The sudden closure of Telltale Games was the forefront of news this weekend, with the studio laying off most of its staff and confirming that a skeleton crew of only 25 employees remain. These last remaining Telltale employees will help the studio see off its contractual commitments before the studio’s doors close for good, which is a shame to the gaming community as a whole. Not only did Telltale Games produce some great story-driven content, but also there were plenty of projects on the back burner, too.
One of projects that hadn’t seen the light of day yet was the studio’s work on the Stranger Things intellectual property, which the studio was working on at the same time as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. Today, video snippets purporting to be from this unreleased project were released on Reddit and 4chan, though these have yet to be officially confirmed as Telltale’s work.
Interested gamers can take a look at some of the alleged Stranger Things content below:
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ShabbyAgileAntelopegroundsquirrel-mobile.mp4
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BreakableAstonishingAegeancat-mobile.mp4
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DarlingLightHawaiianmonkseal-mobile.mp4
Gamers expecting more of the traditional Telltale Games look should note that the studio confirmed that it was upgrading its game engine for Stranger Things. This is something that certainly helps make playing as Will as he hides from as Demogorgon a lot more terrifying.
Some segments appear to be in first-person, which is certainly not traditional modus operandi for Telltale Games. It’s a shame gamers likely won’t be able to experience what the studio had planned for some of the horror-themed segments from The Upside Down:
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PoorUnpleasantHydra-mobile.mp4
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ElaborateSimilarFox-mobile.mp4
Telltale Games pushed the envelope when it came to narrative-driven games in the modern era, forcing gamers to make tough moral choices and live with the consequences. Here’s a list of 7 Telltale Games productions that we think gamers should try out.
For fans of Stranger Things, it’s somewhat fortunate that Netflix wasn’t just collaborating with Telltale Games to bring the popular show into the gaming world. The streaming content provider is also working with Sony for a PlayStation VR experience, an environment that fits in perfectly with the horror themes of the show. The infamous demogorgon also appears as DLC in Face Your Fears, a horror game from the developer of Left 4 Dead.
Stranger Things was a planned release from Telltale Games, but the project has now been cancelled with the shuttering of the studio. While it’s unconfirmed that the above segments come from Telltale’s work on the intellectual property, it looks fairly legitimate. And given that some employees are stating they weren’t paid for overtime or given severance pay, it makes sense that developers looking for work might be less concerned about showing some content against Telltale Game’s company policy.
Source: PCGamesN
