Who Would You Choose?

Choice is at the heart of Story Mode - the Minecraft spin-off by Telltale Games. It follows the adventures of one particular minecrafter, Jesse, from humble beginnings to heroic heights. Along the way, the player is faced with all kinds of decisions, some small - like the shape of a statue outside a friend’s surf-shop - some rather large indeed. Occasionally the survival of a friendship, or the friend themselves, may hang in the balance!

Now in its second season, Story Mode poses some weighty questions: in the opening episode, the player has to choose between ensuring the safety of friends old and new as a gigantic threat looms over them.

To find out exactly how profound these consequences are, why not make the decision yourself and hear from the characters about how it all played out? Telltale have made a special series of videos for your to try out a critical choice every which way - and get a glimpse behind the curtain while you do!

If you’ve made your choice, read on for a behind the scenes interview about this, er, behind the scenes video. A sort of Behind the Behind the Scenes interview, if you will. We chatted to Telltale’s Mark Droste, who helped develop the idea and directed the videos.

So first, where did the concept for these videos originally come from?

The idea was first brought to me by Eric Stirpe and Jon Stauder, creative leads of Season Two: they had the idea for the behind-the-scenes approach, but what really sold me were the gags and funny “movie set” props we all started thinking up. How does directing a short-form video like this differ from directing a massive, branching episode?

In many respects it was simpler because we didn’t have to account for things we usually have to worry about, such as player interaction, time between choices, etc. That’s why these videos were a lot of fun, really. It was essentially like working on an animated short, and because of the more linear nature of the videos, we had a lot more time to focus on polishing animation and really making the characters feel alive, as well making the world around them feel lived in.

There is a lot happening in the backgrounds here. Are there any Easter Eggs you think fans may have missed on first viewing?

There are so many things happening, and we didn’t even get to put in everything we would’ve liked. There are a few shots where we see Female Jesse and Lukas talking, and next to them is an entire crowd of people... If you pay attention, you’ll notice that they’re all the different Male Jesse character options!

So, between Jack and Petra, who would you save and why?

This question is so unfair! They’re both such fun characters. But...Petra has always been the cool kid since the very first episode, the kind of person you want to tag along with and see what trouble you’ll get into. I’d have to side with Petra for this one. Next time Jack!