Telltale explains how it juggles multiple projects

Telltale publishing VP Steve Allison says that even though they have a lot of games in development, they can handle the workload by shifting animators and developers as needed.

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Telltale surprised us with not one but two new series announcements at this year's VGX awards, bringing their grand total of games in development up to four. That's a lot of irons in the fire for a small studio, but senior VP of publishing Steve Allison says the core structure of the studio will help them manage the workload.

"The concept of teams here doesn't necessarily exist," Allison told Polygon. "We have groups doing certain things like building sets or animating scenes, and a leadership team that has producers to keep people in check and directors to direct episodes. The idea of having four teams working on four different things doesn't exist here. The way we make the games, it's just not the same. It fits with the way they build the game, the episodic nature and the way they play like television shows. It's not 50 guys working on the same game for 18 months."

He said that while the directors may stay on a project, animators and developers might jump back and forth between projects as needed. "The way we do things and the way we design from a structural standpoint not everyone agrees with," he said. "But there are no compromises on the way we do anything on these series." Ultimately, the goal is to "work on three or four great things" every year using this model.

The four current projects are The Walking Dead Season Two, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and A Game of Thrones.

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  • reply
    December 24, 2013 8:45 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Telltale explains how it juggles multiple projects.

    Telltale publishing VP Steve Allison says that even though they have a lot of games in development, they can handle the workload by shifting animators and developers as needed.

    • reply
      December 24, 2013 4:21 PM

      Given that it's been a couple of months and the there's still no word when episode 2 for Wolf Among Us will be released, I call BS that they can keep multiple titles on schedule. I get a very strong impression things were shifted to Walking Dead Season 2 over Wolf. It's just a gut feeling, but they've been extremely quiet about Wolf.

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        December 24, 2013 8:07 PM

        They had to push TWD out the door to meet their 2014 date. I suspect - maybe hope is the better word - that we'll basically see them alternate (so Wolf 2: Spear of Destiny in January, followed by TWD 2x02 in February).

        Wolf was the first time that they presold a season pass on Xbox. I can't imagine Microsoft being too happy with them if they don't ever release all of the promised content on the pass.

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          December 25, 2013 3:16 AM

          Even with the last season of TWD, episodes didn't have a set release date and often seemed to be "late". I'm guessing it's just the "when its done" approach.

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      December 24, 2013 8:35 PM

      They do it by not using QA and not performing any customer service.

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        December 24, 2013 9:00 PM

        lols. But in a weird way I don't care. At least they can get the games out the door this way.

    • reply
      December 25, 2013 12:45 AM

      Oh shit, they're making a Game of Thrones game? Fuck that's gonna be awesome!

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