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The Walking Dead was critically praised and considered to have revitalized the adventure game genre since LucasArts' departure from it in 2004.
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Nearly all of Telltale's adventure games afterwards featured this player choice-driven approach. The Walking Dead gave the player the ability to make choices that could affect how future events in the game or its sequels played out, effectively allowing players to craft their own personalized take on the offered story. It introduced a more narrative-directed approach that diverged from the standard adventure game "point and click" gameplay.
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Telltale's critical breakout game came in 2012's The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series of the same name. Around 2010, the studio gained more lucrative licensing opportunities in more mainstream properties such as Back to the Future and Jurassic Park. Telltale's initial successes were on games using intellectual properties with small but dedicated fan bases, including Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit, Homestar Runner, and Bone. It closed in October 2018 after filing for bankruptcy protection.
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Telltale established itself to focus on adventure games using a novel episodic release schedule over digital distribution, creating its own game engine, the Telltale Tool, to support this. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following LucasArts' decision to leave the adventure game genre. Telltale Incorporated ( trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California.
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