Sean Vanaman, a former co-project leader and lead writer from the now-closed Telltale Games, has taken to Twitter to share some stories from his time at the studio. He reveals a number of interesting tidbits about the development of the first season of their breakout game The Walking Dead, including the fact that it was nearly based on Valve’s Left 4 Dead intellectual property.
https://twitter.com/vanaman/status/1044031363706286080
Per the tweet above, the earliest version of the game, including just text and the user interface, was based on Left 4 Dead after someone at the company had reportedly talked to Valve about a potential deal. The game eventually became centred around another zombie property, The Walking Dead, made in collaboration with Skybound Entertainment.
Interestingly, Campo Santo, the studio Sean Vanaman co-found after his departure from Telltale, was acquired by Valve in April this year. It’s unlikely given this revelation that there’s a plan for Vanaman to work on a Left 4 Dead game post-release of their upcoming title, In The Valley Of Gods, due out next year, but to see him come full circle is interesting.
Vanaman also revealed a number of other interesting facts about The Walking Dead‘s production, including that the lead character of Lee was originally co-lead Clemintine’s elder brother.
