The Walking Dead: 9 Minutes With Robert Kirkman

Like many of you, Im eagerly awaiting news on the release date of the third episode of Telltale Games superb PSN series The Walking Dead, a game that is intimately connected to the grim world of Robert Kirkmans celebrated comic series.

Ive long wondered just how involved Kirkman was with Telltales hit game series, so when I got a chance to interview him during Gamescom in Germany last week, I dropped my bratwurst and Kolsch and picked up the phone. I first met Kirkman during an interview for the late, great GamePro and, as always, the man is nothing if not humble about his considerable creative achievements. He modestly described The Walking Deads surge into mainstream pop culture as a wild ride, and expressed great satisfaction with Telltales work on the game.

My chat with Kirkman was short (hes a busy man!) but it yielded some fascinating insights into the creative processes behind one of the biggest properties in comics, TV, and gaming.

Photo by Megan Mack

PlayStation.Blog: Why did you choose Telltale Games to adapt the world of your comic to a video game series? Robert Kirkman: The Walking Dead is a lot of things, but at its core its a dramatic human story thats very emotional. Telltale came in with a proposal that involved doing a very different kind of video game. A video game that didnt focus on shooting zombies or hiding from zombies or being chased by zombiesthey focused on the emotional, dramatic component. It was a very keen focus on decision making and how that affects your characters, and also how those characters evolved over the course of a narrative. Telltale wanted to focus on the storytelling as opposed to the action, which I thought was really cool. They really got The Walking Dead, and theyve done it justice.

PSB: Did you intend The Walking Dead game to be serialized from the start? If so, why? RK: The serialization model Telltale does they do very well. The comic book is a serialized story, and I think its a cool thing to transition into a game. Being able to play a two-hour chunk of game and end it on a cliffhanger, with a period of time between chapters that builds anticipation for the next story is a cool aspect for the comic. I dont think there was any plan to be serialized, but I think it was a cool carryover to Telltales business model.

PSB: So how much input did you provide into the type of game Telltale made? Did you have key creative mandates? RK: We had a lot of macro meetings early on about what this game would be. In the very early stages, it was very important to me that this game would be something that mattered to the fans. So this game very much takes place in the world of The Walking Dead comic book, and it deals with things that exist there. And you cant really tell a story like that if Rick Grimes is the main character. Because [the implication would be], if this story is so important, how come we never saw it or talked about it in the comic? This is clearly a side thing!

So very early on we decided to focus on a different character and a different story that would weave in and out of the comic book story in interesting and meaningful ways. But we also wanted it to be a standalone story so that the comic and game can complement each other without contradicting each other. We wanted you to experience them both and get a fuller, richer experience. So yeah, those meetings were something I was very involved with.

Talking with the guys at Telltale, I said, The Walking Dead is sad. If you can make players sad, thats really what were after here. You want to drive the emotional impact of what it would be like to live in this world, and if you can achieve that in a game, that would be amazing. And that was something the Telltale team was already striving for making this a really emotional experience, not just scary or exciting. Those were the kinds of decisions we made very early on. But the type of game it is, and the way the gameplay works, is all Telltale.

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The Walking Dead: 9 Minutes With Robert Kirkman

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero