Telltale Games has announced on its blog that it’s working with Minecraft developer Mojang to create a series of games set in the world of the blocky hit franchise.
The game will presumably bring Telltale’s signature style to the Minecraft universes. In its popular licensed titles (the studio has made games in the Walking Dead, Back to the Future, and Game of Thrones universes, to name a few), the studio typically puts players in the shoes of their favorite protagonists or new characters with interesting perspectives on key events in a series.
With Minecraft, Telltale doesn’t have any developed characters to work with. There’s the silent protagonist, randomly generated villagers, and monsters — there’s no Tyrion Lannister they can bring out to automatically make a scene more interesting for players.
That’s a challenge for their writers, but an interesting opportunity for Mojang to continue its efforts to turn Minecraft into a multi-billion dollar franchise. The love kids have for Minecraft is already spilling over into partnerships with major toy makers like Lego, and characters with lovable personalities enables further expansion into toys as well as TV and movies in the future.