Telltale NEEDS to make an Alien game.

[The_Lost_King]

I haven't watched Alien, but from what I've heard from complaints about the games, Telltale don't seem like the company that we need for an Alien game. We need a developer who can make you piss your pants when you see an Alien, and they have to do that, while still having gun-play be in there. I don't know what studio that would be, but I know it isn't Telltale.

 

[bug_of_war]

I would like Telltale to finish the games they've started before taking anything else on. Seriously, The Wolf Among Us was supposed to be a bi-monthly release and they've broken that promise. It wouldn't be so bad if they would at least tell people what the fuck is going on.

With TWD, TWAU, Game of Thrones and Borderlands all set to be released sometime this year (and them saying they wanna make a 007 game) I'm starting to think they're biting off more than they can chew. I don't like to pass judgment before actually seeing what happens, but Telltale is a small studio and I genuinely believe that this magnitude of games being undertaken will result in at the very least, delays, and the very worst drop in quality.

 

[Schtoobs]

Kinda like an Aliens comic book adventure game? Check out a game called Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure (http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Aliens:_A_Comic_Book_Adventure). I barely remember it.

I don't think it would work the same way it worked with The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is about the survivors and their relationships, the latest Telltale game is a detective story with characters being suspects(I forget the name), Game of Thrones is also about relationships. These IP's already fit within the Telltale game structure. An Aliens game about the survivors though? No, I don't think so. It would just be Walking Dead but in the aliens universe. In which case they could be any old aliens or space zombies.

I like the idea of a strategy based survival game with character interactions and you deciding who to send where on a ship. Searching for supplies to keep everyone alive and tools/ materials to build barricades in strategic places. Maybe with taken friends adding to the aliens numbers after a certain amount of time. No reason why Telltale couldn't do it, but it would have to have different gameplay (blueprints, character stats) than their previous games to make it an Aliens game. I don't think Telltale have any intention of changing the format of their games as it's been working so well and that format doesn't make for a good Aliens game in my opinion.

Telltales characters and story would be great in combination with a really good strategy/adventure game though.

 

[2fish]

I think you have a point. The closest thing I can think of comes from 11 years ago, The Thing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(video_game)] video game. It was from the original Xbox/PS2 era. Certain choices would have unforeseen effects on your team members. I always meant to play it, but always managed to forget about it somehow.

I had fun with that until my guy with the flamethrower turned out to be the thing. Fuck that went bad fast. I always had a propane torch on me but still.

Anyway I would be game for that tell tale seems to be good with stories and characters.

 

[Tenkage]

It could work I suppose, but I see an Alien gaming having more action, then again the walking dead did have a good balance of action and talking so prahaps....

 

[blueshark217]

You know who did make a really good space/horror/survival game was The Escapist's own Yahtzee. 7 Days Skeptic was actually really good, and could serve as a model as to what the an Alien survival game could be like, albeit longer and with more terrifying chase bits.

 

[Racecarlock]

The problem with decisions in games mattering is that no they fuckin' don't. They don't. At all. Nothing you do actually matters. It seems like it does, but it doesn't.

And the killer is, nobody seems to consider messing around in a sandbox to be part of a story, which is just ridiculous. I mean, do biographies only include important life choices? No.

Yeah, games can be more than fun, but the big problem with story in games is that you can just hit "New game" and nothing you do will be permanent. Sure, you might still get emotions, but it still does not matter except at that particular moment when you're getting that particular emotion.

What the fuck is a "Meaningful choice" anyways? I see it brought up in story threads a lot (Maybe not here yet, but a lot), but I don't know what that phrase actually means. How does a meaningful choice differ from one that's not meaningful? What makes a meaningful choice meaningful? What makes it more special than deciding to spare one pedestrian in GTA or not going on a rampage in saints row?

 

[alphamalet]

snip

It was my comment that sparked this debate, and I was going to respond to it. I then began to read what you had typed to Mars Atlas in my absence, and realized that I didn't need to directly respond to him. You have basically said everything I would have and I agree with you 100%, especially with this point:

I consider game play to be extremely important, because it's the primary element separating video games from other forms of media.

 

[AD-Stu]

As much as i love telltale, i don't think their art style would fit the alien universe. Honestly, comic style aliens just don't jive with me at all.

^ this. I was pleasantly surprised by how well their style worked with The Walking Dead (as someone who first came into contact with the franchise through the TV show, not the graphic novels) but the Alien universe is very much defined by HR Geiger's original art style and designs. Moving away from that would be a big problem IMO.

Also, I've never really seen big choices and morality as being central to the Aliens world. It worked in The Walking Dead (I think, at least) in large part due to the slow-moving nature of the zombies. It made it seem realistic that you had just enough time to make a "big choice" about what to do or who to save or whatever. Aliens don't work like that, they're lightning fast and kill pretty much instantly. So I think they'd have to go out of their way to manufacture the "big choice" situations that worked so well in The Walking Dead.

That's not to say they couldn't make it work, I'm just saying I don't see it as a natural fit.

 

[Zeraki]

They might as well, they're making games for everything else.

I don't know how well Alien would translate into a Telltale style game though. If you're going for the "true" Alien experience, survival horror (like the aforementioned Isolation) is the best way to go.

 

[AD-Stu]

I wonder if they'd have the time to do it too - am I remembering right, didn't they have the rights to resurrecting the Kings Quest franchise on their books for a while, but they had to let the option expire because they didn't have the resources to make it happen? That was an IP that was ready-made for their format.