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Variety: The Walking Dead Season 4 will be last Telltale Engine game, future projects all Unity

Nirolak

Nirolak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,660
I assume this means that The Wolf Among Us Season 2 is switching engines?

Multiple sources also tell Variety that the days are numbered for Telltale Tool, the company's in-house game engine. The studio is shifting to Unity for its projects (both detailed by Variety's source and referenced in job listings), with the final season of "The Walking Dead" the last to premiere on the old engine. "Stranger Things" is slated to be the first Unity engine project, according to multiple sources.
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Sources tell Variety that while the move away from Telltale Tool is long overdue, a new engine means growing pains. Developers are re-learning how to manage workflow as they adapt to the new engine. This is causing a longer process than Telltale is used to working.
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In case you're curious about "Why Unity?":
He and board members, including Unity CEO John Riccitiello
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Source: https://variety.com/2018/gaming/features/netflix-telltale-stranger-things-deal-1202855424/
 
chandoog

chandoog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,071
1 last game to suffer through I guess.

Hoping their output and development tools with Unity are better.
 
bluexy

bluexy

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Oct 25, 2017
14,520
It looks like they're doing some fun things with the engine with this last Season! Hopefully pushing it to its limits.
 
BocoDragon

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
For the best. Even powerhouse companies like Square Enix don't use their own custom engines anymore.
 
X1 Two

X1 Two

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Oct 26, 2017
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manchego obfuscator said:
Wholly expected, but thank god. Unity gets a lot of flak, but I'm sure it'll be a big improvement.
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I wouldn't be so sure. If they can't figure out their own engine (well, actually the last Batman season and Minecraft season 2 finally work without the typical Telltale problems, makes the switch even more strange), why should they be able to figure out a different one?
 

Deleted member 5535

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
13,656
I mean, their games are running plenty fine for 2 years. Since TWDS3 I had no problems in their titles and Batman S2 was much better as well.

Either way, let's see
 
YourFriendLevi

YourFriendLevi

Member
Jan 4, 2018
4,021
Walking Dead Season 3 and Batman Season 2 ran great on PC. Don't really have much opinion on Unity, but whatever helps their workflow I suppose.
 
Agent 47

Agent 47

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Jun 24, 2018
1,840
bluexy said:
It looks like they're doing some fun things with the engine with this last Season! Hopefully pushing it to its limits.
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Hopefully they don't actually push it to the real limits. The last Telltale game I played (Batman) was already pushing it to the limit, causing the game to crash multiple times and whole scenes playing out with invisible characters.
 
DeuceGamer

DeuceGamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
I know Unity gets a lot of flak, but I really have to wonder if it's fully deserved.

Will be interesting to see how their first few projects turn out either way.
 

Cuv8

Member
Oct 28, 2017
20
Unity is a great engine, and it's improving over time. Both UE4 and Unity have their disadvantages.
Rendering is just a small part of an engine.... Architecture, tools, console support, animation pipeline and more importantly the kind of game you're making is more important. At the core, UE4 is still a 1st person engine and that can be a real pain.
 
randomlee26

randomlee26

Member
Oct 27, 2017
696
Very intense stuff.... I remember being so excited for Bone back in the day, LOL. Times sure have changed!
 
hydruxo

hydruxo

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Oct 25, 2017
20,441
Thank god. Haven't played a Telltale game since Tales from the Borderlands but I'm excited for the Stranger Things one.
 
manchego obfuscator

manchego obfuscator

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,123
Brooklyn, NY
Barnabas Reynolds said:
Is this the reason for Wolf 2 moving to 2019?
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Presumably, at least to a large extent. IIRC, per the interviews from late last year around the time of the downsizing and CEO ouster, they originally planned to have multiple new projects announced by this point in 2018, but there haven't been any (I'm not counting Stranger Things, as it was more leaked than announced).
 
emir

emir

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,501
So... They're changing that shit and they're going to focus on details.

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Fawz

Fawz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,660
Montreal
Very glad to hear they're finally dropping that archaic engine, but I'm a little miffed about the choice to go with Unity. I guess it's to keep the games lightweight and development easy since they're focused on speedy releases.

Will be interested to see how their games end up looking once they switch engine and if it eventually allows them to do new interesting Gameplay things they couldn't before.
 
joefro

joefro

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Jun 5, 2018
1,357
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Good. I loved TWAU, but the game crashed for me during a crucial scene during the last episode. It ruined the experience. Any game I've played in Unity has run much better than TT's engine, so I'm excited for the switch.
 
randomlee26

randomlee26

Member
Oct 27, 2017
696
Unity's really not so bad IMO. Maybe it'll fix that awful skip-freeze thing that happens before all the scene changes.
 
J-Skee

J-Skee

The Wise Ones
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Oct 25, 2017
11,109
I tried my best to get into other Telltale games after the first Walking Dead, but I just can't do it. I am thankful for this change.
 

Take5GiantSteps

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bluexy said:
It looks like they're doing some fun things with the engine with this last Season! Hopefully pushing it to its limits.
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Telltale couldn't even get their engine to go 25mph without crashing. There's isn't really a high bar to push in this case.

I've been burned by TT too many times to care about this until we see a released product. As of right now I have little faith in their abilities to develop a game without major bugs, even with a new engine.
 
bluexy

bluexy

Comics Enabler & Freelance Games Journalist
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Oct 25, 2017
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I've got to admit I'm pretty startled by how titled people are in this thread. I've played pretty much all of Telltale's Games (okay, no Minecraft) and while yeah, we all know the engine has been in a rough spot for a long time, I still don't think I've played a game I'd call disappointing. They've all been good to great. I've been outrageously pissed at the engine before, eating my save file and forcing me to restart in more than one game, but I can't help but remain positive about anything Telltale's doing.
 
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