Woof, this one hurts
Speaking toIGN, TellTale’s CEO Jamie Ottilie outlined some of the reasons for the delay, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a switch from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5, and an attempt to avoid crunch mode - something that was common at the original TellTale before their closure. Speaking of crunch, Ottilie says, “you can’t plan a business around it.” He also explains that “it has been incredibly difficult to recruit the last two years”, due to COVID and the general competitiveness in the games industry, so grinding devs down with crunch is a no-go.
It feels like Bigby’s second outing has been a long time coming, but Ottilie admits the team was two years away from being fully staffed when they re-announced the sequel - a move to help secure funding and probably to attract talent. The game won’t be using any previously developed material from old TellTale’s time on the project, but they will be releasing it episodically when all episodes are fully developed. That was a move that worked for Don’t Nod’s episodic dramaTell Me Why, and I think it’s important to keep those water cooler conversations alive for future TellTale series.
We’ll need to wait a while more to see Bigby in therapy, but TellTale are releasing another adventure this year:The Expanse, a gravity-defying adaptation of the sci-fi TV show. For now though, I’ll just howl into the night.
