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The tragic end of Telltale Games

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Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#141

Post by vvanders »

gambiting wrote: post #92
tablethnuser wrote: post #71

Don't work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book. The g…

Just as a counterpoint - I've worked for 4 years now as a programmer at one of the biggest publishers in the industry, and honestly, the work life balance is great, the pay is ok for the region(plus I get decent amount of shares every year), the work is varied, interesting and I like both what I do and people I work with. I think the last time I did overtime was 2 years ago, and even then it was only for a week aroun…

Congrats, you've found the 2% of the industry that isn't insane.

For many of us who fell into the other 98% the statistics aren't in your favor and some of the bigger publishers(EA, Microsoft) tend to go in ~6 year cycles.

Had a friend who worked on Dead Space, which should have been a stable thing. Alas, Visceral isn't around either.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#142

Post by bitL »

wheelie_boy wrote: post #85
tablethnuser wrote: post #71

Don't work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book. The g…

Game dev is a meat grinder. While making games is a great way to learn programming, and is a lot of fun, the working conditions make it an untenable career choice for most.

If you are young, single and healthy, and can work on important parts of a game (engine), do it for 1-2 years, have a blast, ship an AAA game, then escape to more stable FAANG, where you will be a highly paid guru. You can even write a book or two then, documenting your tricks and achievements.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#143

Post by megaman8 »

gambiting wrote: post #92
tablethnuser wrote: post #71

Don't work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book. The g…

Just as a counterpoint - I've worked for 4 years now as a programmer at one of the biggest publishers in the industry, and honestly, the work life balance is great, the pay is ok for the region(plus I get decent amount of shares every year), the work is varied, interesting and I like both what I do and people I work with. I think the last time I did overtime was 2 years ago, and even then it was only for a week aroun…

For all the newbs out there, if you're trying to figure out whether not to accept an offer, know that there is a huge difference in work life balance from company to company: above you've seen the two extremes.

Read the glassdoor reviews very carefully.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#144

Post by Kiro »

everyone wrote: post #96
plopz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fundamental difference between all of those games and what I would consider a battle royale game is you only get 1 life. As an aside, I loved Tribes 2 construction mod.

I dont know but I'd bet theres an old quake mod that makes that small change.

Just stop. You clearly have no idea what a Battle Royale game is.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#145

Post by WorldMaker »

mattlondon wrote: post #42

I hear about game studios going under like this a lot. Is it just that games companies suffering the same fate get more coverage in the media, or is it something about game studios that seem to make them more likely to crash and burn like this? I know that games are quite consumer's-whim-driven and you're never really sure if you've got a hit on your hands or not until you release. I guess it is the same for movies,…

The comparison to movies seems apt. Games industry has the same problems that Early Hollywood had (high crash rate and a lot of employee anguish), and a lot of these stories match early days histories of Hollywood. The solution to that was strong unions. Film companies still have a high crash rate, though now it is much more intentionally controlled (Hollywood has organized development companies to very specifically be only for the scope of a single film project), and more importantly employee anguish from the intentional turnover is mitigated by strong union protections and safety nets.

The interesting part is that Hollywood is dealing with a cycle of this sort of suffering currently with Special Effects houses. The CG special effects companies are often contracted for only a single set piece at a time in a movie, as companies they currently last about at most 2 years and involvement in scenes in two and a half films, and there is a lot of employee anguish because a lot of the artists involved have generally not been allowed to unionize (or heavily discouraged from unionizing), especially in the smaller contractors. Most of the Oscars presented for Best Special Effects in the last few years have involved at least one firm that was dead by the time of the Oscars award. It's not making the news as much as game studio suffering, but it's a similar problem in that both industries feel that they can afford to burn through talent cheaper than it takes to protect it, as there are always excitable young kids happy to get their shot in Hollywood or Videogames.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#146

Post by [deleted] »

gambiting wrote: post #92
tablethnuser wrote: post #71

Don't work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book. The g…

Just as a counterpoint - I've worked for 4 years now as a programmer at one of the biggest publishers in the industry, and honestly, the work life balance is great, the pay is ok for the region(plus I get decent amount of shares every year), the work is varied, interesting and I like both what I do and people I work with. I think the last time I did overtime was 2 years ago, and even then it was only for a week aroun…

[deleted]

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#147

Post by prithee »

taneq wrote: post #81
prithee wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all shared the same narrative focus and gameplay mechanics of titles in the "adventure" game genre (inspect environment, walk around, quick time events, make decisions in conversation or events that at least promised branches in storyline.) Typically the engine and graphics styles were roughly the same, though improved as time progressed (to the point where you often felt they were battling the old engine). I un…

Sounds like those Sierra games. Those hacks.

The Sierra DNA is there, but on a much, much more accessible level (for better or worse depending on how you want to take on the narrative or the game.)

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#148

Post by bilbo0s »

aikah wrote: post #82
lmm wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gaming press is more press than gaming; they're often people with writing degrees who are disproportionately fond of "literary" games compared to the buying public.

> The gaming press is more press than gaming; they're often people with writing degrees who are disproportionately fond of "literary" games compared to the buying public. The real question is how influential are they today? I think they might not be that influential when it comes to AAA titles, however, some outlets are extremely influential when it comes to indie gaming, since it's a small scene where "knowing the r…

>Joseph Anderson babbling about hitboxes in Dark Souls 2 and how you get critical damages even though the NPC sword stroke was PI/2 radians off your character's position...

Yeah, um, that won't get your average gamer excited either.

HN User 'lmm' was right, everyone from the gaming press, to the youtubers, to the people at the conferences etc, publicizing things that the average gamer could care less about. No one cares about hitboxes off by Pi/2 radians, or your "high art" narrative based games, or your slick C# or Rust based backend server and how cool it is.

The press and the youtubers are, of course, free to focus on whatever they want to focus on. I'm just saying that a lot of people out there are just using games as an escape, we really don't want all those details. And I'd go even further, a lot of games, tech, and issues they concentrate on are out and out boring!

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#149

Post by Apocryphon »

everyone wrote: post #138
LyndsySimon wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Same thing pretty much, but with more action. That's exactly why we play BR games. These days I play mostly PUBG. Before that, Day of Infamy. Before that, Insurgency. Notice a trend? Each one of those games has a lot at stake (relatively speaking) when you get into an engagement. If you die, you sit out for a while. They're about communication and coordination between players on the same team. PUBG (and Fortnite, t…

Ok then, thats been done many times ages ago in the likes of ARMA, rainbow 6, Operation flashpoint.. etc.

Those are squad-based tactical military shooters focused on realism, yet another genre completely different from battle royales!

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#150

Post by the_af »

krinchan wrote: post #118
nottorp wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but in those you have some mechanics to use. Telltalle took the adventure game formula, which is mostly exploration and puzzles, and dumbed it down until you were left with linear exploration and kindergarten puzzles. I stopped looking at their titles ages ago because while I grew up with adventure games, the Telltale titles ain't that any more. Edit: also, games made after a movie license (or a game license, Mi…

They're much closer to the Visual Novel genre then the Adventure Games formula. But even than, most really good VNs that come out of Japan have branching stories. It's dependency on Anime Harem tropes and fanservice notwithstanding, many of the stories (Steins;Gate, Fate/Stay Night comes to mind) branch significantly and well beyond the "600 dead end bad endings and 1 good ending". They're well written and (again, on…

Visual Novel is an apt description, though I'll disagree with you on one thing: most Japanese visual novels back when I last checked them, which was in the 90s/early 00s, were terrible. And I mean, really, embarrassingly terrible, and not just for their random and bizarre sex scenes, but overall badly written and cliched. Some of it could be chalked up to poor English translations, but most of it was mind-numbing cliches and nonsensical situations you'd laugh at if found in a book or movie, and which you had to repetitively click through.

That said, yes, I think The Walking Dead Season could accurately be described as a Visual Novel with very little branching, more than a full-fledged point-and-click adventure. I think it succeeds at this; Lee's story is certainly more interesting than whatever happens with Rick & crew in the tremendously repetitive TV show. I can see how Telltale's formula gets repetitive for subsequent games, since it's essentially a one trick pony, but still... I was entertained for one season :)

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