It would be impossible to have guessed Telltale Games' trajectory from the studio's first title, a poker game called Telltale Texas Hold 'Em. But soon after that, Telltale started tackling projects that would hint at its future aspirations. There were games based on the comic series Bones, and episodic series covering everything from Monkey Island to Wallace & Gromit to Jurassic Park. Over the years, the studio was slowly perfecting a formula that would turn gaming into something closely resembling television, both in terms of structure and distribution. But it wasn't until last year that Telltale finally managed to bring that dream of TV-like gaming to a mass audience.

"Every game we’ve done, we’ve been trying to solve a specific problem," says president and co-founder Kevin Bruner. "The Walking Dead was a place where a lot of that work that had happened over the years came together." Now, with several new projects in development — including a second season of The Walking Dead — Telltale is hoping to keep that dream alive.