(Mid)Winter Is Coming: The Lords Of Midnight

The news of Mike Singleton's death earlier this year was extremely sad. Midwinter and its sequel are very high up on the list of games that made me, capturing so much that I admire about what is possible in games. When I first encountered them I was too young to realise how special they were - two decades later, their scope and ambition is more apparent than ever. I didn't spend as much time with Singleton's Midnight series but its combination of wargame and fantasy adventure marked it in my memory as one of the few games that engaged on both an epic and a personal level. I'll be playing plenty of it soon though - Singleton was working on an iOS port and it'll be out soon, with Windows and Mac versions.

The graphics have been updated, although it's a case of making them slightly crisper rather than revamping them as far as I can tell. More importantly, the interface has been modernised. I happily berate people who are put off by appearances, but when something interactive is difficult to interact with...well, that can be a problem. Dwarf Fortress, I'm looking at you. Literally. I have it running in a window right now. I've just started out and I feel good about how things are going to go this time.

I'm glad Dwarf Fortress just crept into my mind because I imagine if Lords of Midnight were made today, it'd have the same sort of following.

The Lords of Midnight are due, if the Winter Solstice reference on the site is to be believed, on the 21st of December.