The Walking Dead: The Game

This came out a few days ago, I think, but I didn't see it here. 'AMC, Smilegate Backed Out of Funding Talks With Telltale a Day Before Closure' - Variety:

From Youtuber Yongyea:

Telltale Games Angers Ex-Devs by Seeking New Walking Dead Funding & Partners Before Paying Severance

Is it any wonder these assholes are being hit with a lawsuit?

Partnering with AMC? This is what could have saved Telltale?

Jesus, I almost don't know what's worse, the reality of their closure or that they'd hit bottom and reached out to AMC of all people.

You know what it is.

I'll be honest that meme has rarely been funny to me and I tip closer and closer to a furious outburst whenever I hear it. It's bad enough that the TWD subreddit lives and dies by its memes to the point that genuine discussion is frowned upon or ignored. The Walking Dead thread is basically living up to it's name so, fine, post "funny Morgan quote" and it makes little difference to me. But this? We actually like Telltale's Walking Dead... or at least the first season.

I'd rather we not apply the sins of AMC's creation to Telltale's or the less than stellar memes of AMC's Walking Dead to Telltale's. So please, please stop using that here.

Because Soble will remember that.

Edited by Soble on Sep 27th 2018 at 8:27:21 AM

It speaks volumes of how piss poor Telltale's management was that the company was banking everything on getting cash infusions from other companies. A good company doesn't need to go begging for handouts.

That's actually probably why these other companies decided not to invest in Telltale after all. They could tell that a company this desperate was a sinking ship.

Seriously.

Im hoping the employee wins the lawsuit. I like the game, but the dicked over employees come first.

I'm baffled the management somehow forgot the very basic rule of "your company should be able to sustain itself for a while at least."

Telltale's legacy will not be its games, but the sordid tale of its managerial incompetence and heartlessness towards its developers.

A lesson many developers will learn...

Most won't. Remember the EA Spouse^note That was 14 years ago? Rockstar after Red Dead Redemption? This isn't the first story of Devs being treated by garbage by major studios. And no one learns.

At best what will be learned is if you have a niche of a market, don't flood your own niche. That's probably all the takeaway the industry will get.

Edited by Ghilz on Sep 29th 2018 at 6:38:13 AM

Tu-rih-pull-ay developers won't learn, money is the priority for them. Indie developers on the other hand might.

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret:

Money is the priority for everyone. Thinking otherwise is deluding yourself.

Indy devs can actually be worse for this since they can often flout the excuse they can't afford to give better conditions. That if the employee doesn't do all that unpaid crunch time, the company's gonna go under. Smaller companies also tend to be under less regulations - for example the WARN act Telltale is getting sued over doesn't apply to companies with less than 50 employees. Heck, Telltale did that, and they were generally regarded as a smaller dev themselves. Telling employees they should be honored to work at Telltale.

Like said, everyone is after money.

Edited by Ghilz on Sep 29th 2018 at 9:19:44 AM

This depresses me as The Walking Dead just started getting good again. This final season with Clementine has been the best season since Season 1. Hell Lily showing back up again intrigued me way more than Season 2 bringing back Kenny.

I guess these company conditions might explain why season 2 and 3 were so off in quality.

Almost everyone from Season 1 left after Season 1.

That probably looks WORSE in hind sight if some of these conditions have been going on since then.

Its very possible considering they realized rather quickly that it was an hit.

Episode 5, started:

• So the others did come to the conclusion that amputation might save Lee. Although I'm assuming it's progressed too far by this point. I wonder what happens if you choose that route.
• I like how Lee's walking animation has changed to reflect the infection.
• Jesus, Lee is obscenely lucky that his legs caught on that ladder. I mean, what in the hell
• Telltale's level design was really bad at this stage of their life. I mean why would I even go over to the side of the room where Christa, Omid, and Ben are? Two of their interactions only result in Lee going "I shouldn't be talking to them." Why even bother programming this, why not just deny the player the option to speak to them, or block off that part of the level? It's gotten to a point where I can recognize the direction a scene is heading and I know to just walk in the opposite direction of where the other characters are to find the Plot Coupon.
  • The hospital roof, too, is a dull, pointless area to explore. I don't know why they couldn't have just fast-forwarded through this section with a cutscene.
• I love the group's logic here - let's send the guy who passed out on a ladder and nearly fell to his death over a ladder onto a nearby church.
• So, a group of elderly, hospitalized people managed to fight their way across town, overwhelm Kenny, steal the boat from the shed, and lock him in the garage while they made off with it? Telltale you never fail to surprise me.
• So... walkers can somehow break through the backyard that seemed pretty secure in the last episode. Then they tear into the house before anyone can barricade the doors or halls. Nobody thinks to throw furniture at the stairs to block the walkers. The walkers can climb over the furniture pretty quickly. And our only hope is the attic where Kenny found a reanimated child. Mmm.
• That confrontation between Kenny and Lee was a nice way to bring the tension from all five episodes together.
• Dead couple in the bedroom? Yawn

Even better if you've cut off his arm, at which point Kenny gets annoyed that Lee's stubbornly insisting on doing it despite it clearly being a bad idea. There's some black humour to be had in having to climb up a long, long ladder immediately after your arm's been cut off, to boot.

That is just

Episode 5, finished:

• Watching Ben fall was just like, "Oh goshdarnit all to heck, why? Why does the universe hate this guy so much?" And of course not only does he fall from a building he lands on, what, a piece of rebar that just so happened to be perfectly positioned in an alleyway?
• Yeah, I know Kenny shouldn't be dead here, but the ending "status" screen indicated that he was lost to the herd so... I'm curious if Season 2 will reflect that.
• Kenny sure seems to have gotten over his hatred of Ben pretty quick - I guess that bit in the bedroom (oh my) with him announcing his feelings on suicide was pretty well-timed.
• Lee suddenly said that Christa was "walking for two" so I'm guessing I missed a dialogue somewhere in Episodes 3 through 5. Christa being pregnant is news to me. I also recall seeing a flashback on Youtube where Clementine witnessed a pregnant woman committing suicide, so I'd have to guess that's probably her.
• I've got to say, this party wipe... really stings after the big "team up" to break into Crawford back in Episode 4.
• In typical The Walking Dead fashion there's that anonymous group of bandits from Episode 2 whom we never learn more about but whose presence forces out heroes to develop a bit, shortly before said bandits disappear from the storyline entirely. I was hoping we might hear about them again in Episode 5 but nope.
• About time that stranger from Episode 2 came back. I thought that it was going to be one of those cannibal farmers. Pulled the rug out right out from under me.
  • He's... actually a decent surprise. Again I thought it was going to be one of the cannibals, but even so, the conversation with him brings up all the sh-tty decisions Lee has made throughout this adventure, and I appreciate that. I guess every Telltale game does that but I was wondering when that other shoe was going to drop.
• I miss Chuck. He was the best survivor, Marty Stu that he was.
• ...
• ...
• ...that may be the saddest sequence in any Telltale game I've ever played. Nothing worse than controlling characters who are in the middle of dying internally.
• Wait, so how does this go in the One-armed Lee!route? Does chopping off the arm stop the bite, or does Lee just die from his wounds? My guess is that Lee doesn't fare as well in the fight with the Stranger and probably suffers a gut shot, and later passes out on the street.
• How on earth did Clementine drag Lee under a garage door?
• Booya, Clem's still alive. But... okay, so that's Omid and Christa in the distance, right? And Clem just found shell casings on the ground. So why does she look worried?

Edited by Soble on Oct 3rd 2018 at 9:35:46 AM

So, 400 Days:

• is it wise to play these in chronological order?
• what is the chronological order?

Things go the same if Lee had his arm chopped off, since his arm's pretty much crippled once you get to that point anyway (though you miss out on the badass glass shiv part).

The intended order is Vincent > Wyatt, Russel, Bonnie, and Shel. This is because the game is literally set within the first 400 days of the infection, and these character stories are set after a certain number of days since it began.

For what it's worth, the stories are mostly standalone. You can see some connections if you peer closely, but there's no, say, big narrative arcs progressing through them, so I wouldn't worry too much about playing them out of order, if you do.

Oh, and I hope this doesn't count as spoiling, but the flashback you mentioned is actually something separate.

Yeah, I should say that there's a chronological order all the stories take place in, but none of them have to be played in that order.