Fans of the modern classic sci-fi book
Ender's Game know that, as the title suggests, the novel is full of games. In fact, the various games serve as the overall metaphor for themes of war and indoctrination that the book seeks to convey. So when Chair Entertainment (the developers behind
Undertow) announced today that it had acquired the rights to adapt the book into a game, there was some just cause for trepidation. Such a wide variety of competing game types could make for a structural mess. Luckily, Chair reportedly intends to focus the title on the one game most adaptable to a video game, the "Battle Room" aspect of the story. In the Battle Room of the novel, a set of various unit types take out enemy units in order to open the gate and pass through it to win the game, sot of like a control point. The parallels to Undertow are fairly obvious, especially given that the Battle Room is a weightless environment much like the near-weightless water setting. The game adaptation is planned for all next-gen consoles, handhelds, and PC... so pretty much everything.
In the press release Orson Scott Card, author of the Ender Wiggin series, said:
"From the moment I started working with Donald Mustard and his team at Chair, I knew that these were the guys I wanted to do the first Ender's Game video game. It's not enough to slap the Ender's Game name on just any game - it has to be exciting, memorable, and endlessly replayable. Chair shares my understanding of this and I am looking forward to working with them to ensure the game is as authentically Enderish as possible."
We'll grant him leeway to coin the word "Enderish" since he wrote such a good series of books. And on a personal note, if you haven't read
Ender's Game yet, go out to your library and read it. It will be worth your time.
