The Walking Dead (video game)

Gameplay

The Walking Dead is a graphic adventure, played from a third-person perspective with a variety of cinematic camera angles, in which the player, as protagonist Lee Everett, works with a rag-tag group of survivors to stay alive in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. The player can examine and interact with characters and items, and must make use of inventory items and the environment. Throughout the game, the player is presented with the ability to interact with their surroundings, and options to determine the nature of that interaction. For example, the player may be able to look at a character, talk to that character, or if they are carrying an item, offer it to the character or ask them about it. According to Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead game is focused more on developing characters and story, and less on the action tropes that tend to feature in other zombie-based games, such as Left 4 Dead.

Some parts of the game require timed responses from the player, often leading to significant decisions that will impact the game's story, in the manner of role-playing games (RPGs). Some conversation trees require the player to make a selection within a limited time, otherwise Lee will remain quiet, which can affect how other characters respond to him. Unlike in other RPGs such as the Mass Effect or Fallout series, where choices fall on either side of a "good or evil" scale, the choices within The Walking Dead have ambiguous results, having an effect on the attitude of the non-player characters towards Lee. The player can opt to enable a "choice notification" feature, in which the game's interface indicates that a character has changed their disposition towards Lee as a result of these choices. In more action-based sequences, the player must follow on-screen prompts for quick time events (QTEs) so as to keep themselves or other characters alive. If the player dies, the game restarts from just prior to the QTE. Other timed situations involve major decisions, such as choosing which of two characters to keep alive.

Each episode contains five points where the player must make a significant decision, choosing from one of two available options. Through Telltale's servers, the game tracks how many players selected which option and lets the player compare their choices to the rest of the player base. The game can be completed regardless of what choices are made in these situations; the main events of the story, as described below, will continue regardless of what choices are made, but the presence and behavior of the non-player characters in later scenes will be affected by these choices. The game does allow the player to make multiple saves, and includes a "rewind" feature where the player can back up and alter a previous decision, thus facilitating the exploration of alternative choices.

Setting

The Walking Dead occurs simultaneously with the events from the original comic series, where a zombie apocalypse overwhelms much of society. Characters in the game come to call the zombies "walkers", due to the slowness of their movement. Although the survivors initially think that being bitten by a zombie is the only way to become infected, it is later discovered that one becomes a zombie upon death irrespective of the manner in which one dies; only by damaging the brain can the reanimation be stopped. As with the comic and television series, the game's events occur in the state of Georgia.

Characters

Numerous characters appear throughout the game. Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy), the primary protagonist of the series, is a native of Macon and a former university professor convicted for killing a state senator who was sleeping with his wife. Lee eventually finds and becomes a father figure to Clementine (voiced by Melissa Hutchison), an eight-year-old whose parents went away for the weekend, leaving her with a babysitter. Lee and Clementine soon encounter a family from Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Kenny (voiced by Gavin Hammon), a fisherman who prioritizes his family above all else; Katjaa, Kenny's wife, who works as a veterinarian (voiced by Cissy Jones); and Kenny and Katjaa's son, Kenny Jr. (voiced by Max Kaufman), more commonly known as "Duck". The five join a survivor group led by Lilly (voiced by Nicki Rapp), who was formerly stationed on the Robins Air Force Base. Lilly's group consists of multiple survivors, including Larry (voiced by Terry McGovern), her aggressive and judgmental father, a retired U.S. Army commander who knows Lee's past; Carley (voiced by Nicole Vigil) a quick-thinking regional news reporter who is also aware of Lee's crimes; Doug (voiced by Sam Joan), a resourceful and logical information systems technician; and Glenn Rhee (voiced by Nick Herman), a former pizza delivery boy. In the second episode, two more survivors join the group: Mark (voiced by Mark Middleton), a survivor who used to work for the U.S. Air Force; and Ben Paul (voiced by Trevor Hoffman), a high school student rescued by Lee, Mark and Kenny. In the third episode, more characters are introduced; Chuck (voiced by Roger Jackson), a level-headed homeless man who lives in a boxcar; and Omid and Christa (voiced by Owen Thomas and Mara Junot respectively), a young couple who tend to stay away from large groups. The fourth episode introduces two more characters; Molly (voiced by Erin Ashe), an acrobatic and resourceful young woman who carries an ice axe; and Vernon (voiced by Butch Engle), a doctor and leader of a group of cancer survivors hiding in the morgue of a hospital. The Stranger (voiced by Anthony Lam, and by Roger Jackson through the walkie-talkie) is a man that communicates to Clementine via her walkie-talkie as the group nears Savannah.

Plot

The following summary is a broad overview of the work, describing the major events that occur regardless of player choice. Some specific elements not listed here will change based on the impact of player choices.

Lee Everett is being driven to prison after his conviction in Atlanta, Georgia just as the outbreak erupts, and the sheriff's car runs off the road. Lee escape and finds shelter at a suburban home. He finds young Clementine hiding in her treehouse, her parents having gone to Savannah days earlier. Lee offers to protect Clementine and find her parents.

Lee and Clementine find a farmstead owned by Hershel Greene, where they met his family as well as Kenny, his wife Katjaa and their son Kenny Jr. (nicknamed "Duck"). When Shawn, Hershel's son, is lost to a walker attack, Hershel banishes the outsiders from the farm. The five travel to Macon, Lee's hometown, and join other survivors sheltering in the local pharmacy owned by Lee's parents. Among them include Lilly and her father Larry, and Glenn Rhee. Lee finds his family already dead. When Lee and others try to acquire medicine to help Larry when he suffers a heart attack, the group accidentally triggers alarms in the pharmacy, attracting a horde, and they are forced to flee to a motel Glenn had discovered earlier which can be easily fortified. Once the group is safe, Glenn takes his leave to find his own family. Lee learns from other survivors that a human does not need to be bitten by a walker to become one on death, and the only way to stop the process is to destroy the brain.

Weeks past and the group is running low on supplies. They are approached by the St. Johns, owners of a nearby dairy farm who offer food and shelter in exchange for fuel to power their electric fence. Most of the group return with the St. Johns to scout the site. Lee discovers the St. Johns have engaged in cannibalism. The St. Johns lock the group away, and Larry suffers another heart attack; without medicine to revive him, the group is forced to smash his head in, traumatizing Lilly. Lee and the group make their escape, disengaging the electric fence and leaving the fate of the St. Johns to the oncoming walker horde. On their way back to the motel, the group finds an abandoned car filled with supplies, which they take with them.

The group learns that bandits had been helping to protect the St. Johns in exchange for food, and with the family dead, the bandits launch an attack on the motel as walkers approach the area. Lee's group is forced to flee, but not before Duck is bitten by a walker. As they flee, Lilly gets into an argument with another survivor and kills them, and Lee is forced to evict her from the group. They come across a functional train, which Lee and Kenny help restore to working condition. The group takes the train towards Savannah, hoping to find a boat to escape the mainland, during which Lee helps to teach Clementine how to fire a gun. Duck eventually succumbs to the bite, and Lee and Kenny euthanasize him before he turns; Katjaa is unable to take the loss and commits suicide.

As they approach Savannah, Clementine's walkie-talkie goes off, with the man on the other end promising to protect her once he deals with Lee and the rest of his group. The group is forced to abandon the train due to blockage on the tracks and meet up with Omid and Christa to travel the rest of the way on foot. They shelter in a well-fortified mansion before Lee and others go to scout the boatyards. They meet with scavenger Molly who tells them that anything of value in the city has been claimed by the elitist Crawford community. Lee is separated from the others as they return, and in the sewers near a hospital, meets Vernon and a group of cancer-surviving patients. Vernon returns with Lee to the mansion, where Clementine has discovered a working boat, lacking only a battery and fuel which they can get from Crawford. Molly helps Lee and others sneak into Crawford, discovering its population has turned into walkers. They gather the supplies and leave, preparing to set out the next day. As the boat has limited space, both Molly and Vernon take their leave, but Vernon warns Lee he does not think he is a good guardian for Clementine.

The next day, Lee wakes up to find Clementine missing. In his haste to search for her, Lee is bitten by a walker. While still conscious, Lee leads the remaining survivors to where Vernon had been sheltered, believing he took Clementine, but finds it empty. Clemetine's walkie-talkie goes off again, and the man tells them he has Clementine now and challenges him to come rescue her. Lee returns to the mansion to find the boat and supplies stolen by Vernon's group. Lee and the remaining survivors cross the rooftops to try to reach Clementine's position, the hotel her parents were staying at. Kenny jumps into a horde of walkers to try to save the life of another survivor. Soon, Lee is separate from the last of his group, Omid and Christina, and he tells them he will have Clementine meet them at the outskirts of town.

Lee dazedly makes his way to the hotel, discovering a strange man holding Clementine. The man informs Lee that he was the owner of the car they had stolen from near the St. Johns farm, and the loss of their supplies led to the death of the rest of his family. Lee and Clementine work together to overpower and kill the man. Lee helps Clementine cover herself in walker guts to mask her scent as they exit the hotel. Clementine spots her parents - both turned to walkers - just as Lee losses consciousness. When Lee wakes, he finds Clementine had dragged him to safety. Knowing he is about to turn, he instructs Clementine how to escape and where to meet Omid and Christa, and then asks her to kill him or leave him before he turns. This choice is left to the player.

After the game's credits, Clementine is seen walking in a field by herself. She spots two figures in the distance. After a moment, they stop walking and turn to look in her direction.

400 Days

The downloadable content 400 Days relates stories of other survivors of zombie apocalypse, starting at its onset and occurring concurrently with Season One. Some of these characters, depending on player choices, reappear in Season Two.

The character stories include:

The five stories culminate in a final scene on Day 400 where Tavia (Rashida Clendening) discovers photos of the five on a billboard near the now-overrun truck stop, along with a map to a nearby location. There, she finds the survivors, and offers them sanctuary nearby. The choices the player has previously made, and will make as Tavia, will determine which members join Tavia or remain behind.

Episodes

The game was separated into five episodes, released in two-month intervals.

Supplemental episodes

An additional episode, titled 400 Days, was released in July 2013 as downloadable content, bridging the gap between the first and second season. It focuses on five new characters, and is presented in a nonlinear narrative style; players can approach the five stories in any order they choose.

Rights

Prior to The Walking Dead, Telltale Games had made several successful episodic adventure games based on established properties, including three seasons of Sam & Max based on the comics and prior video games, and the five-episode Tales of Monkey Island, based upon the Monkey Island video game series. In 2010, the company secured the rights to two licensed movie properties from Universal Studios, resulting in Back to the Future: The Game and Jurassic Park: The Game. The latter included elements atypical of adventure games, including more action-oriented sequences incorporating quick time events, and was inspired by Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain.

In February 2011, Telltale announced deals with Warner Bros. to develop episodic series based on both The Walking Dead and Fables. For The Walking Dead, the agreement including provisions for "multi-year, multi-platform, multi-title" arrangements, with an initial episodic series release to commence in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Writing

During development of the game, Robert Kirkman and the comic publisher Skybound Entertainment worked with Telltale. According to Kirkman, he had previously played Telltale's Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, and felt that they "were more focused on telling a good story, and I thought they were good at engaging the player in the narrative." Telltale approached him with a proposal which, according to Kirkman, "involved decision-making and consequences rather than ammunition gathering or jumping over things." The proposal's emphasis on the survival aspect of the comics, and the need for the player to make choices between two bad options sold him on the project. Since then, Kirkman became involved with Telltale, mostly providing oversight on what aspects of the story were appropriate components of The Walking Dead universe, in much the same manner as he does for the television show, staying out of the direct development process. Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale, stated that working with Kirkman made it easier for Telltale to craft its story and introduce new characters, instead of having to work with those already established in the comic. One of the few demands Kirkman asked of Telltale was to avoid telling anything involved with the comic's main character, Rick Grimes, as Kirkman has stated long-term plans with the character in other media. Kirkman had not been impressed with an early build of the first episode, but by the time they had presented him with a near-final build, Kirkman told the Telltale team, "Holy shit guys, you did it", according to the game's co-lead developer Jake Rodkin.

Connors stated that from a gameplay perspective, they had looked to games such as Heavy Rain and the Uncharted series as a basis for in-game cinematics, while the idea of giving the player choice was influenced by the Mass Effect series. In addition to the television version of The Walking Dead, Telltale took cues from Game of Thrones and Mad Men in terms of how to develop characters within a brief time. Connors also noted that the found that traditional conversation trees did not possess "a believable rhythm" to dialog, and developed a conversion system, using timed input, to create more natural-sounding dialog.

The game's story was written with the final scene in the fifth episode, where Clementine either shoots Lee or walks away to let him become a walker, as the established ending that the game would build towards. As such, the character of Clementine was considered critical to the game's writing, and the team spent much time making her the "moral compass" for the game, while assuring that as a child character, she would not come off to the player as whining or annoying. Similarly, the scene with the Stranger in the hotel room was planned very early in development, and also used to review the player's decisions on a moral basis, allowing the player to respond, if they desired, to the allegations. Each episode was developed by pairing a writer and a game designer so that the plot and gameplay style for that episode would work in cooperation and avoid having one feel detached from the other, according to Vanaman. As such, certain gameplay ideas were left out of the game; one example given by Vanaman was a scene where everyone in the survivor group was firing on a wall of zombies, but as this would lead to a discrete success or failure, it did not fit in with the sense of panic they wanted to convey in the scene.

Choice

A major aspect in the writing The Walking Dead was the concept of death, whether for the player or non-player characters. Telltale itself was formed from many former LucasArts employees, who had previously written games where the player could not die. As such, they introduced situations where Lee would die if the player did not react fast enough, although the game would restart just before these events, and situations where non-player characters would die based on the player's on-the-spot decisions. This latter aspect was designed to maintain the game's pace, and led to the idea of tracking the player's decisions. Telltale's development tools and engines had previously included means of tracking players' progress, but the use in The Walking Dead was more explicit, revealing global statistics.

The ultimate goal of introducing non-game-ending choices into the game was to make the player more invested in the story and more likely to avoid using the rewind feature. Telltale spent a great deal of time to assure that no choice would appear to be punishing to the player, though ultimately "all choices are equally wrong", according to Whitta. The writers wanted to create choices that would appear to have a significant impact on the story but ultimately would be mostly inconsequential to the larger story. At major decision points, the writers' aim was try to have the audience split evenly by making the dialog as neutral as possible prior to the choice; they considered that a split of 75 to 25 percent was not ideal. They noted such cases occurred in both the first episode, where the player has an option to save Carley (the "hot reporter with a gun") or Doug (the "dorky dude"), with the vast majority of players saving Carley, and in the second episode, where the player is given the option to cut off Parker's leg before they are attacked by Walkers or leave him behind, with most players cutting off the leg. As such, in subsequent episodes, they worked to modify dialog to eliminate any sense of suggestion, leaving the notion of the 'right' choice ambiguous, and totally up to the player themself.

In some cases, the writers had to work around the established characters and chronology from the comic series. In the first episode, for example, the player is introduced to Hershel Greene, who is established in the comics as a bitter character due to witnessing his son Shawn turn into a walker in the early stages of the outbreak. One of the first decisions the player makes is whether to save Shawn or Duck; however, either choice results in Shawn being bitten, so as to maintain the comic's continuity; only the manner in which he is bitten is changed. The major consequence aspect of the choice instead involves how Kenny feels towards Lee. In other cases, Telltale designed scenes and choices knowing how the majority of players would be predisposed to certain characters. One example is the character of Larry, who is introduced in the first episode as a hard-nosed jerk. Based on the statistical feedback, Telltale recognized that most players would want to either abandon or kill Larry at the first opportunity, and as such, they created a conversation tree in episode two where Lilly goes some way to redeem Larry in the eyes of the player. The idea was that this might influence the player when they must choose whether to help Kenny kill Larry, who may, or may not, have died from a heart attack and be on the verge of turning. Telltale found that 75% of the players now wanted to save Larry, a result they had expected.

The writers also used the decision statistics from previous episodes to develop the direction of future ones. Gary Whitta, the writer of the fourth episode, specifically reviewed all the statistics from the previous three episodes to determine the general development of the episode's story. One example involved the death of Duck in the third episode. In that episode, the player must choose to either kill Duck for Kenny, or have Kenny do it himself. In the fourth episode, Whitta wrote a scene where Kenny finds a similar-looking boy, who has starved to death in an attic and come back as a walker. Again, the player is faced with the choice of whether to kill the boy themselves or have Kenny do it. They also included a third choice, in which the player would simply walk away, leaving the boy as a walker trapped in the attic, but this decision would harshly affect the disposition of the others characters towards Lee. By the first act of episode 5, there were 32 variations due to past player choices that they had to write towards. The number of possible scenarios were considered necessary to make the game feel "organic" to the individual player, making the player feel like they weaved their own story within the game instead of just taking a specific route through the choices.

Art

Telltale's art director, Derek Sakai, led the creation of the characters and their expressions. Sakai was told to not use symmetric expressions to help create more human-like expressions and help improve the realism of the game. Sakai drew inspiration from his own daughter to develop the character of Clementine.

Multi-platform

The game engine used for The Walking Dead was optimized so as to facilitate the multi-platform nature of the release, which included PCs, gaming consoles and mobile devices, with the aim of minimizing the work in porting. However, the development team still focused on achieving the best control schemes for each platform; in particular, the touchscreen control scheme on mobile devices was based on experience gained during the development of the Back to the Future game. A major challenge through the development of all five episodes was the save game file format, which they continually have to update and fix across platforms, and in some cases, causing existing save files to become invalid. Unique fixes applied for earlier episodes on one platform would reappear as problems in later ones. Connors stated that for the next series, they will be "a lot more diligent" on the save game issues, using data gathered during the first season development and information on how players would approach the game.

In previous series developed by Telltale for multiple platforms, they had had difficulty in timing releases to reach all players at the same time. One aspect of this was due to issues encountered on the Xbox Live Arcade service for the Xbox 360; for small publishers, like Telltale at the time, they had to arrange with larger publishers to allocate a slot within the Arcade's release schedule several months in advance, making it difficult to coordinate with releases on other platforms. After the success of the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games, however, Telltale were able to officially achieve a publisher status on Xbox Live, giving them more control of the release schedule. Furthermore, they had designed the game such that the second through fifth episodes would be treated as downloadable content, allowing them to bypass slot scheduling and assuring same-day release on both PCs and consoles.

Downloadable content and sequels

The first series proved successful, leading Telltale to begin development of a second episodic season. The first episode of the second season was released in the fourth quarter of 2013. One aspect they are investigating is if players will be able to reuse their saved game from the first season as a seed to impact the development of the second. According to Connors, Telltale is working at trying to determine how to incorporate what players liked best from the first series into the second, while considering how and by what means they will continue the story, and include the possibility of tying in more of the characters from the television show. Connors also stated they are looking for ways to keep players engaged between the episodic releases.

In February 2013, writer Whitta suggested that there may also be some material released before the second season to tide players over until then. This was revealed to be the aforementioned 400 Days downloadable content, revealed at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo following a week of brief Vine video teaser movies posted by Telltale, introducing the five main characters in the added episode. The content uses information from the player's saved game from the first season, and decisions made within 400 Days will continue into season two. The content was made available on the game's existing platforms between July 2 and 11, 2013, while a special bundled edition of the PlayStation Vita, including the full The Walking Dead game and 400 Days content, was released on August 20, 2013. A "Game of the Year" edition of The Walking Dead, including all five episodes and 400 Days, was released for retail for the Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms on November 19, 2013.

At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International, Telltale confirmed there will be a third season of The Walking Dead. Telltale is also producing a three episode mini-series, The Walking Dead: Michonne, based on the character Michonne. The arc will cover events between issues #126 and #139 of the comic series, explaining her departure from the Grimes' group and why she returns. The series was released in February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS, and Android devices, with the prerequisite that players must have already bought The Walking Dead: Season Two.

The first episode of The Walking Dead: Season Three is set to be released on December 20, 2016, with physical season pass disc set for release on February 7, 2017.

Marketing and release

The Walking Dead was originally announced as a five-episode series with approximately monthly releases as digital downloads for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 systems. Its release was slated for late 2011, but it was ultimately pushed back to April 2012. This date was shortly after the conclusion of the final episode of the second season of The Walking Dead television show, providing a means for the game to ride the popularity of the show.

Telltale later announced that they would provide a disc-based release of the complete game for these platforms on December 11, 2012, after the release of the fifth episode. Exclusive to GameStop stores in North America is the Collector's Edition, which includes new artwork by Charlie Adlard and The Walking Dead: Compendium One, a comic book that embody the first 48 issues of the series by Robert Kirkman. Following the retail release, some Xbox 360 owners without large storage options reported stuttering issues with the disc-based game; Telltale compensated these users with free codes to download the full series digitally.

An iOS version of the game was announced in August 2012, with episodes released shortly after their computer/console debut. Later, after the full release of all five episodes to the App Store, Telltale offered the first episode for free, something they had done in the past, as doing so, according to Dan Connors, "opens the funnel and gets it out to more people who can then convert into the [full] game".

In March 2013, Telltale announced that The Walking Dead will be ported to the PlayStation Vita, later revealed in June 2013 to be a retail release, including a special Vita bundle package that would include the game, the 400 Days episode, and additional content.

In November 2013, Telltale announced that a Game of the Year edition of The Walking Dead was to be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 through retail. It will includes the five episodes, the 400 Days DLC episode, the original score and a behind-the-scenes feature. Releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles were announced in May 2014 and released in October later that year.

Reception

The Walking Dead has received critical acclaim, with reviewers giving praise for the harsh emotional tone, the characters, story and the resemblance to the original comic book, although criticizing the graphical glitches. The game received over 80 Game of the Year awards and many other awards.

"Episode 1 – A New Day" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 85.14% and 84/100, the Xbox 360 version 83.87% and 79/100 and the PC version 83.38% and 82/100. The game received various accolades including the IGN "Editors' Choice", PC Gamer "Editors' Choice", Xbox Editors' Choice Award, and the PlayStation Gold Award.

"Episode 2 – Starved for Help" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 86.53% and 84/100, the Xbox 360 version 86.26% and 84/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 85.90% and 84/100. The game won the GameSpy E3 2012 award for "Best Adventure Game".

"Episode 3 – Long Road Ahead" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 88.47% and 88/100, the PlayStation 3 version 86.11% and 87/100 and the PC version 85.41% and 85/100. IGN's Greg Miller gave it a 9 out of 10, saying "It's a disturbing, depressing and entertaining entry in a journey that's been nothing short of excellent so far." GameSpot gave the game an 8.5, saying "The Walking Dead has passed the midway point of its series of five episodes with every indication that the game will keep getting better right through to its inevitably depressing and unsettling conclusion." MTV also gave it a positive review, saying "Telltale has created a series of wrenching, emotional decisions in the middle of a collection of not-too-hard puzzles in a visually-impressive adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic series (with some nods to the TV show)."

"Episode 4 – Around Every Corner" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 84.00% and 80/100, the Xbox 360 version 82.50% and 82/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 78.94% and 81/100.

"Episode 5 – No Time Left" received critical acclaim. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 94.75% and 89/100, the Xbox 360 version 88.15% and 89/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 87.75% and 88/100.

400 Days received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 78.20% and 78/100, the PC version 78.00% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 76.88% and 80/100.

Sales

The Walking Dead was a financial success, aided by the ease of digital distribution. The first episode topped the charts on Xbox Live Arcade for the week of April 30, and remained at the top for two weeks. It also topped the sales charts for both PlayStation Network and Steam for a week. The first episode sold one million copies in 20 days (not including iOS sales), making it Telltale's fastest selling title to date. With the third episode's release, over 3.8 million episodes were delivered to 1.2 million players. As of January 2013, over 8.5 million episodes have been sold across all platforms, representing about $40 million in revenue. Telltale's CEO Dan Connors has stated that the iOS version represented about 25% of their overall sales, the "largest upswing" for any platform, with sale particularly high in November and December 2012, due in part due to various sales on the App Store. Upon announcement of the 400 Days content, Telltale reported that over 17 million episodes have been purchased across all platforms worldwide, while by October 2013, at the time of the formal announcement of Season Two, over 21 million episodes have been sold. As of July 28, 2014, 28 million episodes have been sold.

Accolades

The Walking Dead has been described as representing a revitalization of the adventure game genre, which had been in decline since the mid-1990s. Telltale have been praised for taking their previous experiences in the genre and expanding on them, whilst also incorporating strong writing and voice acting; Gamasutra and Game Developer named the studio one of the top 10 developers in 2012.

The Walking Dead has garnered many other 2012 "Game of the Year" awards, notably from USA Today, Wired, Complex, GamesRadar and Official Xbox Magazine. The Walking Dead was awarded "Game of the Year", "Best Adapted Video Game", and "Best Downloadable Game" at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards; Melissa Hutchison's role as Clementine was named as "Best Performance By a Human Female", while Dave Fennoy was nominated for "Best Performance by a Human Male". Telltale Games was also named as "Studio of the Year". The game was awarded "Best Downloadable Game" and "Best Character Design" for Lee Everett at the 2012 Inside Gaming Awards. The Walking Dead was Destructoid's 2012 "Game of the Year" and "Best Multi-Platform Game". Digital Trends awarded the game with "Best Writing", "Best Digitally Distributed Game", and "Game of the Year" for 2012. Yahoo! Games' Flan Dering listed The Walking Dead as his "Game of the Year" and "Best Downloadable Game" for 2012. For the 2013 D.I.C.E. Interactive Achievement Awards, The Walking Dead was nominated for eight awards, and won for "Adventure Game of the Year", "Downloadable Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Story", and "Outstanding Character Performance" for the character of Lee. The Walking Dead won the "Best Narrative" award and received nominations for "Best Downloadable Game" and "Game of the Year" for the 2013 Game Developer's Choice Awards. The Walking Dead won the "Story" and "Mobile & Handheld" awards at the 2013 British Academy Video Games Awards, and was nominated for "Best Game", "Game Design", and "Original Music" for the 2013 British Academy Video Games Awards, along with separate "Performance" nominations for Fennoy and Hutchinson for their roles as Lee and Clementine, respectively. In March 2013, the game was nominated for and won several Pocket Gamer Awards categories, including iOS Game of the Year. The Walking Dead: 400 Days won Animation, Interactive at the 2013 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards.

A virtual pinball table, developed jointly by Telltale Games and Zen Studios, was released on August 27, 2014 as downloadable content for Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX 2.