The Wolf Among Us 2
| The Wolf Among Us 2 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | Telltale Games Athlon Games |
| Director(s) |
|
| Programmer(s) | Zac Litton |
| Writer(s) |
|
| Composer(s) | Jared Emerson-Johnson |
| Series | Fables |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 5 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | TBA |
| Genre(s) | Graphic adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Wolf Among Us 2 is an upcoming episodic graphic adventure game being developed and published by Telltale Games with the assistance of AdHoc Studio, a studio that consists of former Telltale staff. It is a sequel to the 2013 game The Wolf Among Us, with the title taking place six months following the events of the previous title.
Development
[edit]When The Wolf Among Us was completed by July 2014, Telltale Games had thought of doing a second season, but they had already committed to the projects leading to Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode, and Game of Thrones.[1] The company was aware of a strong interest in a second season through the intervening years, and they were looking for the right time to develop it.[1]
A second yet-to-be-named season was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2017 and was originally set to premiere in 2018 for personal computers, consoles, and mobile devices. Both Adam Harrington and Erin Yvette were to reprise their roles as Bigby Wolf and Snow White, respectively.[2] Job Stauffer said that Season Two would not resolve the apparent cliffhanger related to Nerissa's connection to Faith; he said that it was meant to be ending similar to a film noir work that made the viewer think about the implications, but never saw this themselves as a cliffhanger. Instead, Season 2 would have continued on with more narrative related to Bigby and Snow White.[3] By May 2018, Telltale announced that due to recent internal studio issues, they had to push back the release of the sequel until 2019.[4] In September 2018, Telltale had a majority studio closure due to "insurmountable challenges", cancelling The Wolf Among Us' second season among other projects in development.[5]
Upon Telltale's revival by LCG Entertainment, The Wolf Among Us was one of the titles reacquired by LCG, but no announcement was made at that time about the sequel.[6] The company announced The Wolf Among Us 2 at The Game Awards 2019. The sequel will continue events after the first game, though still remain as a prequel to the comic series. The game is being developed in association with AdHoc Studio, formed by former Telltale Games staff, who will focus on the game's narrative and cinematic elements while Telltale will implement the gameplay and other designs. In addition to returning Telltale staff, Harrington and Yvette will return to voice Bigby and Snow White, and Jared Emerson-Johnson will compose music for the game. The game was being developed on the Unreal Engine 4 before it was upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 during 2023, and will be released in an episodic approach.[7] This sequel will be worked completely from scratch, using none of the ideas and initial work that had been done under the former Telltale banner before its closure.[8] Unlike the past development cycle approach at the former Telltale where each episode was developed in a standalone fashion, all episodes of The Wolf Among Us 2 are being developed simultaneously.[9] The game was set to be released in 2023,[10] but on March 1, 2023, Telltale announced the game would be delayed to 2024.[11] The development team decided that switching to Unreal Engine 5 would be "worth the effort" of redoing much of the work that was already done on Unreal Engine 4 due to the abundance of features in a newer version of the engine and the delay decision was made to avoid doing crunch during this switch.
Telltale had to lay off a portion of their team in September 2023 due to "market conditions", though claimed work on The Wolf Among Us 2 was ongoing.[12][13] Telltale cinematic artist Jonah Huang, who has worked at the studio in both its current and original incarnation, was one of those affected, and claimed the studio "laid most of us off early September".[12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Byrne, Katherine (September 18, 2017). "The Wolf Among Us was 'almost unshippable' and could have been a comedy, says Telltale". MCV. Archived from the original on 2017-09-21. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
- ^ Nunneley, Stephanny (July 19, 2017). "The Wolf Among Us 2, The Walking Dead: The Final Season coming in 2018, Batman: The Enemy Within out in August". VG247. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
- ^ Purslow, Matt (August 23, 2017). "The Wolf Among Us's ending is "absolutely not a cliffhanger"". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 23, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Kim, Matt (May 25, 2018). "The Wolf Among Us 2 Delayed Until 2029". USGamer. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
- ^ Kim, Matt (September 21, 2018). "Sources: Telltale Games Shutting Down, The Wolf Among Us 2 and Stranger Things Canceled [Update, Correction]". USGamer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
- ^ Campbell, Colin (August 28, 2019). "Telltale Games is being revived". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (December 12, 2019). "Telltale confirms it will make The Wolf Among Us 2". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
- ^ Olsen, Matthew (December 17, 2019). "The Wolf Among Us 2 is Starting From Scratch, Telltale Confirms". USGamer. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
- ^ Chalk, Andy (December 10, 2020). "Telltale confirms The Wolf Among Us 2 is still happening, but it's going to be awhile". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
- ^ Marshall, Cass (2022-02-09). "The Wolf Among Us 2 has a new trailer, 2023 release window". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2022-02-09. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
- ^ Wales, Matt (2023-03-01). "The Wolf Among Us 2 delayed into 2024 to avoid burnout and crunch". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2023-03-18. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
- ^ a b Wales, Matt (2023-10-05). "Telltale confirms layoffs after Wolf Among Us 2 dev's claim "most of" team affected". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
- ^ LeBlanc, Wesley (October 5, 2023). "Telltale Games Confirms Layoffs, In-Development Games Remain In Production". Game Informer. Archived from the original on October 6, 2023. Retrieved October 6, 2023.