With "The Walking Dead" set to wrap up its insane second season this Sunday, fans will be chomping at the bit for more zombified adventure. While AMC currently has a "Walking Dead" social game in the works, developer Telltale Games has a robust single-player experience on the horizon for consoles and PC. Unlike the third season of AMC's critically acclaimed show, fans may not have to wait long for the first installment of Telltale's episodic gaming experience.
In an interview with Digital Trends, Telltale Games co-founder and CEO Dan Connors revealed "The Walking Dead" is just about finished with development, set to go gold within days. After the company will submits the game for approval through Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, a possible late April/early May release is projected.
Sparse details are slowly coming together about Telltale's "The Walking Dead," which focuses on protagonist Lee Everett, an original character created specifically for the game, in a parallel story to Robert Kirkman's comics with designs based on the art of ongoing "The Walking Dead" artist Charlie Adlard. Much like Telltale's other episodic games, players must control Lee to solve real-world puzzles to survive the zombie apocalypse and protect a young girl named Clementine. The game will focus more on problem solving and puzzles than combat and like Telltale's "Jurassic Park" and "Back to the Future" games, will be released in a series of five episodes.
However, "The Walking Dead" isn't the only comic property getting the gaming treatment. Connors also revealed the company is hard at work on a series of games based on Bill Willingham's "Fables," the popular ongoing series published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The series revolves around Fables, characters taken straight from fairy tales, as they try to start a new life in the mundane world after fleeing their homelands under the iron-fisted rule of the mysterious and brutal Adversary. Those who can pass for human, like Snow White and Old King Cole, take up residence in New York City's Fabletown while those that can't are limited to a remote location known as The Farm.
"We've been talking to Warner Bros. for a long time, and they're really interested in the 'Fables' franchise with DC and figuring out ways to get it into new mediums," Connors said in 2011. "In talking to them, we both saw that it was a really good fit for the two companies. What's important to them is the way the characters are portrayed and the way in which they go through the world, and are we going to respect the license and build on the franchise, and we were real interested in doing that. And we hope to do other things with Warner Bros., as well."
Connors couldn't reveal many details about "Fables," but he did confirm Telltale would be revealing the game over the summer, initially at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June and at Comic Con International at San Diego in July. Considering the episodic format of Telltale's previous endeavors (including "The Walking Dead"), it seems likely "Fables" will follow suit, but nothing is confirmed as of yet.
Stay tuned to CBR News for more on Telltale Games' "The Walking Dead" and "Fables"