A Different Kind of Minecraft: Telltale Making Episodic Game With Mojang

[laggyteabag]

Usually I am optimistic for TellTale games, thinking "Yeah, I can see how Game of Thrones/Borderlands/The Walking Dead/ The Wolf Among Us would work", but Minecraft? I am curious at best. Definitely one of the weirder choices, and it seems that TellTalke will make a game out of just about anything at this point. I am definitely interested to see how it works out though.

The real question here though is "Who reached out to who first"?

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I suppose given the praise Tales from the Borderlands is getting I wouldn't put it past Telltale getting a compelling story driven game out of anything at this point. I look forward to making a choice of whether to hack a fellow miners leg off to free him from a collapsed tunnel as creepers close in.

But where does this end for Telltale? They started keeping old adventure game series alive, then moved on to episodic games based on books and novels. Now they are making episodic games based on game series that have next to no story in them. I feel the next logical step will be Telltale making episodic games re-writing already established stories they feel they could write better. So we will be getting games like "Pixar's Toy Story a Telltale game" and "Telltale presents Star Wars: Episode 1: Episode 1", Only then we will realise all too late that Telltale is no longer a game developer but an all consuming monster bent on turning everything in the whole world into episodic gaming content. /tinfoil hat.

 

[Callate]

Pardon while my hand goes to my brow, massaging my eyes and forehead as I struggle to comprehend...

All I can think is, "So, attempt to further monetize our $2.5 billion purchase, take one"?

 

[Jake Martinez]

I must be the only person in existence that appears to think that Telltale games are neither "games" nor particularly interesting. They're more like Japanese style visual novels with minor quick time events (QTE's) and frankly, I don't think the writing is all that much better. Unless you happen to be a fan of the properties and want to see extra narratives (Walking Dead, Game of Thrones) then I don't see what the attraction is at all.

In regards to Minecraft in particular, it seems like it'd be more cost effective and entertaining to play an episode of Yogscast and pause the video every few minutes to swipe your mouse over the screen to simulate game play.

 

[Jiggle Counter]

Next up from Telltale games:

[ul]
[li]Pacman; Wakka Wakka[/li]
[li]Tetris; Waiting for Line block[/li]
[li]Pong; Behind the bat[/li]
[/ul]

Mine Sweeper: Clickety Click Episode I
Solitaire: Just Hit New Game Episode I
Sudoku: What Am I Missing??? Episode I

Sudoku:Crap! I have to start over. Episode V.

[li]Microsoft Excel: I'M SOO BORED - Episode MMCV[/li]
[li]WWE 2K15: Who The Hell Are All These Wrestlers? - Episode I[/li]
[li]Nokia Phone: No, I Am Not Bread - Episode I[/li]

 

[Dalisclock]

While I'm not terribly hopeful or enthusiastic about this, if anyone can make a story driven game of minecraft, it's telltale.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

One can only assume that telltale have some connection to the film in the works. I wonder if theyll ever create their own IP?
At the moment, they seem to be using the most popular IPs to base their stories upon. Which is great business sense! I do enjoy their stories...so this intrigues my thinking tissues.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Okay I'm honestly starting to get a little sick and tired of Telltale. They're kind of becoming that real shmoosy guy as the party that tries to impress everyone and just ends up becoming annoying and overstaying their welcome.

 

[Dalisclock]

Okay I'm honestly starting to get a little sick and tired of Telltale. They're kind of becoming that real shmoosy guy as the party that tries to impress everyone and just ends up becoming annoying and overstaying their welcome.

I can think of quite a few companies that might apply to but telltale isn't one of them. And frankly, I still perfer TT to the bland evilness that is Ubisoft, EA or activision.

Or if you want to get closer to their level, unlike some other companies that have tried to do episodic gaming COUGHVALVECOUGHDOUBLEFINECOUGH, Telltale has repeatably shown they can do episodic gaming well, putting out an episode every month or so....and even putting out 5 or 6 episodes per series. Hell, sometimes multiple series of the same setting, more then say.....two and the extreme hypotheical of a third for....well, anything.

No, Valve, I'm not talking about you. Why would you ever get that idea?

And if nothing else, I have to give Telltale props for bringing back Adventure gaming from the dead.

 

[Dalisclock]

One can only assume that telltale have some connection to the film in the works. I wonder if theyll ever create their own IP?
At the moment, they seem to be using the most popular IPs to base their stories upon. Which is great business sense! I do enjoy their stories...so this intrigues my thinking tissues.

It would be nice to see something original, but really, pretty much their entire lineup is other people's IPs turned into adventure games....and I don't mind, because they actually do it well(for the most part). They made a Strong Bad series and a Wallace and Gromit series, for god's sake.

But the point I'm trying to make is that with maybe one exception(Jurassic Part was apparently kind of crap), TT is one of the few companies that averts the problem with licensed games routinely.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I expected a whole line up of "X popular franchise model + this new shit we bought" from Microsoft.
At least Gears of Minecraft, and MineHalo should be in the works by now, possibly some kinect shit, and surely another Fable spin-off is also considered.

In short, this has only begun.

 

[Strazdas]

at first int was interesting, then it was funny now its just sad. apperently we must make everything into episodic choose your own adventure book pretending to be a game nowadays.

 

[Hawki]

In all honesty, I think this is a great idea. Why? Because it gives Telltale more creative freedom than any other property they've worked on (to my knowledge at least). Don't know much about 'Minecraft', but I think there's plenty there that can be, er, built into a fantasy tale. One that doesn't have to make concessions to pre-existing canon.

So yeah. I'm all for it.

 

[Carrots_macduff]

I'm kinda suprised it's going on playstation sense Microsoft owns minecraft now I figured they would make any new minecraft stuff exclusive.

while i am also surprised that miscrosoft doesnt want to exploit any possible advantage for the xbone, no matter how small, i dont think minecraft: story mode will sell any ps4s

 

[Haerthan]

Telltale Games: "We'll make you cry all the feels in ANYTHING!!!"

Brother give me a hug. Thou art hilarious \.

 

[FPLOON]

Next up from Telltale games:

[ul]
[li]Pacman; Wakka Wakka[/li]
[li]Tetris; Waiting for Line block[/li]
[li]Pong; Behind the bat[/li]
[/ul]

Mine Sweeper: Clickety Click Episode I
Solitaire: Just Hit New Game Episode I
Sudoku: What Am I Missing??? Episode I

Sudoku:Crap! I have to start over. Episode V.

[li]Microsoft Excel: I'M SOO BORED - Episode MMCV[/li]
[li]WWE 2K15: Who The Hell Are All These Wrestlers? - Episode I[/li]
[li]Nokia Phone: No, I Am Not Bread - Episode I[/li]

Grageband: Mac's "Fruity Loops" Cliche - Episode WubYouTube: Connect With Google+ - Episode PoopThe Escapist: Meta Incarnate - Episode Telltale

OT: This... kinda interest me more than the main Minecraft game, itself... Then again, I have to wait until April for the first episode to come out, I'm guessing, so I have all the time in the world to ponder how all this will go down in the end...

<color=white>Meh... I can wait, regardless...

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

You know, the Walking Dead was a great medium for an episodic adventure game.

The Game of Thrones universe was a little weird at first glance, but turned out really good and works really well as a way to choose what happens in your story.

Borderlands sounded really weird and like it would work at all, but apparently it was amazing/ok.

Minecraft... That's a bit ol' fat no. Euhh. I like Minecraft, and back when it came out and the hype was the highest I fucking loved Minecraft. But the problem is that it's exactly the kind of sandbox that just won't work with a proper story. Because there is no official story. See, Skyrim is a sandbox but it could defiantly work as an adventure game. But Minecraft, it's going to have the same question I asked when I saw the Minecraft movie. What the hell is it about? If they go for the default idea of waking up on a beach and making all the same "OMG punching trees? - HOLY SHIT THERES NO GRAVITY WTF HAHAHA SO FUNNY" I have a feeling both the movie and the game will be shit. However, I trust Telltale because they make really fucking good games, which then leads me to the idea that they are probably just going to run another story inside of Minecraft. Which then begs the question of why use Minecraft then, apart from the publicity? I mean, stories can be told in Minecraft, but they are always fanfiction, user made maps and so on. I've yet to see even a vague official story.

So, I see that there's two paths to this, and if they are actually going to do it I hope they go with option 2:

1: They make a story about someone who knows nothing of minecraft, or woke up in there, or was sucked into it etc. They then spend most of the time explaining how minecraft works and making jokes about how it is a game. Then the main villain or problem occurs, and is probably something game related like the Nether is invading, or zombies can be in the sunlight now. I hope they don't do this.

2: They run it like it was simply in the universe of Minecraft. Every other fantasy series is great because the characters DON'T stop to turn to the camera and chuckle about how silly a dragon is while it roasts their goats and children. The story could be very well related to Minecraft, and should indeed use Minecraft laws, but run it like it was actually normal, because then an actual (potentially awesome) story can be told without the constant referencing of how "lolz this isn't real what a game hahah" that would ruin it.

Wow. That was long.