Telltale's Jurassic Park games to be 'cinematically much more serious'

Ever since Telltale announced an agreement with NBC Universal to develop an episodic series of games based on Jurassic Park, we've been kept awake at night, wondering just how one goes about defeating a Tyrannosaurus Rex using nothing but an umbrella handle, a lightbulb and a unicycle. There are at least seven ways to do it -- trust us -- but Telltale design director Dave Grossman informed us at E3 that Jurassic Park won't quite fit the company's traditional adventure structure.

"... in the case of Jurassic Park, we've wanted to kind of step out and do something that's cinematically much more serious than the kind of.... you know, we feel like we're getting pigeonholed a little bit as a company that makes funny cartoon games about talking animals, whereas really what we think of ourselves as is a company that makes games about cinema," Grossman said. "And so we want to explore some different territory. How is the gameplay supporting the tension of the scene, and what kind of tension is it? How is the game paced? And so you're going to find all of that stuff in the Jurassic Park series."

While Jurassic Park will feature adventure mechanics deemed "appropriate," it seems its focus won't necessarily be on laid-back lateral thinking. "I don't want to have it be a game about hanging around and solving thinky puzzles at your own pace," Grossman explained. "It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do for that." And while that might seem to suggest an action-oriented approach, Grossman wasn't willing to characterize it to such a simple degree. "You can definitely expect tension elements, let's say. Whether they're action or, well, there are a lot of ways to do that. I think there'll be a liberal mix of stuff in that game."

Let's hope we learn more before Telltale's Jurassic Park begins its monthly excursions from Isla Sorna Nublar this winter.