Monday 26 March 2012

MISTBORN computer game in development

It's been confirmed that a computer game based on Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books is in development from Little Orbit Games and Game Machine Studios.

Mistborn: Birthright is a prequel set several hundred years before the events of the first trilogy and will depict the misadventures of Fendin 'Fiddle' Fathvell, a young nobleman who must master his Allomantic powers in order to save his family. Brandon Sanderson has written the storyline for the game.

The game is due for release around Autumn 2013 on the X-Box 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Macintosh formats.

Hmm. Interesting but also risky. The game creators are pretty much total unknowns. Little Orbit and Game Machine have worked predominantly on undemanding DS and iPad/iPhone games. They are unproven at making a large-scale, Triple-A fantasy RPG that can compete with the likes of Bethesda or BioWare. That doesn't mean that they can't do a good job (everyone needs to start somewhere), just that I'd have looked for a company with a bit more experience first. Still, worth keeping an eye on.

2 comments:

Michael said...

From Brandon's website:

"When Little Orbit first approached me, I was skeptical. I didn't recognize the company, and though they had worked on some professional projects, I didn't see anything in their pedigree that screamed Mistborn at me. However, I like to at least talk to people who are making offers on my work.

And so, I chatted with them. I met with them. And I was impressed. Not only did they have a love for Mistborn, they had more experience at this sort of thing than I'd originally assumed. The company is made up of people who have been in the business for a long time, and they had worked on a variety of games I really love. (They even have guys who were involved in the original Fallout and Baldur's Gate games.)"

Although the company hasn't worked on any major projects, it's good to know that many of those working there have worked on major projects before. It seems that Brandon did consider this before selecting them.

Joshua Lowe said...

Sounds interesting. I think I would have preferred to play the Mistborn trilogy storyline ... at least then we're already invested a lot in the story and characters.