Telltale-esque superhero management sim Dispatch was originally going to be a live-action TV show before it became a videogame, but then 'a thing called Covid hit'

Robert, the protagonist of Dispatch, looks over his shoulder while in conversation with a superheroine. — (Image credit: AdHoc Studio)

Dispatch is a game I'm genuinely quite excited for. Made by AdHoc studios, which contains quite a few former Telltale employees, Dispatch is a gorgeously-animated comedy about a washed-up Superhero managing a telephone dispatch for a bunch of reformed crooks and losers.

Aside from having a solid setup, it's also got a fun management sim tucked inside, which is a nice twist on the usual Telltale gambit of 'this is basically a choose-your-own-adventure book with quicktime events'. Speaking to PCG's Ian Evenden for our upcoming issue 415, however, creative director Dennis Lenart says it was originally designed to be a live-action series.

"We originally started in 2018," says Lenart. "It was going to be a potential live-action interactive TV show. And we spent a bunch of time on that, you know, wrote a season’s worth of content, and a thing called Covid hit. Hollywood shut down, everything changed, the tech partner we were working with pivoted their business, and we kind of put it on the shelf for a while."

For example, the Borderlands movie's terrible storyline, which was apparently built on Zoom—and its starring of the Academy Award-winning Cate Blanchett, who cites her role in the whole mess as "a touch of the Covid madness." Point being, it was a weird time for everybody.

The pivot to being a videogame didn't stop the studio taking inspiration from prestige TV, though: "Then when we came back to it, looked at what was there, and thought: 'There’s a lot of great elements, but what about expanding here and here and changing this character?' We started getting more into Barry at the time, so there’s a lot of that influence seeping in.”

Lenart also states that The Bear—not exactly a comedy, but it certainly has its own comedic moments—factored into the direction for the script. Dispatch is due to release October 22, but if you'd like to read our full preview, you can check out PC Gamer issue 415 starting October 9.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

With contributions from

Ian EvendenWriter

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