TTG job openings and new IP's
I have been working IT contracts for almost 18 years now. I'm not sure how much this practice is in other countries or other industries but in the IT business it is very common. When a company has a established team and wins a new contract the current team gets broken up and moved to the positions on the new contract. In turn the positions for the new contract are to backfill the workers that were moved from the old contract.
For example TTG has already stated I believe that their new and shiny IP's Borderlands and GOT was going to be released by the end of 2014.
For TTG to accomplish this most likely they took programmers, mangers, workers from TWAU and moved them to the Borderlands and GOT team to begin work right away. If you don't believe me ask yourself how borderlands already had a trailer all polished up a day after the game was announced? TWD team was busy making episode 1 and there were no hiring announcements from TTG for additional employees. Someone had to create the trailer.
The positions available on the TTG website are not hire employees for the new games. No. The positions are to backfill the now vacant positions on TWAU team. Remember TTG at already has your season pass money creating TWAU episodes any sooner does not make them more profits.
Why would TTG do that to TWAU? Well it's usually all about the money and for better or worse most have already purchased a season pass for TWAU (in other words TTG already has your money they do not profit from completing the game any faster). I'm sure that TTG only has the rights to make the Borderlands and GOT games for a limited amount of time. On the flip side TTG has already held the rights to make TWAU for almost 2 years now. I would think the goal for TTG would be to finish up TWAU by the end of the year and let the rights on the game expire. Borderlands and GOT will most likely see a second season since their followings are so big.
What's that you don't think TTG would do that to you? I did not say they stopped work on TWAU completely. I do think though they moved enough personnel to start work on the borderlands game leaving TWAU team to move at a snail pace until new employees are hired.
So you do not think there will be a second season of TWAU? No I do not. The CEO of TTG has expressed in the past wanting to do a star wars game and recently wants to do a James Bond game. With the star wars movie being filmed by JJ Abrams coming in 2015 that game could be a gold mine if TTG could land the rights to create it.
Will this effect TWD game as well? That has yet to be seen. But I do not think so because TWD fan base is much larger and it comes down to what group of fans you want upset more. It's not a matter of what game is better but rather the zombie end of days stuff is hot right now. I also believe that the reason TWAU came out earlier this year first was to get the franchise some me time before TWD was released. I also think that is the true reason why there was no TWD hype previews before it's release. TTG wanted to keep the light on TWAU for as long as it could.
Okay so how long until the darn ep 2 hits the street? I would say TTG should have most the interviews completed and should be have new employees by the end of the month. Luckily the IT world telecommutes very well so once employees are hired they should be able to work ASAP. In my opinion by the end of February or mid March episode 2 of the game will be out unless they hit a snag backfilling the positions. It really depends how far the current team has gotten with being short staffed.
I predict that episode 2 of TWD could be released before ep 2 of TWAU. TTG never said they were releasing them one month after the other. No TTG only said they were working on both games at the same time. Most just figured it would be TWAU one month and TWD the next. Heck I even thought that until I saw the new games TTG is creating and when they want to have them out.
Please keep in mine this is just my opinion based on the fact that TTG already has a borderlands trailer and looks to want to put that game out by the end of 2014. I also take in to account how popular the GOT and TWD television shows are currently.
This is also another reason why I hate season passes or preordering games. The company already has your money and it is added to its revenue before a product is even released. I have seen a article online about some gaming company actually selling a full price preorder for a beta game. In other words you get a buggy game before it is even complete to play. If other company's catch wind of that it will grow in popularity. Just look at how EA released battlefield 4. They knew the game needed fixed but just didn't care. They wanted the game out for the Christmas rush so they dropped the bata version in the box.
Good luck guys I hope TTG gives a TWAU update soon.
Comments
From a post here in the forum (sorry don't have the source right now at hands) Telltale had always the whole team working on one IP. Example:
Whole Team works on Episode 1 of TWAU. After finishing the episode the whole team switches to the Episode 1 of TWD. I suppose the have to do this because they're not big enough to work on more than one project completely simultaneously.
The trailer could have been done from Gearbox (the Borderlands guys), which actually to me makes more sense. Because they already have the most things coded, e.g. scenery, characters and the better contacts to the (voice)actors (e.g. Jack, Marcus).
Acquiring a license several years before the actual release of the game is not uncommon for a small team. One reason is that when you develop games you have to do just more than 'usual' software development. Two examples: You have to develop a story and you have to cast (voice) actors. Both are complex processes which are not done in a few weeks.
I too, think that the new IPs are one of many reasons for the delay. But I don't think that Telltale just leans back and slows down because they already have the money for TWAU. I think that because they actually ALREADY have the money, they have a lot more pressure going on. Customers who already have paid for a product, are usually not so delighted by delays.
Sadly I too think that TWAU won't get a second season, because it's a small IP. Although I find it better than TWD. But if at all this is a small factor for the delay.
If they would switch the whole Team, a release in March would be the earliest date possible, as you indicated. And I can't believe that they would let the buyers of TWAU wait for that long. So my deduction is that the new people are get hired mainly for the new IPs
I don't think they moved the entire team. I think they moved just enough to the new IP to get the ball rolling and TWAU is moving at a slower pace because of it.
Gearbox has one heck of a lawsuit going on with the aliens colonial marines lawsuit. I'm not sure how much Gearbox is doing with the TTG game. My guess is they are giving all the information to TTG to write and develop a story line. Who knows.
I remember Velg91 posting this article a few days ago. It sheds some light on the myth that every Telltale game has one dedicated team working on it.
Thank you for the article. Interesting to read.
Hmm... yes, it could be.
Let's compare The Walking Dead (TWD) and Game of Thrones (GOT):
The Walking Dead Release:
Let's assume same same schedule for Game of Thrones:
Development Time for one game season:
Now, if we take July 2014 as release for Telltale's GOT and go 20 months back in time we end up about October/November 2012. So they started to develop GOT about the same time they finished TWD: Season 1. If all assumptions are correct, they're probably in the finishing phase for GOT right now. Which indeed is a critical phase in development.
So yeah you're probably right. At least GOT can have a substantial impact on the development of TWAU.
Edit: It came to mind, that the consideration of TWD: Season One, Episode One leads to a longer development time. So I use the release of the last episode "No Time Left" which was November 2012. This would lead to a development time at about a year's length. Now if we take this into consideration the development for GOT started about June/July 2013. Which means that they are about half through now.
Found this very informative. I know it's all assumption.. but I'd say great hypothesis. Your a smart cookie.
Thank you. Too much honor. All I did was comparing dates