{"id":27957,"date":"2025-09-17T15:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/27957\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T15:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:19:09","slug":"the-office-meets-invincible-in-a-playable-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/27957\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Office’ Meets ‘Invincible’ In a Playable TV Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor as long as video games<\/a> have had stories, there have been creators working to make their narratives more cinematic<\/a>. Early on, in works like Hideo Kojima\u2019s Metal Gear<\/a> (1987) and Snatcher (1988), that meant making action- or text-based experiences that rudimentarily emulated the visuals or plot devices of movies. The advent of point-and-click adventure games like LucasArts\u2019 The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) pushed immersion even further with deeper exploration and plodding mysteries to solve. But for the most part, narratively driven games ultimately fell into a formula defined by a handful of popular studios that dominated the space.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor mainstream audiences, PlayStation<\/a> first-party titles like Uncharted and The Last of Us<\/a> often get saddled with the (derogatory) descriptor of \u201cplayable movies.\u201d Clearly separating the direct action of gameplay from the story-driven bits meant to be viewed passively during non-interactive cut scenes, these types of games tend to be linear \u2014 the plot\u2019s pushing forward whether the user is in control or not.<\/p>\n

\n\tArguably the most successful studio in this niche was Telltale Games, a small publisher that became known for their emotionally affecting work with established IP like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us (a spin-off of Vertigo\u2019s comic Fables). With rich characters whose fates were often determined by player choice, Telltale\u2019s projects often felt like the pinnacle of what the graphic adventure subgenre could be. But through years of iteration, even their thoughtful approach became strained. As interest waned and episodic releases became more sporadic, the company\u2019s reputation soured \u2014 and by their closure in 2018, multiple games including the follow-ups to Game of Thrones and The Wolf Among Us were cancelled.<\/p>\n

\n\tTelltale Games ended up being revived under new management in 2019, but not before much of its core leadership departed to form AdHoc Studio<\/a> \u2014 a collective of industry veterans looking to push the boundaries of interactive storytelling. Their first game, Dispatch<\/a> <\/a>(out Oct. 22) aims to accomplish what previous ones couldn\u2019t: creating an immersive TV-quality experience that can appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tRecently, Rolling Stone played a demo of Dispatch and spoke with multiple of the game\u2019s developers about their new approach to the graphic adventure genre, what they\u2019re leaving behind from Telltale, and why episodic releases can work better than ever.<\/p>\n

\t\tRedefining the interactive story\t<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike Telltale\u2019s most popular games like The Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands<\/a>, Dispatch is an entirely original concept created by AdHoc \u2014 but there\u2019s still familiar elements. The game follows Robert Robertson (voiced by Breaking Bad\u2019s Aaron Paul<\/a>), an ex-superhero who\u2019s lost everything after his mechanized suit is ruined in a fight. Given the opportunity to work in the emergency call center for the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN), Robertson is tasked with thankless job of remotely managing a group of former supervillains as they attempt to do good.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe cast includes Aaron Paul, Jeffrey Wright, and multiple Critical Role<\/a> alumni like Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s kind of like Tony Stark, except he\u2019s not smart and he\u2019s not rich,\u201d says Nick Herman, co-creative director of Dispatch. The parallels with Iron Man are there, but mostly superficial; the game\u2019s setting feels like a mishmash of tons of different superhero media \u2014 from the edgy animated violence of Invincible<\/a> to the \u201cbad guys go straight\u201d schtick of The Suicide Squad<\/a> and Thunderbolts*<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a dispatcher, Robertson has an essential role answering community calls, encompassing everything from fires and robberies to saving kittens and sending heroes to make public appearances alongside c-suite execs. The gameplay bounces between fully animated dialogue sequences that require timed choices to advance and multiple interactive sections like managing the dispatch and hacking computers.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile dialogue trees and mini-games are well-worn territory for games of this ilk, the developers are actively eschewing specific mechanics that they\u2019ve grown sick of during their tenures at Telltale. Namely, all the boring walking and item collection that normally constitutes filler content has been cut.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was a conscious effort to avoid things that felt like we were asking you to interact purely for the sake of needing to interact because it had been a while since you held a stick or pushed a button,\u201d says co-creative director Dennis Lenart.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDialogue trees have timed choices that will impact the plot in major ways.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tPrevious games from Telltale heavily relied on controlling the player character through long stretches of monotonous walking around fixed spaces looking for the next interaction to trigger. In Dispatch, the goal is to ensure that every action has a satisfying purpose.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[At] Telltale, there was a lot of extra gameplay,\u201d Herman says. \u201cKind of like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019ve got to walk from here to here to hit a trigger.\u2019 And it\u2019s like, \u2018Did I really?\u2019 That was mainly just anxiety and insecurity of not [being] sure that people are engaged and [needing] to make sure their hands are on the controller. We don\u2019t want to make the same mistakes we did last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHerman and Lenart note that many of the systems implemented in Dispatch are ideas that date back more than 10 years but couldn\u2019t be accomplished for one reason or another. Playing the game, the difference is instantly apparent. Without drawn out exploration, the story zips along at the pace you\u2019d expect from an animated comedy, allowing audiences to bend the arc of the plot with quick decisions made in action. It\u2019s not a new idea, but by driving the narrative forward with minimal stop-down, Dispatch feels much closer to mentally guiding a TV show than playing a full-blown game.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDispatch shifts are interactive sections that replace the traditional plodding and exploration.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there\u2019s also more traditional gameplay involved \u2014 primarily through the dispatching and hacking sections. Working the hotline, players get to view the world through an in-game monitor that lays out a grid of the city and the roster of heroes on their shifts. Displayed at the bottom of the screen, the characters are all on an open line, talking shit (mostly about Robertson), and reacting to their various assignments. Each hero has specific attributes and specialties that make them better or worse suited for unique tasks, and choosing the right ones is key to successfully saving lives or making the public happy.<\/p>\n

\n\tConversely, the hacking mini-game requires direct input from a controller or, for greater immersion, a keyboard where it actually feels like breaking into a computerized security system. Simple button inputs can mean critical success or failure, and when under the crunch of the timer, the sequences can be exhilarating. One instance shown by the developers (but not playable directly) saw Robertson hacking into a store\u2019s security feed and HVAC systems to help a hero take down a fire-based bad guy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the hacking mechanic, specifically, was [added] mid-development because [the] developers on the game were like, \u2018I want to move something with my fingers on screen,\u2019 Herman says. \u201cSince we don\u2019t have this, \u2018I\u2019m walking a character around, picking stuff up, looking at it, having direct control over something \u2014 it just felt like something we were itching for. Then [Helldivers 2] came out and were like, \u2018Oh man, up, down, left, right is actually fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTV-show quality without licensed IP\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFor many non-gamers, the hesitance toward picking up even a slightly interactive narrative game often boils down to the disconnect they feel with the graphics. It\u2019s why shows like HBO\u2019s The Last of Us might do outsized numbers for the Sunday night streaming crowd even when its story is nearly identical <\/a>to the virtual source material that\u2019s been available for over a decade.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe game\u2019s tone is comedic and violent in equal measure without feeling gratuitous.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the team at AdHoc, the visual fidelity of game design has been a sticking point for years. Although their previous games at Telltale have held up better than most due to their more cartoonish aesthetic (which ages better than attempted photorealism), Dispatch\u2019s creators know that what audiences are seeing will be their first hurdle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t like it when people are going, \u2018Man, the stories are great. I love the dialogue, the writing, the acting is fantastic. But it\u2019s not for me,\u2019\u201d Herman says. \u201cWhy? That doesn\u2019t make any sense. And what we found [was], a lot of times, the barrier was just how it looked. It looked like a video game. So, people who would enjoy interactive stories were put off because they weren\u2019t \u2018gamers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt helps to remove the UI and mandatory walking around, but Dispatch\u2019s greatest strength for reaching non-gamers will be its animation style \u2014 which is decadent. While even the most popular adult animation today, from Netflix\u2019s wave of anime <\/a>to Amazon\u2019s Invincible and Critical Role shows<\/a>, look good enough to garner cartoon-wary viewers, they still often fall short of spectacular.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tVisually, Dispatch looks better than most animated shows \u2014 something its creators will draw in diverse audiences.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tWith high-end theatrical and streaming movies like Sony\u2019s Spiderverse<\/a> and K-Pop Demon Hunters<\/a>, the bar has been raised to grab people\u2019s attention. Fortunately, Dispatch meets those demands, while also weaving in some more familiar notes by blending the eye-popping colors of comic book media with the more mundane world of shows like The Office.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople call the style \u2018pretty.\u2019 I think that\u2019s fair,\u201d says art director Derek Stratton. \u201cFor a comedy, a workplace comedy, in terms of live action, it\u2019s like a lot of fill light and everything feels bright. There\u2019s no really stylish workplace comedy. So, it was an interesting opportunity to jump in and do something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRecreating the tone of a TV show might help bring in skeptics, but existing fans of AdHoc\u2019s older work will be hoping to see the kinds of layered storytelling that made Telltale games famous. Despite mostly working with established IP like The Walking Dead and Borderlands, their narrative adventures generally met (or surpassed) the level of quality seen in the source material. But the writing process was never without friction. \u201cMany times, you\u2019re dealing with that headache of trying to satisfy criteria from the license holder,\u201d Stratton notes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEach character has a rich personality and traits that will determine how they handle assignments.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tNarrative director Pierre Shorette is keenly aware that fans expect a certain caliber of storytelling from AdHoc \u2014 one that\u2019s distinctly voicey, even when they\u2019ve previously played in someone else\u2019s sandbox.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn the one hand, we definitely did work on a lot of licensed projects, but I think if you look back on the stuff we worked on, all the way back to The Walking Dead, specifically [The Wolf Among Us] and Tales from the Borderlands \u2014 which had much more of a creative role on \u2014 they feel like departures from what you\u2019re used to from those franchises,\u201d Shorette says. \u201cSo, I think [we\u2019ve] been doing this the whole time, doing sort of original stuff within the parameters of some existing IP. In that sense, it\u2019s not too far of a reach for us, but it\u2019s definitely going to be hard to know that, if we fuck it up it\u2019s all our fault, and there\u2019s no one else to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tCreating water cooler talk\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOne sticking point that\u2019s had players debating for years is the concept of an episodic rollout for games. While many of Telltale\u2019s releases stuck to five to six chunks delivered over the course of months, the company\u2019s latter years were embroiled in delays and cancellations that left fans hanging. It\u2019s an issue that plagues the industry all around, with yearslong waits between indies developed by small teams or worse, unsatisfying cliffhangers needlessly padding out experiences that could\u2019ve been a singular whole.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe episodic release aims to capture weekly players and bingers alike in the communal experience.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile some series that previously released episodically have condensed their timelines to just two halves, AdHoc has decided to stick with the television-styled cadence of Dispatch\u2019s drops. The game will consist of eight episodes, estimated to be roughly one hour apiece, launching two at a time weekly on Oct. 22, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, and Nov. 12.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith locked release dates, it\u2019s clear that the game is actually finished, which should alleviate some stress. But will players be willing to tune in for scheduled programming when they\u2019ve been brought up on binge models? It\u2019s a non-issue for AdHoc, who hopes people will follow the traditional route, but fully embrace all methods of consumption.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m assuming I\u2019m in the minority where, [even] if a whole show is out, I\u2019ll meter it out for myself,\u201d Herman says. \u201cBecause I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, I like this. I want to live in it longer.\u2019 I\u2019ve done it where I just binge something and was like, \u2018That was incredible,\u2019 and then two weeks later I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t even remember what that show\u2019s impact on me was.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMini-games are easy to pick up and dynamic, feeling like an immersive extension of the plot.<\/p>\n

\n\tLook, binging is fine \u2014 if that\u2019s what you\u2019re into. But the developers are looking to a healthy digital discourse to keep the water cooler talk going. \u201cI like to make it a communal experience when I can,\u201d says lead producer, Natalie Herman. \u201cSo, with my friends, [there\u2019s] this new show that we\u2019re all excited about every Sunday night; we\u2019re going to get together as a group, or as many of us who can, and we\u2019re going to make that an event for ourselves. It\u2019s something we are hoping [for] with Dispatch, in the sense of the online community \u2014 that people are going to be talking about the game, theorizing what\u2019s going to happen next in between drops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe popularity of Twitch and YouTube streaming<\/a> can also be a boon for Dispatch. Today, huge contingents of people are just as happy watching others <\/a>beat games as they are playing themselves.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s nice about episodic is, if you do want to just watch your favorite streamer play it every week, you can do that,\u201d Nick says. \u201cBut it also provides a stopping point where you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I really like this,\u2019 and maybe I would have just binged through watching the streamer play the whole game if I could, but I can\u2019t. Now I have this moment of thinking, \u2018Do I want to join along? Or do I want to be more passive?\u2019 We\u2019re happy for folks to engage with it in whatever way that makes sense for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tEven if someone watches on Twitch, there\u2019s incentive to try different story paths themselves.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdHoc Studio<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond a virtual community, the game\u2019s appeal will most certainly extend to people crammed together under one roof IRL. As Shorette is quick to point out, just because you\u2019re not holding the controller doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t be locked in while friends and family do. \u201cA lot of the times people play our games, they\u2019re couch co-op experiences, even though it\u2019s not integrated into the game,\u201d Shorette says. \u201cIt\u2019s just people sitting there talking and enjoying something together. And I think we\u2019re making a comedy, we\u2019re making entertainment. We just want to make people happy, enjoy something, and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s fair to say that there\u2019s still some stigma among certain audiences when it comes to picking up a game versus watching a show or movie. For those with trepidation, the AdHoc team has a simple conceit: You\u2019re already fiddling with multiple screens. What\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBasically, everyone\u2019s watching TV. A lot more people are becoming comfortable watching animated TV, [and] everyone\u2019s used to sitting on a couch with a phone while they\u2019re watching TV,\u201d Nick says. \u201cSo, interaction while watching things is a thing that people are doing already, and we\u2019re just trying to get those people who don\u2019t think they\u2019re gamers to give it a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDispatch launches its first two episodes on Oct. 22 for PC and PS5, with subsequent episodes arriving weekly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For as long as video games have had stories, there have been creators working to make their narratives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27721,27722,27723,3447,111,139,69,145,2673],"class_list":["post-27957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-adhoc-studio","tag-critical-role","tag-dispatch","tag-gaming","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}