We are Dan Connors & Kevin Bruner, founders of Telltale Games, makers of "The Walking Dead" and "The Wolf Among Us", Ask us anything!

[u/kevbru]

Hey there! We founded Telltale in 2004 to make great episodic story games. Last year we had a hit with "The Walking Dead" and we've recently started a new series called "The Wolf Among Us". Ask us anything, but obviously we can't answer questions that would involve spoilers for the rest of "The Wolf Among Us" or the new season of "The Walking Dead"!

EDIT: Thanks everyone!

[u/[deleted]]

Do you guys write out all five episodes worth of content before you put out episode one?

[u/kevbru → u/[deleted]]

We work on the season "live", which means we write and design as we go. That doesn't mean that we don't have a solid idea of the story arc, characters, etc. We have all that in place, but we write the actual scripts and design the games as they come out. Right now we're working on Wolf Ep 3 and 4 and WD Ep1 and 2. This is cool because it allows us to adapt to the things people are finding interesting. At the end of the day, it makes for better seasons.

[u/joshwal]

Hey guys, your recent efforts have obviously proven that episodic gaming can work in the current market, but how do you see that market going forward?

Do you think episodic content will become a mainstay, or that it's a trend that will die out?

[u/kevbru → u/joshwal]

We set out (8 years ago) to make episodic "television style" games, and built the studio specifically to do this. It's not an easy task. It'd be hard for a traditional AAA studio to do what we do, but I'd love to see more episodic games. I so rarely get to finish a giant game these days that the smaller stuff just seems to occupy more and more of my time.

I look at what TTG does as kind of similar to Pixar. They made a specific type of entertainment, and stuck to it, getting really good at it. Eventually others started to follow their lead, but those films aren't quite the same as Pixar. So I'd expect that sooner or later you'll see other TTG style games, but I hope that we always have our own "feel".

[u/LightTreasure]

What plans do you have for SteamOS/Steam Machines?

I see that you already have Mac/iOS/Android versions of "The Walking Dead" and "The Wolf Among Us", so you already have OpenGL support, which I presume makes porting to Linux somewhat simpler.

[u/kevbru → u/LightTreasure]

SteamOS and Steam Machines look really cool! We pride ourselves on how many platforms we support and are adding new ones all the time (Ouya most recently). We'll of course support the next gen consoles from Sony and MS, and I'm sure we'll add more Android support in the future. Steam and Linux are on the radar, but perhaps a little further out.

[u/willoman]

Have you guys forgot about Sam and Max? Is there any hope for another season of Sam and Max?

[u/kevbru → u/willoman]

We love Sam & Max and certainly haven't forgotten about them! I think you'll see something smaller (more like Poker) than a full Season, and probably not for a bit, but we have NOT forgotten about them, we've just been super busy growing like crazy.

[u/Gawr]

How have Steam sales impacted your revenue? I know I personally picked up The Walking Dead during a sale, so I'm wondering if there were a lot of people like me.

[u/kevbru → u/Gawr]

Steam's been great for us, and it's a kick ass service (obviously). We've sold more than a million seasons on Steam. TWD has been interesting because it's been successful EVERYWHERE. iOS, Console and PC are all about the same, which is mind blowing.

[u/bbrightside]

Sadly I can't think of a more polite way to say this but; f*** you for the cliff hanger at the end of "The Wolf Among US" ep 1. I had hopes in the project from when it was announced, but I did not anticipate you guys managing to dig the hooks in that deep right off the bat!

As for a question, I'm glad to see that TellTale has managed to rework the point'n'click to something that everyone can play. But so far it's all been for licensed titles, will there ever be a TellTale original IP?

[u/dar343]

If you could create a game with any IP of your choosing, what would you make?

EDIT: Disregard star wars, please makr Firefly

[u/kevbru → u/dar343]

I'll also say a Telltale Star Wars game would make me VERY happy! We've got some IP coming up that pretty much checks all of my personal favorites, which absolutely amazes/honors me.

[u/Leminnes]

I'm really interested in getting into writing for games. How did you guys find your writers and what do you look for in good game writing?

[u/kevbru → u/Leminnes]

Great question! We have a lot of very talented writers here, and pretty much everyone at the studio is a story telling junky. We usually start by looking for good examples of screen/play writing with really colorful an interesting characters. The plotting is usually hammered on pretty hard by interactive design and production realities, so the writers tend to need to be VERY collaborative and work well under those constraints. Plus writing for interactive is a very different mindset that takes a little getting used to. We are always concerned about player agency and making the player feel like they are in control of the story, and that often constrains what characters can say and do. It takes some getting used to.

[u/JB11sos]

The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us are remarkably similar in a few essential ways (particularly gameplay, but also music and visuals, to an extent). This is far from a strong criticism, as I think both are excellent, but was there ever a plan to create a game that was more distinct? I can't avoid the feeling, when playing The Wolf Among Us, that I'm playing an offshoot of The Walking Dead rather than a totally separate game. The narratives and worlds are clearly very different, but do you have any sense that you rested on your laurels a little bit too much with regard to mechanics and design?

Again, I hope this doesn't come off as rude, because I really do love both of these games and greatly appreciate the way your studio is raising the bar for the quality of narratives, voice acting, and pacing in video games.

[u/kevbru → u/JB11sos]

Thanks for the question. I think we're trying to establish a vocabulary and tone for a TTG game. When I was a kid I played the hell out of Infocom text adventures, and I loved how the structure of the games was similar, but the content was different. We've been working hard to try to reinvent that feel, and I think we're pretty close.

It's the exact opposite of FPS's, etc. I feel like each new FPS is the same story printed in a new, fancier font, where a Telltale game might be using the same font from book to book, but that allows us to focus on the story and role playing, which is where we think the real fun is.

[u/Mikegrann]

There's a lot of debate about how this game handles "choice" in that the storyline doesn't truly diverge into multiple endings, though the path to the ending can be different at times. However, this leads to a need to resolve any branches which occur as a result of player choice back into a single plotline (for instance, we can save either Doug or Carley in E1, but in order to bring the story back together the one we saved was killed - rather heartbreakingly, I might add - in E3.). I understand the merits of this approach, especially in terms of keeping development time and costs down, but some people have some real issues with this "illusion of choice."

So the question is: should we expect more of the same approach in Season 2, or will our choices perhaps have more divergent consequences?

[u/kevbru → u/Mikegrann]

We call it "tailored narrative" because we're not all that into branching as a story telling device, but you will see more branching in Season 2. It's always been our philosophy to make choices feel important as opposed to being merely mechanically important. I think of a Telltale game more as a "role playing" game than a "choose your own adventure", though there is obviously lots of choosing!

[u/BeerGogglesFTW]

So what's next after Walking Dead Season 2 and Wolf Among Us? Any inklings of ideas you can share...

[u/TheSufferingPariah]

How big is your team? Your company is capable of working on two different games at once, how are the teams split?

[u/kevbru → u/TheSufferingPariah]

Telltale is about 180 people now (barely enormous!). We're totally independent so that includes dev, marketing, web, finance, etc. We can work about 3-4 series at a time.

[u/[deleted]]

1. Thank you for pretty much single-handedly revitalizing a genre. You guys rock, please let me in your pants, etc. etc.

2. Question: What is one experience you think can only be delivered through adventure games (or whatever we're calling them these days)? And I don't mean things like jump-scares and set-pieces, which can be delivered through movies. I mean something you, as developers, feel you can only do properly in an adventure game.

Thanks for doing an AMA here~!

[u/Miss_Sophia]

What is your favorite scene in The walking dead and The wolf among us?

[u/Fasterthanapigeon]

Any plans to help those of us who played Walking Dead season 1 on one device, but might have accidentally dropped said device and so are planning on buying Season 2 on a different platform but really, really want my decisions to carry over?