Telltale Games reflected on the first season of its Walking Dead games, along with series' creator Robert Kirkman, in a panel at Comic-Con 2013.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Kirkman says he was familiar with Telltale from the studio's Strong Bad adventure games, and he was confident they would be able to bring his world to life in games.
  • Moderator Greg Miller cut to a quick video montage of players reacting live to seeing a certain character dying at the hands of another, featuring plenty of surprised screams and expletives.
  • Kirkman says he doesn't take the deaths of his characters lightly, saying he goes through a process similar to what readers go through when they read it. He says it's upsetting, and he loves getting reactions from readers and viewers. He joked that he hears lots of people say that they'll stop watching the TV show or reading his comics after seeing some of the things his characters go through. But they don't.
  • Another montage featured the ending, along with watery-eyed reactions from people who were playing the game. Telltale president Kevin Bruner says there was much debate whether an "I love you" option should be included, and the team decided against it because it competed with other options.

And from the Q&A:

  • Telltale CEO Dan Connors wouldn't say what was going on with season 2, aside from the fact that work is going nicely on episode 1. We did get a tease that Kenny's fate could be revealed, however, and that Clem will be a part of it. Later, Bruner added that season 2 will be loading all of the information from player saves from season 1 and 400 Days, and that they wouldn't be doing that if those decisions didn't matter – an interesting detail considering 400 Days' seemingly isolated storyline.
  • An audience member asked about the timer on decisions. Connors said it started with Jurassic Park, and that the team knew that it would work well in The Walking Dead.
  • Another person jokingly asked how they could convince Capcom to fire their entire staff and turn the Resident Evil franchise over to Telltale. Bruner's response? "We storm the gates."
  • When asked about cameos from the comics appearing in season 2, like Glenn's short appearance in episode 1, Connors says he's working with Kirkman to see what makes sense.

 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

  • Lee's voice actor, Dave Fennoy, asked the panel "Why did you kill Lee?! I mean, He's Lee!" to cheers from the crowd. Fennoy then begged for something to help pass the time until season 2. We then saw a comically brief clip featuring art of two characters in hoodies, and then the logo.