Telltale, 5 easy ways to improve Season 3
1. Return the dramatic curve to the storyline
- Every season should revolve around one or two big questions. For example the first season was about Lee’s new opportunity to compensate the mistakes he made in his earlier life. Unifying theme makes the season more understandable entity and increases the meaningfulness of the events. Problems need time to develop over the episodes to make the final resolution feel momentous. The stronger connection you manage to make between episodes the stronger is the fans’ anticipation for the next episode.
2. Remind us of our choices
- Choices don’t have to change the storyline drastically, but you should remind the player of them regularly. This creates the illusion that our choices really affects the world and that we are playing our own personal story. Characters in the game should distress our conscience by reminding us about the tough decisions we have faced. They should give us diverse feedback which makes us to re-evaluate what kind of person we are and how our actions can be seen.
3. Reduce the deaths of the main characters
- The less you kill main characters the more meaningful their deaths become. You have to give time for player to become attached to the group members. Only over time we begin to fear if something bad happens to our favorite character(s). Every death should have real impact to the group and the characters of the game should mourn together with the player. The game should also remind us along the way how special the passed away characters were (see the section 2).
4. Let us choose whom to talk to
- Some prefer Luke, some prefer Kenny and some hates them both. Time to time players should have freedom to walk freely and select themselves with whom they want to socialize, share thoughts and feelings and to whom they want to offer help. Free discussions are the most effective way to let players form affectional bonds with the characters of the game.
5. Make us bear the pain of the characters as much as possible
- Season one did great performance on this. Clementine unknowing where her parents are, Kenny feeling guilt about Hershel’s son’s death and later losing his son and wife, Ben’s agony about the deal with bandits – player had to hold other characters’ problems and pains throughout the season. This feature made the first season emotionally extremely burdensome and therefore an unforgettable experience.
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Comments
I agree with all these!But the most important thing to do is..BRING BACK THE DRAMA!
I agree with everything except for killing off major characters. The more the better IMO, just as long as it isn't for shock value, that would be cheap.
I agree man, nice job.
Can I add a sixth?
- FIX DETERMINANT DEATHS.
TTG needs to understand that someone dying in one person's playthrough doesn't mean they can just drop that character in the other possible chains of events. Choice-based deaths should only happen in the situation of people like Pete or Sarita, who would clearly die either way because of their injuries or bites, rather than having one option seeming like it would 'save' the character. Because, currently, it doesn't, and saving them just isn't worth it.
Choosing to help a character should only happen if they've already been sentenced to die with a bite or something. The choice itself should not be the death sentence.
HUBS!!!
I would like to add my voice in this.
I think one of the most important thing is TIME. I need time to get to know these characters. In Season 1, the episodes are rather slow and long, but I have so much time to get to know these characters. I want to hear what they are feeling and know their strengths and weaknesses. I am not saying that every episodes should be long, but I want at least a good amount of time to talk to these characters rather than feeling that I couldn't spent time with them due to being pulled by the narrative.
Sorry for using the word time so much, but I want to show my point in this.
Each episodes 3 hours
You forgot one. Follow the slogan, "the story is tailored by how you play".
They should make the Episodes in advance, then. Even if it means a longer wait for S3EP1, it would mean that the choices are more impactful and depending on how far ahead they get before releasing the first episode, shorter waits between episodes.
Not only does that ruin the illusion of choice, it's insulting when the majority of players had saved a character only to be greeted with a background prop, and season 1, something done before season 2, has done it better. It isn't simply too much work.
because we are buying that games they are making millions off this game $5.00x 5000 that is at the lest they have way more sales that and i thinking they can pay the voice actors and most of the staff with that alone.
I don't know, maybe because that's their job?
And the hub moments, let us not forget those.
Can I add something too?
6- Good pacing (including dialogues)
I think the worst example was EP3 scene in the truck...with Nick."Mister I ain't a boy." "Yea you're a MAN." "You don't understand, he's different, he's worse." "De hell are you talking about?!" "He wants to punish us".I was laughing. It's like they were talking about Nick and not Carver.
7- Keeping the antagonist/judge at least 'till the end of the season
Like every movie they keep the bad guy alive to the end to make the story more intense, with the series they drag it out as much as possible...here Carver lasted 2 episodes and suddenly from a manipulative smart man turns into a cartoon villain who has to be a douche to everybody...The best judge is the antagonist, why? Because the protagonist hates when the antagonist is right about anything.
And let Nick Breckon write the whole season and also bring back hubs
Telltale NEEDS to do this.
I want to add one.
BRING BACK LEE
Lee is not dead hes alive and well on the moon eating a cup of pizza with his wife
They should do this with all their games.
I know just 1 easy way, make it exactly like season 1.
A cup of pizza? lol
Some really good things listed here. Now Telltale needs to decide whether to implement them or not.
Every season needs a ben.
Brother?
Dude, you should apply for a job at telltale XD
They brought hubs back but not all the way lol. You can't interact with anything and each person has 1 line of dialogue and THAT'S IT!
Someone please tweet this thread to Telltale. Seriously they NEED to see this!
Ah, brother! We've found our way back to each other!
Yep. I have enjoyed playing the second season even though it has gone further away from the basics that made the first season so magical. The problem is that I am not confident that Telltale knows exactly what they are doing with the game series. Of course, I might also be wrong and Telltale can be planning some sort of kick-ass plot twist which goes beyond the basics.
consistent writers for sure.
Then it won't be so choppy and disappointing.
6. Boats! More boats!
Make the stories have more than one ending.
That slogan- "This story adapts to the choices you make. The story is tailored by how you play." Is nothing but a big lie. I'm pretty sure with a big staff like TTG, who is working on 3 games, can make more than one ending.
Am I the only one who thought that I did something wrong in my play through and I made a wrong choice and that's why I got bitten in 104? Nope. That happened to everyone. It would've taken away an amazing ending to S1, but it also give the story more replay value and actually make the choices you make matter. It would give the end of season stats something like this-
Lee- you survived the season, you were bitten in 104, you died trying to kill the Stranger.
Am I the only one who likes this idea? I know TTG can do it. TTG said themselves they want future seasons to be more story branching than S1, well here's the chance.
TelltaleGames: All streams lead to one
Some of these are going to sound odd, but here some of my wishes for stuff to happen on a Season 3 too:
1. A Difficulty Setting - Not really for interactive storytelling part, but for the moments where you have quick time events. For me at times I find them WAY too easy like the game is just being nice and giving you the time you need to finish it. Granted people had faster and slower reaction times for things and it can depend on a person's age too [my stepdad for example who is in his 50's, sucks at quick time events that were in Silent Hill Origin that he straight out gave up on the game.] but I really wouldn't say no for an option for a tougher difficulty where you can have a shorter time frame to react to events or have tougher button smashing moments where you have to think a little on your feet.
It'd just be something cool to have after completing a season or to have fun with while waiting for the next episode to come out, and give options for different gamers out there. But if they did do something like that, I'd say to make the difficulty changeable in the pause menu too, in case it gets too frustrating for some in the quick time events and people want to swap back to a lower mode much like the option The Last of Us has. Just a thought.
2. Bring back question time - I mean it :P I miss asking characters a bunch of questions like on their history or just how they're doing or on the tasks at hand. Amid the Ruins gave us some of that back with Jane, but for a Season 3 I definitely would love this function to come back. Kinda gives you more time in the hubs and stretches out the lengths of the game a bit more which I think people have had issues about. Even if it's not as present as it was in Season 1, I'd be glad to see this return.
3. Unlockables - So I think The Wolf Among Us did this a bit with the info on fables, but it'd be great if for TWDG that when after completing episodes you could unlock something like an 'Episode Gallery' where you get to see some of the art that was drawn when designing that particular episode. Or perhaps even go as far as to make it something you have to find in the hub sections, where you can inspect at an unsual object and you get a notification that something's been unlocked [e.g you check out the little ducky in the ski lodge, and woo! You just unlocked some art on Kenny] However something like that might risk being overkill and distacting if you keep messages pop up all the time, so if it was something you got as a reward for finishing the episode, that'd still be cool =D
4. Determinant characters not always fated for death - With this I mean it'd be wonderful if that when you save a character, they stay 'safe'. Yes this is zombie eat man world and people will die, but it'd still be a nice change if on some instances, the character you choose to save doesn't eventually die anyway and just goes on their way to avoid to becoming a ghost that only gets acknowledged once an a while like Nick was [although to be fair his was different from Carley and Doug because there was no other character to replace him with that could play a role, either Nick's there or he isn't. Same for Alvin.] We had something like this with Chet, who depending what time you left Clementine's house, could survive and then was never seen again, so it's possible to pull it off.
But also it'd be cool to do something more with the determinant character deal, where it has more of an lasting emotional impact or consequences. Let's say if you save one character, friends or family of the other determinant that you didn't save, will dislike or even hate you for it and treat you differently than how they would if you had saved the other guy.
5. Keep experimenting and expand the choices - I remember playing Season 1 Episode 2 and having this incident crop up:
"You know what, I'm going to stay at the Motor Inn! Screw the St. John brothers and eating my best frie-wait, I HAVE to go? Why did you even ask me then!? I WANTED TO SWEEP SOME LEAFS YOU MONSTERS! T_T"
If there's something I really like about Season 2, is that sometimes you can end up doing different things. For example the Nick/Pete decisions have you end up in different locations for a while, and during the incident at the Ski Lodge you could play the Carver hostage situation from inside with the group or outside with Kenny. Again in Episode 4 you can decide if go with Jane or Bonnie and Mike and in doing so you'll get different cutscenes take place or extra interactions too. I'd really like to see more experiments done on this and for the game to keep pushing the boundaries. Even if the story still reconnects to the main storyline, having these little alternate 'paths' are fun.
But if our choices can keep having an impact if on the story or the character around us, that'd be good too.
If they thought they brought back hubs with what they put in Episode 4, then they very clearly did not understand what people meant by the concept.
I agree with everything you said, maybe they could make the QTE more like TWAU, where there slightly more difficult. I know i stumbled a few times on a few of them when i played it.
What streams? Other than a few dialog moments, the story is on a one way river.
I really like the idea of difficulty setting in quick time events. It would give heart pounding moments to challenge seeking players. People who are not familiar with video games and just want to enjoy "interactive movie" could instead set the difficulty to easy.
With my second proposition "Let us choose whom to talk to" I exactly meant those "hub moments" and "question times"... I just didn't come up with such fancy terms.
After a year I played season 2 again and I still think that this list is very accurate.
There is no info about season 3 yet, but I hope Telltale is using their time to improve the storyline and character development.
Too many people died too early in season 2. I didn't have time to become attached to anyone. There wasn't enough time to talk.
"This story adapts to the choices you make. The story is tailored by how you play." it's not bullshit