Walking Dead, Fables, and King’s Quest Receiving New Life

Forget vampires; zombies are huge right now. AMC’s Walking Dead TV show broke all kinds of records for a cable series as it fantastically adapted the comic book of the same name. That kind of success blood-curdlingly screams for a digital component, but the creators of the comic book didn’t want some cheap videogame cash-in. Instead, they tapped Telltale Games to create a game that will do the zombie story justice. It’s not a shooter or a survival horror, but it’s not Sam & Max either. Walking Dead will be a story game that pushes the boundaries of what a game can accomplish. It will still see an episodic release schedule, but there’s no word as to when it will drop as writer Sean Vanaman and director Jake Rodkin are still in pre-production.

Vanaman and Rodkin assured me that the game will branch into new directions of gameplay that Telltale hasn’t explored before. It’s much more about what the player character decides, and the zombies, while dangerous, feel more like the weather. “Zombies aren’t the antagonists,” Vanaman said. “There are times when I’d much rather go face-to-face with a zombie than some of the people in that book.”

In addition, Telltale Games CEO announced that the company is working on a rebirth of the King’s Quest franchise. The venerable adventure game series is the progenitor of the point-and-click adventure genre, and to see it come to life in the hands of that genre’s current caretaker in Telltale Games is a gift from Davenry. The new King’s Quest game was described as a “reboot” so some of the stories may be derived from the previous nine games. No word on a release date but we should hear more at E3.

Also announced was a game based on the popular comics series Fables. The comic puts the classic characters of fairytales in modern day New York City, and they must blend in with modern human ways and technology. For example, Snow White, divorced from Prince Charming, is the deputy mayor of Fabletown, a secret community on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We’ll learn more about the game, including release date and format, at San Diego Comic Con.