New piece for Penguin and one of their lead titles for 2007 called The Malice Box - Poke have just pre-launched the game of the website of the book.
The book is a fast-paced thriller - a bit like the Matrix meets The Da Vinci code - following the main character Robert Reckliss on his quest to save the world from an apocalyptic fate. The game builds on this theme and in conjunction with Penguin and the author, we devised a plotline that dovetails with the book and takes players on a journey across the globe on a quest to find the source of the Malice Box’s power - Red Gold. The book itself is very absorbing. Quick-paced, lots of twists and turns and (when I get to it) a splendid ending i’m sure.
The game. Over a period of 30 days players must complete a series of puzzles to locate the sources of Red Gold, map these locations on the globe to ultimately guide them to the location of the Malice Box itself for a chance to save the world - oh and to win some nice prizes.
From a techie viewpoint it’s probably the most ambitious use of the Google Maps API we’ve seen in a game (quick buff and polish of the old fingernails), and has given us a real insight into the art that is non-linear narrative development courtesy of the frighteningly talented Tim Wright.
From an agency relationship point-of-view it also been quite a quest. We turned the job down twice because we thought we couldn’t pull it off, and each time Penguin came back with suggestions of how we could solve that together, trusting that we would do a great job.
Finally, I should point out that most of the hard work happened during the move madness when I was fairly preoccupied. So all the credit goes to Simon, Tim, Iain, Cookie, and Paul - although I did do a really splendid job on the proposal and invoicing. Nice work chaps.
The game kicks off on Monday 15th. The world will possibly end 30 days later.
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