Wallace & Gromit chases Telltale

Animated series are proving to be fertile soil for the episodic gaming. With the genre seeing a resurgence in recent years thanks in no small part to Telltale Games' droll Sam & Max adventure game revival, animated properties that are making the leap to interactive entertainment include Mondo Mini Shows' Happy Tree Friends, Homestarrunner.com's Strong Bad, and Comedy Central's South Park.

Now, one more animated comedy can be added to that list, as the Associated Press is reporting today that Telltale Games has been charged with creating an episodic adventure series based on the exploits of Wallace & Gromit. Titled Wallace & Gromit: Grand Adventures, the new series will let players assume the role of either the Rube Goldberg-influenced inventor or his pragmatic pooch.

According to Telltale CEO Dan Connors, the adventure series will primarily deal in situational and physical comedy, not unlike the award-winning British claymation series produced by Aardman Animations. Connors did not reveal platforms or an expected launch date for the new series, but he did tell the AP that the games would likely follow the same distribution model practiced with Sam & Max.

The Wallace & Gromit brand is not new to gaming, but according to Connors, this latest translation will be a step above Frontier Development's platforming action games. "The other games captured the personality, but all you ended up doing was running through the world," Connors told the AP. "It was a standard platform game. We feel like the gameplay should be more of an experience. You should be able to interact with the other characters and really feel like you're in the world of Wallace & Gromit."