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The Wolf Among Us Unofficial FAQ (Please Read Before Posting)

posted by Jennifer on - last edited - Viewed by 40.6K users

The Wolf Among Us FAQ (Last Update on April 9, 2014)

All information in this FAQ is compiled by community moderators Jennifer and Vainamoinen. We check our facts thoroughly and have a lot of Telltale experience on our backs, but this is not an 'official' source, we're just volunteers!

(1) What is The Wolf Among Us?
It is an episodic game based on Bill Willingham's Fables comics, set in Fabletown, a hidden refuge for Fables in New York City. It is a prequel, set before the first issue, and is said by Mr. Willingham to be in canon with the comics. The player character will be the sheriff Bigby Wolf, and it will include Fables favorites like Snow White and Colin, one of the three little pigs. It will also star original Fables created by Telltale for this game.

(2) What kind of game can we expect?
It is a game about choices, similar to The Walking Dead, with action sequences. The choices in this game relate to Bigby's wolf side, and how he treats the people he meets and those he has to protect. Like The Walking Dead, it will consist of choice based gameplay. However, there will be more freedom in the choices this time. You will be able to choose where to go in some instances, and the events will happen in real time. So, the other event will still play out regardless of whether or not you are there. Also, the action will be more directly controlled this time. Bigby will get into brawls, and since he is a Fable, the fights will be more over the top than they could be with someone like Lee from The Walking Dead.

(3) Is Bill Willingham involved with the game?
Bill Willingham reached a deal with Telltale to with the general direction of the story of the game, and to make sure the characters and story stay true to the greater Fables universe.

(4) When will the episodes be released?
Episode 1 "Faith" released October 11, 2013 on PC & Xbox Live, on October 14th on Mac, on October 15th for PSN NA, on October 16th for PSN EU, and on December 5th for iOS.
Episode 2 "Smoke and Mirrors" released January 4, 2014 on PC, Mac, & PSN NA, on January 5th for XBLA & PSN EU, and on January 7th for iOS.
Episode 3 "A Crooked Mile" will release April 8, 2014 on PC, Mac, & PSN NA, on April 9th for XBLA & PSN EU, and on iOS on April 10th.
Episode 4 release dates are NOT OUT YET!!

Note that the second episode of the season released at a slightly later time frame than usual. This is standard procedure for Telltale's seasons. The reason they do this is to incorporate fan and critic feedback into the game, based on reactions from the first episode in order to make the game better fit the desires of fans. They had a longer than usual release schedule between episode one and two for these reasons for Back to the Future: The Game, The Walking Dead, and now The Wolf Among Us (and have done so all the way back to their first episodic release, Bone). The good news is that once the tweaks have been made, the remaining episodes will come out at a quicker rate.

(5) On which platforms is TWaU available?
The episodes will be released for PC/Mac through the Telltale Store, Steam and other digital platforms, on the PlayStation3 through PSN, on Xbox360 through XBLA, and on iOS.
On October 24th, 2013, Telltale also announced a PS Vita version of The Wolf among Us. No release date has yet been announced for Vita, other than the confirmation by Sony that it would be released sometime in 2014.

(6) How much does it cost?
Like The Walking Dead, the episodes cost $5 each. A season pass option comprising all five episodes is available for $25. The price might vary per platform. On some platforms (like the PC), you can't buy the episodes individually and will have to buy the entire season at once.

(7) "Episodic" games? How does that work?
With a bit of patience, they do work. You can expect to receive a new episode roughly every one to two months. The way this works is each individual episode contains an individual part of a story that is held together through a narrative that connects all of the episodes together into what Telltale calls a season. Think along the lines of a serialized television series such as Lost.

The reason it takes a month or two to release the episodes is because Telltale's games really are created episodically, as they develop their games as they're making them, rather than finishing them ahead of time and then holding onto them until release (Telltale keeps working on the episodes right up until release day in the case of the computer versions). This has the added benefit of allowing them to improve gameplay or include topics in the storyline based on gamer and critic feedback (such tweaks to the action parts of The Walking Dead in later episodes, or the battery joke in episode 2 of The Walking Dead, or the joke about the length of Bone: Out from Boneville in Bone: The Great Cow Race).

(8) How many episodes will there be?
Five episodes are planned. The episode titles are Faith, Smoke & Mirrors, A Crooked Mile, In Sheep's Clothing, and Cry Wolf.

(9) Why doesn't Telltale give more specific updates about when upcoming episodes will be released?
Telltale's early days of open transparency are just not possible anymore. Before they only released games on their online store and GameTap, and had much lower profile licenses. Now that they are working with large corporations such as Warner Bros (which owns Vertigo, which is an imprint of DC Comics) for Fables, and with big name licenses like The Walking Dead, and have to deal with distribution deals with large console manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft, they can't announce release dates until very close to release. This is because the distribution partners are the ones who set the release dates on their platforms, and they only set aside release for a few games per week, and only release them on certain days). As Telltale's PR person Laura Perusco has said:

"Bear in mind that we're usually only able to announce release dates really close to an episode's actual release - think back to The Walking Dead: Season Two premiere, where we could only announce dates the DAY BEFORE the ep came out.

A lot of times this has to do with coordinating releases across multiple platform partners like with our friends at Valve/Steam, Sony, Microsoft, or Apple. As with all of our episodes, we always try make sure the content lands across all platforms as close together as possible so that all fans can join in the discussion at around the same time."

That's the reason that they can only give release dates when they have them, and can only give vague statements such as that they're still working on the game when they don't have them. They do give weekly updates that they are still working on the game, so they do their best letting people know that game development is progessing. Specific updates on release dates are just not possible until the moment Telltale gets them from their distribution partners. Telltale has always been a company that's appreciative of their fans (putting fan feedback into releases, allowing fans to post videos of their games without restriction (even going so far as to allow complete playthroughs of their episodes without commentary), etc). If they could give release dates sooner, they definitely would.

(10) Will the different platforms release simultaneously?
Almost. Telltale has come a long way since 2009, when the PC and console releases of their episodes were months apart. With their last episodic release 'The Walking Dead', most platforms released within days of each other, and even these small lags were only due to the different release schedules of XBLA and PSN NA. However, PSN Europe always lagged a bit more. It is to be expected that these lags will also be apparent and unavoidable during the "Wolf among Us" release. Be prepared!

Lastly, these close release windows only refer to the platforms that have been announced in the initial announcement (here: PC/Mac, PSN, and XBLA). If any other platforms are announced at a later date, the episodes for these platforms naturally release on a different schedule!

(11) Are there concrete release dates for all these episodes?
Absolutely not!! While Telltale doesn't start each new episode 'from scratch', large parts of the development cycle still take place during these release months. From writing to animation to voice acting to possible gamer input from the forums, it all comes together to form a new episode only weeks and days before release; and eventually, another time frame insecurity is added when console manufacturers receive the final build of the episodes for their quality assurance process.

As a consequence, fixed dates will only be announced mere days before an episode releases (in Telltale's blog, on their twitter, facebook page, or possibly through official press releases or interviews with Telltale staff on large gaming sites such as IGN or Game Informer). Don't ever believe dates given by various unofficial sites, including placeholder dates on large gaming sites such as IGN or Game Informer (unless they were accompanied by an official statement or press release from a Telltale staff member)! These are nothing but estimates, placeholder dates and possibly wishful thinking.

(12) For which languages will the game be available?
Only English will be available at launch. There is no word on what languages The Wolf Among Us will be translated to or when they will be available, but historically Telltale has released their translations towards the end of the season.

(13) Will there be a bonus/free collector's DVD version available from the Telltale store?
YES! Yes, after three years, Telltale store PC/Mac Season customers will finally receive a free bonus game DVD just for shipping costs.

(14) If I buy the game from someplace other than the Telltale store will I still get the collector's DVD?
No. The collector's DVD is only available for PC and Mac customers who order from the Telltale store (or from an outlet that has a code that redeems on the Telltale Store).

(15) What will be on the collector's DVD from the Telltale store?
According to a post by the president of Telltale Games, Kevin Bruner, the collector's DVD will have the entire game on it, various videos, behind the scenes, etc. The DVD also comes in a case with special TTG only artwork. They have done a DVD with almost every TTG series, but since the DVD usually contains things that are created while the series is in production, they can't say what specific things will be on it. They usually start locking down the exact contents of the DVD as the season comes to a close.

54 Comments - Linear Discussion: Classic Style
  • User Avatar Image
    Vainamoinen Moderator

    September 17th, 2013: I killed my "Telltale newbie FAQ" in this post and edited it into Jennifer's FAQ above. It's less confusing that way. And we're soooo close to release...

  • Will this game have any types of choices, we can make that directly effect the outcome or more of same old same old?

  • User Avatar Image
    Vainamoinen Moderator

    @fusedmass said: Will this game have any types of choices, we can make that directly effect the outcome or more of same old same old?

    You can expect something similar to the Walking Dead in that respect. Probably with a bit less life-and-death, but possibly with a bit more consequence.

  • What's the "same old same old"?

  • @KCohere said: What's the "same old same old"?

    I played sam and max, no doubt it was fun. But moral choice modes with different outcomes, are really so much better. I was deicing on this game solely if it let me pick some of the choices

  • User Avatar Image
    Jennifer Moderator

    It does have choices and this time you can choose to go two places and the events of the place that you didn't choose to go will play out even though you didn't experience them personally. So if you choose to help someone instead of someone else, the person that you didn't help will still experience the event without you there to help, and you'll have to face the consequences of that decision.

    That part is what sounds the most appealing to me, since it should add even more depth and realism to the game's story. :)

  • User Avatar Image
    Vainamoinen Moderator

    Sorry folks. The forum migration has killed my newbie guide and all the changes to Jenni's first post we have made in the last four months.

  • what happened to your beard!!! O.O

  • User Avatar Image
    Vainamoinen Moderator

    Can't commit to gravatar, so it's gone for now.

  • User Avatar Image
    Jennifer Moderator

    Vainamoinen wrote:


    Shoot. I'll grab them off of Google cache and see if I can restore them.

    And, I managed to restore them both, but the cache was from the 21st of August, so it was quite a bit old. I'm not sure if you had a newer version made after that, so you might have to update it. But at least your newbie guide (and my updated FAQ with the correct release date) are there again. :)

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