Epic secures iOS rights to Fighting Fantasy games
Epic and Train2Game have secured the rights for the iOS games of Make Something Unreal Live, to be based on the Fighting Fantasy series of role-playing books created by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. New iOS games based on the adventure books will debut at Gadget Show Live 2012.
It's all part of Make Something Unreal Live, Epic's independent game development challenge, which will allow four start-up studios to release games on the App Store this spring.
Under the Fighting Fantasy agreement, each team will select one book in the adventure series to serve as inspiration for a new app. Teams will be able to choose from The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, Deathtrap Dungeon and Armies of Death.
Teams must stay true to the series's "intellectual property guidelines," and must submit regular milestone submissions under the leadership of senior industry veterans which will be serving as guest mentors in Make Something Unreal.
Advisors include Tony Bickley, COO, Deep Red Studios; Mike Gamble, European licensing manager, Epic Games; Rik Alexander, founder, AppCrowd; and Pete Hickman, head of production at Mediatonic.
“Steve Jackson and I are delighted to see our Fighting Fantasy gamebooks being developed as iOS games by new teams of talented and enthusiastic students," said co-creator Ian Livingstone. "It will be really interesting to see how our IP will be captured and interpreted for the iOS platform.
"This competition is a great way to showcase the creative talent of a new generation. The evolving games industry is constantly on the lookout for design innovation and new ways of playing. I am really looking forward to playing one of my books as a game."
The games will be revealed and refined during a real-time event during Gadget Show Live 2012, which takes place in Birmingham, UK, April 10-15.
The studios are building their games using Epic’s Unreal Development Kit, with the winning team walking away with a full source, commercial UE3 license for iOS.