It appears that the developers of narrative adventures like The Walking Dead, Batman: The Enemy Within and Tales of the Borderlands will be moving on from their antiquated game engine in favor of building their future titles with Unity. The old engine – known as Telltale Tool – has been in use for fourteen years now and despite attempts to update it has not withstood the tests of time. The Walking Dead: The Final Season is rumored to be the final game using the old Telltale Tool engine.
The first clues that Telltale Games could be embracing Unity surfaced way back in January when job postings showed that the studio was seeking to hire software engineers who had experience with the open source game engine. Sources close to Telltale Games say that the video game adaptation of Stranger Things could be the first game from the studio developed with Unity.
Another reason Telltale Games may be switching to Unity is to open up new business opportunities. The studio is said to have been exploring the possibility of streaming their games to new customers – Game of Thrones to HBO Now subscribers, for example. The Telltale Tool is rumored to have been inadequate for streaming a quality game experience which necessitated the use of a more robust engine. Creating games in Unity would allow for Telltale Games to stream their titles over services such as Netflix and reach a broader audience.
