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Telltale talks Tales from the Borderlands and its ending

Tales from the Borderlands was up for Best Narrative last night at the Game Awards. Prior to the event, Telltale's Kevin Bruner and Job Stauffer walked the red carpet and Shacknews took a moment to ask about the game and, more importantly, ask about the game's ending.

Ozzie Mejia

December 4, 2015 9:30 AM

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Telltale Games is a very busy studio, as viewers of the Game Awards were reminded last night. The Walking Dead will get a special three-episode Michonne mini-series and, as also revealed last night, Telltale will take on Batman. On top of that, Minecraft: Story Mode is in progress and Game of Thrones is slated to get a second season, all while the Marvel Universe awaits in 2017. But for Telltale, last night was also about Tales from the Borderlands and its nomination for Best Narrative. As CEO Kevin Bruner and Head of Creative Communications Job Stauffer walked the red carpet, Shacknews stopped to ask about Telltale returning to the game's comedy roots.

"When we started doing Tales from the Borderlands, it was funny, because there was a lot of community feedback of like, 'Oh, all they know how to do is depressing horror stuff,'" Bruner told Shacknews. "And we're like, 'Nooo! We spent seven years doing comedy before Walking Dead and Wolf [Among Us] and all of these heavy things.' So we had all this pent up comedic energy that we were ready to unleash with Tales. But the great thing about Tales from the Borderlands is the way it is very much, very funny in a comedy sense, but very genuine and dramatic at the same time. So we were able to combine the best of everything that we do."

With that said, Bruner lauded not only his own development and writing team, but also the folks at Gearbox Software for helping create a story that straddled the line between comedy and the drama that recent Telltale efforts have become known for.

"We've got some of the best writing and designing when it comes to narrative gameplay around," Bruner added. "And working with Gearbox, the Borderlands universe, there's a lot of absurd things and it's funny, but it's also a really comprehensive and real world to work with. The characters are over-the-top, but they're not just comedic devices. They're genuinely developed characters and that was really the fodder we needed to make something like this.

As our time concluded, this writer wasn't about to let Telltale walk away without asking about the ending to the game, especially since it was ripe for speculation. Without touching on spoilers, Tales from the Borderlands ends with a major question lingering overhead. With that said, Shacknews asked if Telltale had any plans to follow up on this ending. The answer?

"I think that's a question for Gearbox," Stauffer said. "The ball is in Gearbox's court."

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?