The “choose your own adventure” storytelling format, wherein a reader or viewer gets to choose what a story’s viewpoint character gets to do next, has been quite popular over the years in several forms. Originally developed in printed form, the genre leapt into the information age by means of games that present choices, such as Japanese visual novels and dating games, or the series of exciting titles developed by the meaningfully-named Telltale Games. Despite releasing quite a number of critically acclaimed games, logistical problems led to the company declaring a majority studio closure last week, all but sealing its fate.
With the shutdown of Telltale Games, there is a question now as to what will become of their many game projects that are still stuck in development. Among these is the completion of “The Walking Dead: The Final Season”, of which only two episodes have thus far been released for the platforms it is available on. The remaining two episodes are in a limbo right now, but as Forbes tells it, Telltale may have gained the assistance of certain financial backers to help their remaining skeleton crew of developers to wrap up this game, one of their most in-demand titles.
“Multiple potential partners have stepped forward to express interest in helping to see ‘The Final Season’ through to completion,” wrote Telltale Games on their official Twitter page. “While we can’t make any promises today, we are actively working towards a solution that will allow episodes 3 and 4 to be completed and released in some form.” Granted, while this bit of news is a reassurance for followers of Telltale’s take on the depressingly grim yet unbelievably popular “The Walking Dead” franchise, it does not offer the same certainty for its other games under development, save perhaps for “Minecraft: Story Mode”.
Telltale Games released original titles starting from 2005, but they rose to prominence developing choice adventure games based on popular licensed franchises. These included TV series like “CSI” and “Game of Thrones”, superheroes like “Batman”, and movies like “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park”. But it was their series on zombie apocalypse juggernaut “The Walking Dead” – the first installment of which was released in 2012 – that cemented their reputation. Unfortunately, management problems and reported employee burnout led to leadership upheavals and restructuring, ultimately leading to the tragic announcement of majority closure on September 21. Only 25 employees remain on Telltale Games to complete what game release obligations they can still meet at this time.
Image courtesy of Variety
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