Skybound gives update on The Walking Dead: The Final Season, third episode likely out by the end of this year
Earlier today, Skybound Games hosted a Reddit AMA for The Walking Dead: The Final Season. CEO Ian Howe and creative director Kent Mudle gave an update on when we can expect the third episode, former developers at Telltale, and more.
Here are a few notable excerpts:
On episode 3 release date…
I can’t give you a definitive answer at the moment. What I can say is that the team is not currently working on the game and until we’re back into production, it’s going to be nearly impossible to give an accurate answer.
What I can say is that we will announce new dates as soon as we know what they are, there is no reason for us to hold that information back, so it will be public immediately that we can talk about it with confidence.
… OK, given that you guys have been so supportive and patient, I’m going out on a limb and will say yes, I fully expect Episode 3 to be this year and I’ll be very disappointed if we can’t make that happen.
On former development team members…
In the development of any game, it’s often not a fixed team, people roll on and off of projects all of the time depending on where the game is at in it’s development cycle and this is no different. So, that means there are people who were on the team who were close to rolling off onto something else, it’s unfair to ask someone to come back and do a couple of weeks work, especially if that would get in the way of another job offer, so this is just one example of some of the challenges we face.
Every single member of the development team has a unique personal situation and we have to take all of that into account, so there really isn’t a one size fits all solution, we have to look at it on a case by case basis and that’s why it’s not a quick process.
… At this stage, we’re still in discussions with various members of the team and I met over 40 of them last week to discuss our plans moving forwards. They know what we’re trying to do and as soon as the lawyers have done their thing, we’ll be able to speak more openly.
One thing you should know is that we’d like to celebrate the team and their work over the coming months, so expect to see some cool stuff that looks back on the creation of the series
On episode 4 and general status update…
Episode 3 was close to complete, but there is still work to do. Episode 4 was in pre-production, so lots still to do on that. Nobody is currently working on the game due to the ongoing legal discussions. Telltale have been incredibly helpful in trying to make this happen quickly and the staff that we’ve spoken to have been extremely enthusiastic about coming back to complete the game. The only areas where we aren’t able to get people back is where they’ve been offered other roles, which is totally understandable.
On when The Walking Dead: The Final Season will be available to purchase again…
We’ll be back on sale as soon as possible, I’d hope we can do this by the end of October.
