Telltale’s closing squashed not one, however two Stranger Things games

Stranger Things

It’s no secret that Telltale had been working with Netflix on a Stranger Things game when the studio suddenly closed in September, leaving 250 individuals out of labor with no severance pay. However, a latest exposé by The Verge revealed a Stranger Things tie-in cell game additionally went up in smoke with the closure as nicely, this one by Oxenfree creators Night School Studio.

After the indie studio’s success with a Mr. Robot cell game, Telltale CEO Pete Hawley reportedly approached them a few challenge “to explore new types of design and storytelling,” The Verge report.

With Telltale’s current partnership with Netflix and one lauded adolescent thriller already beneath Night School Studio’s belt, a second Stranger Things game made an ideal match. “The project itself was very promising, and we had some insights into where the seasons were headed,” a supply accustomed to the challenge instructed The Verge. “[Telltale] had a really ambitious vision for building a new type of Telltale game on their front.”

Internally, the workforce gave it the identify “Kids Next Door.” Telltale hoped it will shake up the studio’s established components, a lot in order that they meant to characteristic Telltale’s identify final in promoting supplies. Ultimately although, it will tie into the Stranger Things PC game Telltale had already been engaged on, no less than partially by carrying over gamers’ decisions from the cell game.

After seeing video of the game, right here’s how The Verge described it:

“It was a chapter-based, first-person narrative game, in which decisions players made would have carried over into Telltale’s game via a save file. It would have taken place over the course of a single night, with players switching to a different kid every hour. Each had a different ability; with a character like Eleven, for example, you could use her telekinetic abilities to psychically scope out new locations, or solve physical puzzles. The bottom screen would include persistent dialogue from the rest of the cast as they kept in touch via walkie-talkie.”

Communication was a problem all through growth, with Netflix typically performing as a mediator between the 2 studios. Getting approvals from the streaming service for game concepts proved equally troublesome. Compounding all these frustrations had been lacking paychecks from Telltale; in keeping with these The Verge spoke with, Night School Studio hadn’t been paid for his or her final three milestones earlier than Telltale’s sudden closure. Without naming a greenback worth, a supply approximated the quantity was “as much a quarter development of Oxenfree.”

As if that weren’t unhealthy sufficient, nobody at Night School Studio had any clue as to what that meant for his or her challenge’s future. “There was still a total lack of clarity on what was happening to our project,” in keeping with the individuals The Verge consulted. “Our project was basically just thrown into limbo immediately, and not based on the quality of it, not based on where we were in the production timeline, but just because the company that was funding it was in dire straits.”

The studio feared for his or her small workforce’s job safety, particularly since they’d introduced on new employees particularly to work on this game. Shifting workers to work on a second game that they had concurrently in growth – the pub crawl by way of hell, Afterparty – finally saved them from layoffs.

Given Netflix’s later success with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Night School’s Stranger Things game had the potential to be the primary in an interactive sequence of authentic materials. Instead, it’s cursed to growth purgatory, unannounced and uncancelled. Chalk up yet one more casualty to Telltale’s premature shuttering.


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