Ex-Telltale devs will focus on "interactive narrative" games at Adhoc Studio

Four former Telltale developers have banded together to form AdHoc Studio, a new venture dedicated to "interactive narrative" games.

Michael Choung, Dennis Lenart, Nick Herman, and Pierre Shorette - who all have backgrounds in television and film - departed Telltale before it shuttered in September last year, but recently reunited to develop story-driven games inspired by the likes of Black Mirror's live-action show, Bandersnatch. The founders "see choice at the heart of the games it plans to develop".

"It feels like we're at the precipice of a big shift in how we consume media where the lines between film, television and games are starting to blur," Shorette, AdHoc's chief creative officer, said in an interview with Variety (thanks, PC Gamer). "With streaming platforms in our homes and cell phones in our pockets we're in this unique time where the barrier to entry to interaction is gone. So as a group of people whose expertise and experience has come from making Interactive Narrative that sits in that space between, we feel now is the perfect time to form a studio that focuses on creating content for a new space."

"It seems to have scratched an itch that people didn't quite know that they had," Herman said, talking about Netflix's interactive show. "That's really exciting, and what we want to do is to make clear that live-action interactive isn't a novelty, it's unexplored territory that can be both creatively and commercially viable."

"Making interactive experiences with real actors on the screen is something we've always talked about," Shorette added. "We all have backgrounds and interest in film and television, so combining that with our experience in games is something we're exploring right now."