I would imagine these companies with larger staffs that make the huge AAA titles, if they could do that they would, because it’s just faster. Is there a tradeoff there between being able to change something quickly and the kinds of tools big companies use where they may not want to do that?

DC: I think with big companies and AAA productions, the sheer volume of people it takes to create a AAA title...

They’d step on each other’s changes?

DC: Exactly. It’s one thing to have four or five people in there doing it, it’s another to have fifty of them controlling it and all that. I don’t know what about processes are broken in other companies, but I do know Dave’s second point - at Telltale, everyone there in the upper levels have been in the industry for a long time. I mean Dave’s 73 and I’m 81 - in game years. We’ve been doing it forever. Everything stupid you could do in the games business from a production standpoint I’ve probably managed a team in doing that. We’ve decided at Telltale we can’t afford to make any of those mistakes and we don’t allow it. Everything else is optimized to prevent mistakes.

DG: Nothing goes on for very long before it gets seen by someone and reviewed, so things can’t get very off track.

DC: That’s a great point. If we get two weeks of schedule, that’s like thirty percent of our schedule.

Since you guys have releases so often, one might think that you guys are in crunch 24/7. Is that the case?

DC: I’m more of the mindset that we’re in crunch 8/5. Our saying at Telltale is ’It’s been a long week today.’ It’s because there’s never a day at Telltale where there isn’t something critical happening.
Do you prefer that environment - from a lifestyle standpoint?

DG: It’s not crazy - he’s making it sound like it’s crazy. At 7 o’clock - I work kind of a late shift so I’m around at 7 - there’s always somebody there, but there’s not a lot of people. Most people come in, they work hard all day, and they go home. I won’t say nobody’s spending the night, but they’re not spending the night all the time.

DC: It’s just a very busy day, there’s no wasted time. When you get into crunch mode at most companies, by the time people are pulling all-nighters, you’ve got people sleeping till 3 on the couch, going out and getting a slice of pizza, and then they work for a little more, but they’re living their lives around their jobs. That’s not as productive in some ways, you get people writing sloppy code -

You start getting diminishing returns.

DC: And negatives.

DG: I get mad at my guys when they come in on the weekends, I don’t like them to do that. They’re not fresh when they come in on Mondays.

Yeah, I’ve found as a writer just thinking about something else can really spark creativity. Well, just one more thing - is there anything you want gamers out there to know?

DC: We’d love to let people know Wallace & Gromit is out, it’s really a big evolution for Telltale Games in general. We’re excited about all the advances, so please check it out.

Alright! Thanks a lot Dan. Dave, is there anything you’d like people to know about who you are or what you do?

DG: What I do... wow. It’s hard, what I do.

Big thanks to Dan Connors, Dave Grossman, and Marketing & PR Representative Emily Morganti for talking with us. If you’re intrigued about episodic gaming, please check out Sam & Max. If you’re intrigued about what Dave Grossman does (and how hard it is), check out part 2 of our interview.