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The Walking Dead Creator Wanted to Make Players “Sad” When Playing The Walking Dead Videogame

August 22, 2012 by Alex Co

Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book series, states that he wanted players to feel sad when playing Telltale’s The Walking Dead game.


If you still haven't seen or read Robert Kirkman's fantastic The Walking Dead comic book series or TV adaptation, I implore you to give it a go now. Go on, I'll wait, you won't regret it. 

While it's surface might look like just another zombie story, its core is definitely anything but the norm. Both the TV show and the comic books talk to our humanity and how certain situations bring out the best — and sometimes, the worst — in people. 

It's worth noting that this common theme has also been captured perfectly by Telltale on their game adaptation of the hit series. And surprisingly, the common theme they all have is "sadness."

In an interview with the Official US PlayStation Blog, Kirkman was asked how much input (if any) he provided into Telltale's game and if he had any "key creative mandates" that he wanted the development team to implement. Nope, it wasn't "make everything look cool." or "I want X number of zombie heads to be blown up in each episode" mandate. Instead, Kirkman wanted the gamers to feel "sad," since that's what The Walking Dead is all about.

Talking with the guys at Telltale, I said, “The Walking Dead is sad. If you can make players sad, that’s really what we’re after here. You want to drive the emotional impact of what it would be like to live in this world, and if you can achieve that in a game, that would be amazing.” And that was something the Telltale team was already striving for — making this a really emotional experience, not just scary or exciting. Those were the kinds of decisions we made very early on. But the type of game it is, and the way the gameplay works, is all Telltale.

As someone who has enjoyed Episodes 1 and 2 of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, I'd say they accomplished their mission quite well. no?

Unfortunately, Telltale still has no update on when Episode 3 will be available other than in "August." Seeing as August is but a mere week away from leaving us, I hope they don't delay it into next month as I can't wait to see what happens to Lee, Clementine and the rest of the gang after the amazing finale of Episode 2.

Have you played The Walking Dead games by Telltale yet? Without going into specific spoilers, what major decisions have you made?

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