Telltale's Minecraft Story Mode inspired by The Goonies and Ghostbusters
Of all the worlds for story masters Telltale Games to tackle, Minecraft is definitely the most interesting due to it's complete, well, lack of a plot. Minecraft: Story Mode had a proper reveal at Minecon this weekend in London and as well as a new trailer Telltale has revealed a stellar voice cast.
US comedian Patton Oswalt - who played Remy in Ratatouille - stars as leading man Jesse (that's him in the braces), while The Last Of Us' Ashley Johnson joins the cast as Petra. Story Mode follows a band of friends (which includes a pig called Reuben) who idolise a group of warriors called The Order Of the Stone. While attending Endercon, the group discover something terrible and must hunt down the Order to save the world. The game exists in its own world but takes from multiple areas of the Minecraft universe.
“That’s the thing about Minecraft. When you play there is no story. We’re aware of that. Mojang’s aware of that," explains Telltale's Job Stauffer at the Minecon Telltale panel. "It’s the stories that you make when you play. The experience that you’re having. The story that you’re telling to yourself or to your friends. We had to play a lot of Minecraft and make sure that we knew how to approach this. Make sure we knew the different types of players in Minecraft. The different experiences you could have."
"We wanted to work that into a story that really evokes classic film stories that we really were passionate about. The movies we grew up with. The two that we called out were Goonies and Ghostbusters. We all grew up with those. Films from 1985. Movies that they just don’t make anymore... We wanted to create a story that could be for all ages and bring generations together."
Mojang has been fully involved with every part of development too. “We took it very seriously that we wanted the team to integrate with Telltale," confirms Mojang brand director Lydia Winters. "It’s very much a partnership game. We didn’t just say make what you want and show us at the end. We’ve been involved in every process.”
Confirmed by Stauffer, the first episode will be out "sooner that you think" this year across PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and mobile.
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Louise Blain is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in gaming, technology, and entertainment. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s monthly Sound of Gaming show and has a weekly consumer tech slot on BBC Radio Scotland. She can also be found on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live, Netflix UK's YouTube Channel, and on The Evolution of Horror podcast. As well as her work on GamesRadar, Louise writes for NME, T3, and TechRadar. When she’s not working, you can probably find her watching horror movies or playing an Assassin’s Creed game and getting distracted by Photo Mode.