Walking Dead creator 'impressed' by Telltale game

Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic book, shares his thoughts on the game series, and how he helped shape the tone but stayed hands-off with the game itself.

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Robert Kirkman created The Walking Dead long before it was a household name. Before the popular AMC series or recent video game of the same name, Kirkman wrote the comic book, and as such he's in a unique position to judge Telltale's success with translating his creation to a new medium.

"Like everybody who's played it I'm fairly impressed by what they've been able to do," Kirkman said.

"Being able to take a more storytelling approach to it and make it an interactive experience that tells a more in-depth story than the average action game is something that's much more in line with what The Walking Dead is about, and also brings a very unique gameplay experience," he told IGN. "I'm really quite taken with it." He jokes that he's "tricking dudes into watching a soap opera," since the focus of the story revolves so much around human loss and survival.

In a separate interview with the PlayStation Blog, he says that he mostly left the game up to Telltale. "I'm not going to come in and say, 'we should do this and that' because I don't know how to make video games. Allowing an expert to come in and do what they think is best, I think, is the secret to The Walking Dead becoming as big as it is." He says in his meetings with them, he simply expressed tone. "I said, 'The Walking Dead is sad. If you can make players sad, that's really what we're after here.'"

And part of that comes from character deaths, which makes Kirkman hesitant to promise any crossovers between characters. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said. "We don't know who lives or dies in this game because it hasn't wrapped up yet. But we'll just have to see what the future holds."

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From The Chatty
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    August 22, 2012 1:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Walking Dead creator 'impressed' by Telltale game.

    Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic book, shares his thoughts on the game series, and how he helped shape the tone but stayed hands-off with the game itself.

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      August 22, 2012 1:01 PM

      Just give me Episode 3 already, it was supposed to be out in August and we're nearing September!

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      August 22, 2012 1:03 PM

      Good to hear he thinks highly of it. It's an excellent game.

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        August 22, 2012 1:19 PM

        And it had better writing than the comic and show

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          August 22, 2012 3:10 PM

          I really like the series. Must admit that I have never read the comics though.

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      August 22, 2012 4:00 PM

      I hope either the protagonist or the girl dies at the end. That should be the big outcome of the last episode. That would be so awesome.

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      August 22, 2012 9:21 PM

      This is like a year old.

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