Telltale News

Watch the Official Trailer for Episode Two of The Walking Dead: The Final Season Now!

2018-09-17

Episode two of The Walking Dead: The Final Season won't launch until September 25, but here's the good news: we've got a brand new trailer ready for you right now! Check out the trailer at the top of this page, and read on for a few more details about Suffer the Children:

"A single shot rang out, and in that moment, everything changed. Now Clementine's chance for a home may already be lost, and her bond with AJ may never be the same. With their future suddenly poisoned by uncertainty, Clem must work to manage the fallout and salvage their situation. But a force more relentless than the dead is lurking in the woods, and a ghost from Clementine's past will soon return to threaten her future..."

Episode two will be available for download starting September 25 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch across all regions. And don't forget, a season pass disc for Xbox One and PS4 will also be available online and at retailers for $29.99 starting November 6, 2018. The disc will contain the first two episodes of the season, as well as download access for the two remaining episodes as they become available. A separate retail cartridge for Nintendo Switch will also become available at a later date.

More Than A Menu: Inside The Final Season’s Inventive User Interface

2018-09-06

When starting on The Walking Dead: The Final Season, the user interface team -- which includes myself, Crystal Langley, Katie Zammit and Chris Fodge -- took cues from the game’s environment and art style to define what the user experience and interface should look like. Originally we were inspired to bring back the comic look, so we plastered our office with every single comic book cover of The Walking Dead.

Issues 48, 169, and 150 in particular provided some of the starting points for the look and feel. It’s graphic, it’s bold, and it’s a bit like the constructivism movement with the shapes and use of colors. This was our diving board into how the game UX and UI could feel.

Early on, a lot of gameplay and systems were still being designed, so a relatively safe aspect for our team to work on was the death screen. Everyone’s gotta have one, especially The Walking Dead. For comparison, here’s what the death screen looked like in The Walking Dead: A New Frontier:

So, how do you take the old “blood overlay” death screen and make it look more like a graphic comic book cover? To start, we looked at the new graphic technologies our art and environment teams were using to make The Walking Dead look like a comic book to see if we could utilize the same tech. The two most exciting new tech features were “Graphic Black” -- which sounds like a cool metal band -- and the “Gradient Property.”

Graphic Black allows for objects in the environment to appear more black and graphic the further away you are. Then as you move closer, the environment reveals more details. Here’s an example:

Take a look at how the train station wall has a darker treatment from a distance but reveals more of the textures and details as you get closer. For The Final Season’s death screen, we used Graphic Black to turn the game completely graphic. We stripped away a lot of the detail to give everything an intense comic book feel. Then we used the gradient prop to tint the entire screen red to white to get a look like this:

The last part is the “You Are Dead” graphic statement. We made it look similar to the iconic title treatment found on every Walking Dead comic book cover. We also had to localize “You Are Dead” for other languages since it’s a custom image in-game rather than a font.

Here’s English and Italian side by side. Once we got a feeling for how the death screen looked, that became the benchmark for the art treatment of all the UI and menus moving forward. Kind of unexpected it was a death screen, but that’s what got all of us excited about this new style.

The end-of-episode stat screens were the next feature to get a redesign in this style. We wanted to reimagine the stats as individual comic book covers rather than screenshots overlaid with bar graphs. Here’s what The Walking Dead: A New Frontier stat screens looked like:

And here’s what we came up with for The Walking Dead: The Final Season:

Rather than using simple bar graphs, we imagined what a bar filling would look like if it were in this comic book cover style. So each bar fill is unique to the stat referenced, with a few layouts we can use across episodes. Above you can see the wall behind AJ fills to match the percent on screen, and below that, a row of crosses.

The team enjoyed this style so much that gradients, black graphic framing, and characters in black and white became the primary style guide. We even applied this style to the Story Builder to maintain a cohesive aesthetic. This treatment allowed the Story Builder to feel like an interactive comic but also to look like our in-game death and stats screens.

This art style then inspired our approach to creating a unique menu for The Final Season. The goal of the menu is to lead you into each environment by first looking through a window of some kind and then displaying more of that environment while expanding into the episode’s menu. For example, in the main menu, you’re looking through the car window at the train station and then it reveals more of the train station in the episodes menu.

Similar to how the online Story Builder “framed” choice moments, we wanted the menu to “frame” the Walking Dead universe. And in episode one, it’s framing the train station through the car window.

Previous episode menus (like one shown above) used flats and thumbnails to showcase the individual episodes, but in The Final Season, we wanted to make these menus more dynamic with 3D models and environments that felt alive. In addition, episodes are themed to a different color that actually matches the colors used in the online Story Builder, allowing us to maintain consistency throughout the UX/UI.

The episodes menu went through some major user experience changes. Instead of showing information for only one episode at a time, we show all the episode information on each screen. All the information you need is always on screen with the proper visual hierarchy.

Each episode installed also changes the visuals shown in the main menu (note the changes in color and environment above), so stay tuned for future episodes.

For most of Telltale’s UI and UX, the menu is the last idea to get finalized because, like a book title, it’s the summary of the entire user interface experience. The menu is the culmination of the entire art and design process that puts the final exclamation mark on the UX/UI of Walking Dead. That’s when you can name it, put down the pen, and let it out into the world.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season Retail Disc for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Hits Stores on November 6

2018-09-06

Looking to add another amazing Walking Dead game box to your shelf? Well good news! We're happy to announce that a season pass disc for The Walking Dead: The Final Season is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

The season pass disc will be available online and at retailers starting November 6 for $29.99 USD in the following regions: the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Benelux, and Australia. The disc will contain the first two episodes of The Final Season and will allow users to download the season's two remaining episodes as they become available. A separate retail cartridge for Nintendo Switch will also become available at a later date; stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

If you just can't wait until November 6, remember: episode one of The Final Season, 'Done Running,' is currently available for download on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch across all regions. Episode one can be downloaded immediately upon purchase of a digital season pass, and all subsequent episodes will become available for download as they are released. To learn more about individual episode release dates, click here.

What a Car Crash Can Tell You About Clementine’s Survival in The Walking Dead: The Final Season

2018-09-05

I knew that we had to start the season with a scene like this.

To start the story properly, we needed to very quickly remind players just how relentless the apocalypse can be and how much of a toll it can take on a person, especially roaming scavengers like Clem and AJ. That way, when the opportunity to settle down and find a home presented itself later in the episode, players would want that as much as the protagonists themselves. It’s hard to remember which element of the scene came first -- the location (the car) or the camera approach -- but we arrived at both very early on in the process.

Co-director Vahram Antonian and I decided on the car as a set piece because it was a confined space we could use to trap Clem inside while still showcasing her quick thinking and resourcefulness. The tight quarters allowed us to capitalize on the idea that threats can come from any direction, and the design of the car also created obstructed sightlines and blind spots -- qualities which allowed us to distill the dangers of the apocalypse down into one single setting and really help players understand Clem’s constant dilemma as a survivor.

We also knew from very early on that it would be necessary to shoot the sequence in one continuous take. It’s no secret that we were inspired by a similar sequence from Alfonso Cuaron’s 2006 film Children Of Men, but we really arrived at the decision because not cutting allowed us to do so much in terms of storytelling.

Like Clem, players are only able to focus on one thing at a time, all the while knowing that more threats are gaining momentum in the periphery. This helped build suspense and anxiety, feelings I want to make players experience several times this season. Shooting the scene this way also allowed us to feel like we were locked in that car with Clem and AJ, something that was very important early on in the story in order to unify Clem and the player’s perspectives. Cutting outside or to any other objective viewpoint would have subtracted from the experience, as we would have potentially gained information that Clem doesn’t have access to in the moment.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, experiencing the sequence in real time communicated just how physically demanding Clem’s lifestyle can be. By not cutting, we had to stay with Clem through every exhausting, painstaking moment of the experience. We’re reminded that, despite her bravery, smarts, perseverance, and other capabilities as a survivor, Clem’s only human. She’s not an action hero, nor a superpowered crimefighter -- she’s just a regular person whose been surviving on her own for a long, long time.

So despite being a thrilling, visually-enticing, and entertaining homage to another iconic scene, the sequence was actually developed to be an economic storytelling device. In a matter three minutes, we see the worst dangers that Clem and AJ face in this world; we see them work as a team; we see them make mistakes; and we see them recover and persevere.

After Vahram and I traced out the beats and planned all of the camera moves, the scene went through an intense development cycle of laying in cameras, creating layout animations, tweaking timing for interactivity, and finally, polishing. The cycle was repeated several times over until everything felt just right. The sequence is one of the most ambitious things we’ve ever made as a studio, and it took a talented team of animators, programmers, and artists to really bring it to life (not to mention the fine tuning of cinematic artist Michael Gambino). I’m super proud of what the team was able to accomplish, and I really hope that everyone who plays it enjoys it as much as we enjoyed making it.

It wasn’t until all of this work was done that we realized Lee’s story started in a very similar way, once upon a time. What a fitting way to begin the final chapter of that story.

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Out Now on Nintendo Switch!

2018-08-28

If you love Telltale's The Walking Dead and you've been dying to relive Clementine's heart-wrenching journey on your new favorite console, you've come to the right post. We've got a bunch of Nintendo Switch + Walking Dead news for you, so let's start from the top.

Earlier today, we launched The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season on Switch in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and most of Europe. The Complete First Season includes all five original episodes, as well as add-on anthology 400 Days. Both have been ported from last year's The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection, which offered substantial visual and performance enhancements over previous editions. The full game, including all five episodes and 400 Days, is now available for download for $24.99.

Next, episode one of The Walking Dead: The Final Season is now available for download on Switch in Europe. As you might remember, The Final Season already launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC globally on August 14, as well as on Switch in North America that same day. New episodes of The Final Season will continue to launch on all four platforms throughout the remainder of 2018.

And finally, just a reminder that we announced last week that The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will both come to Switch later this year. More information will be available in the coming months. If you don't want to miss any updates, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or join us on the forums to discuss all your Final Season theories.

Season One of The Walking Dead Arrives on Nintendo Switch Next Week!

2018-08-21

Good news, Switch fans! One of, if not the most requested game from our back catalog will debut on Nintendo Switch one week from today. The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season will launch digitally on Switch on August 28, bringing the award-winning start to Clementine's journey to Nintendo's latest console.

The Complete First Season includes all five original episodes, as well as add-on anthology 400 Days. Both have been ported from last year's The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection, which offered substantial visual and performance enhancements over previous editions. The full game, including all five episodes and 400 Days, will be available for download starting August 28 for $24.99 in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and most of Europe.

We didn't want to stop with Season One, though, which is why The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will also launch on Switch later this year. We'll have more info for you soon, but in the meantime, catch episode one of The Walking Dead: The Final Season on Switch right now in North America (August 28 in Europe), and look for The Complete First Season on August 28.

Happy to see more of our games coming to Switch? Let us know by reaching out on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!

Art of the Apocalypse: The Making of Clem’s New Look

2018-08-17

With a fresh new art style that calls back to both the comic book and the stylized nature of the earlier seasons -- along with some slick new visual tech we call “Graphic Black” -- The Walking Dead: The Final Season has given Clem an outfit and visual treatment that speaks to where she is at in her story. Finding AJ and surviving on their own has been a long, lonely road fraught with hunger, stress, and raw survival.

So naturally, the characters appear filthy and worn. Pickings are slim at this point, and chances to stop and wash yourself and put on new clothes are getting rarer and rarer. If you find something and it fits, you wear it until it’s worn out. As the art director, I wanted to compliment Clem’s resourcefulness by choosing clothes that would help her survive but also accent her rugged presence in this harsh world.

A tough old jean jacket for the summer to fall months will keep her safe from scrapes and scratches. It will also help her stay mobile while evading zombies and people alike through the cover of mostly rural areas.

We also took a liberty here to go with a badass motorcycle theme to toughen Clem up (like she needs it). Did she come across an abandoned biker den on a lonely North Carolinian highway? Or did she salvage a trendy teen back-to-school jacket from a mostly ransacked mega-store in a small town in Virginia? Who knows. All I know is, it looks cool.

I think it’s inspired by my many outings with my dad to the motorcycle shows at Exhibition Place in Toronto as a kid. I still remember the ring he bought me with six skulls all stacked on top of each other. I never did wear that out in public, especially after it turned my finger greyish black, but man I still love that thing.

What should I say about a hoodie? Everyone has one. If you say you don’t have one, you are probably lying or have forgotten about it. If you saw one lying around in the zombie apocalypse somewhere, you would grab it too. They are practical, will keep you warm, and keep your face hidden when you don’t want someone recognizing or remembering you. You can even stuff the hood full of soft things at night and use it as a pillow. When you’re constantly on the move, that alone would make life more bearable.

You can never have enough pockets in this world, hence the rugged and utilitarian cargo pant for stashing the odd bullet and other small useful items like, say, a paper map (remember those?) or a compass or a needle and thread kit to sew your arm back together after being bitten wide open by a scabrous mutt waiting for someone to open that damn can of beans. Bags filled with necessities can be left behind in a rush or when surprised and upended by a threat, so it’s always good practice to keep some essentials on your person.

Also, a selfish Art reason for many pockets: they help breakup the silhouette of the character, creating interesting shapes in a mostly realistic shape design art style. (Plus, the little pocket flaps look cool moving in the wind shader.)

Clem knows to keep her feet warm and dry and to look good while doing so. At this point, there aren’t many working vehicles (or gas to fuel them), so the people that are left do a lot of walking. And in this world, if your feet hurt too much to keep walking, you’re dead. A good sturdy pair of boots will keep her feet from getting injured and provide a barrier that should prevent zombie brains from getting under her toenails (does a person turn when that happens?).

Whether or not you picked the “keep your hair short” choice from the end of Season One, Clem is keeping it short because she’s smart like that. I missed her short ponytails from earlier seasons, and I felt compelled to continue along the interesting path of the asymmetrical design from the end of Season Three, even though I was not fond of that last haircut. So I mixed them both together. We are left with hair that is long enough to put into a short ponytail on her left side but not quite long enough to do so on her right side.

Can you believe Clem still has this hat? It is so old and crusty! The D is starting to peel off, and there are several holes apparent on the panels. How bad does this thing smell? How many times were walker brains and innards splattered on it? It doesn’t matter. This hat has become a part of the character, Clem’s only physical attachment to Lee and the time they spent together.

I made the mistake of showing Clem without her hat at PAX East in Boston, and the fans present had some serious stress oozing out of their pores about it. The fans want the hat, so I’ll give them the hat, albeit an old, worn, crusty, and bloody hat.

In almost every season, there has been a conversation within the team about whether or not to lose the hat. And yet, here it is. There is something magical about that hat and its ability to evade the creative butcher’s block here at the studio.

Editor's note: download the official cosplay guide here, and read tips on how to cosplay Clementine from "Done Running" lead writer Jessica Krause in our previous dev blog.

So You Wanna Cosplay Clementine: A Guide

2018-08-16

Hello friends! Episode one of The Walking Dead: The Final Season is finally out (hooray!), and that means all you aspiring cosplayers will be frantically pausing and screencapping the game to get an accurate glimpse of Clementine’s final design. Trust me, I feel your pain. I’ve been there. Literally:

[2015 Jess, before I ever applied to work at Telltale. Follow your dreams, kids.]

As writer of episode one of The Final Season, and a fellow cosplayer myself, I wanted to offer some help by taking you through Telltale’s Official Cosplay Guide for Clementine! The guide is available to download with high-res images, so feel free to get as detailed as you want. Special thanks to David Bogan, Todd Pound, and Geoffrey Brege for putting the visual guide together for all of you to enjoy!

There are no hard and fast rules in cosplay: as long as you’re having fun and enjoy dressing up as characters you love, that’s what matters the most. However, if you’re just starting out, here are a few tips for creating Clem’s look that you can use as a jumping off point. Let’s break it down!

Clem’s top is made up of a cream-colored henley, a light grey hoodie, and her new dark grey denim jacket. Clem’s cargo pants are an olive green, with pockets on both thighs. If you’re worried about overheating at a convention with all those layers, you can use a short-sleeved henley, since you won’t see the sleeves underneath the hoodie. You’ll probably want to distress these items to get that authentic just-woke-up-killing-walkers-this-morning look, so I would recommend looking through your local thrift stores first.

The denim jacket has a screen-printed back, as well as a patch on the left shoulder and a smaller patch over the right front pocket. We’ve provided the designs for each of these so you can see the details. For the back, you can either stencil the design on or trace over the design with transfer paper and then iron the design onto the back. Go over the design with some white fabric paint (you can find it for pretty cheap at any craft store) and you should be good to go! The smaller patches are embroidered, but if you don’t embroider or want a faster way to achieve the same look, you can easily paint the design onto some scrap fabric before attaching to the jacket.

Clem’s boots are lace-up knee-high boots with zipper and buckle details. Thankfully, fall is approaching, which means most stores are going to start stocking boots that would look pretty similar to these. And if you’re going to splurge on anything for this outfit (or any cosplay, for that matter), invest in some decent shoes. Your feet will thank you after walking around a convention hall for 8 hours. Trust me, I speak from experience.

As far as accessories, Clem has a canvas backpack (which provides the added advantage of storing all your convention loot), her K-bar knife (please check your convention’s cosplay weapon policy before attending, and please always use plastic or foam), and Clementine’s signature hat. Feel free to use your tears from the past three seasons to distress your hat accordingly.

Distressing your cosplay is going to give you the most authentic look for Clementine, and there are several methods to choose from. One way is to take fabric paints in brown, black, yellow, and red, and mix them with water until you have a runny consistency. This will ensure that the fabric won’t stiffen up after the paint dries. The more water you add, the better. Combine red, black, and brown onto a large, stiff brush and flick liberally to create blood stains. You don’t need to be exact in your distressing, so have fun with it.

The last and possibly most iconic element of any Telltale game is the cel-shading. You can achieve this using an eyeliner pen for your face and a fabric pen for your clothing (craft stores sell them, usually by the fabric paint). The easiest way to figure out where to cel-shade is to put on the entire outfit and mark where the fabric naturally bunches and folds. For the face, you can look at the close-up we provide or just line around the contours and highlights of your face (the cupid’s bow, the bridge of the nose, the contours of the chin, etc).

And that’s it! It may seem like a lot, but once you get all the articles of clothing, it just comes down to the distressing. Remember, cosplay is meant to be fun above all else, so don’t stress too much. And if you see one of us at an upcoming convention and you dressed as Clem, come say hi!

We’re so excited to see cosplayers of all levels pay homage to their favorite Telltale characters. Remember to tag @telltalegames on social media if you post your work, and hopefully, we’ll see you at a convention soon!

Download the cosplay guide here!

See the Official Trailer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season Ahead of Season Premiere on August 14!

2018-08-09

It's here! The official trailer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season has arrived, providing the deepest dive yet into the upcoming season premiere. Episode one, 'Done Running,' will introduce new visuals, mechanics, and characters to the series, and commence the final chapter in Clementine's journey. The episode will be available for download starting August 14, 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One across all regions.

And here's some more big news: The Final Season will also launch digitally on Nintendo Switch on August 14 in North America and later this month in Europe and other regions! More information regarding The Final Season on Switch will be available soon. The game is currently still available for preorder on PC, PS4, and Xbox One for $19.99, and a free playable demo is now available across all three platforms. So watch the trailer and then go experience the opening chapter for yourself!

Behind The Walking Dead Story Builder: Coming Full Circle with Daniel Kanemoto

2018-08-07

Animator Daniel Kanemoto recently helped create the captivating Story Builder for The Walking Dead: The Final Season, but this wasn't his first time working with Telltale.

Back in 2012, Daniel animated an opening credits sequence for the Walking Dead TV show using artwork he scanned directly from the comic book. This title sequence was purely a passion project born of Daniel’s love for the franchise, but when Telltale Games staff saw his work, the team was inspired to reach out to him about making the very first official trailer for The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series.

Fast forward six years and the team at Telltale now needed a fun, creative way for both fans and newcomers to craft custom save files based on the series’ biggest story-branching choices, laying the groundwork for their own unique entry points into the upcoming season. With The Final Season already bringing so much full circle, Daniel naturally came to mind...

Q: Can you take us back to the first time Telltale Games contacted you about the first trailer? How did you feel?

It was awesome. I was inspired to create a title sequence for The Walking Dead before the TV show premiered, after I caught a glimpse of the show at Comic-Con. The series had so much potential – a serious horror drama, set in a post-apocalyptic, zombified universe, with Frank Darabont writing and directing the pilot, and the mad scientists at KNB creating all the cool makeup effects? As someone who grew up reading Fangoria Magazine, it was a dream come true.

At the same time, I’ve always loved title sequences and motion graphics, and I had just relocated my animation studio to Los Angeles, so I had some free time in-between pitching myself to new clients. So I decided instead of making a short film (which is what I usually do in-between commercial jobs), I’d make a title sequence just for fun. I had no idea that so many people would wind up watching the sequence, let alone actually lead me to my first West Coast client... which was Telltale Games.

Telltale spoiled the hell out of me. I visited the studio in San Francisco, met the creative team and artists – there’s a crazy amount of talent and enthusiasm at the studio, which is awesome to be around – and got an early glimpse at the game. It was wonderful to sit down and brainstorm with the artists and producers face-to-face. Plus getting a chance to peek under the hood of any creative project is always awesome.

Q: How did you go about building that first trailer? What was that process like?

I did a long interview with Art of the Title about the creation of my original Walking Dead title sequence, and I used a very similar approach for the first trailer. Basically, I’m animating a ‘virtual’ camera to reveal various 2D elements in 3D space, to create complex, multi-plane style camera moves. In the original title sequence, the 2D elements were comic book illustrations, and for the first trailer, the 2D elements were various art elements pulled directly from the game.

I used lots of screenshots of various backgrounds, and also 2D renders of 3D characters from the game to create a single animated camera move that would reveal the main characters and the post-apocalyptic world they inhabit. (And, of course, zombies. Lots of zombies.)

Most importantly, I really wanted to evoke a certain mood with this trailer – the game, like everything with The Walking Dead, is all about making tough choices and dealing with the consequences. In this case, playing as the main character of Clem, you have to make the call, and then you experience the consequences. That’s what makes this game such a fascinating and unique project.

Q: For the Story Builder, can you talk about your creative process?

For the Story Builder project, the technical animation process was very similar to the trailer and title sequence – I animated a camera in 3D space to reveal various 2D elements (in this case, customized drawings from a comic book illustrator instead of gameplay elements). But creatively, the project was much more ambitious. Unlike the trailer, we weren’t just teasing characters or trying to evoke a mood – instead, the goal was to find an interesting way to allow players get re-live the most important and critical narrative choices in past chapters.

My producer at Telltale, Brodie Anderson, wound up writing out a large document that laid out all the different story choices, along with a thumbnail storyboard for each cause-and-effect “choice”. Then we talked through how we wanted to present each sequence. I would write up a quick list that would describe which layers for which shot we would want illustrated on separate layers (which would allow me to create multiplane animation). The comic book illustrator would then take both Brodie’s storyboard and my request for various layers and draw them. Finally I would lay them out in 3D space and start working on a camera move.

Q. What was your goal for the Story Builder, and how do set about accomplishing that goal?

My goal for the Story Builder was to support the narrative of the game. I wanted each sequence to clearly show the consequences of each choice being made by the player. I also wanted to create something that felt unique and different. Usually when you watch a recap of anything, you’re just watching ‘old’ footage that gets repurposed. But Telltale really went the extra distance to commission original comic book illustrations and original animation for this project.

Q: What’s your favorite sequence in the Story Builder and why?

My favorite sequences are the opening and closing sequence, which both feature Clem, our main character surrounded by zombies. In the opening shot, she’s obviously very young, and has Lee protecting her, and in the final shot, she is now the protector, and you really feel how much she (and, of course, you as player) have grown as a result of the choices you’ve made in the game.

The opening sequence was really fun to work on as well because it was truly collaborative – originally I was planning to do a slightly more ‘traditional’ camera move – a simple dolly zoom out – and Brodie, my producer, suggested that perhaps we could see more of the zombies if the camera also moved laterally as we moved backwards to reveal Clem. The final camera move sweeps across the zombie horde, which adds so much to the shot. A fantastic note that really improved the animation – that’s good producing.

Q: Any subtle details fans may have missed as they played through? Any deliberate call- backs to your earlier work?

In my original title sequence, there’s a quick “punch-zoom’ out from gun that fires directly into camera. There’s a very similar ‘punch-zoom’ out from a firing gun in the Story Builder, and I wound using a similar camera move and some of the same effects animation that I originally created back in 2012 for this sequence.

Q: So...did you shoot Lee?

I sure did. Multiple times, because (spoiler alert) he gets shot in the Story Builder, and it took a few trips back to the drawing board before this shot got approved, hahaha.

You can find Dan on the web at his site, http://exmortisfilms.com/, or on Twitter: @dankanemoto.