Looking back, any of us could pinpoint a number of things we would have done differently if we could. Games are no different.
Speaking to Giant Bomb, Telltale Games spoke frankly about The Walking Dead franchise and the things that informed their design decisions. Most of these revolved around what went into making meaningful, intense decisions for the players–especially the context needed to substanciate these decisions.
But more interestingly, they also talked about a decision in the game that didn't work out the way they'd hoped. Sometime during the first episode, the player is asked to choose between two characters, much like you do in Mass Effect's famous "who arms the bomb?" scene. The options are between Doug, a geek who is a technical wizard, and Carly, an attractive reporter who knows how to use a gun.
Players almost universally chose Carly–including me. Exponding on this statistic, they say:
Jake: In the specific case of Doug and Carley, we’d hoped that it would be 50/50, but I think we knew going in with that one, we made peace with the fact that hot reporter with a gun versus dorky dude, we kind of knew where that was going to go.
Sean: I mean, we definitely kind of made our bed on that one a little bit. I would probably do things a little differently, I’ll be completely honest. I would probably frame them as different people, and not for the sake of getting it to 50/50, but because I feel, personally–I guess I’m kind of the guy who created Doug and Carley. I mean, Jake and I do a lot of the conceptual work together, but on episode one, I wrote all the stuff. It was in the can when Gary [Whitta] came on, he dug it already, so that was good. [laughs] I would probably frame them a little bit differently, to be perfectly honest. Just because–it has nothing to do with the stat choices–it has to do with the fact that I think I left some stuff on the table with them, with what possibilities could have been communicated in the first episode with their characters. I think, had I done a better job communicating the possibility of their characters, this stat would be a little…maybe not more 50/50, but you wouldn’t be able to boil it down to what Jake was boiling it down [to].
While it's too late to change it now, it's fascinating to hear a developer's intentions versus what players actually do. And more importantly, it gives us hope for the upcoming games, which are bound to improve in places where the prior games faltered.
PSN players, of course, can already put this to the test–episode 3 is already out. The rest of us still have to wait another grueling day.
