In the wake of Telltale Games laying off 250-odd employees with no discover or (reportedly) severance pay, former Taletellers have been sharing heat reminiscences and foolish goofs from working there. They’ve defined the key guidelines of a working joke began in Sam & Max, revealed daft scenes they made to amuse themselves in The Walking Dead with bananas and eyebeams, defined a serendipitous sweary accident in Tales From The Borderlands, and even gushed a bit about good occasions. The state of affairs sucks however the moments and reminiscences being shared are not less than bittersweet.
Molly Maloney, who was lead idea artist on Tales From The Borderlands and assistant director of its remaining episode, shared the key of this rad impolite second:
This completed product: pic.twitter.com/jW0nYKvxHY
— Molly Maloney (@Llyann) September 23, 2018
What a contented little accident.
Nick Herman, a choreographer on Telltale games together with Sam & Max, defined the origins of an obsession with the banana drink Banang:
Yeah. Banang was born from a type of late nights, and David Nowlin’s learn of “Banang” had me cracking up. Jake and I riffed on a bunch of silly concepts for hiding an Easter egg, and I choreographed it that evening. https://t.co/RCYXmwwbCl
— Nick Herman (@ItsMeNickHerman) September 24, 2018
Taletellers went on to cover Banang in different episodes, following severe guidelines:
The primary rule of Banang was that the participant might by no means obtain Banang. If they might click on on it, they needed to sooner or later be denied the opportunity of ever buying it. I believe a tender rule was that in addition they needed to really need it haha
— Nick Herman (@ItsMeNickHerman) September 24, 2018
Towards a merciless conclusion:
The weirdest model of it could be that gratuitous TF2 crossover, the place if you happen to use a wrench on the dispenser the quantity of occasions required to improve it, it dispenses a can of Banang. You’ll see the foundations are in full impact right here. https://t.co/J9IEfm9rhD
— Nick Herman (@ItsMeNickHerman) September 24, 2018
Banang later popped up in many other Telltale Games as a wee Easter egg.
Speaking of bananas, a bizarre dream involving them on the Idle Thumbs podcast ended up changing into actuality (properly, as a secret goof). Jake Rodkin made this with Sean Vanaman, his fellow Idle Thumb and fellow co-director of The Walking Dead season one:
Six years in the past we did a dwell episode of @idlethumbs at QuakeCon (https://t.co/eoN9paWmWE ). On that episode @nickbreckon described a dream about accumulating bananas in The Walking Dead whereas @vanaman says “That’s The Stuff.” I forgot that we really made it, til I discovered the video: pic.twitter.com/8tDn1JUUVH
— Jake Rodkin (@ja2ke) February 9, 2018
Trailer fella Shaun Finney goofed round with The Walking Dead too:
Now that there is just about no penalties for posting this, get pleasure from this dumb shit I made within the chore instrument whereas I used to be at Telltale pic.twitter.com/uS532rXAnP
— Shaun Finney (@shaunfinney) September 24, 2018
One goof that did make it into TWD is that this poster:
#TelltaleMemories One day I believe @ItsMeNickHerman and @dennis_lenart challenged themselves to attract one another. The drawing of Dennis was a catastrophe, and instantly bought placed on a WANTED poster, which immediately appeared throughout the workplace, and in not less than one game (TWD 101). pic.twitter.com/7dHoqRflFd
— Jake Rodkin (@ja2ke) September 24, 2018
Former Telltale cinematic artist Jolie Menzel shared a ache few of us will ever know:
And Melissa Hutchison, who voiced Clementine in The Walking Dead and lots of different Telltale characters too, expressed a few of her heartbreak:
See Twitter’s #TelltaleMemories tag for extra improvement reminiscences from employees and a complete load of game reminiscences from gamers.
Telltale have been minimize all the way down to a employees of solely 25, who’re there solely “fulfil the company’s obligations to its board and partners.” That’s 250-ish of us now out of labor, former employees say. I wouldn’t count on the remaining 25 to have for much longer both. A lot of of us and studios throughout the games business are utilizing Twitter’s #TelltaleJobs tag to assist join Taletellers with new jobs.
One thriller nonetheless hanging over Telltale is what’s going to occur with The Walking Dead: The Final Season. Its second episode was because of launch on Tuesday, and a few former employees on Twitter appear to count on that may nonetheless go forward, however past that… the 2 remaining episodes are reportedly unfinished, and their makers supposedly now gone. Dying abruptly and unexpectedly could be becoming for The Walking Dead, making this a metatextual gutwrencher, however that’d be an actual bummer for folk who’ve purchased the season anticipating the top of Clementine’s story. You’d hope that, if that is the top, Telltale would throw open refunds?
Disclosure: I vaguely know some of us who have been at Telltale again within the day. I’ll have thrown one in every of them on the ground at a barbecue then stood on his chest to show a degree about how bullying is unhealthy? The previous is a international nation, okay.
