Telltale Games



Specializing in licensed, episodic adventure games, Telltale Games was formed in 2004 by disgruntled LucasArts workers (the cleverness department) when Sam and Max Freelance Police got cancelled. Telltale at first found success with licenses that had small but dedicated fanbases, like the aforementioned Sam & Max, Homestar Runner and Bone. They gained more mainstream popularity in 2010 with the releases of Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, and finally their breakthrough hit The Walking Dead in 2012. The Walking Dead introduced a more narrative-focused style of gameplay that would be used in almost every Telltale game going forward.

Following Walking Dead's release, Telltale tackled licenses such as Minecraft, Game of Thrones, Fables and Batman. However, the rate of production caused significant issues, including extensive crunch time and formulaic gameplay. After experiencing financial trouble, Telltale underwent a major downsizing and then closed down on September 21, 2018, leaving over 250 people without jobs.

On August 28, 2019, nearly a year after Telltale shuttered, LCG Entertainment bought the name and trademark and rebranded themselves as the old company, planning on rereleasing old and new games alike, starting with the long awaited second season of The Wolf Among Us.

Games and game series by Telltale Games include:

 * Bone
 * Out from Boneville (2005)
 * The Great Cow Race (2006)
 * CSI
 * 3 Dimensions of Murder (2006)
 * Hard Evidence (2007)
 * Deadly Intent (2009)
 * Fatal Conspiracy (2010)
 * Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (2008)
 * Wallace and Gromit's Grand Aventures (2009)
 * Sam & Max
 * Save the World (2007)
 * Beyond Time and Space (2007-2008)
 * The Devil's Playhouse (2010)
 * Tales of Monkey Island (2009)
 * Hector: Badge of Carnage (2010-2011, developed by Straandlooper)
 * Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent (2010)
 * Poker Night At the Inventory (2010)
 * Jurassic Park: The Game (2011)
 * Back to the Future: The Game (2010-2011)
 * The Walking Dead (2012)
 * Season Two (2013-2014)
 * The Walking Dead: Michonne (miniseries, 2016)
 * A New Frontier (2016-2017)
 * The Final Season (2018-2019, the last two episodes were developed by Skybound Games)
 * The Wolf Among Us (2013-2014)
 * Tales from the Borderlands (2014-2015)
 * Game of Thrones (2014-2015)
 * Minecraft: Story Mode (2015-2016)
 * Adventure Pass (2016)
 * Season Two (2017)
 * Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)
 * The Enemy Within (2017-2018)
 * Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (2017)


 * Art Shift: While most of their games are done in 3D Strong Bad's game heads towards the cel shaded direction, and Puzzle Agent heads to a 2D animated look inspired by the Grickle cartoons. The Walking Dead is done in the style of the original comic books, though in 3D.
 * Doing It for the Art: Telltale likes this a lot.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Roger Jackson and Kid Beyond pop up a lot, among others.
 * Roger Rabbit Effect: Sort of. Poker Night utilizes 3D characters for Max and the Heavy, while using the cel-shaded look for Strong Bad and Tycho.
 * What Could Have Been: Telltale games wanted to do Scott Pilgrim, but Bryan Lee O'Malley(Scott Pilgrim creator) rejected the offer. Only because he believed that Scott couldn't work out as an Adventure Game. One may wonder what would have happened if we had gotten this over a multiplayer beat-em-up game.
 * Wham! Episode: They have a penchant for this, with quite possibly their best examples being the final episode of the third Sam & Max season, Back to The Future episode 3, and Tales of Monkey Island episode 4.