Batman: A Telltale Game Series will be released sometime this summer, according to a recent SXSW panel attended by several key employees of Telltale Games. This includes Kevin Bruner, executive producer and CEO, TQ Jefferson, executive producer, Job Stauffer, head of creative communications, Pierre Shorette, writer, and Nick Herman, director and senior cinematic artist.
The panel discussed the challenges of working within the framework of Batman past lore, which has made it difficult to write a script for Batman: A Telltale Game Series. For example, if Batman encounters Edward Nigma, or The Riddler, while Batman may or may not know who he is, the player definitely will, affecting the choices they make in-game.
“We’re looking at just the history of Batman and the costume and Wayne Manor. The cave, the batmobile and all that stuff, again, letting that inform our decisions,” Jefferson said. ‘But I think when we show you our Batman, it’s going to be very much Telltale’s Batman.”
The player’s choices in Batman: A Telltale Game Series may be how Telltale gets around this, the player creating the (multiple) villains they will then have to face. Telltale describes it as fuses being lit, and it’s all about how fast (or if) the players can snuff out the flames before it’s too late. Part of this means that players will choose when they will want to be Batman, or when they to play as Bruce.
Telltale isn’t ready to announce any voice actors just yet, but the game studio is currently working with Warner Interactive and D.C. Comics to write the script. The game is also likely going to have an M rating, and will not be designed with a photorealistic style. Instead, Batman: A Telltale Game Series will have a comic book-esque visual style.
“Expect something in the direction of [The Wolf Among Us] than the Rocksteady games, or things like that, which are beautiful games in their own right,” said Bruner. “But we’ve really embraced this 75-year history, the printed comics history, of the franchise and really wanted to bring that life. We have a bunch of new engineers that have been working on non-photorealistic rendering technology.”
Telltale is planning on releasing a Marvel-related video game sometime in 2017.
