It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that Telltale Games was suddenly and unexpectedly shut down recently, leaving 250 hard working employees without jobs.
Many of these employees found themselves without severance pay, leaving them to wonder how they were going to address such trivial matters as rent, food, and providing for their families.
Thankfully, the gaming industry has rallied round Telltale Games in spectacular fashion, The studio – best known for episodic point and click style adventures like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us – has contributed some great games over the years, and nobody wants to see them go down like this.
Emily Grace Buck, who worked as a narrative developer at Telltale, started the hashtag #telltalejobs on Twitter to connect staff with other developers who had openings in their own studios. Naturally, plenty of other companies were happy to come forward, and entered into discussions with ex Telltale staff about their next steps.
Buck wasn’t done there though, going so far as to help out other Telltale staff in the creation of Ko-Fi pages – a site where one can leave monetary donations for users. Obviously a great gesture, designed to help the staff get back on their feet.
This will be a thread of @kofi_button and other immediate fundraising/donation accounts for specific former Telltale employees in immediate need
— Emily Grace Buck plz hire TTG devs! (@emilybuckshot) September 24, 2018
Buck’s own Ko-Fi page received a lot of love, not least from God of War director Cory Balrog, who donated to help Buck pay for her boyfriend’s dog’s emergency surgery.
In fact, Balrog has been super vocal in his support for the team at Telltale Games, even calling out Telltale on Twitter, demanding they consider the wellbeing of their staff before making plans to complete The Walking Dead’s final season, whose final two episodes are uncertain of release following the studio’s closure.
I would hope this means that you will first pay your entire team their severance, and then proceed to finish the final episodes. I would be fine waiting however long it took to ensure we first treated those who worked so hard with the humanity and respect they deserve.❤️
— Cory Barlog 🎮 🏳️🌈 Should be writing! (@corybarlog) September 25, 2018
The Telltale staff have worked hard over the years to bring us some brilliant stories, and we’ve no doubt they’ll all land on their feet eventually. In the meantime, you can over to Emily Grace Buck’s Twitter to find out more, and see if you can help out in any way.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.