Morning Star - Bungie founder's new studio announces first mobile title

Bungie founder Alex Seropian's new studio, Industrial Toys, has announced Morning Star as its first title. The firm hopes the sci-fi shooter for iOS will "change expectations" for core gamers playing on mobile devices.

Speaking with GI International, co-founder and president Tim Harris explained what sets Morning Star apart from other games in the mobile marketplace, starting off with the fact that science fiction writer John Scalzi is with the universe's design. The firm also brought artist Mike Choi on board who has previously worked for Marvel and DC Comics.

The studio is taking a "transmedia" approach with the game which will have multiple products released around the game which will be released in a similar vein to episodic content.

"We're creating what's basically a three-tier story approach," Harris continues. "There's going to be what you experience in the game, what you experience in terms of the ancillary products that John [Scalzi] is helping us with, and then there's going to be essentially a whole level of interactive storytelling that's happening around the game, on the web, in the real world, our correspondence with the fans and the community.

"We're going really deep into community. We're going to bake the whole community thing into the app itself. It blew our minds that most mobile games, even those that serve the core, are not baking their community features into the app. A lot of times it's either formed on its own, or it's not supported at all or it's on the web. So everything you're going to be able to do from a player-to-player communications standpoint, us communicating with players, players organizing themselves for multiplayer - all of that will be in the game."

The touch controls have been overhauled for the core shooter market, and the game is "going to be one of, if not the first, true AI in a mobile shooter.

"You're going to get emergent behavior out of the bad guys you're dealing with and we've already created some really intense scenarios that are built around creative choices the player is making while he's blowing the crap out of everything," said Harris.

You can read more about the game and its development through the link.

Morning Star takes place 120 years in the future where players are involved in an intergalactic war aboard the heavily weaponed research vessel, MSRV-Joplin.

The game is expected to release during spring 2013.