Although Telltale Games has a reputation for making some of the best single-player RPGs in the industry, the company now plans on taking its next game, Batman: The Telltale Series, into the multiplayer arena.
Telltale recently confirmed that Batman: The Telltale Series will have a multiplayer component called "Crowd Play" that will let players go online and let friends and family help them make in-game decisions that affect the story.
The developer talked about the inspiration behind this additional feature at San Diego Comic-Con. They noticed that, when players delved into their games with others around, they would pause and ask the people around them what they should do next. So, Telltale decided to integrate that into Batman: The Telltale Series.
"We wanted a better way to integrate that audience," Job Stauffer, head of creative communications at Telltale, said to Shack News. "Now, from two to 2,000-plus people can help the player make decisions. We are now turning all of Telltale's games into a live interactive multiplayer experience."
Crowd Play is an option players can choose at the beginning of the game. If they turn it on, the game generates a URL that players must visit and log into. Then, they can share that URL with other people. Only those with the URL can watch a gameplay session. When a dialogue decision comes up, it shows up on Crowd Play and lets those watching the game decide which dialogue choice is best, and then, tallies up the votes. Players can let the crowd make the decision for them based on the most popular choice, or they can choose to ignore the crowd and make the choice themselves.
Batman: The Telltale Series will take players somewhere they haven't gone before: inside the mind of Bruce Wayne. They'll follow Bruce as he uses his skills as a detective to solve cases and learn more about what's going on in Gotham City. Every choice that Bruce makes, though, will affect the final outcome of the game. This sets Telltale's title apart from the previous Arkham titles by Rocksteady.
"The team wants to explore what the consequences are of the player's actions when decisions made as Bruce have a critical impact on his nightly crusade as Batman, and vice versa," Telltale writes on its blog. "Certain key situations will give the player the decision to approach a scene as Bruce or Batman, with consequences for both sides."
The first episode of Batman: The Telltale Series releases on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC in August.
