A Telltale Experience

TelltaleGames

I first visited Telltale's office in the summer of 2005, about a month before Out from Boneville's release. At the time I had a day job writing medical brochures and did game journalism for Adventure Gamers on the side. Doug Tabacco, Adventure Gamers' webmaster, came with me. After a brief tour of the one-room office, including a glimpse of the mysterious Blue Line, we entered the Maurice Richard Memorial Conference Room for an interview with Dan and Kevin, co-founders of the company. Then we headed into Kevin's office where he showed us several scenes from Out from Boneville, including the dinner scene and the part where Fone Bone walks around the dark cliffs carrying a torch. Designers Dave Grossman and Heather Logas watched over our shoulders as Doug and I pointed and clicked around this brand new adventure game that hadn't yet been unveiled to the world. There's only one word I can think of to describe that Telltale afternoon: incredible.



You have to understand. Adventure games were having a rough time of it. Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Jane Jensen's Gray Matter, and Cyan's URU had recently been canceled. The genre was a laughing stock on the web, with many gaming publications gleefully proclaiming the adventure genre dead and scoring the games I loved very low, just for the fun of it (or so it seemed). The days of discovering a new Sierra or LucasArts game on the shelf at Egghead Software and bringing it home for hours, weeks, even months of gaming goodness were no more. And here was Telltale, a company that unapologetically stepped out of LucasArts' shadow and set up shop to bring me -- us, adventure gamers -- the games we still loved.



I had already sent my resume to Telltale twice before this August 2005 visit. The first time was right after I read Adventure Gamers' profile piece on the young company, the day they announced their intentions to the world. Not fifteen minutes later, I received an email from Telltale's CEO, Dan Connors. "Thanks for the interest," he wrote. "We don't have anything specific now but we may in the future. Keep in touch." (Words he may have lived to regret!)



As a kid, when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I had two answers that alternated depending on my mood. Some days, I wanted to be a famous writer. Other days, I wanted to work at Sierra On-Line. In 2005, Sierra as we knew it was no more, but Telltale had the same spark, the same cozy, family feel, the same dedication to making the story games I loved. That spring at E3, when the Adventure Gamers contingent met with Telltale at a paper plate and napkin-strewn table in Kentia Hall, I coyly slipped Dan my resume again. "We're not hiring right now," he said, to which I replied, "Call me when you are."


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They did call me in September, but it wasn't to hire me. They invited me to an event in San Francisco, hinting that they'd be making an announcement Adventure Gamers wouldn't want to miss. I showed up expecting a press event, but it was more of a presentation for investors, with only a few members of the press present. (One of those few was Jake Rodkin, representing Idle Thumbs.) Dan and Kevin opened the event by announcing that Out from Boneville was complete and would be launching in the next day or two. I thought that was the big announcement. Somehow I missed that Steve Purcell, the creator of Sam & Max, was sitting directly behind me throughout the entire presentation.



That night, Telltale revealed that they'd be making Sam & Max games, and they let Adventure Gamers break the story. This was incredibly important to me. There were much bigger press outlets located in San Francisco that could have attended the event, but Telltale made a point of finding a way to deliver this news directly to the fans. Again, I thought, this is a company that gets it. A company I'd do anything to work for.



Imagine my elation, six months later, when I got an email asking me to come in for a job interview.



I was hired in the spring of 2006 as "web marketing coordinator," which nebulously meant I would communicate with the outside world about what Telltale was up to. As the first Sam & Max season got underway and we found ourselves bombarded with requests from eager journalists, the job morphed into a role as Telltale's PR contact, with some community management and customer service thrown in. It gave me the same thrill writing about adventure games had, times ten, because now I wasn't just preaching to a niche group of enthusiasts; I was telling the entire game industry and beyond about Telltale's endeavors. The best part of this job has been sharing my excitement for adventure games -- for Telltale's games -- with so many others.



The adventure genre is in a very different place now than back in 2004, when Telltale first appeared on the scene. It used to be that two, maybe three, good adventure games were released a year. Now we have Telltale's monthly releases -- more than twenty games since 2005, and counting. Adventures are showing up on the consoles. These games are discussed all over the web, from mainstream gaming websites to juggernauts like the Wall Street Journal. Monkey Island is coming back! This is a really good time to be a fan of those quirky story games that Infocom and Sierra and LucasArts made famous. The adventures of today aren't exactly the same as the ones I played as a bright-eyed little kid, but thank god for that. Thanks to Telltale, and House of Tales, and Funcom, and Hothead Games, and Capcom, and Quantic Dream, adventure games are coming back in all sorts of interesting ways. And sure, I'm just the PR chick, but it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to know that my role supporting some of the designers and programmers and visionaries that have made this renaissance possible has played even a small part in the genre's resurgence. I never got to work for Sierra, but who cares? I got to work for Telltale. That has its own kind of magic.



Why so nostalgic, you're wondering? Normally I wouldn't hijack Telltale's blog for personal ruminations, but today happens to be my last day working here, so I figured I'd go for it. I have loved -- loved -- working for Telltale. This company is one of the most creative environments known to man, full of smart, talented, and passionate people who truly want to bring the fans the best story games they possibly can. I love the people, the work, the dream. I hope Telltale's games become the norm, and the episodic series we cherish -- Sam & Max and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures and Tales of Monkey Island -- become big household names, alongside Lost and 24 and The Sopranos. These games really are a million times better than almost everything you'll find on TV, and I'm not just saying that because I'm the PR chick. I'm saying it because it's true.



I feel privileged to have been with Telltale for the past 3+ years, from our cramped office on Bellam to the newer, shinier place overlooking the bay, from the early days of Sam & Max to -- yes, no joke -- a brand new Monkey Island series. In 2005, when I was sitting a row in front of Steve Purcell at that event in San Francisco, I never would have believed it if you told me what was coming next. But it came, and it was incredible. There's no other way to describe it.



I'll still be hanging around the forums as a fan, so you haven't seen the last of me. But I wanted to let the community know that I'm pursuing that other lifelong dream to be a famous writer. It was a tough decision, but the silver lining is that now I get to step back from the PR biz and experience Telltale's games as a fan again. And with Tales of Monkey Island coming next week, and more Sam & Max in the wings, and I-can-only-guess-what-else coming up after that, I have no doubt that adventure gamers have a lot to look forward to. I'd like to say thanks to Telltale for giving me -- us -- what they have over these last five years. I seriously can't wait to see what's next.