Four former Telltale leaders set up new game studio

Four leaders of the now bankrupt Telltale Games have set up a new game studio. Like Telltale Games, AdHoc studio will make games that can be described as an interactive story, but more experimental than the former Telltale did.

The four leaders left about two years before Telltale went bankrupt, according to an interview on Variety. These are CEO Michael Choung, COO Nick Herman, CTO Dennis Lenart and CCO Pierre Shorette. They wanted to take more risks with game design than was usual at Telltale. Before that, three of the four turned to Ubisoft, where they hoped to set up a subsidiary studio. After that fell through, the three formed the new company AdHoc Studio together with the fourth, Choung.

AdHoc Studio wants to make games that are similar to Bandersnatch, the interactive Black Mirror movie that came out on Netflix in December. “With streaming platforms in every home and smartphones in every pocket, it’s possible for anyone to participate in an interactive movie or series. We feel now is the perfect time to set up a studio that focuses on that.”

The team doesn’t have anything concrete to reveal at this point, but the interview does state that it’s always keen to work with real actors on screen, so AdHoc Studio’s first game may be similar to Bandersnatch in that regard. There is also no release date for the team’s first project yet.