The Five Threads (Or How The Hell Are the TTG Devs Going To Start S3?)
** BIG DAMN S2 SPOILERS! FINISH S2 BEFORE COMING HERE! HECK, FINISH IT FIVE TIMES BEFORE COMING HERE! **
** SERIOUSLY THIS WHOLE THREAD IS SPOILER CITY **
Okay everybody, I've played through/seen every finale that can come of the final conflict in S2 and holy crap, from a dev point of view, this thing is going to be a nightmare! We should start a discussion here to try and help TTG along with ideas for how they're going to dig themselves out of this one because I do not envy the amount of work they're going to have to do getting S3 off the ground right now.
My current working solution is do 800 Days: another mini-episodic game that bridges together several small events in Clem's life that will eventually lead her to one single spot where S3 will start off. What this will do is age her to a teenager and AJ to being at the stage of terrible 2s which is the age in which kids become quite...vocal to say the least, making him more of a sympathetic and vocal liability instead of just "the damn baby". Jane/Kenny if they're still around will die or disappear in this section at some point (sorry Jane/Kenny fans, thems the breaks of the Determinates) and we'll get to see Clem take more charge in her new life and having more of that agency and determination which we missed having all season 2.
Anyone else got other ideas? They don't need to be plausible even, just fire away. What would you do if you had to put on your game dev hat and solve this situation?
Comments
A "1000 Days" DLC would be interesting as a lead-in for characters who may appear in Season 3.
Personally, I'd enjoy a DLC exploring Luke's initial escape from Carver's community. We still know barely anything about the circumstances behind their escape, and the DLC might actually show Carver in a more human light.
My theory is we end up with Kenny/Jane or a new person and then they can stick around for longer. As there does need to be some alternative where we have at least one so the scenes will work. (By this I mean we have to have one companion to start the season)
Nate should take over wellington and start gathering slaves from all around the east coast to use in a barter system up North with other communities.
all Clems outside get captured and brought up north.
Don't center it around Clementine, just have her as a side character that pops in for a scene or two or just have someone mention her in passing.
I'm tired of all the necessary conversions into the central plot and ALL POINTS LEAD TO ONE storytelling. Focus on other people for a season or two before Clem comes back.
7 years timeskip. I know that probably won't happen, but it would be the easiest way to start a new story with Clem. She could talk about what happened in her past without giving too many explanations , and her attitude/dialogues could be different.
Hashtag #Imnotclementine ? XD I'd be down with that as I've been saying for a while I want to see someone else take a look at my Clem that I've built now from an outsider perspective for a while but at the same time once you do that you start going into "Is Clem killable?" territory which is a dangerous road to go down.
edit: much better
I think the whole "seeing Carver as human" thing could be done by exploring the route with Jane y'know? Not exactly done in flashback because giving you all the answers and ESPECIALLY doing anything that involves "going back" is NOT how you do zombie things.
Holy hell, I was WAITING for Nate to show up and be the big bad the whole game and just...nothing. Which makes him even scarier. He's still out there. There's no way in heck a guy that scary doesn't die hard.
7 years is a LONG time for a sudden timeskip. I'm for the game going that far eventually, but not yet, there are too many experiences that can happen in that time that I want to be there for. You didn't see Kenny for a few hundred days and you already feel like you don't know him anymore.
You do. It's a baby. And who says Clem can't just be a loner? She's not The Doctor xD
Heheheh, sorry about that. Bit of a formatting issue on my end.
Yeah, they could pull it off if they had more budget for season 3 to have Jane and Kenny as alternative characters. With a little bit of good will and budget they can do it so they aren't only background characters and they don't die right off the bat. I mean, Mass Effect series did that. In ME1 you have a choice to save one of 2 main characters (2nd dies) and then after small role in ME2, they come back in ME3 and are both important characters. Problem appears when you think about a fact that you could have them both die.
no prob
It's totally doable...with a budget like EA/Bioware and a team that size....and then the layoffs happen. But it's doable and I wouldn't be opposed to it.
yeah, I know and agree with you. I just think that it would be easier for the writers to handle with all of those endings with a large timeskip. I'd also like to see how the 7-years-old AJ was raised by Clem/Jane/Kenny...
I can't wait to see what they do with S3, as like you said, the endings were so varied, leaving massively different possible story paths. I chose Kenny out of loyalty and stuck with him rather than going into wellington with AJ. I really hope S3 let's you continue with the final outcome you got, even though it would be A LOT of work for the devs, like you said. I know that whatever they do will be good, I haven't been disappointed yet. But I really can't wait for S3 seriously!!
So, let's see, the five endings are :
At the beginning of season 3, we can suppose that either Clem is alone, or she is with a person/group other than Wellington/Kenny/Jane/the family. That means either strangers or an unlikely reunion with Christa (or even Lilly ?).
Sooo, let's say a herd goes through both Wellington and Howe's, disrupts everything, kills Kenny and Jane and drives off the family and the Wellington group. Clem ends up alone (with the baby, hopefully - they can't pull an Omid on AJ, can they ?), and either we take it from there, or we see her a bit later when she's found someone (or some group).
I guess we can't really tell much more. What do you think ? Any predictions/ideas ?
XD You know what, you might be on to something there. Nothing moves a group of characters from Point A to Point B like a heard of Walkers.
Yes! All we know about the breakout is that Luke didn't like how Carver ran things, he broke them out of uncovered holes, and Reggie initially came with them but was then left behind when he fell.
I would have preferred for the 400 Days DLC be instead about the cabin group and how they arrived to Carver's camp/how the first few days were for them. It would have given the players some background on them and fleshed out their relationships. I mean, 400 Days was great but they didn't really do anything with it.
Agreed, but I loved the format for 400 days.
I'm not sure how the TTG developpers will solve that. But it's a true nightmare.
So yes, 3 solutions :
a DLC (or season's 3 first episode) where Kenny/jane meet their fate and Clem ends up at the same place allowing th launch the new chapter of clementine's odyssey (I guess that's the most probable case that'll happen)
The TTG team develops 5 stories following season's 2 endings making them converge in season 3 (have no hope for that one because it'll be a hell on earth that could lead to ambiguity and errors in the soryline)
the season's 3 will be based on new characters (probable too but I hope not. We didn't say goodbye to Clementine...) or worst...Clementine got killed at the beginning of season 3 and new characters take on the show
They need to start with 5 different threads and have them merge up again somehow. It's going to be difficult and costly to pull off but I really feel like this is only way to continue Clem's story in a satisfying way from No Going Back. Even if it takes two years and an entire DLC devoted to this, they should do it.
Now, the easiest way to accomplish this would be to get Clem back on the road alone. After that, the story can continue on whatever path it needs to. It would be relatively simple to pull this off with the "Alone" ending (obviously), the "Jane" endings, and the "Leave Wellington with Kenny" ending. None of those seem like they would be very permanent solutions and there are plenty of ways for things to go wrong and force Clem back on the road by herself.
The most challenging ending to bring back is the "Stay at Wellington" ending. Wellington, from what we've seen, is perfect. Absurdly high walls, lots of supplies (they're willing to give out whole duffle bags of food and medicine), pragmatic but empathetic leadership (based on Edith's personality and the fact that she was willing to talk them into letting Clem and the baby stay), and a much more reduced walker problem due to the cold. I don't see a place like that collapsing and if it did, it would just seem cheap and rehashed to have a whole community just fall like that again.
Solution? Don't have Wellington collapse. Have Clem be forced to leave Wellington. Have her break one of the community rules or get into a conflict with another survivor over there and be exiled. It makes sense. A place that big with that many survivors needs to have strict laws in place to prevent things from getting out of control. Clem is traumatized, alone, and has a baby that she wants to protect at all costs. There are a multitude of things that could go down that would end with her being forced to leave. After that, they can take her character in whatever direction they need.
I pretty much mostly agree with this. You wouldn't have Clem or AJ age though would you? Also having Clem with Jane in Howe's with the family is also a tough one because the idea there is that you might try and build a society within Howe's again just like Carver and that's a cool thread to try and tie up.
Yep, these are all viable.