Developer - Telltale Games, AdHoc Studio
Publisher - Telltale Games
Format Origin - PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release - US
US 2023 - 2023
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703006756.jpg]
Plenty has changed in the world of Fables during the six months between The Wolf Among Us and its sequel. It’s now winter. Snow White has replaced her former boss as deputy mayor of Fabletown. Bigby Wolf has been temporarily relieved of his duties as town sheriff and forced to attend an anger management group, as the result of a violent altercation with a certain tin man and a scarecrow. It’s at this point that he meets a non-fable (or “Mundy” as they’re known here) detective called Faye, who asks him for help on a case. “This time around, New York City plays a much bigger role in the game,” Telltale CEO Jamie Ottilie tells us. “Bigby will struggle with where he fits in the two worlds.”
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703082898.jpg]
Plenty more has changed in the real world during the almost ten-year gap between the original release and the launch of its successor. Not least, of course, the demise of Telltale as it was. Malibu-based publisher LCG Entertainment acquired the rights to most of its intellectual property in 2019 and quickly revealed it was beginning work on the Telltale sequel for which most players had been clamouring. Yet it was a controversial announcement given the circumstances of the original publisher’s demise: the end came swiftly and suddenly, with many employees let go without a severance package. Ottilie, for his part, said, “Give us some time to ramp up and then judge us by the work we do, not by a past over which we had no part or control.”
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703082994.jpg]
Notwithstanding the length of time it would ordinarily take a sequel to reach fruition, it’s understandable that this new iteration of Telltale would want to keep its powder dry for a while. With the dust having long settled on the acquisition, and the development team in a position to prepare a promotional trailer for this second episodic series, it makes sense to talk now. So why announce it way back in 2019? “There were many people who missed the news or weren’t sure what we meant by ‘a new Telltale’,” Ottilie says. “There was speculation and so many questions as we started our social channels back up. Even though we’d just entered preproduction, we felt it was important to be as transparent as possible for both our investors and fans, and get ahead of any rumors. And what better place to get the word out than a huge stage like The Game Awards?”
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703083104.jpg]
That lengthy wait was partly down to getting a new development team established while aiming to build “a stable, non-crunch work environment”. Not to mention the small matter of a pandemic. Ottilie says that none of the problems it created was unique to Telltale, but that the timing wasn’t exactly ideal. “We were still working on things like the script and character design when we were forced to go remote, so there were a lot of long video calls instead of all being in the studio together,” he says.
Talking of studios, it’s worth noting that the game is being developed with AdHoc Studio, which was set up by four former Telltale alumni who left shortly before the axe fell. Significantly, three of those people were directly involved in the first season’s opening episode: writer Pierre Shorette (AdHoc’s CCO) and co-directors Dennis Lenart (the studio’s COO) and Nick Herman (CTO) are reprising their roles here. Ottilie says that continuity was a priority from the start. “We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to work with the same creative leadership from the first game, as they have such a strong vision and feel for this world and these characters,” he says. The studio might have been set up with a view to working on live-action narrative games, but Ottilie says AdHoc was delighted to have the opportunity to further explore the world of Fables.
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703082584.jpg]
That meant starting again in more ways than one, beginning with a move over to Unreal Engine. “The challenges with the old proprietary engine were well-known,” Ottilie admits, the politest possible way of saying it wasn’t fit for purpose. But it was important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, he adds. “We wanted the speed, power, flexibility, and art pipeline of Unreal. However, we still needed our proprietary tools for many aspects like enabling quick iteration and our choice-driven episodic gameplay, so we had to refresh those tools to sit atop and work with the new engine.” Then came custom lighting and shaders to keep The Wolf Among Us 2’s aesthetic consistent with the original – and, indeed, the comics on which it was based.
Which isn’t to say this is a story purely for fans of the first. New players sh...
Publisher - Telltale Games
Format Origin - PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release - US
US 2023 - 2023
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703006756.jpg]
Plenty has changed in the world of Fables during the six months between The Wolf Among Us and its sequel. It’s now winter. Snow White has replaced her former boss as deputy mayor of Fabletown. Bigby Wolf has been temporarily relieved of his duties as town sheriff and forced to attend an anger management group, as the result of a violent altercation with a certain tin man and a scarecrow. It’s at this point that he meets a non-fable (or “Mundy” as they’re known here) detective called Faye, who asks him for help on a case. “This time around, New York City plays a much bigger role in the game,” Telltale CEO Jamie Ottilie tells us. “Bigby will struggle with where he fits in the two worlds.”
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703082898.jpg]
Plenty more has changed in the real world during the almost ten-year gap between the original release and the launch of its successor. Not least, of course, the demise of Telltale as it was. Malibu-based publisher LCG Entertainment acquired the rights to most of its intellectual property in 2019 and quickly revealed it was beginning work on the Telltale sequel for which most players had been clamouring. Yet it was a controversial announcement given the circumstances of the original publisher’s demise: the end came swiftly and suddenly, with many employees let go without a severance package. Ottilie, for his part, said, “Give us some time to ramp up and then judge us by the work we do, not by a past over which we had no part or control.”
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703082994.jpg]
Notwithstanding the length of time it would ordinarily take a sequel to reach fruition, it’s understandable that this new iteration of Telltale would want to keep its powder dry for a while. With the dust having long settled on the acquisition, and the development team in a position to prepare a promotional trailer for this second episodic series, it makes sense to talk now. So why announce it way back in 2019? “There were many people who missed the news or weren’t sure what we meant by ‘a new Telltale’,” Ottilie says. “There was speculation and so many questions as we started our social channels back up. Even though we’d just entered preproduction, we felt it was important to be as transparent as possible for both our investors and fans, and get ahead of any rumors. And what better place to get the word out than a huge stage like The Game Awards?”
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703083104.jpg]
That lengthy wait was partly down to getting a new development team established while aiming to build “a stable, non-crunch work environment”. Not to mention the small matter of a pandemic. Ottilie says that none of the problems it created was unique to Telltale, but that the timing wasn’t exactly ideal. “We were still working on things like the script and character design when we were forced to go remote, so there were a lot of long video calls instead of all being in the studio together,” he says.
Talking of studios, it’s worth noting that the game is being developed with AdHoc Studio, which was set up by four former Telltale alumni who left shortly before the axe fell. Significantly, three of those people were directly involved in the first season’s opening episode: writer Pierre Shorette (AdHoc’s CCO) and co-directors Dennis Lenart (the studio’s COO) and Nick Herman (CTO) are reprising their roles here. Ottilie says that continuity was a priority from the start. “We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to work with the same creative leadership from the first game, as they have such a strong vision and feel for this world and these characters,” he says. The studio might have been set up with a view to working on live-action narrative games, but Ottilie says AdHoc was delighted to have the opportunity to further explore the world of Fables.
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/6245368d690b5/1648703082584.jpg]
That meant starting again in more ways than one, beginning with a move over to Unreal Engine. “The challenges with the old proprietary engine were well-known,” Ottilie admits, the politest possible way of saying it wasn’t fit for purpose. But it was important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, he adds. “We wanted the speed, power, flexibility, and art pipeline of Unreal. However, we still needed our proprietary tools for many aspects like enabling quick iteration and our choice-driven episodic gameplay, so we had to refresh those tools to sit atop and work with the new engine.” Then came custom lighting and shaders to keep The Wolf Among Us 2’s aesthetic consistent with the original – and, indeed, the comics on which it was based.
Which isn’t to say this is a story purely for fans of the first. New players sh...
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Edge Uk (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2022