Telltale teams up with Mojang on narrative-driven Minecraft: Story Mode, due in 2015

Minecraft Story Mode logo

Telltale Games, the makers of cinematic games liek The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead series, and Mojang, a Microsoft owned game developer studio based in Stockholm, Sweden, are teaming up on a brand new, narrative-driven game set in the Minecraft universe.

Minecraft: Story Mode, premiering in 2015 on consoles, computers and mobile devices, has an original story and, like all Telltale games, will be driven by the choices you make.

The crossover game will mix new characters with familiar themes “in an entirely original Minecraft experience” inspired by the Minecraft community.

In case you’re wondering, Minecraft: Story Mode will be a full-blown standalone game rather than a Minecraft add-on. The first episode will make its debut “sometime in 2015” on iOS, Android, Mac, PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

According to Mojang, it’s “a cool game” that will be “as Minecrafty as possible.” For what it’s worth, they’re not intending on creating an “official” story for Steve, or explaining the world of Minecraft in detail.

Telltale Games has enjoyed a tremendous success with its licensed, narrative-driven games on the iOS platform. Now that both The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead: Season Two games have reached their respective conclusions, Telltale has introduced the new Tales from the Borderlands franchise and earlier this month released the six-episode Game of Thrones game based on HBO’s award-winning television series.

In addition to the premiere of Minecraft: Story Mode, Telltale’s 2015 lineup will include the remainder of both the Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones games.

Minecraft: Story Mode is an uncharted territory for the maker of episodic games so I’ll be watching with great intent what comes out of this newly formed and unusual partnership.

Mojang, which Microsoft snapped up in September for a reported $2.5 billion, has made a name for itself with Minecraft, a cross-platform voxel sandbox game conceived by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson.

Mojang’s second game, Scrolls for Mac/Windows and Android tablets, has debuted earlier this month. The RPG-based title combines the best concepts of collectable card games with strategy elements of tactical war games.

[Telltale Blog, Mojang Blog]