Next Walking Dead installment suggestion
I already suggested that the next installment after TFS should start over from the beginning of the apocalypse with a whole new cast in a whole new location, but I had another idea to add to that. 3 or 4 or, hell, maybe even 5 protagonists.
I'm just gonna pull some names out of a hat here. Jim, Stacy, Bill, Rita, and Charlie.
Season 1
Episode 1, Jim is the playable character.
Episode 2, Stacy is the playable character.
Episode 3, Bill is the playable character.
Episode 4, Rita is the playable character.
Episode 5, Charlie is the playable character.
In each episode there's a moment or two where a choice has to be made. It seems like most any other choice. Sure, it seems important, and it is important, but it's even more important than it seems because it'll have far reaching consequences later down the story. Kinda' like how the to shoot Conrad or not choice comes back on Javi a couple episodes later. Anyway, unbeknownst to the player, these specific choices, one or two per episode, are slowly eliminating protagonists from a death pool. As an example, episode 3, you, as Bill, found a survival knife and have a choice to keep it or give it to Rita who doesn't have a knife. If you (Bill) keep it, Bill is eliminated from the death pool but Rita is still in it. If you (Bill) give it to Rita, Rita is eliminated from the death pool and Bill stays in. In the end, in episode 5, only one of them is left in the pool and that one dies in a manner fitting the choices that kept that character in the pool. Maybe they got tangled in a rope and without a knife to cut themselves free the rope dragged them into a machine. Maybe they ate some food that had gone bad and died from food poisoning. Who knows. Bad examples are bad. Point is, in the end, one of them dies.
Season 2, we're down to 4 protagonists, much the same situation, seemingly normal choices have unforeseen consequences and at the end of season 2, one of the remaining 4 dies leaving us with 3.
Season 3, same thing again and we end with only 2 of the original 5 still alive.
Season 4, in the end, only one of the original 5 is still alive and the one that's alive is entirely dependent on player choices through all 4 seasons.
I realize though that this is probably a far too ambitious idea for Telltale to want to do, that to do it right would entail accounting for huge variances from player to player. Like, I might end season 3 with Bill and Rita still alive and the others dead and someone else might end season 3 with Charlie and Stacy still alive and everyone else dead or any combination of living/dead protagonists. The farther into the series it gets, the more variance there'd be. Like, end of season 1 there's 5 possible endings since any one of the 5 could be dead, but then at the end of season 2 we're up to 20 different endings (5 endings of season 1, then each of those can end up 4 different ways for a total of 20 different ways). Then 60 different ways season 3 could end, and finally, 120 different ways season 4 could end. But in reality, it wouldn't be THAT complicated. Yes there'd be a 120 different paths the player could have taken to arrive at their season 4 ending, but in the end there'd still only be 5 possible endings, 1 for each potential survivor. But still, even with only 5 possible endings, there'd have to be 20 different ways season 4 could play out since season 4 could be Bill and Jim, or Jim and Rita, or Charlie and Stacy, or Stacy and Rita, etc etc, which means there'd need to be a lot of additional dialogue written and recorded to account for any combination of protagonists.
But no, that'd be too much work for Telltale to do, I get it. Maybe instead of that, have 1 actual protagonist and the other members of his or her group slowly die off over the seasons based on player choices that come back to haunt them later. It'd still be some involved work, accounting for group members that may or may not be alive seasons later, but since none of the possible deaths would be protagonists and are only side characters it'd be less intense as my first suggestion and would be doable, with some dedication.
Comments
I honestly just want something like Fear but with multiple playable characters with overarching stories, similiar to 400 Days. Later on in the first episode, the characters get to meet each other and they act as a team. Of course, they're not all in the same place at the same time, some characters could be looting supplies but then they get captured by a bandit group and then the other characters need to get that person back. Things happen. So, whilst you're still roleplaying, it's ultimately the player's objective to keep as many people alive as possible, like GOT. A problem with this and your idea is that it doesn't tackle the emotional problems well enough. Sure, we might like the characters and their relationships with others, but is it as good as Clem and AJ? See, Telltale Walking Deads are more about the emotional impact, and whilst you might be able to pull some good stuff off with these ideas, it will never be as good as s1,s2, s3, s4. Actually I take that back, I really love a good amount of the Fear TWD characters. We could have a mother of a dysfunctional family, a badass like Morgan, an architect who has lost contact with his family etc. they have overaching stories and aligning goals and I think this could be a fun spin-off twist to the main storyline which is Clem's story.
Oh! Idea! To generate fan-hype, we could put returning characters like Molly and Christa as side or main characters in the story, seeing as how the main story would've been concluded so no more info. Heck, Nate could return. A LOT of good storytelling options out there.
I'd be down for Telltale to try out an anthology Walking Dead season.
Make it like 400 days but bigger. It'd also give more weight and detail to choices and consequences since they'd all be self-contained in their own episodes.
It would be kind of hard (and maybe tedious) to reintroduce new characters, a conflict, and have an engaging story in after each episode.
Hmm, maybe they should just have more episodes so that some stories could be spread out if need be.
Its next installment is either going to follow Javier or a completely new character. And due to all the hate Anf got, I think it will be a new character.
That was the basic suggestion made a while ago, all new cast, all new location, starting over from the beginning. I tacked on everything else because it'd be cool to have a diverging and truly tailor made story like that but it's too ambitious to do.
Yea, its more for developers like quantic dream to do something like that.