Game Informer Telltale article - new details on Wolf 2, studio culture, more.

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  • I'm interested in what combat will be like. Nick Herman in that live stream from a while back said they were really focusing on how to be more engaging than just QTEs so I really wonder how they will handle that. More detective work interaction would be a good plus too, and I wouldn't be shocked if they do bring in Bigby's sense of smell as a new feature.

    Even if it isn't canon, doesn't look like they will stray that far from it. I am truly sorry for our loss.

    lupinb0y posted: »

    Lookin' good! I dig the new looks a lot, though I do wish Bigby's new coat was brown lol. I just think brown coats look cool. Also really di

  • Possibly that's what they might mean by more focus on the city as well.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    I'm interested in what combat will be like. Nick Herman in that live stream from a while back said they were really focusing on how to be mo

  • sorry for spamming you blind but I have 2 more memes

  • edited December 2021

    Unlikely, but maybe actual combat? Kinda like Vampyr where it was the usual point and click stuff until it throws you into actual fights. I can't really think of any other way to make things more engaging past QTE's for a point and click game.

    I wouldn't be shocked if they do bring in Bigby's sense of smell as a new feature.

    Yes give me smell-o-vision please.

    Even if it isn't canon, doesn't look like they will stray that far from it. I am truly sorry for our loss.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    I'm interested in what combat will be like. Nick Herman in that live stream from a while back said they were really focusing on how to be mo

  • edited December 2021

    I just hope they don't do too much and keep focused on telling a story heavy narrative with constant dialog trees. I don't want some L.A. noire or a dontnod game

    Poogers555 posted: »

    I'm interested in what combat will be like. Nick Herman in that live stream from a while back said they were really focusing on how to be mo

  • I can agree with that. I mean I'd be very ok if Wolf 2 was basically just a Telltale game but choice have an actual impact.

    I just hope they don't do too much and keep focused on telling a story heavy narrative with constant dialog trees. I don't want some L.A. noire or a dontnod game

  • Trying not to fail the don't say Snow White is as thicc as winter snow challenge (WARNING: IMPOSSIBLE!!!!)

  • I feel like, if increased to the right tempo, you could get a TWAU/Jingle Bells remix.
    Hopefully perfect for the snowy season of the game lol

    Poogers555 posted: »

    sorry for spamming you blind but I have 2 more memes

  • Same here. I'm betting it'll be your usual Telltale game but with a -- finally -- tighter script that doesn't go through re-writes every episode, with more open-ended gameplay they started to touch upon in TWD S4.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    I can agree with that. I mean I'd be very ok if Wolf 2 was basically just a Telltale game but choice have an actual impact.

  • Honestly it is a bit of a shame thinking of previous Telltale games and how they were basically rushed. Like think of some of their best games if they had real dev time. Really wonder how much further they could've gone.

    AChicken posted: »

    Same here. I'm betting it'll be your usual Telltale game but with a -- finally -- tighter script that doesn't go through re-writes every episode, with more open-ended gameplay they started to touch upon in TWD S4.

  • I think we started to see that with Batman Season 2, which I believe had a pretty regular release interval of around a month between each episode, plus how there were a lot more choices that had visible impact and differences in scenes compared to the original.

    Very excited to see how this version of the company handles development and releases compared to the last one.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    Honestly it is a bit of a shame thinking of previous Telltale games and how they were basically rushed. Like think of some of their best games if they had real dev time. Really wonder how much further they could've gone.

  • edited December 2021

    nice concept art, though snow's new outfit is a pretty big downgrade imo

    really hoping they bring boy blue and rose red in for this one, it ain't fables without them

  • Agreed. Fingers crossed the budget machine doesn't break and we can get custom outfits.

    OH that concept art is clean! Wolf season 1 was already a goddamn looker so just refining the models and textures a bit makes total sense. K

  • I'm guessing combat will just consist of more 'special sequences' like in TFS where Clementine and friends need to get to Lily's boat, or the Minerva fight on the bridge in Episode 4, stuff like that. As well as more gimmicks during QTE like what Batman had. And with New York being more emphasised, the locations will probably seem more alive with more NPC interaction. Not RDR2 or GTA level but just more interactivity.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    I'm interested in what combat will be like. Nick Herman in that live stream from a while back said they were really focusing on how to be mo

  • Oh yeah there's motion capture too! Imagine if it was for the face, Bigby with LA Noire facial animation lol. Can't wait to see how smooth the animations look.

  • edited December 2021

    Huh, wasn't expecting any tangible TWAU news until early next year. I thought they'd just be like "yeah, we're working on it" in the article, so color me surprised.

    Bigby looks great in that coat. Not a big fan of the Snow's outfit, but I think I'll get used to it.

    I'm glad they're sticking to the episodic releases while assuring us that the waits between the episodes won't be that long. Discussing each episode on the forums was one of the best things about the whole telltale experience, I'd be sad to see it go. (By the way, they still haven't said how many episodes will there be, right?)

    The most exciting news for me is that they're hinting at revisiting stuff that they had to cut in the first TWAU. Really hoping that it turns out to be Detective Brannigan. I think that plot line had a lot of potential and I was sad to see it cut short in episode 2 since she was in the original episode 3 slide.

    Anyway, I'm slightly more excited for the TWAU 2, so mission accomplished, new Telltale. :)

    ⁿᵒʷ ᶦᶠ ʷᵉ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵍᵉᵗ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶠᵒʳᵘᵐ ᵘᵖᵈᵃᵗᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʷᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵇᵉ ᵍʳᵉᵃᵗ

  • Was messing around with filters and thought why not share some uncanny for the holidays lol

    Old Bigby (favorite one)

    Young Bigby (kinda uncanny but still interesting)

    And for the sake of it:

    Old Snow (kinda uncanny but still interesting)

    Young Snow

    Merry Christmas everyone! 😃

  • @Poogers555 after the news

    Finally something to look forward to

  • I wonder if they'll use facial mocap to be honest. Pretty sure facial mo cap is a lot more complicated, but I mostly wonder this because of how stylized Wolf is I wonder if having mo capped facial animation would actually look weird even if theoretically it sounds like an upgrade. But if it looks good and they can afford it, it would be awesome to see.

    Ghetsis posted: »

    Oh yeah there's motion capture too! Imagine if it was for the face, Bigby with LA Noire facial animation lol. Can't wait to see how smooth the animations look.

  • Same here. At first Telltale was saying GI article was mostly about the new Telltale in general, then said there would be a fair amount of Wolf content, then GI didn't even mention Wolf content when they were saying what to expect Telltale wise, so really glad it turned out to be actually a pretty detailed article for all 3 major factors of Wolf, company, and The Expanse.

    Though a part of me wishes they didn't lock it behind Game Informer as it seems this update isn't as accessible for most people and you probably don't know it happened unless you are actively looking for it, and I feel it is in Telltale's best interest for this info to be out there with ease. I mostly say this because I still see countless "Telltale is back?" or "It isn't the same people anymore!" which gets a lot of traction because no one really bothers researching what is going on with the New Telltale, who they are hiring, and who they are partnering with. I almost wish New Telltale made a Youtube video explaining things to hopefully get the word out a tiny bit more, because the misinformation about New Telltale is pretty much always there whenever Telltale news drops. Plus how faux it all feels, Kevin Bruner returns now in charge of some of his old staff and no one bats an eye, Telltale comes back with new management and is doing a lot more than what most companies do in situations like these, and everyone loses their shit.

    Honestly I think the only real criticism I can give New Telltale atm is that although their updates are actually quiet informative when they happen, they always seem to do something that makes them a bit obscure for general public.

    (And yes very glad to see episodic still. Would be a shame to miss the conversations between episodes.)

    Pipas posted: »

    Huh, wasn't expecting any tangible TWAU news until early next year. I thought they'd just be like "yeah, we're working on it" in the article

  • The fact it is almost over is already mind boggling.

    bruzdaa posted: »

    @Poogers555 after the news Finally something to look forward to

  • Glad to hear it will be a direct S1 sequel, I always imagined they would make the S2 have a completely unrelated story with no choices carrying over, which stopped me from being fully on board with it. Also, both Bigby and Snow look great and everything they're saying about their new project management sounds good.

  • I'm betting on second half of 2022 at this rate.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    The fact it is almost over is already mind boggling.

  • I'm very glad the forums are still here. Mostlypoptarts is gone but maybe eventually we can get a Telltale social media person on here and arrange some Q&As like with other Telltale games. They always advertise the community in their trailers but I don't think anyone is signing up lol.

  • They do mention in the article that apparently there will be a lot more new Fables than Season 1, but unknown if that means original Telltale characters or comic characters new to Wolf Among Us. Probably a healthy mix of both like original Wolf 1, so I am curious how direct of a sequel it will be.

    Article doesnt say too much for how connected it will be, but it seems the ripples of what happened 6 months ago is still very important to everyone in Fabletown. Which I hope really is true and I think it will be seeing how they chose to set the game so close to the original. Jamie also did say that some secrets will be answered from the first game, so it seems this would imply Season 1 still has some actual importance unlike other Telltale games where the next season was basically sweeping the old one under the rug. Really curious to see what these old secrets Jamie mentions are, maybe we see what happened to the Tweddles and Jersey and how it relates to Season 2's story, or maybe Bigby still trying to figure how Faith/Nerissa has a lingering thing will actually still be in the story. Either way, pretty cool stuff.

    Glad to hear it will be a direct S1 sequel, I always imagined they would make the S2 have a completely unrelated story with no choices carry

  • I think that is probably a mix of the forum is still out of date and there hasn't been enough info like a trailer to speculate for. I mean The Expanse said join the community and there isn't an Expanse section on the forums lol

    Ghetsis posted: »

    I'm very glad the forums are still here. Mostlypoptarts is gone but maybe eventually we can get a Telltale social media person on here and a

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited December 2021

    They actually do have a new Community Manager but in the public eye, they've so far kept to Twitter/FB/etc. However, I do think they want to eventually start interacting on the forums too. (This is not any secret or special information; they've posted about having a new CM on Twitter for the past several weeks.)

    A few odds and ends like the Forum Guidelines will be slightly tweaked in what is probably the near future, but I don't know if that extends to stuff like the forum software being updated.

    (Without getting into too much techno-babble - TTG 1.0 had to make custom edits to the forum software to accommodate Reddit style forum comments from 2013 to 2017. Even with Reddit style forum comments later being removed around 2017, they still have to currently do custom stuff with the site to make us be able to have comments from the 2013-2017 version of the site. Or, they would otherwise probably have to restart from scratch if they wanted to do a major forum update. So, TL:DR, making edits to the forum software is not as simple as switching to new software, like it would usually be for other cases.)

    Ghetsis posted: »

    I'm very glad the forums are still here. Mostlypoptarts is gone but maybe eventually we can get a Telltale social media person on here and a

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited December 2021

    (As a quick addendum - some may ask "then, why not just use the 2013 Reddit-style version of the forums???" The quick answer is, similar to how Telltale's quality of games was affected by issues with Telltale's upper management, time crunch, etc., the same applies to the 2013 forum software. It had some issues under-the-hood for the same reasons that TTG 1.0 had issues with game quality, and the forums started using linear comments to fix particular issues...)

    They actually do have a new Community Manager but in the public eye, they've so far kept to Twitter/FB/etc. However, I do think they want to

  • So aside from Wolf, what was the rest of the article about? I know it talks about New Telltale and The Expanse but anyone have the details?

  • Blind SniperBlind Sniper Moderator
    edited December 2021

    I could be wrong, but I don't thiiiiink that's a forum issue? Sometimes, stuff comes up to where Telltale just has to wait X amount of time to be allowed to make a forum for their game series after an announcement. I recall that when Game of Thrones was announced, there was some weird stipulation where they had to wait some time before being allowed to update the site.

    I don't know if that's the case here for the Expanse series, or if they are just waiting for other reasons.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    I think that is probably a mix of the forum is still out of date and there hasn't been enough info like a trailer to speculate for. I mean The Expanse said join the community and there isn't an Expanse section on the forums lol

  • Well I guess I meant more so how the forums in general are kinda hidden. Not hidden like before, but they arent the same, plus how it still has the old locked games as well. I think if that forum update ever came around we'd see a lot more new people.

    I could be wrong, but I don't thiiiiink that's a forum issue? Sometimes, stuff comes up to where Telltale just has to wait X amount of time

  • Really quick rundown for the rest of the article was basically how Telltale plans to operate going forward and The Expanse.

    For Telltale:
    Taking their time and are planning on doing a lot of outsourcing, saying it makes more sense to basically pay small teams for story writing and stuff like that before actually starting production with a full team. So it seems like every Telltale game going forward will probably be Telltale X Company, but that is my speculation. Also says that there won't be as many Telltale releases like Old Telltale because they will be taking more time and he hopes that it makes a Telltale release more special when it isn't Telltale oversaturating themselves. Talks a lot about avoiding crunch and what they are doing to avoid it happening.

    Expanse:
    The Expanse apparently started talks with Deck Nine not long after Wolf 2 began and Jamie says they are giving them a bit more room to do their own thing because it isn't a sequel with predetermined expectations. They chose to follow this character because she doesn't have established lore and they wanted to make something that can be deemed as canon, so they made a prequel about her. Talks a lot about the world of The Expanse.

    Pretty brief but surprisingly it focused on Wolf 2 probably the most.

    lupinb0y posted: »

    So aside from Wolf, what was the rest of the article about? I know it talks about New Telltale and The Expanse but anyone have the details?

  • Thanks a lot!

    Also says that there won't be as many Telltale releases like Old Telltale because they will be taking more time and he hopes that it makes a Telltale release more special when it isn't Telltale oversaturating themselves. Talks a lot about avoiding crunch and what they are doing to avoid it happening.

    Thank God. They're really saying all the right things here. Hopefully it all holds true.

    The Expanse apparently started talks with Deck Nine not long after Wolf 2 began and Jamie says they are giving them a bit more room to do their own thing because it isn't a sequel with predetermined expectations.

    Oh so does this mean it's more of a Deck Nine production than a Telltale one, where D9 is doing more of the work and Telltale is essentially the support?

    Poogers555 posted: »

    Really quick rundown for the rest of the article was basically how Telltale plans to operate going forward and The Expanse. For Telltale:

  • Oh so does this mean it's more of a Deck Nine production than a Telltale one, where D9 is doing more of the work and Telltale is essentially the support?

    Not quite - Deck Nine is using Telltale's tools to develop the game. The article describes it as "co-development."

    lupinb0y posted: »

    Thanks a lot! Also says that there won't be as many Telltale releases like Old Telltale because they will be taking more time and he h

  • ^ It is a bit awkwardly worded in the article but Blind is right. Seemingly more room was seemingly means trying new things because it isn't expected to be a certain way like how Wolf 2 is. Though, when I read it I did at first think he was possibly saying Telltale was acting a bit more like a publisher for this game, but doesnt seem so.

    That said, in a way Telltale kinda is acting like a Publisher who is scouting for talent to then partner and make a game for, which is def interesting tactic.

    Oh so does this mean it's more of a Deck Nine production than a Telltale one, where D9 is doing more of the work and Telltale is essentially

  • Ah gotcha, thanks!

    Oh so does this mean it's more of a Deck Nine production than a Telltale one, where D9 is doing more of the work and Telltale is essentially

  • That said, in a way Telltale kinda is acting like a Publisher who is scouting for talent to then partner and make a game for, which is def interesting tactic.

    Makes sense if they don't want to repeat Old Telltale's mistakes and spread themselves too thin. I wonder who else they could potentially collaborate with in the future.

    Poogers555 posted: »

    ^ It is a bit awkwardly worded in the article but Blind is right. Seemingly more room was seemingly means trying new things because it isn't

  • Read the Game Informer Issue, how Ottilie speaks about the company culture he wants to instill gives me confidence that Telltale is heading in a good direction. It is good to know he has the legacy of the Telltale brand at the forefront of his mind, and wishes to respect it.

    The concept art for The Wolf Among Us 2, I dig, I think Snow's new outfit looks nice, I'm perhaps outspoken on that specifically but I think it is neat. Bigby's blue coat looks tidy, I do wish he'd wear the trench coat from the Fables Comics but the blue coat is dope and suits him.

    Have to say, reading the Issue gave me a lot more hope for the future of Telltale, rather than saturate the market, making every release feel like an event, a grand premiere, is what Old Telltale should've done when running off the success of The Walking Dead: Season One.

    I've read the comments here and I do agree with Poogers on how much better Old Telltale's games could've been had they received the same treatment. I dig The Walking Dead: The Final Season, I think it's a perfect encapsulation of what Telltale is and what a Telltale game should be, from the choices, story and the gameplay, but give it another year or so to refine it and imagine how much better it could've been.

    And it feels so, so good knowing that the script was completed before production began, everything is nailed down, we don't have to expect big cuts to the games content and future Episodes after one is shipped, and the waiting times are going to be reduced. I'm glad they're retaining an Episodic release model, but keeping it tight so we aren't waiting months for new content, and the fact we'll still be able to theorize and share our thoughts after each Episode and eagerly wait in anticipation for the next... it's a win.

    Touching on the attitude towards crunch, I appreciate it dearly, treating people as people and encouraging staff to come in, do their work, then go home and relax, that goes a long way for me. It may still be a bit early to say, but I do have faith in New Telltale and what the plan is going forward.

    If I were to have any gripes with Telltale at the moment, it would be as Poogers described, the updates provided, while informative, are obscure, I think putting the update on The Wolf Among Us 2 behind a paid Game Informer Issue was an odd decision to make when there's a sizeable audience waiting on updates and may not be aware of the Game Informer Issue. That and the constant "OmG, Telltale iS BaCK?!?!" under each and every post, I feel that communication could be improved so that it is more widely known that Telltale is back.
    But... that can be forgiven considering that they're still in the process of getting things back up and running, I just can't wait for the day to see the socials be as active as they once were.

    Rambling over, it was a good read, very informative, and I'm left wanting more.

  • Well after Wolf 2 is a slam dunk, clearly they will partner with AdHoc and Tales 2 will finally happen!

    Stage 1: Denial

    lupinb0y posted: »

    That said, in a way Telltale kinda is acting like a Publisher who is scouting for talent to then partner and make a game for, which is def i

  • Meanwhile Tales 2 is in production already by Gearbox. Where its a...get this a LOOT SHOOTER! And they kill off most of the main cast and Rhys is voiced by a different guy and....wait

    Poogers555 posted: »

    Well after Wolf 2 is a slam dunk, clearly they will partner with AdHoc and Tales 2 will finally happen! Stage 1: Denial

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