[dogma1138]

I wonder how much the closure was financial mismanagement vs their business model simply catching up to them.

TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it.

They were one trick pony and the novelty wore off rather quickly.

Their games also were based on expensive franchises and they often offered the first chapter for free in order to hook people in.

They also never really developed their formula further the games didn’t became more interactive the same quick time events over and over that never really changed the overall story more than which one of these two will die and or betray you later.

I’m actually surprised that they lasted this long given how expensive it is to develop these games even if they weren’t technically impressive recording hours and hours of voice acting is much more expensive than shiny coding shaders.

[kevinh]

> TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it.

Some of their games were like this, but others were not. The Tales from the Borderlands series and Guardians of the Galaxy series were primarily vehicles for comedy, and did not rely on the trope you're mentioning.

[tomc1985]

Their early work... Strongbad Episodes, and the Sam and Max series, were really quite amazing. TTG's later franchises never really interested me; I had assumed the games were just as good. To hear that their later franchises resorted to these kinds of tactics makes me sad :(

[WorldMaker]

For the most part the franchises you expect to do these emotional harrowing stuff were the ones that did: The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

For the most part the games are "nearly as good". TTG burnt through a lot of great writers and craftsmen, and never quite replaced the folks that made the early work particularly great. They wanted to be a television studio, and a certain churn like that was inevitable, regardless of all the other mismanagement problems they had.

Batman was more about presenting the different "faces" of Batman and letting the player decide which fit best their playstyle/interest. The consequences of "is Batman the mask or is Bruce Wayne?" and "does Batman care about Bruce Wayne's friends/feelings?" There are some emotional highs, but nothing quite as "abusive" as The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones at their worst.

Minecraft Story Mode was their next most profitable after The Walking Dead, and just a silly joy/blast. Somewhat to par with Strongbad/Sam & Max. Recommended, even if you aren't a big Minecraft fan.

The Fables game (The Wolf Among Us) was a strong detective novel with fantasy elements. Playing to early work strengths when TTG was funding Sam & Max / Strongbad with CSI games.

Tales from the Borderlands was the closest to a Sam & Max in terms of humor of recent output. I burnt out on the grind of the Borderlands FPS games, but enjoyed a lot of the humor to them, and TTG knocked out of the some of what was missing in the storylines of the FPS games, and very much brought the humor. Even if the FPS games don't interest you, Tales from the Borderlands may be worth playing just because they are funny/charming/weird.

I haven't gotten very far in Guardians of the Galaxy, so I'm not sure how it stacks up.

[dogma1138]

Borderlands was a betrayal simulator i didn’t really played Guardians of the Galaxy.

GoT was essentially the same as TWD.

However the gameplay was essentially identical across all of them a semi interactive cut scene that is broken by QTEs which don’t have a major impact on the overall story arc they at best just shift a few characters around the events still unfold as they are.

Expensive licenses and a repetitive “point and click” gameplay with dwindling sales just doesnt work and I don’t think it was a surprise to the upper management or the board. And I’m actually surprised it came as a surprise to employees who should’ve been aware of poor sales and high costs.

[Aeolun]

I don’t know where you work, but I can count on one finger the places where I actually knew the companies financial situation.

You can try to guess based on sales and nr of employees, but it’s hardly an exact science.

[caro_douglos]

If you're not a founder or investor it's not worth worrying about since there's little you can legally do to remedy/fix the situation...the question is at what point as an employee do you become complacent enough to see a lot of strange behavior and decide not to leave.

IMO we give a lot of credit to these large companies and trust them to do right by us when they fire us/lay us off/we leave. I feel bad for all the people who worked at TTG that had no savings and no idea that this could happen. This certainly has the ability to make modern day slaves out of those that were blindsided by possible medical expenses, debt, and/or the struggle to find a new gig.

[philipov]

> If you're not a founder or investor it's not worth worrying about since .... at what point as an employee do you become complacent enough ...

You are quick to blame the victims for being complacent, and at the same time you don't realize how important it is to know your company's financials when making employment decisions. Just because you can think of some strawman to burn, don't assume you're so much cleverer than everyone else.

[Cents]

Is it an opportunity to start a side project with former TTG employees?

[gaius]

There are always alarm bells, free fruitbowls disappearing, drinks fridge replaced by vending machines and suchlike.

[WillPostForFood]

Their games steeply declined in sales after the first Walking Dead. From selling many millions to the last few selling only a few hundred thousand in spite of high profile licenses like Batman.

[dogma1138]

I’m not surprised TWD was fairly innovative for its time and also came close to the peak popularity of the series it was also likely the cheapest license they could get since IIRC they licensed the comic not the series from AMC.

Game of Thrones and the marvel and DC licensed games couldn’t have been cheap to license and they “upped” their game with getting bigger and bigger voice actors and for GoT they licensed the likeness of quite a few of the main cast of GoT so HBO and the actors had kept most of the revenue I presume.

Also as their biggest games weren’t something you would let children play i wonder how many parents assumed that shit I’m not letting my kid play this and the adults weren’t really interested in the franchise.

Most licensed games are a pretty big flop only the really good ones make it because they are a good game and not because of the license. Comic book and movie games have always had a horrible stigma with being poor games and in all honest the staleness of the TTG formula didn’t really help at that point.

[WorldMaker]

> Also as their biggest games weren’t something you would let children play

Minecraft Story Mode was presumably their next best selling after The Walking Dead of recent output, presumably because it could appeal to a broader and younger audience.

Though that still isn't saying much looking at the Steam chart presented in the post. Though Minecraft Story Mode sales is also presumably under-reported in Steam numbers as you would expect more console owners among families with kids than PC players.

[JansjoFromIkea]

I wonder how much this decline was to do with how heavily they embraced things like Humble Bundle

I for one never bought a Telltale game because I knew they'd wind up as either in part of a pretty solid bundle or even just a full fledged Telltale bundle. Can't think of another company in the games industry who so willingly devalued their whole catalogue as quickly. Assume the goal was to get loads of people up to date so they'd pay full price on launch for the next season of w/e but...

[Bartweiss]

I think the use of Humble was definitely about the episodic nature of the product, but I'm not sure it worked very well. Humble buyers were presumably a bit less excited for the games than others, and I seriously doubt it was enough extra headcount to overcome the fact that Telltale basically sold games to shrinking funnels.

Everyone I know who enjoyed the first GoT Telltale game had quit by the third, but apparently there were six in total? That hardly looks like a sustainable technique.