Similar to the previous seasons, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is a point-and-click adventure game. In contrast to previous seasons, there will be two playable characters: Clementine, the heroine from the previous games; and Javier, a new character introduced this season. Players can direct the current character under their control around the environment, examine and interact with various scenery elements and collect and use objects to advance the story. The player can also initiate conversations with non-player characters via conversation trees. Certain replies from other characters may offer the player multiple choices to select from, including the option to stay silent, with a limited amount of time to make the selection; if the player does not select an option, the conversation will continue as if they had stayed quiet. Such choices can affect how the other characters will later react to the player-character which can influence later events in the story. Other scenes are more action-oriented, requiring the player to complete quick time events to prevent the player-character or their allies from getting killed. If the player fails these events, the game will restart at the start of such scenes. Such action scenes may also require the player to make a key decision within a limited time frame, such as which of two characters to save from attacking walkers.
The player's choices and actions will impact story elements in later episodes; for example, a character that the player does not choose to be saved will not appear in later scenes. A New Frontier will incorporate player choices made in previous games in the series through existing save files; Telltale states they will offer multiple options for how players can bring in previous saves into the game, including for players that have switched their choice of platform prior to A New Frontier. A New Frontier will not be released on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but players that have saves from Season Two on these platforms will be able to download a patch on those consoles as to upload their saved game to Telltale's servers, and then access that from their new choice of platform.[13] Telltale will also provide a separate tool for players to "quick-create a tailored backstory" for Clementine to this point, with a possible 42 different variations, and create a save file from which to start the new season with. Players may also opt to use the default backstory that Telltale has created as the basis for the game.[14][15] Unlike the first two seasons, the third makes extensive use of flashback narrative structure.