GamesTM sat down with Telltale's Dave Grossman, to find out more on Wallace & Gromit's episodic video game

How did the Wallace & Gromit licence come about? Did Aardman approach Telltale or vice-versa? What exactly happened?

Telltale is packed with animation fans who love Wallace & Gromit, and it was clear to us that they would make terrific characters for the kind of story-based games that we make. We put together a proposal containing a few story ideas and some great art samples to demonstrate what we had in mind, and then we sent one of the company founders to England to knock on Aardman’s door personally with it. They pelted Kevin with clay at first, but he played the banjo on their doorstep and refused to stop until they looked at our pitch. Which they liked, so they agreed to work with us.

How has the approval process gone on each story/episode? What have been the biggest difficulties?

The Aardman art style is obviously very important, and it’s taken a fair amount of back-and-forth to really get it right, but the stories have actually been harder. Wallace & Gromit has a very particular narrative vein, and a distinctly northern-England voice and sense of humor. We have to deal with the clear handicap of being non-British, which we’ve done by colluding with a British editor, Tristan Davies, known for his efforts on Private Eye but who more importantly has worked with Wallace & Gromit before. We workshopped our story seeds and the season arc with Tristan, then got feedback and approval from Aardman. Each episode follows a similar track, wherein the script is edited three times, once internally, once by Tristan, and once by Aardman—by which time it’s pretty good! Meanwhile, Aardman is also signing off on all of the character designs, models, environments, and so on, to ensure a suitable Wallacey quality all around.

Why did you decide to go with Xbox 360 rather than Wii?

A significant factor is that we’re using new rendering technology to achieve the Aardman claymation look, and that technology simply makes more sense on the Xbox. Also, we did just do the Strong Bad series for the Wii, and we’re not a one-platform studio.

We assume that the 360 version will have Achievements. How are you handling these? What sort can we expect?

There are some achievements for progressing through the major sections of the game, but the ones I like best tend to be Easter Eggy sorts of things, where we reward you for trying something unusual, or finding something stashed in a corner, or solving a puzzle in a particularly efficient or clever way. Oh, and there are Cheese Achievements, of course.

What improvements have been made to Telltale’s general adventure gameplay/technology over that of Sam & Max and Strongbad?

We’ve taken some evolutionary steps in the way that the supporting characters on screen express themselves, behave on their own, and react to the presence of the player, all of which makes them significantly more lively and believable than they have been in the past. We’ve also changed the conversational design to integrate your interactions with these characters more smoothly into the core gameplay. There is new rendering technology, new camera technology, and a different user control scheme designed specifically for the Xbox. Say, that’s quite a bit!

Finally, why did you decide to make just four episodes when other Telltale series have run to five or six?

It just felt like the right way to tailor this particular season. I’d rather have four episodes that are robust, cohesive and complete than arbitrarily force it to five and have one seem extraneous and all of them feel thin.