Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Telltale Games announced the hiring of three prominent designers that have been in the gaming industry for some time. With an ode to Afterlife in the picture above, Mike Stemmle, was brought in to become a senior designer. Some of his credits include the design work on the cancelled LucasArts Sam and Max sequel, as well as Afterlife and Escape from Monkey Island. In coming to work for Telltale Games, Mike had the following statement, “Mere words are proving woefully inadequate to describe my delight at hooking up with this fiendishly dedicated crew,” says Stemmle. “The excitement and talent swirling around Telltale remind me of the geysers of imagination that erupted across the gaming industry in the early 90′s. Only this time, with rational production schedules.”. Am I the only one who senses a little bit of hostility towards LucasArts.

Justin Chin is a name very familiar to me and most Star Wars fans as the main designer behind Dark Forces: Jedi Knight series. He has worked for several design houses over the past 15 years and most recently worked on The Simpsons Game as the senior designer. Brett Toshi is not as familiar to me, but comes from Factor 5, after working on the Rogue Squadron games as well as the much maligned Lair. These two talents have been brought in to focus development on more episodic content.

It seems that Telltale has found a niche that is working for them in the episodic content market. Things did not start out great with Bone, but the Sam and Max series have become a huge hit for them and it looks like it has facilitated a growth into new properties and developers.