By John Walker on September 7th, 2011 at 12:29 pm.
Cyanide’s A Game Of Thrones: Genesis finally has a release date. The RTS set in George R. R. R. R. R. Martin’s grumpy world will be with us this very month, on the 29th. Being a strategy game, clearly I’d have to receive an odd number of bumps to the head to play it, but were I to I would insist on only ever making honourable decisions, no matter how frequently this led to my entire family getting enslaved and murdered and everyone’s heads getting chopped off. Because Boromir says that’s how it should be. Which interestingly is almost something the game offers. You can see some new screenshots below, too.
Cyanide, most famous for, er, Pro Cycling Manager, also made the Games Workshop themed Blood Bowl in 2009. However, they’re now clearly working on a much larger scale, developing not only Genesis, but a Game Of Thrones RPG, and another RPG called Of Orcs & Men. But first up is Genesis, which promises to maintain the atmosphere of the novels. According to the details spoken today, you’ll even be able to play the game “without ever entering an open war or recruiting an army”. Which is intriguing.
There are some new screenshots, you’ll be relieved to learn, which you can look at with any eyes of your choosing.
07/09/2011 at 12:31 Njordsk says:
I’ve heard close to nothing on that game, and it’s out by the end of the month?
Smells like a trap Ackbar
07/09/2011 at 12:35 John Walker says:
Fortunately your hearing of things doesn’t determine their existence : )
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/a-game-of-thrones-genesis/
07/09/2011 at 12:56 Richard Beer says:
You’d think we’d have at least heard how many dragons it’s got in it by now.
07/09/2011 at 13:08 mejoff says:
I’d guess either none or three depending on how far into the novels’ timeline it goes?
07/09/2011 at 13:14 Richard Beer says:
If it doesn’t have unlimited dragons, I’m not interested.
07/09/2011 at 13:38 Dlarit says:
why can i not find any videos of this game in action? how have they kept it away from the shaky wobblecams for so long!?!
07/09/2011 at 13:56 westyfield says:
It’s set before the first novel, so it could have loads and loads of dragons.
07/09/2011 at 12:33 sonofsanta says:
Careful with that above-the-fold intro, pretty spoilerific for anyone just starting the series, and you wouldn’t want people to be denied the shock of that moment…
Any word on options for, er, close family bonds? Seems pretty thematically important in the source material, at least.
07/09/2011 at 12:37 John Walker says:
It’s an eight year old book, so it’s getting out of spoiler territory. But I’ve tweaked it to add more subtlety.
07/09/2011 at 12:39 Grygus says:
*Edit* Never mind, I am probably looking at the edited version.
07/09/2011 at 12:40 pakoito says:
People don’t read books until they make an interesting tv show of them. Then it’s WILD MADNESS with everyone praising them when one year before I was being called names just for mentioning it in a conversation.
07/09/2011 at 13:03 Bilbo says:
Yeah, it may be an eight year old book but it’s a one year old TV show. Have a care.
07/09/2011 at 13:15 mike2R says:
Yeah, count me in the TV inspired newbie category. I’m getting there, but I haven’t got through them all yet. I appreciate the edit if there was anything there that might have spoiled me.
07/09/2011 at 15:51 Reapy says:
Agree pakoito. The people reading the book now, I would never have in a million years expected them to read a fantasy book, let alone THAT one.
I can’t decide if I appreciate all the attention. I’m glad Martin is getting his recognition for great work, but I think part of that recognition has allowed him to take a 10 year long sidestep with the story, if you know what I mean.
As for the game… I’m iffy about cyanide’s abilities to deliver a bug free experience, and also iffy about the lack of information floating around about the game.
Also, an RPG set in game of thrones? I dunno, I didn’t feel like the world itself is that interesting, its like medieval europe. The interesting part are all the characters and what they do. It won’t be much of a surprise to have them in an RPG if we know what they are like already and what tenancies they have… so there is no joy of discovery here, and no offence, unless they have martin writing the characters, it wont really feel like interacting witth them.
Well whatever, I wish them luck :)
07/09/2011 at 16:30 Tuan says:
Next he’ll be posting that Bruce Willis is a
ghost.07/09/2011 at 18:18 ArcaneSaint says:
Well, I just started reading the books about a month ago and I didn’t even knew there was a TV show about them. I just hadn’t heard about them yet until I saw an article on RPS saying that there would be a game about it. That was literally the very first time I heard about A Game of Thrones (and the other books).
08/09/2011 at 03:58 Werthead says:
‘Eight’ presumably meaning ‘fifteen’ in this case, but yeah, there are hordes of new fans thanks to the TV series.
08/09/2011 at 04:09 ResonanceCascade says:
I’m also just starting the books after watching the first season. Generally I shy away from any pure fantasy not written by Dunsany, Lewis, or a handful of other authors, but the show was so damn good that I couldn’t resist. Might even have to give the game a chance, too. I think I’m in love.
07/09/2011 at 12:38 TillEulenspiegel says:
That’s an absurdly short Wall.
And it doesn’t look very icy. Their concept art was so much better.
07/09/2011 at 12:45 Vexing Vision says:
I know! And only one castle? That thing is no Wall of mine. (I hope I can play Wildlings. I’ll CRUSH that thing.)
07/09/2011 at 12:46 Unaco says:
I think it’s actually quite large indeed. I’m taking that image as showing most of the North of Westeros… The Wall, with Castle Black just below it, Last Hearth and the bridge across the Last River just below that, Long Lake and the White Knife to the left of that bridge, and Winterfell at the left of the image (notice the 2 sets of walls around it).
If you look at a map of Westeros, the wall is built across a narrowing of the land… which would make sense.
07/09/2011 at 12:50 Nameless1 says:
*
The game is probably another example of “I make a shitty game and count on selling the name”.
A shame if you ask me, cause the setting and background of ASOIAF deserves a lot better.
07/09/2011 at 12:51 TillEulenspiegel says:
Yeah, I’m sure if you take the distance to Winterfell, they’ve recreated the map well enough. But the details are so out of scale, it makes it look quite silly.
07/09/2011 at 12:54 Juan Carlo says:
Yeah. And there’s only one castle (the wall in the books has many castles).
Is this some sort of mini-wall that is on a peninsula a little ways off from the big wall and is never mentioned in the books?
07/09/2011 at 12:58 Richard Beer says:
Yeah it used to really bug me that there was only one city in England on the Civ 3 Global map, too!
07/09/2011 at 12:59 razgon says:
Well, the wall is only there for the hacking mini-game anyways
07/09/2011 at 13:03 Jimbo says:
All games like this mess with scale. Besides, if anything it’s too high, not lacking in length – if it were any longer it would be in the sea…
07/09/2011 at 13:06 Jimbo says:
*dick joke*
07/09/2011 at 13:29 TillEulenspiegel says:
I’m just sayin’ it should look a teeny bit more like this.
And if you’re going to make castles and such that size, the map should be about 4x the size to make room for all the stuff they’ve cut out. Compare.
It’s disappointingly small (that’s what she…nevermind).
07/09/2011 at 13:49 Item! says:
…indeed the wall looks way too small unless that map has some really odd scaling going on or the trees in westeros are kilometers high…
The books have the wall pegged at 100 leagues long (555km) and there are two major castles and any number of smaller ones in its shadow…
http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Graphics/Gallery/Maps/Westeros_02.jpg
07/09/2011 at 13:58 westyfield says:
I think it’s meant to be stylised, like the Total War campaign map. Not actually to scale. Otherwise, looking at the first screenshot, four or five ships end-to-end could span the sea of Dorne (if that’s what I think it is).
07/09/2011 at 19:00 GrandmaFunk says:
ya the features are totally not to scale…Storm’s End, Sunspear and the ships all look about the same size
07/09/2011 at 12:43 AMonkey says:
Eh I’m pretty sceptical of this game and developer. Smells of cheap licensed game.
07/09/2011 at 13:07 pakoito says:
Cyanide could make good games if only they used a lot more of spit&polish. All their games look unfinished and untested.
07/09/2011 at 13:30 Whiskey Jak says:
Yes, and instead of fixing obvious problems with their games they prefer to produce new content (which is directly linked to new income while patching is not I suppose). Just look at BloodBowl: good game, but just playtesting for a couple of hours and fixing those horrible UI problems would make it a much better (and just plain playable in some instances) game than it is. It would help bring in new people too.
So yeah, while it would be nice to try it and see that this is a good game with some polish where I don’t need to figure out basic information that should be available on-hand with one-click or a simple mouse-over, I’m not holding my breath. I’ll either be pleasantly surprised or not surprised at all.
And yes, we had a few screenshots and one or two developers diary/interview, but not much in terms of hands-on previews which would really tell us more about the how the game plays. This is the closest I found to a preview on google:
http://www.westeros.org/ASoWS/News/Entry/Game_of_Thrones_RPG_Previews/
07/09/2011 at 12:44 Jimbo says:
It’s a nice looking map at least, and I do like a good map. Let’s hope the code isn’t bad and full of errors.
07/09/2011 at 12:44 MultiVaC says:
As soon as I heard some news about this game on another site, I came here hoping to see a headline with the phrase “A Game of A Game of Thrones” somewhere in it. RPS never disappoints.
07/09/2011 at 12:45 atticus says:
“According to the details spoken today, you’ll even be able to play the game “without ever entering an open war or recruiting an army”.”
*minor spoiler alert*
But will you be able to play the game “without ever entering a close relative or someone legally underage”?
07/09/2011 at 14:09 Bilbo says:
If you can it won’t be in the spirit of the books, that’s for sure
07/09/2011 at 23:13 Lazaruso says:
You mean entering in the Biblical sense, yes?
07/09/2011 at 12:50 pepper says:
No idea what it is about or how the RPG game will work, but the engine looks kinda low tech when looking at the RTS’ish screenshots(maps etc). Heavy LOD’ing and low poly buildings. No idea how the gameplay is so it might be very justifiable but to me it hints more at some sort of game for a mobile device and a full blown PC RTS game.
07/09/2011 at 13:08 pakoito says:
I like it better that way so it works on lower-spec computers. I mean, Dominions 3, hello!
07/09/2011 at 13:21 FCA says:
The setting calls more for a grand strategy type of game than RTS. I’d hoped for Paradox to take this on, or even Creative Assembly, even though I feel their games lack enough options for backstabbery and intermarrying (a Crusader Kings/Sengoku mod in this setting however….).
07/09/2011 at 15:02 Watered-Down says:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?491197-Westeros-Mod-War-of-the-Usurper&s=ad89a5439fc9dc702bb7040567d06910 Go nuts!
08/09/2011 at 03:57 Werthead says:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=721
Also go nuts! Total War style! Though only the alpha is playable and it’s a bit rubbish compared to what the devs have put together for the 1.0 release, but if you want to conquer Westeros with the ironborn, you can now do that :)
07/09/2011 at 13:33 Freudian Slip says:
Whoevers in charge of taking the screenshot’s sharpened those badboys up then fell asleep on the ctrl+f key.
07/09/2011 at 13:38 Item! says:
Having come late to ASOIAF and subsequently spending the last 3 months devouring all the books since watching the series, I have been itching for some Game of Thrones gaming fun.
This, however…worries me a little.
Despite watching its development with half an eye since learning that it existed, I have yet to read anything about how it actually plays.
Its now surprisingly imminent release just reeks of cash-in to me, but my fingers are crossed…
07/09/2011 at 13:48 Dlarit says:
i agree how can there be no gameplay videos of it with weeks to go? no preview? i hope i’m wrong with my mistrust, i want this game to be good.
07/09/2011 at 13:46 Item! says:
…and indeed the wall looks way too small unless that map has some really odd scaling going on or the trees in westeros are kilometers high…
The books have the wall pegged at 100 leagues long (555km) and there are two major castles and any number of smaller ones in its shadow…
http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Graphics/Gallery/Maps/Westeros_02.jpg
07/09/2011 at 14:15 Ridnarhtim says:
Well, think of Heroes. The proportions (especially in the older ones) are all weird, the people are as big as the trees, and the armies can only travel what looks like 20m every day.
Sometimes, you have to somewhat skew the proportions to make it playable. Otherwise, you’d either see nothing because it’s all so small, or you’d need 10 minutes to scroll the length of the map….
07/09/2011 at 14:42 TillEulenspiegel says:
or you’d need 10 minutes to scroll the length of the map
Have we learned nothing from Supreme Commander? It’s easy to manage a ginormous map if your UI isn’t shit.
07/09/2011 at 13:51 evilbobthebob says:
An RPG called “Orcs & Men” you say. Well, you can’t fault their originality.
07/09/2011 at 14:10 Bilbo says:
Why fix what isn’t broken?
07/09/2011 at 14:18 Harlander says:
It’s “Of Orcs and Men”, so presumably it’s going to be a Tolkein/Steinbeck mashup.
(Edited to correct my American author attribution)
07/09/2011 at 15:04 Atic Atac says:
Maybe they should fix Blood Bowl first?
Seriously….is Cyanide the worst indie dev in the world at communicating with customers?
07/09/2011 at 15:28 pakoito says:
Indie?
07/09/2011 at 15:32 Atic Atac says:
I thought they were indie…are they not?
07/09/2011 at 16:19 pakoito says:
Nope, just small.
07/09/2011 at 17:03 Drinking with Skeletons says:
Yeah, the complete lack of information about how the game actually plays is an enormous red flag. A video game based on a best-selling fantasy series which has previously yielded critically-acclaimed and popular TV shows and boardgames arrives with no fanfare beyond some screenshots and vague descriptions of mechanics? Here’s hoping that Martin–or whoever was in charge of making this licensing deal–knows something about these devs we don’t.
Also: what DRM will it use?
07/09/2011 at 18:15 Unaco says:
Just a little background on Cyanide, and why they’ve got the license for this. GRRMartin never intended any sort of game being made… I think he was quite dismissive of the possibility at times in fact. Cyanide first approached him in 2003 I think, as they are very big fans of the ASoIaF series. GRRMartin held out until 2009, by which time Cyanide had managed to convince him to let them try.
I am a little apprehensive about this game, it being quite a treasured series of mine, and given Cyanide’s track record . But, I think I’d prefer to see the series in the hands of someone like Cyanide, rather than in the hands of one of the massive studios. Cyanide haven’t produced a brilliant game, but they also haven’t produced a ‘standard’, conventional game… they’ve all been a little different. And, I think that’s a reason to hope… that we might get something somewhat different, something new perhaps. It is definitely encouraging to hear they’re including the intrigue and plotting, and hoping to recreate the feeling of the novels.
08/09/2011 at 04:42 Davie says:
Hmm, this looks suspiciously like an out-of-scale, disproportionate “this man represents an army of 10,000″ type of RTS. That works fine with a turn-based game like Civilization, or when the RTS bit is properly-sized like Total War, but it grinds my gears a bit to see it like this, with Winterfell and the Wall within jogging distance. I want my grand, epic scale, please!