Undertow team creating Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game's game
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Jan 29th 2008 at 9:30AM }
A new collaboration between renowned author Orson Scott Card and Undertow developer, Chair Entertainment, will see the popular sci-fi novel Ender's Game adapted into a series of video games "across all next-generation consoles, handheld platforms, and PC." The first offering is expected to begin development later this year and will be released in downloadable format. As the story of Ender's Game revolves around the protagonist's experiences within the "Battle Room" -- home to a simulation of futuristic combat -- it should come as no surprise to learn that Chair Entertainment's goal is to place players into the very same virtual environment. Turning Ender's fictional game into a "real" one certainly makes sly sense within the context of the book, though we would be slightly concerned if the people on our Xbox Live friends should start turning up dead.
In a recently published interview, N'Gai Croal managed to catch-up with the Mustard brothers, Donald and Geremy, founders of Chair Entertainment. They described the Unreal-engine game with great relish, noting that the "the unique characteristics of the Battle Room will make a very compelling, competitive game play experience." Let's hope it can make up for the bad taste left in our mouths by one of their previous Card collaborations, Advent Rising.
[Image: "Ender's Game(s)" by Penny Arcade]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ridestowe @ Jan 29th 2008 9:35AM
omgomgomg i hope its good!
JohnMazz @ Jan 29th 2008 9:56AM
The enemy's base is down.
pyro.danny @ Jan 29th 2008 1:15PM
The enemy's gate is down.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 29th 2008 4:26PM
Salaam!
Best book ever, period.
ridestowe @ Jan 29th 2008 9:37AM
/waits for a 2001: a space odyssey game.
GRANTED @ Jan 29th 2008 1:01PM
that would suck. if you get too good, HAL wouldn't let you play anymore.
JohnMazz @ Jan 29th 2008 9:55AM
OMG, this will be epic!
Arnie @ Jan 29th 2008 10:00AM
Lol I was just reading this book for the 5th time(I am 25 and this is a book for teens, so sue me!!) and I thought why is there no game yet on the Battle Room? I am glad someone is trying to do this. However if Chair is making it please please get better controls than Undertow(it took me more than 25 minutes to figure out to play Undertow properly)
Rubix42 @ Jan 29th 2008 10:24AM
Don't count on any crazy controls. This is going to be a mess. Simulating zero gravity combat, and the only time you can change your speed and direction is when you collide with another player or a wall. My thought is that we will have a nigh unplayable game, or it will be changed so much that you won't recognize it from the book.
LaughingTarget @ Jan 29th 2008 11:11AM
You can shoot a gun, too (note, I haven't read anything Card related, so I have no idea of firearms are in this game or not). The zero-G in Crysis isn't that horrible.
Cheesecake Jones @ Jan 29th 2008 3:56PM
Man, I love the Ender books. They are required reading for any Sci-Fi fan, IMO. Unfortunately, though, this game terrifies me. No game can live up to my expectations! I've dreamed about a game that took place in the Battle Room for a while now. "The enemy gate is down!"
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to fantasize about sub-vocalizing to Jane about the Descolada though my Xbox Live headset...
SG Luke @ Jan 29th 2008 10:04AM
Haha, I love the puns.
So are we going to be having lethal martial-arts encounters in the bathroom with hispanic kids?
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 29th 2008 4:32PM
Chris can be Ender
Sheppy/FidiousWong can be Peter
Justin can be Dink
Ludwig can be Bean
Fernando can be Bonzo... sorry 'bout that :D
Fanboys can be the Buggers
And me? Well I'll be Mazer!
SovietDancnBear @ Jan 29th 2008 11:18AM
Let's hope its better then Undertow, I got it for free and I still paid too much.
NATO_Duke @ Jan 29th 2008 11:20AM
If you said that about Yaris, then yeah, I may agree - but Undertow is not nearly as bad as you want people to believe.
Dustin @ Jan 29th 2008 10:06AM
As one of the seemingly few people who REALLY enjoyed Undertow, and are still enjoying it... I can't wait for another Chair game.
But yes... the bad taste of Advent Rising will be a hard one to wash away...
Hopefully they won't try to pull off another million dollar giveaway.
StrangeBum @ Jan 29th 2008 10:11AM
I'm with you on that. I only played Undertow briefly the other night after downloading it. But it definitely seems to be a fun game. A little bit different and not so easy to get used to, but fun regardless.
And Ender's Game is a book I've been hoping for a game adaption of for a long time. True, Advent Rising was absolutely garbage and nigh unplayable. But there's always hope.
Now if only we could get some new Dune games too. I want to kick some Harkonnen ass!
Knight Marquise @ Jan 29th 2008 10:56AM
Dustin,
Your comment on Advent Rising has cut me to the quick! That was my favorite game on the xbox, other then the Halos, and still a point of contention that it hasn't made it, nor is it likely to make it, to the BC list.
Out of nearly 200 xbox games in my library...this is The One I would actually play on the 360.
Dustin @ Jan 29th 2008 11:05AM
@ Knight,
I do have to admit that I enjoyed a lot of the game, but as a whole, I really consider it to be rubbish...
The game had me sooo excited when it was being hyped - it was going to be such an epic action adventure with aliens and superpowers and cool guns, etc... but it just didn't deliver. It tried to be too cinematic and the gameplay fell on its face.
In my honest opinion, anyways. I truly wanted it to succeed in be as awesome as it should have been, but it just didn't.
NATO_Duke @ Jan 29th 2008 11:19AM
Oh c'mon - how many of us were mad cause we couldn't get all that loot they said we could win playing advent rising. I wanted that 1 million! (To give to the children of the world of course...just like Bono would want.)
Also, I like Undertow. Kinda weird, but other than everything being so small, its a fun game.
AstralShine @ Jan 29th 2008 10:11AM
Hey Bonzo Madrid, you're going down beyotch!
Saneless @ Jan 29th 2008 2:07PM
If this is a hacky Geometry Wars clone, now in space, I'm not buying.
filbertish @ Jan 29th 2008 10:40AM
I've wanted a Ender's Game game more than a movie, however I approach this with trepidation. Undertow is a underwater combat game. I have a feeling that their Ender's Game game will play similar to that. This would be a disappointment.
zach @ Jan 29th 2008 10:42AM
I am fearful of how this will turn out. Please do not destroy this great saga (and then hold on to the game rights so nobody can correct the mistake later).
Here is to hoping for a miracle. :D
WiNG @ Jan 29th 2008 10:42AM
So, wasn't a major theme of Ender's Game that desensitizing people to war via simulations robs them of their humanity and compassion?
Just sayin.
Also I am 100% sure this game will suck, as the Battle Room is basically a zero G game of freeze tag.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 29th 2008 4:36PM
I'm also 100% sure you suck for not thinking the "Battle Room" is amazing.
Khuffie @ Jan 29th 2008 10:45AM
Am I the only one that liked Advent Rising? Sure it was buggy, but at heart it was quite a good game.
Knight Marquise @ Jan 29th 2008 11:00AM
Nah...see my reply to Dustin. AR was my 3rd favorite/most played game on the xbox. I still boot up the black beast on occasion for a trip down memory lane. I liked everything about that game; graphics, art style, story, characters, and the human powers.
Martin @ Jan 29th 2008 11:06AM
If pulled off correctly, this game could prove very good. That's a huge IF, given my distaste for Undertow and a general lack of faith in any game developer to turn a book into interactive entertainment successfully.
SpotAnime @ Jan 29th 2008 11:15AM
Sweet. I just read the book for the first time, and loved the previous Mustard bros./OSC collaborations (Advent Rising FTW!). I'm not so sold on it being downloadable though, as I want another epic game in the same vein as AR. However, that's what sank Majesco's ship, so that might not be a good idea after all...
ThornedVenom @ Jan 29th 2008 11:33AM
Never read the book but I heard that it was AWESOME.
Good luck for the game.
waynski1457 @ Jan 29th 2008 11:55AM
im very nervous about this... on one hand, i love the frickin hell out of the ender series, but on the other i thought that undertow and advent rising were only ok, not par for what a game based on enders game should be.
Deck @ Jan 29th 2008 11:57AM
I've read the book plus about 5 others that are either sequels to Ender's Game or spin-offs about other characters. The book(s) are absolutely amazing. I just hope that they can pull off making the book into an exciting game. Go go Chair!
Mr.ESC @ Jan 29th 2008 12:32PM
I liked Undertow so go ahead,I'm not exited but I don't have any substancial prove that this will suck.
It could be good.
OMGOMG @ Jan 29th 2008 12:42PM
The original murder simulator!!!
blitzkrieg999 @ Jan 29th 2008 12:56PM
Considering what Card has done to the Enders Game series since releasing Enders Shadow (read: destroyed it), I honestly don't expect this, or the movie, to be any good. Enders Game is my favorite book of all time, and I've read it 20+ times, but I can't help feeling that Card will ruin this just as he ruined the Shadow series.
ComicShaman @ Jan 29th 2008 5:35PM
Completely agree, but I thought Card started ruining the series before that. Xenocide was very iffy, and Children of the Mind was complete waste of paper.
Markster @ Jan 29th 2008 1:18PM
Oh dear.
This will end in one of two ways:
1) The game, although a faithful recreation of the Battle Room, will not be fun, and no one will actually play it, or
2) Will modify the rules of the Battle Room to the point where it is merely a recreation in name only.
If I recall correctly, there is no air-control in the battle room. So if you jump off a rock at a bad angle, you can find yourself floating helplessly into enemy territory. I can't see them actually making a game that lets that happen.
Mr Khan @ Jan 29th 2008 5:30PM
Not in the days of hand-holding gameplay, anyway
Maybe they'll make liberal use of that wire that Bean discovered to greatly increase mobility
dan stabbingworth @ Jan 29th 2008 1:19PM
I haven't read the book in forever so my memory is foggy, but didn't Ender have some computer game where he could explore forever and travel through some huge open-ended world?
That's what I want this game to be. Or at least a mix. Some exploring, then out of the world, do some battle, go back to the world, explore some more, etc.
blitzkrieg999 @ Jan 29th 2008 1:50PM
Personally, I don't see it happening. In part because the game wasn't very fleshed out in the series, and in part because it was so much of a sandbox without much actual interesting gameplay. It was used to evaluate the children, not to be a truely entertaining game. Card hypes up roll it plays in the childrens life. The reality is we'd all be bored in 10 minutes
Roxxorsmash @ Jan 29th 2008 1:32PM
I want a recreation of the Mind Fantasy Game. Excessive brutal violence FTW!
E @ Jan 29th 2008 2:02PM
I liked advent rising .... it actually was a good game, although it did have its problems it was a good game most of the time and orson scott card is a beast
UnnDunn @ Jan 29th 2008 2:33PM
Having played Undertow, I am quite fearful of Chair making a game based on the Battle Room.
And quite frankly, I'd like a game based on the Simulator on Eros instead of the Battle Room. Complete with the delegation of authority and chain of command features, and fully XBL enabled.
JohnHeist @ Jan 29th 2008 3:04PM
WOW! A game announced just shortly after the movie is announced? (The movie was due out 2008 last time I checked, and is supposed to be a mashup of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow)
I hope it's good.
Remember Blitzball in FFX? That was slightly similar in concept, but water instead of gravity. That with more action movements could work.
ComicShaman @ Jan 29th 2008 5:37PM
A movie tie-in is about the worst news imaginable for this game, actually. See the Harry Potter games, the Golden Compass game, and the long, pathetic list of other botched movie licenses ad nauseum for reference.
umm....hello??? @ Jan 29th 2008 3:23PM
there's going to be a movie?? I hope its good. I have all of the Ender/Shadow books, they're a great read.
I kinda envision the big battle as some version of Asteroids or GeometryWars. The "arcade room" in the book could have a number of minigames, one sounded kinda like DigDug or Qix from the book. But I'm really afraid my expectations are too high.
I did enjoy the storyline in AdventRising--too bad I don't think the rest of the trilogy will see the light of day.
umm....hello??? @ Jan 29th 2008 3:46PM
also meant to mention this sounds like a game that could make good use of the Wii's controls...
bluestriker @ Jan 29th 2008 7:20PM
If it's anything like Undertow, then I can count this as an awesome book ruined.
t_m @ Jan 29th 2008 11:23PM
Undertow doesn't seem to be popular... but I've always wanted an Ender's game game.
The zero-g bit isnt the "game".. but that could be awesome in a portal kinda way. Or a complete mess.
Ever since reading the description of the combat in The Game I've wished that there was an RTS like that.
Not an RTS in the regular, micromanaged, click on units kind of way, but one as fluid and fast moving as The Game. Kind of like an RTS meets Geometry Wars.