Clementine, the little girl that Lee Everett has to raise during a zombie apocalypse, is the bulk of what makes The Walking Dead so excellent. Telltale managed to create a character that we cared about, so much so that many of us shed tears by the end of the first season of the franchise. And yet according to Eurogamer, Clementine was almost scrapped from the game.
During a talk at the Game Developers Conference last week, Telltale writers Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman described initially feeling insecure about how players would feel about Clementine. What if we didnât care?
âWe tried to answer this one question: Why would you not leave this group of assholes?â said Rodkin. âIf you donât care about that child then weâre doubly screwed, because youâd be frustrated by this group and youâd be shackled to this little kid you donât care about. Was there talk about leaving Clementine out of the game a week before voice recording? Yes. Yes there was.â
While Iâm thankful they didnât get rid of Clementine, it feels absurd to try to think about the game without Clementine. It wouldnât be the same at all.
Telltale nearly scrapped The Walking Deadâs Clementine a week before recording [Eurogamer]
