls of this fine establishment. Starting with such gems as I Kidnapped Brendan Q. Ferguson and the equally riveting I Kidnapped Brendan Q. Ferguson's Kidnapper and continuing through more recent ponderings about developing CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder, The Great Cow Race, and now Sam & Max, the Telltale Blog has gone through a bit of an evolution. In a short year and a half, we've gone from a few guys working in a closet to a real live video game developer, complete with four games under our belt, a 401(k) program, and an Xbox 360 in the lobby.
In spite of our semi-regular rollout of Telltale Blog content, coming up with a good entry isn't as easy as we make it look. (And this being only my third attempt, I'm perfectly qualified to talk about it...) Hence the recent inception of the Blog Bucket, which Heather put out in the middle of the office about a week ago. The premise behind the Blog Bucket is so staggeringly brilliant, I can't believe it's taken this long for someone to come up with it. Basically, whenever anyone has an idea that would make a good blog entry, rather than saying, "Hey, that's a great idea!" and promptly forgetting about it, we now write the idea down on a piece of paper and drop it into the bucket. Current topics swimming around in the Blog Bucket include: naming the sea monkeys, dying plants, jojoba (how come you never see it in shampoo anymore?), the "tangy orange" air freshener in the restroom, and my personal favorite, the Blog Bucket. That's right, I didn't come up with the idea for this blog myself, and it certainly wasn't inspired by last week's illustration. Had you fooled for a minute there, eh?
The bucket isn't the only exciting development in Telltale Blog-land. When Jake and I started working here (effectively tripling the size of the Telltale marketing department), we were asked to try to figure out how far of a reach our dear Telltale Blog has. Sure, we know the die-hard Telltale fans read each and every entry the day it comes out (right? right?!), but how many casual Telltale Gamers are out there, glancing at the blog now and then, maybe even viewing it through one of those new-fangled RSS readers you keep hearing about? As it turns out, not as many as we'd like. And that's mainly our fault. For a long time now, the Telltale Blog has been very tightly focused on the company. This has been fine, but as the company grows, and our games start to reach more and more people, the scope of the blog is changing, too. What better way to celebrate this than by reaching out to the masses?
To do this, we set out to make reading the Telltale Blog as easy as... well, so easy you don't even have to think about it. We've added a bunch of handy buttons to the side of the page that let you add the blog to your homepage (Yahoo, Google, etc.) or to an RSS reader. We're also getting the blog in more places, like LiveJournal, where you're more than welcome to add us to your friends list if you have one. (We try not to think about it too much, but having only two friends is sort of a downer.) And if you really like a particular blog, we'd love for you to vote for it by clicking the Digg this story! button at the bottom of the entry. We can't use this feature ourselves, because a few too many of us voted for a story one day and got Telltale's IP address banned. Come on guys, we're counting on you!
One last thing about blogs. Bone creator Jeff Smith recently started a blog of his own on the new-and-improved Boneville.com website. One of his first entries is about Telltale, complete with a few photos of our office and the folks inside. So go check out what Jeff has to say about us, and about Bone, and about a bunch of other things that are sort-of-but-not-quite related to Bone. Ahh, the beauty of blogs.
So, blogs. Those of you who have been following Telltale from the beginning are already aware of the rich storytelling tradition that spawned in the annals of the Telltale Blog. For those who have joined us more recently, let's just say that starting about seventeen minutes after the company's birth, the fine writers here have been taking time out each week (err... usually) to dish the dirt about what's going on behind the scenes and between the walls of this fine establishment. Starting with such gems as I Kidnapped Brendan Q. Ferguson and the equally riveting I Kidnapped Brendan Q. Ferguson's Kidnapper and continuing through more recent ponderings about developing CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder, The Great Cow Race, and now Sam & Max, the Telltale Blog has gone through a bit of an evolution. In a short year and a half, we've gone from a few guys working in a closet to a real live video game developer, complete with four games under our belt, a 401(k) program, and an Xbox 360 in the lobby.
In spite of our semi-regular rollout of Telltale Blog content, coming up with a good entry isn't as easy as we make it look. (And this being only my third attempt, I'm perfectly qualified to talk about it...) Hence the recent inception of the Blog Bucket, which Heather put out in the middle of the office about a week ago. The premise behind the Blog Bucket is so staggeringly brilliant, I can't believe it's taken this long for someone to come up with it. Basically, whenever anyone has an idea that would make a good blog entry, rather than saying, "Hey, that's a great idea!" and promptly forgetting about it, we now write the idea down on a piece of paper and drop it into the bucket. Current topics swimming around in the Blog Bucket include: naming the sea monkeys, dying plants, jojoba (how come you never see it in shampoo anymore?), the "tangy orange" air freshener in the restroom, and my personal favorite, the Blog Bucket. That's right, I didn't come up with the idea for this blog myself, and it certainly wasn't inspired by last week's illustration. Had you fooled for a minute there, eh?
The bucket isn't the only exciting development in Telltale Blog-land. When Jake and I started working here (effectively tripling the size of the Telltale marketing department), we were asked to try to figure out how far of a reach our dear Telltale Blog has. Sure, we know the die-hard Telltale fans read each and every entry the day it comes out (right? right?!), but how many casual Telltale Gamers are out there, glancing at the blog now and then, maybe even viewing it through one of those new-fangled RSS readers you keep hearing about? As it turns out, not as many as we'd like. And that's mainly our fault. For a long time now, the Telltale Blog has been very tightly focused on the company. This has been fine, but as the company grows, and our games start to reach more and more people, the scope of the blog is changing, too. What better way to celebrate this than by reaching out to the masses?
To do this, we set out to make reading the Telltale Blog as easy as... well, so easy you don't even have to think about it. We've added a bunch of handy buttons to the side of the page that let you add the blog to your homepage (Yahoo, Google, etc.) or to an RSS reader. We're also getting the blog in more places, like LiveJournal, where you're more than welcome to add us to your friends list if you have one. (We try not to think about it too much, but having only two friends is sort of a downer.) And if you really like a particular blog, we'd love for you to vote for it by clicking the Digg this story! button at the bottom of the entry. We can't use this feature ourselves, because a few too many of us voted for a story one day and got Telltale's IP address banned. Come on guys, we're counting on you!
One last thing about blogs. Bone creator Jeff Smith recently started a blog of his own on the new-and-improved Boneville.com website. One of his first entries is about Telltale, complete with a few photos of our office and the folks inside. So go check out what Jeff has to say about us, and about Bone, and about a bunch of other things that are sort-of-but-not-quite related to Bone. Ahh, the beauty of blogs.
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