I'm just flabbergasted by the level of smoothness of the production process at Telltale, while keeping the quality up. This isn't sort of "knock it out" game design production here. This is everybody coming together and making sure things get polished. It's not passing bucks around. It's just about everybody working on a project to do about three or four things. When they see something wrong, it's their responsibility to fix it or immediately get in front of somebody who can fix it.

It's great. It's full, hands-on programming and designing. I've been exercising my feeble programming chops, my choreography chops, my design chops, my writing chops night and day to get these things together and so does everybody else. Testers come in and do patches and even code on occasion. It is something can do, so we don't have to bother always. It's great.

The episodic model is an interesting one, but you get a real sense of how busy the Telltale group is with three series shipping. Though, as the interviewer notes, "Must be refreshing to go from these cancelled projects to a company where you're constantly shipping games all the time."

In-Depth: LucasArts Alum On Strong Bad's Episodic Gaming Kick [GameSetWatch]

I think that it will [shift into a Hollywood-type model]. And I think that, ultimately, it has to. And I think we will shift to that model, but I think that there are a couple of things that have to happen before we really shift to that. One is that I think technology has to settle down a little bit. I think technology is moving forward really rapidly, and part of what a lot of teams do is exploring new technology, and I think that's kind of hard to do with an ad hoc thing.

I think the other thing that's going to have to happen - and this is a really big one - is we're going to have to become unionized. Because I don't think that you're going to be able to grab all of these freelance people when you need them if there isn't some kind of a union structure that's over the top of them. You can't really have a bunch of animators just floating around from job to job with nothing in between.

So I think there's going to have to be a lot more structure, and I think that's going to have to come in the form of unions - which, you know, I don't know that I really agree with that; I think unions bring a lot of bad things to gaming, but I think they're going to be necessary for us to move into that Hollywood model.

Interesting interview with a lot of content; worth plowing through if you're in the mood for some interesting reading.

Spanking Death: Ron Gilbert Goes Episodic... And Loves It [Gamasutra]

For the other companies, Valve and Ritual, they made a lot of the mistakes we did early on. But we stuck to our guns and kept going, while they had so many other things going on at the same time. They bailed out a little earlier. We were all in it together then they dropped off.

It encourages a little bit more risk taking and allows you to fine tune things as you go along. At Telltale we tend to stay about 3 episodes ahead of what's on the market. That gives us a little time to course correct; we did that with Sam and Max, episode four was the first episode where we responded to consumer feedback.

So I think from a developers' perspective, since the risk and cost can be lowered up front, you have a little more control over your game. You can be a little bit more experimental. Then you've made the game you want to make and you can take it to more traditional channels.

A short interview that's worth a quick read through.

Telling Tales [gamesindustry.biz]

Company reps told Shacknews earlier this year that they were pursuing development on the Wii, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3.

Heartwarming press release, with the verb "dovetails", after the jump. Michael McWhertor

Telltale closes $6 million investment round

Funds will be used for new titles, expansion to additional hardware platforms, and additional staff

SAN RAFAEL, CA, June 12, 2007 - Interactive entertainment pioneer Telltale Inc. today announced that it has secured $6 million in Series B funding. Granite Ventures led the round, with IDG Ventures SF also participating. Telltale will use the financing to drive growth in existing and new episodic series, allowing the company to continue defining and refining new models for interactive entertainment and digital distribution. Multi-platform development and new staff additions are key elements in these strategic plans.

The announcement dovetails with the conclusion of Telltale's critically-acclaimed Sam & Max: Season 1, a six-episode game series that launched last fall and had monthly releases through May. As the first episodic series with releases on a regular schedule, Sam & Max: Season 1 has emerged as the first truly successful demonstration of episodic gaming for a mass audience—a major milestone for Telltale.

"Digital distribution is changing entertainment, and Telltale is helping define the new landscape," says Telltale's CEO and co-founder Dan Connors. "This funding will allow us to stay on the cutting edge of innovation by building out our team and our tools, and by taking on new licenses for the episodic treatment."

Telltale's funding comes from Granite Ventures and IDG Ventures SF, two San Francisco-based venture firms that focus on early-stage media and technology companies. Andre Blanadet of the advisory firm avanceventures played a critical role in Telltale's funding success.

"We look for experienced teams that are pioneering new technologies and business models in huge markets," says Chris Hollenbeck, managing director at Granite Ventures, who has joined Telltale's Board of Directors. "Telltale has it all—a great group of people who are changing an industry while doing what they love. We look forward to helping them build the next major player in the gaming industry."

"Telltale has one of the best teams we have seen in the gaming market and we are excited to be associated with them," says Philip Sanderson of IDG Ventures SF. "Entertainment software has undergone a radical change over the past few years in terms of development, content and distribution, and Telltale is on its cutting edge."

Of Granite and IDG Ventures SF, Telltale's CTO and co-founder Kevin Bruner says, "We managed to bring together a fantastic set of investors who share our vision of transforming the way people experience games. We're extremely pleased."

About Telltale
Telltale is a new breed of interactive entertainment company pioneering high-caliber episodic game publishing and development. Founded in 2004 by industry veterans with decades of experience, the company has quickly become a leader in episodic gaming by delivering award-winning interactive experiences that emphasize engaging stories, strong characters, and rich worlds. Telltale has shipped 10 titles to date, using proprietary tools that streamline development of high-quality, cinematic experiences for multiple platforms and digital distribution. These releases include the monthly six-episode series Sam & Max: Season 1, episodes adapted from Jeff Smith's epic Bone graphic novel series, and games based on television's popular CSI program in partnership with Ubisoft. Telltale offers content development and custom publishing services for license-holders interested in interactive adaptations of their properties. Telltale's games are available at the company's website and through select partners such as Turner Broadcasting's GameTap subscription service. To learn more about Telltale, please visit www.telltalegames.com.

About Granite Ventures
Granite Ventures has been helping early-stage technology companies build solid foundations for success since 1992. They focus their investments in the communications and software sectors where their partners have deep domain expertise, broad industry knowledge, and significant investment experience. Granite has managed over $1 billion in venture capital and has invested in more than 90 private companies. They partner with promising and successful entrepreneurs to create businesses that have a competitive edge, and help those businesses achieve category leadership. More information can be found at www.granitevc.com.

About IDG Ventures SF
IDG Ventures SF is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on New Media Technology—the convergence of the media and information technology markets. IDG Ventures SF helps entrepreneurs grow innovative companies using the operational and technical expertise of its General Partners and the unmatched platform of International Data Group, the world's largest IT Media company. IDG Ventures SF is part of the IDG global family of venture funds which have approximately $1.5 billion under management, and have invested in roughly 300 portfolio companies spanning North America, Europe, and Asia.

About avanceventures
avanceventures, headquartered in San Rafael, California, is an advisory, valuation, and mergers and acquisition firm focused on helping privately held companies maximize their financial objectives. To learn more about avance, please visit www.avanceventures.com.

From Shacknews:

Shack: Much ado has been made of your job solicitations for Wii and Xbox 360 programmers. What can you say about your plans there?

Dan Connors: Well, we're hoping to get on to both consoles, with Live Arcade and Virtual Console—I'm sorry, on all three consoles! But we're starting with Wii and Xbox, on both of their online services and retail as well.

Good news for gamers and indie developers looking for a lower risk, non-traditional retail route. Having Xbox Live Arcade, the Virtual Console and the PlayStation Network is sweet EB-avoiding relief. Michael McWhertor

Telltale CEO Dan Connors on Sam & Max [Shacknews]

After reading that developer Ritual Entertainment had been aquired by casual games house MumboJumbo, I assumed we'd never hear from the SiN crew ever again. I also theorized that SiN Episodes: Emergence was a certified sales failure (fortunately, that's not in print). Turns out I was about 74.2% wrong.

The Ritualistic community spoke with 3D Realms' moustachioed Richard "Levelord" Gray to get some clarification on the merger. On the questionable success of the first SiN episode:

The first episode did well, but not good enough to completely self-fund the second episode. It sold over 150,000 units, which is better than many shooters. It more than paid for itself, but not enough to entirely fund the next one.

And the future of SiN?

What we plan to do right now, both Ritual and MumboJumbo, is establish ourselves in the casual gaming market with strong new franchises and then return to SiN at a later date. We love SiN, make no mistake, and we definitely want to return to it.

Good news for fans. Let's just hope they're not put on some Puyo Pop clone and burn out before they focus on their next chapter. Michael McWhertor

Going Small - How the MumboJumbo Merger Will Affect Ritual

After congratulting the Sam & Max team on actually publishing their second episode, the editors start rappin' 'bout episodic gaming.

Jeff: Sin Episode 2...

Shawn: ...is likely not happening now. A lot of the people from the dev team have left.

Jeff: At Ritual?

Shawn: Yeah, they've gone elsewhere. They now work for other people. Some of the key people. One of the lead programmers. That's not a good sign.

Jeff: That seems like a real world thing that's going to be constantly a problem with any episodic game. How can you possibly ensure to fans or gamers that there are going to be future episodes? At any given point the team might dissolve.

Shawn: And the jury's out on why that's happening, I've personally been trying to contact the head there, Tom Mustaine, and haven't been able to get too much information. What it seems to imply, obviously, is that Sin Episode 1 didn't do well.

Michael McWhertor

GFW Radio

Screens and videos of the new stuff is available at the official site. Michael McWhertor

Cue Situation: Comedy [the Telltale Blog]