Guardians of the Galaxy

Swan Song

Guardians was my last game at Telltale, completed about a year before the original iteration of the company folded. I was the game’s Creative Director, and lucky enough, as always, to work with some extremely talented people.

As a group we set out to restore some of the choice-based nature of our Walking Dead games, as we felt Telltale’s output had relied too heavily on formula, and we really wanted to pay off your choices. Our budget meant that these payoffs were often small, but they were there. And we wanted to make sure the bigger choices—whether Nebula lives or dies, whether you Destroy or Empower the Eternity Forge, were meaningful.

Originally we were going to build more relationships up between the characters and start making your decisions splinter the group, but some internal reviews caused the fracturing of the group to begin in Episode 1, something I wish I had fought harder against.

Still, I feel like the game, especially considering our limited resources, came out really well, and the work done by the teams on each individual episode was top notch.

The Cast

Aside from 400 Days, this was the game I was involved the most in casting. We auditioned many actors for these parts, but ultimately I think we ended up with a perfect core group, anchored by Scott Porter in the Peter Quill/Star-Lord role. Brandon Paul Eels was a terrific find as Drax, Emily O’Brien was wonderful as Gamora, Adam Harrington brought a great warmth to Groot and Nolan North was a perfect Rocket Raccoon.

Special Mention goes to Ashly Burch as Nebula. It was a hard role, as we wanted a villain who could sound capable and mean but also hurt and vulnerable, and she knocked it out of the park.

“Shambala”

I didn’t get to work on much of the game directly as the Creative Director, but I did manage to shoot this sequence, designed by Mark Droste, the Episode 3 Director, along with a few other designers and cinematic artists. I shot the scene, which was afterward animated by Ryan Rasmussen’s animation team, and it came together beautifully, everyone contributing great beats to it. It’s my favorite scene in the series.

The song, by Three Dog Night, was suggested by my wife, Meredith, a Telltale Writer at the time, and when it came to this section of the game it was a perfect fit.

This episode was generally special to us, and I think it shows in the design. It’s more lighthearted and fun, and there are more meaningful conversations to have. The characters are less plot oriented and are given more room to breathe.