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Telltale Games was one of my current favorite video game companies, but now I don't get as excited about their games as I did in their early days.

Telltale was formed by former LucasArts employees after the cancellation of Sam & Max Freelance Police. It's sad that they were formed after LucasArts stated that classic point and click adventure games weren't profitable, and now Telltale is saying the same thing since they started making their games in the exact same choices-and-consequences style after the surprise hit with their Walking Dead series.

Their co-founder Kevin Bruner was apparently the person responsible for the toxic work environment that led to many of their best designers leaving the company and made their remaining designers cut-and-paste The Walking Dead choices and consequences gameplay into every game, whether or not it is a good fit for the franchises on which the games are based. He was forced out of the company in 2018, so hopefully, designers will be given creative freedom once again, and they will once again be able to use different gaming styles to create the best game possible for any given franchise.

From 2005 to 2012, they continued the tradition of funny graphic adventure games (and sometimes serious ones) with engaging storylines that started at LucasArts, and with the licensing of Monkey Island, they also extended the legacy of LucasArts adventure games.

To me, the combination of Double Fine and the early Telltale Games continued the LucasArts that I knew and loved, as so many of the creators of my favorite games work at those companies or have worked there, and since LucasArts is no longer a developer, these companies continue their tradition. Both companies have also licensed LucasArts properties to make games. These games were Tales of Monkey Island in the case of Telltale, and Grim Fandango: Remastered, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, and Full Throttle: Remastered in the case of Double Fine.

Telltale's adventure games include the last three games in the Sam & Max series, the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, the Bone series, the last four games in the CSI Las Vegas series, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, the Puzzle Agent series, The Game, The Game, Badge of Carnage, The Walking Dead cinematic adventure series, The Wolf Among Us series, Tales from the Borderlands, A Telltale Games Series, the Story Mode series, The Telltale Series, and Telltale's Batman series. They also created three non-adventures that were poker games. These were Telltale Texas Hold'Em, which was a test for their Telltale Tool that worked out so well they decided to release it to the public, and it's spiritual sequels Poker Night at the Inventory (which used licensed characters: Max from Sam & Max, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, Tycho from Penny Arcade, The Heavy from Team Fortress 2, and Reginald Van Winslow from Tales of Monkey Island) and Poker Night 2 (which used Sam and Max, Ash Williams from Evil Dead, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros, Claptrap from Borderlands, GLaDOS from Portal, and Reginald Van Winslow).

I entered the Telltale annual Halloween contest in 2008, 2009, and 2010. 2010 was the final year of the contest, and I missed it so I started an unofficial Halloween contest in 2014.

In 2008 I entered a picture of the Homestar Runner characters and Telltale staff in Halloween costumes, and won a free episode download (a consolation prize which was given to all entrants)

In 2009 I entered a short cartoon called A Telltale Halloween which featured the characters from all of Telltale's adventure games. They received hundreds of entries this year, but still gave out a free episode download to everyone who entered! Thanks guys, you're the coolest company in the world! :)

In 2010, I entered a more complex short cartoon called Halloween Short Shorts, based on the Homestar Runner Short Shorts toons. It again featured characters from all of Telltale's properties, including those just added over the year since my last toon, and Back to the Future and Jurassic Park which hadn't been released yet.

In 2012 I got to give back a little bit to the company that I love so much, as I became a volunteer moderator for their forums.

I wasn't eligible for the unofficial 2014 Halloween contest since I started it, but I created a Max plushie for the occasion anyway.

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