It's not just the physical mechanics. The story arcs and puzzles on their games also started feeling formulaic after a while too. Like, if you played one Telltale game, you'd played them all.

Which makes sense, now that I'm hearing how the company was managed - coming up with really original ideas, and making sure they work, takes time and breathing room. You get that out of people that have time to put their feet on the desk and daydream, not people that live on perpetual crunch time.