A new documentary on the creation of Telltale's The Walking Dead video game reveals what it should have been. The first prototype of what we all know as The Walking Dead video game series, was initially meant to be a narrative spin-off of Left 4 Dead.
This is a small detail, along with many others, which was revealed in a Skybound Games XNUMXth anniversary documentary.
The documentary centers on the creation of the famous Telltale adventure video game series, which sees its debut inApril 2012, and brings together several developers (who together with the creator of the comic series Robert Kirkman) worked on the project.
"The first prototype was actually something else that ended up turning into The Walking Dead," says Jake Rodking in the documentary.
We had our first conversation with Valve, and it was the following: "What if we created a side story in the Left 4 Dead universe?"
This first prototype of the game was what Rodking describes as “the prototype of the hot pots or rotating plates,” in its practical state a series of player progression bars that would continue to fill up until the end.
Of course, no Telltale side story was created for the Left 4 Dead series, let alone any spin-off focusing on Left 4 Dead. Kirkman himself was happy that it didn't work out.
Telltale's The Walking Dead series would spawn several seasons and spin-offs of its own in the future, and is known for featuring fan-favorite characters such as Lee and Clementine. This established Telltale's lucky formula that would later be used for other similarly licensed titles, including Batman or Games of Thrones.
Although many of Telltale Games' games, such as The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands, were considered hits and even got sequels, Telltale Games filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2018.
The closing of the development house came in the midst of the release of the episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. Skybound Games, a company of Robert Kirkman, involved many Telltale programmers for the final realization of the game. The last two episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season were released in 2019.
LCG Entertainment, who is behind the development of the second season of The Wolf Among Us together with Adhoc Studios (a team made up of former Telltale developers), bought the name and assets of the bankrupt company. As for Tales from the Borderlands 2, it will be developed by Gearbox Software, author of the original series. A few more details can be read in our article about it.
