Telltale Games got a new lease on life earlier this year when their assets were purchased by LCG Entertainment, allowing the studio to be revived under new management. One of the reasons Telltale originally got shuttered was poor management, with the studio taking on too many projects at the same time, rushing out episodes of games, and in the process, also overworking its employees.
However, the new management is keen to ensure that the new Telltale does away with the old studio’s culture of crunch. Recently, while speaking in an interview with IGN, Telltale CEO Jamie Ottilie said that the studio, from the outset, is looking to establish a non-crunch work environment.
“All we can do is be forthcoming; we can’t control whether critics hear or believe us,” said Ottilie. “The truth is we are a new company — with different ownership and management, and a different approach as to how we structure a studio in today’s market.”
“We are taking a measured and methodical approach to growth in order to ensure we can provide a stable, non-crunch work environment,” Ottilie added. “We are building this into our culture from the outset.”
It definitely fits with how the studio is working on The Wolf Among Us 2, and will supposedly work on future projects as well, with Ottilie recently having confirmed that Telltale will no longer develop games episodically, and implying that they might not necessarily release them episodically either.
Meanwhile, in the IGN interview, Ottilie also said that as opposed to criticisms by many that the revival of Telltale is just a cashgrab, the new studio is dedicated to “making great content worthy of the Telltale name.”
“Of course, we’re frustrated by people who have suggested this is opportunistic or simply a money grab for the catalog of games without even giving us a chance,” he said. “We have all jumped into this with the intention of standing the company back up and continuing the legacy of telling stories that people want to play. However, most of this was expected and, really, all we can do is put our heads down and focus on making great content worthy of the Telltale name.”
Telltale Games are currently working on The Wolf Among Us 2 – having recently restarted development from scratch – but the game won’t be out any time in 2020.