• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Ubisoft hires four major Telltale directors/writers for Ubisoft San Francisco

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
These include people who were directors on some of Telltale's best work.

Let's all hope they're not writing Tom Clancy games.

Ubisoft said:
TELLTALE VETERANS JOIN UBISOFT SAN FRANCISCO
NEWS by Mikel Reparaz | Editor | on February 24, 2017 | in Corporate Updates

Ubisoft’s San Francisco studio is expanding its narrative creative pool with four new hires, all of whom hail from a legendary name in story-driven gaming: Telltale Games. With credits that include The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and Minecraft: Story Mode, the four will bring a wealth of storytelling expertise to Ubisoft San Francisco future projects.

The new hires include two senior design directors, Dennis Lenart and Nick Herman, as well as narrative director Pierre Shorette and creative producer Adam Sarasohn. Lenart was a key member of the direction and cinematics departments on the first season of The Walking Dead, guiding its teams through six-week release schedules before going on to helm the wildly successful Minecraft: Story Mode as its creative director. Herman – who’s worked on more than 40 shipped games, and joined Telltale in its startup days as its first cinematic artist – also helped oversee season one of The Walking Dead as its lead cinematic artist and director.

“We are excited to welcome these strong industry veterans to our skilled team at Ubisoft San Francisco,” says, François Pelland, Executive Producer at Ubisoft San Francisco. “As we continue to expand our portfolio of games, we look to hire the best talent in the industry and infuse team members with a shared passion for development.”

Shorette, meanwhile, cut his teeth at Telltale writing for The Wolf Among Us, then led writing for The Walking Dead’s second season and Tales from the Borderlands. Before joining Ubisoft San Francisco, he was Telltale’s director of writing, guiding other writers across all of the company’s projects. Finally, Sarasohn has been overseeing dev teams for more than 10 years as a producer, shipping Tales from the Borderlands and training new producers during his four years at Telltale.

Lenart, Herman, Shorette, and Sarasohn are formidable additions to the team at Ubisoft San Francisco, where they’ll work on future projects. To find out more when information becomes available, keep your eye on UbiBlog.
Click to expand...
Source: http://blog.ubi.com/telltale-veterans-join-ubisoft-san-francisco/

Nick Herman for example:

42 Individual Titles Shipped

Tales from the Borderlands - Creative Director, Voice Director
Episode 1: Zer0 Sum - Director
Episode 2: Atlas Mugged - Supervising Director
Episode 3: Catch a Ride - Supervising Director
Episode 4: Escape Plan Bravo - Supervising Director
Episode 5: The Vault of the Traveler - Director

The Walking Dead: Season Two
Episode 1: All That Remains - Cinematic Artist

The Wolf Among Us
Episode 1: Faith - Director
Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors - Cinematic Artist

The Walking Dead: Season One
Episode 1: A New Day - Cinematic Artist
Episode 2: Starved for Help - Lead Cinematic Artist
Episode 4: Around Every Corner - Director
Episode 5: No Time Left - Cinematic Artist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-herman-2b370b28/
Click to expand...

And Pierre Shorette:

Tales from the Borderlands - Season Lead Writer
Episode 1: Zer0 Sum - Lead Writer
Episode 2: Atlas Mugged - Lead Writer
Episode 3: Catch a Ride - Supervising Writer
Episode 4: Escape Plan Bravo - Supervising Writer
Episode 5: The Vault of the Traveler - Lead Writer

The Walking Dead: Season Two
Episode 1: All That Remains - Writer
Episode 3: In Harm's Way - Lead Writer
Episode 5: No Going Back - Lead Writer

The Wolf Among Us
Episode 1: Faith - Lead Writer
Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors - Writer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-shorette-94349476/
Click to expand...
 
F

frontovik

Banned
Interesting choices .. they've all contributed to making the best of TellTale games. Though it does make you wonder about the remaining writers left at TellTale and the quality of their current/future projects.
 
H

Harmen

Member
Looking at which episodes they directed/wrote, I think these are talents with a lot of potential in big budget games. I hope Ubisoft gives the studio a chance to really utilise these talents in a game with an elaborate storyline.

Also, this seems like a loss for Telltale, since these guys were significantly involved in some of their best material.
 
Z

Zukkoyaki

Member
Ubisoft SF is working on South Park so whatever they're planning to work on probably isn't going to be a typical Ubi game. New RPG IP perhaps?
 
Z

Zap Rowsdower

Banned
frontovik said:
Interesting choices .. they've all contributed to making the best of TellTale games. Though it does make you wonder about the remaining writers left at TellTale and the quality of their current/future projects.
Click to expand...
Considering that the last great game of theirs was Borderlands and everything else since has either been mediocre or terrible, not very good. Practically all of Telltale's talent has jumped ship at this point.

Hope the best for them because Tales from the Borderlands was fantastic.
 
L

Lime

Member
Amazing pick ups. Pierre Shorette and his team did something simply amazing with Tales From the Borderlands.

What's Ubisoft San Francisco working on? I actually didn't even know they had a studio there.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Lime said:
Amazing pick ups. Pierre Shorette and his team did something simply amazing with Tales From the Borderlands.

What's Ubisoft San Francisco working on? I actually didn't even know they had a studio there.
Click to expand...
Historically it was just their headquarters, but recently they've made Rocksmith and now South Park 2.
 
L

Lime

Member
Nirolak said:
Historically it was just their headquarters, but recently they've made Rocksmith and now South Park 2.
Click to expand...

I was wondering Nirolak, how do you think hiring writers jell with the emphasis on service-based online games that Ubisoft is also striving towards? I.e. how does singleplayer writers factor into the Ubisoft's company philosophy within the design framework of R6, For Honor, Division?
 
J

jelly

Member
Lime said:
I was wondering Nirolak, how do you think hiring writers jell with the emphasis on service-based online games that Ubisoft is also striving towards? I.e. how does singleplayer writers factor into the Ubisoft's company philosophy within the design framework of R6, For Honor, Division?
Click to expand...

Did I tell you about that time...while waiting for doors to explode. You've got loot, please read this message, it's good writing.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Lime said:
I was wondering Nirolak, how do you think hiring writers jell with the emphasis on service-based online games that Ubisoft is also striving towards? I.e. how does singleplayer writers factor into the Ubisoft's company philosophy within the design framework of R6, For Honor, Division?
Click to expand...

I guess my answer would vary into three categories, depending on what type of project we're looking at.

1.) For games like Rainbow Six and For Honor, there's usually either no or a relatively short campaign that features standard writing, even though the main focus is obviously on the multiplayer.

2.) For games like The Division, there's actually a ton of ambient writing in the game. I don't think what they made for The Division in particular was especially interesting plot wise, but they have hours of recorded phone calls, radio chatter, audio diaries, and related content. It also has a selection of completely regular cutscenes throughout. We've seen games like BioShock or Gone Home do this type of thing to good success, so the concept itself is fine.

3.) Then there's the games that Ubisoft makes that are still relatively traditional. They make some cheaper downloadable adventure games with standard plots, and even despite their service ambitions, something like Watch Dogs 2 is still a mostly traditional plot. South Park is another example of this.

So... it's hard to say I guess without knowing exactly what they were hired to do.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Nirolak said:
I guess my answer would vary into three categories, depending on what type of project we're looking at.

1.) For games like Rainbow Six and For Honor, there's usually either no or a relatively short campaign that features standard writing, even though the main focus is obviously on the multiplayer.

2.) For games like The Division, there's actually a ton of ambient writing in the game. I don't think what they made for The Division in particular was especially interesting plot wise, but they have hours of recorded phone calls, radio chatter, audio diaries, and related content. It also has a selection of completely regular cutscenes throughout. We've seen games like BioShock or Gone Home do this type of thing to good success, so the concept itself is fine.

3.) Then there's the games that Ubisoft makes that are still relatively traditional. They make some cheaper downloadable adventure games with standard plots, and even despite their service ambitions, something like Watch Dogs 2 is still a mostly traditional plot. South Park is another example of this.

So... it's hard to say I guess without knowing exactly what they were hired to do.
Click to expand...
Isn't SanFran working on the South Park sequel? Either they're being put directly on that after the delay, or they're making more RPGs.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
firehawk12 said:
Isn't SanFran working on the South Park sequel? Either they're being put directly on that after the delay, or they're making more RPGs.
Click to expand...

Given they hired a bunch of people at once who are all senior staffers, I would expect they're forming a core team for a new project out of the studio.

Like South Park is almost complete, and already has a bunch of people filling all these roles already.
 
AudioEppa

AudioEppa

Member
DarkLordMalik said:
Creating new IP in episodic gaming genre these days. Perhaps making an AAA story-driven game in the vein of Detroit/Heavy Rain.
Click to expand...


Hopefully. Would definitely put Ubi on my radar.

This is promising news. But of course will need to see how they're actually used to know if I should be actually excited.
 
F

Floody

Member
*sees one is them is the Tales From The Borderlands writer*

Ubi you have my attention! Kinda sad Gearbox didn't get him though, he did a far better job with that Universe than they ever have, TFTB had no right to be that damn good.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
Good.

One big issue with Ubisoft is their bad writing and story in games.

Assassin's Creed has an amazing setting and concept for great stories but their stories and storytelling have been pretty bad for most of the franchise.
 
3

31GhostsIV

Banned
I just want Ubi SF to give us a new Rocksmith. 2014 is feeling a bit creaky, even with the remastered update.

I was hoping this would be the focus once South Park ships, but these hirings don't fill me with much hope in that regard.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Floody said:
No probably not, I expect Gearbox will probably have an Easter Egg in 3 for it and that'll be the end. :(
Click to expand...

Gearbox implied the plot of Tales from the Borderlands leads into Borderlands 3 IIRC, so I expect a lot of that will just be reflected in the main series.

That said, Telltale is also a company that can have basically whatever IP they want now, and Borderlands isn't as big of a selling point as some of the really huge mass media properties they can get.
 
T

tearsintherain

Member
Even they got tired of waiting for Telltale to update its engine :(

Definitely interesting hires, Ubi needs to really get out of its creative gridlock the last few games have -- while WD2, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Division are pretty decent they all sorta have a similar vibe/style. For Honor and Steep of course are wildly different. I just don't want to play another assassins creed that is a mish mash of AC and Far Cry, which is what WD2 and Wildlands felt like.
 
F

Floody

Member
Nirolak said:
Gearbox implied the plot of Tales from the Borderlands leads into Borderlands 3 IIRC, so I expect a lot of that will just be reflected in the main series.

That said, Telltale is also a company that can have basically whatever IP they want now, and Borderlands isn't as big of a selling point as some of the really huge mass media properties they can get.
Click to expand...

I'd love for the characters to return in a major way, but I think they'll just use whatever
teleportation device they found at the end, to justify having loads of Vaults. Leaving Rhys, Fiona and the rest as non important side characters if that
, hope I'm wrong though, TellTale gave them gold.

Edit: agree with the rest though, TT have bigger things on their plate and I understand why it and my other favourite from them TWAU aren't likely to have a follow up, I'd just be sad if TFTB was a one season thing, and has no real impact on Borderlands as a whole, because it really does deserve more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Dragon's Dogma 2 only had 1/4 of the people credited for working on the game compared to the last few titles by Capcom
2
56
3K
KyoZz replied
  • Locked
How The Last of Us became 'the greatest story' ever told in video games
Opinion Analysis 2 3 4 5
203
17K
Elysium44 replied
The Wolf Among Us 2 Is UNCANCELLED! Trailer Reveal
2
60
4K
Husky replied
Tactics Ogre: Reborn |OT| Still Clinging Together
|OT| 2
97
7K
Hudo replied
PlayStation VR2: 13 new titles and launch lineup revealed
News 2 3 4 5 6
282
16K
Lucifers Beard replied
Top Bottom