Undertow Creators Working on Ender’s Game… Game

By: Derek Yu

On: January 29th, 2008

Chair Entertainment, the developers behind the underwater XBLA game Undertow, have announced that they have secured the rights to Orson Scott Card’s timeless sci-fi novel “”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender’s_Game">Ender’s Game," and will develop the first video games based on it. That’s right, video games. Chair is planning on releasing games on multiple platforms, including PC, next-gen consoles, and handhelds.

The games, which will have no tie-in to the upcoming film (when’s that coming out?), will be based on the infamous “Battle Rooms” from the book. It’s unclear how similar the games will be to one another, although Chair revealed that they would be using the Unreal Engine 3 for all of them. Even the handhelds?

“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,” said Card. “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.”

I was really surprised about this, until I learned that Chair has had a long-time relationship with Card, which resulted in the award-winning sci-fi novel Empire.

What can I say? I love Ender’s Game, and I hope they do a good job with it! (But actually, what I really want to play is that game inside Ender’s holographic desk.)

(Source: Earnest Cavalli, via Game|Life)

Posted in Business, Community, Previews | Tags: ChairEntertainment

GSM

A port of the Unreal Engine 3 for DS? I hope they think to license that technology to other companies!
peshue

A game about kids playing a game, interesting
raigan

it’s been a while, but didn’t the battle-holo-diagram thing have abstract diagrammatic graphics to depict things? UE3 seems a bit like overkill.

hopefully this ends up being sci-fi advance wars.
Tantan

This is the best idea since DEFCON.
Koholint

Sounds cool. I agree on the idea of the fantasy game, though.
Carlz0r

Wow… Ender’s Game was one of my favorite novels ever. I’ve always dreamed of being able to play in the Battle Room. I also wanted to play the other simulations mentioned in the game, and of course the fantasy game from the computer desks.

I can’t wait for this battle room game, though… wow… finally. It’s like a dream coming true.
Data

Did anyone else laugh at the total lame ripoff use of the Halo (scorpion?) tank model on the cover art of Empire?
Smithy

Holy cats! Enders Game is being turned into a movie AND a video game?

I’m way out of the loop.
namuol

The real question is, can we use the Little Doctor? ;)
Stij

I’ve…never read Ender’s Game. D:

Am I a horrible person?
Dusty Spur

Stij: Not if you act fast!

This is the greatest news since B,SU&J:G.
Trav

raigan, I believe they are talking about the games played with the kids in the zero g rooms wearing powered suits that locked up when hit by the “lazers”

You are either thinking of the game he plays in the arcade earlier in the book, or the game he plays at the end of the book that isn’t a game at all.

The coolest would be the VR adventure style game that is hacked into by the aliens and eventually becomes an AI

YAAAY SPOILERS FOR ALL!
zomgzomgzomg

Amazing idea.

But it can only suck.
Aaron

Better idea: make a game based on the game Ender plays on his computer. Y’know, the one where he keeps dying? _That_ would be awesome.

I’ll be interested in a Battle Room once they make a real one. The idea of playing a “virtual” Battle Room in UE3 just makes me sad.
Chaos Theory

I remember reading that section and thought the battle rooms would make a really good video game. Which is surprising, considering it’s basically lazer tag with more strategy involved.

I be more interested in the space combat stuff at the end of the book though, that seems like it would make a great co-op style game.
Voodoo Master

I agree with the people who have said the mindgame would be a good idea for conversion. I’d love to see what other deaths the giant’s poisons can cause, even if all the characters in the book seem to find that bit horribly disgusting.

The hardest part of making it would be programming the computer to make up more bits of the world whenever you pass whatever puzzles it also had to make up. Of course, it could be preprogrammed, but what fun would that be?

_(Yes, it still would be fun even if the world was preprogrammed. Bite me.)_
Del_Duio

Wow, I read Ender’s Game way back and it’s still one of my favorite SF novels. The twist at the end really threw me for one.

Hopefully the training excercises will be front and center.

..And turn Andrew’s deadly encounters with bullies in the bathroom into glorious mini games!
ryan

Hey, let’s all post and casually slip bits and pieces into our messages that let everyone know that yes, we read the book very carefully! :P
Radix

Unless this has the best squad management ever, it’s going to be a terrible adaptation. Actually yeah, I don’t see how this could work at all unless they fuck with it thoroughly. And I don’t really want that any more than I want the sort of movie adaptation that could be made in today’s world.