It is a comic book adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic book The Walking Dead interactive adventure game that has been released on Android, iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms respectively.

Like the original comic, the game takes place in the fictional world of Georgia, USA, following the events of the zombie outbreak. However, the characters are not all adopted from the comics, but are mostly new creations. The first season centres on Lee Everett, a university professor and convicted murderer, who is the only character the player can play as he rescues and temporarily cares for a young girl, Clementine, as she escapes the zombies.

The original author of the comic gave guidance to the team working on the game to ensure that the setting was appropriate to the original comic. However, the game team was also given the freedom to develop a large number of story elements and features while ensuring that the game remained true to the comic. Some of the characters from the manga also appear in the game.

The game is mostly "animated", but in the PC version it is sometimes possible to use the mouse to trigger events. Conversations between the player and other characters in the game will affect the ensuing plot, sometimes involving the humanity of the game's protagonist. This game is an adventure game in graphic form, played in third person with different camera angles. The player becomes the protagonist, Lee Everett, and meets a team of other survivors who work together to survive the zombie outbreak. Players can examine and interact with other characters and items, and use items to survive. The choices the player makes will determine how they interact with other characters. For example, making the protagonist look at or talk to other characters, or picking up items. Robert Kirkman, who wrote the original comic, said that the game focuses on character development and storyline rather than the action-driven nature of other zombie games such as Survival Road.

The Walking Dead's developer, Telltale Games, is an American game production company specialising in episodic, eponymous adaptations and other games, often released in chapter-by-chapter format. Some of their titles include: The Walking Dead, Detective Story, Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones.