We may see more of the interactive zombie adventure serial earlier than anticipated.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead was arguably the best video game released in 2012, and nearly-unanimously one of the best adventure games ever made. The game takes the basic zombie survival story, and the well-developed lore of the Walking Dead graphic novels, and turns them into a compelling interactive narrative. It’s not challenging, but it’s incredibly evocative, and allows the player to make a real emotional investment; something that should always happen in an interactive narrative, but almost never does.
The first game was delivered as a ‘season’ of five episodes, not as a money-grab – it was less than thirty dollars for the whole season – but as a way to meter content into distinct chunks. Like a television or comics serial, it was intended to be digested in pieces, and allow the audience to discuss each part as it went live, and the months long wait began for the next chunk of the story.
We’ve known since the end of season one that there would be a second season, at least, but Telltale says it’s a long way off, as there is a lot of work to be done before they can even begin developing a new season. To keep the franchise fresh in fan’s minds, therefore, Telltale is producing some additional content which will come before the next season.
“You won’t have to wait for season two to play more Walking Dead,” said The Walking Dead writer Gary Witta in an interview with IGN. “There’s not much to say because it really is very early…it’s a way off… But, knowing that it’s a way off, and knowing that people are hungry for more Walking Dead…there may very well be more Walking Dead from Telltale before season two. We may have a little something extra for you between season one and two.”
No further word about what that content would be, but I would guess at an extra episode about the same length as the episodes of the first season (about 50-100 minutes depending on how fast you play), serving either as a prequel to the second season (if they decide to go with new characters) or a midquel to bridge the seasons.
No release date or price has been announced for the untitled bonus Walking Dead episode.
