For most people, Telltale games aren’t a solo experience. They’re something you share with your family and friends, even if the input is strictly single-player only.
So at Comic Con on the weekend, Telltale confirmed that they were turning that social experience into a feature — for every Telltale game going forward.
In an interview with Shacknews, Telltale’s head of creative communications lifted the lid on what the company is calling “Crowd Play”. It’s an option not too dissimilar from the Jackbox games, where the game generates a link that people login to with via a browser.
You connect using a tablet, phone or computer — the same way you would with the Jackbox party games — and then players are given a choice of two modes. The first mode leaves every dialogue decision in the hands of the crowd, with live percentages appearing to show which choices are the most popular. The second mode lets the audience respond with a thumbs up or thumbs down to the controlling player’s actions, providing live feedback as to the direction of the story.
The Crowd Play voting figures will also be rolled into the statistics shown at the end of every chapter. It’s basically a way to make the Telltale games more of a social, streamable experience.
It’s an acknowledgement of how most people enjoy episodic games, and Telltale games in particular. It’s a democratic experience. You sit down with your partner, friends, family or the internet, and have a quickfire debates over which dialogue option to choose. You try and make your characters as unlikable as possible. You choose silence at every turn, and then you laugh over the consequences.
It’ll be implemented in every Telltale game going forward, starting with the first episode of the Batman: The Telltale Series on August 2. And if you didn’t see the launch trailer from earlier this morning, here it is again.
Comments
10 responses to “Telltale Is Giving Its Games The Jackbox Treatment”
That’s actually pretty cool. It could turn any telltale game into a party game of sorts
I sense an impending Twitch Plays The Walking Dead season 3.
They’d still need to do something to handle character movement: this only handles dialogue choices.
My wife and I used to play the Telltale games together, one of us at the controls and the other on the couch, Sam and Max, Back to the Future, Monkey Island Wallace and Gromit, Puzzle Agent etc etc, but with their move to quick response dialogue etc. it’s been much harder to do. The quicktime events are okay as there aren’t any choices to make there, and I understand the time limits adding urgency to what is happening but it basically makes group decisions impossible and so we have moved away from those games, which is a shame as I’m sure the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones etc are great games just not something we can experience together.
I agree with you. By the time you ask your partner what they think and they respond there isn’t time to select the actual option they wanted. So yeah, I have a bunch of telltale games sitting there to be played but it becomes an exercise in frustration rather than enjoyment.
I wonder if others are similar, is there a time limit on choice in Life is strange?
Glad I’m not the only one with those games sitting there unplayed! We started GoT and Walking Dead but in both we came across those timed issues. I can only imagine how hard it is for those with reading difficulties etc who can’t actually read the options in the time allocated. It’d be nice to have the option to turn the timer off.
We’ve found many other point and click adventure games though, and the recent Steam Sales have given us a dozen or so, so we are well and truly set for games for now!
Such a same as they are great game for that.
My wife is a bit over the point and click kinda games, getting frustrated with the back and forth and unable to work out the exact way items need to be combined, etc…
But if you have any recommendations for strong storyline focused games let me know
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav and it’s sequel Memoria are wonderful. They are point and click and can be a bit frustrating at times but with a peek at a guide every now and then will see you through. The Unwritten Tales games are also amazing, we are playing through the second one now. Oh heck most things my wife and I have played in the past year have been great let me know if you’d like some more game suggestions for spousal gaming
Can’t you alt-tab to pause it or something similar? I play Telltale games on Xbox and if I get to a hard decision or one with limited time I just take note of the options and hit the guide button.
Why would i buy it, when i can watch for free.
What a shit idea. Just make controllers work. Tried the Jackbox (Xbox One) and the website kept timing out and not registering inputs.
Terrible, lazy idea.