Over the years, the team at Telltale Games has really made a name for itself through a series of episodic game releases, including ones based on hot properties like Jurassic Park, Back To the Future, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Borderlands and, most recently, HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is gaining huge accolades from fans. Now, it’s made a couple of moves behind-the-scenes that could mean even bigger business in the future.
According to IGN, the studio has added former Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello to the company’s board of directors, bringing years of experience within the industry to the team. But that’s not all. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer has also joined the board of directors.
“I’m thrilled to have these industry giants join us as we continue to define exceptional interactive scripted entertainment,” said Telltale CEO and co-founder Kevin Bruner.
Riccitiello was thrilled to join the team. “Telltale has created something entirely new. Their games combine linear storytelling and gameplay in an entirely new way that is fresh, unique and compelling,” he said.
While Riccitiello’s return to the video game industry is big news, Telltale’s partnership with Lionsgate could be even bigger, as the two are hard at work on a “Super Show” project that is part television, part video game. As a vote of confidence, Lionsgate has already announced a “significant investment” in the studio.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Bruner explained how the concept of the “Super Show” works. “A ‘Super Show’ episode combines one part of interactive playable content with one part of scripted television style content. Both pieces, when combined together, are what make an actual ‘Super Show’ episode. As we’ve been developing the series, we’re using both mediums in concert to deliver our story. Developing both aspects simultaneously is key to utilizing this new medium. Both parts are first-class citizens during the writing and design process. It’s not an interactive series with a show, or a TV show with a game, but a story integrated in a way that only Telltale can do. For us, it’s a very natural evolution of the interactive storytelling expertise we’ve pioneered.”
The process to developing the “Super Show” is intricate, “but we’ve been producing games episodically for over 10 years and have brought a lot of television production techniques to our game studio,” explained Bruner.
The content for the “Super Show” should be much more than your typical one-hour TV show. “With this in mind, the release cadence will be more predictable like TV scheduling, but still a bit further apart like our games (are released) to allow newer audiences to consume and discuss both aspects of the show across their game consoles, tablets, mobile phones and computers,” he explained.
In a nutshell, “Super Show” could change the way we interact with programming, so that it’s on a far more real-time experience for those viewing it. “Our goal is to create products that have a legitimate chance of winning both a Golden Globe and a Game of the Year,” said Bruner. “This means both aspects of the productions must be first-class work.”
We should learn more about the “Super Show” idea next week during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Can you imagine its concept mixed in with the Game of Thrones license Whoa.
