Big Blue Bubble developing Warlock of Firetop Mountain for DS

by Jem Alexander { Jul 9th 2009 at 5:01AM }

Canadian developer Big Blue Bubble is working on an action RPG for the DS named "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain." Sound familiar? Some of you may recognize it as the first book in Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy book series -- portable gaming for the pre-Gameboy crowd. This game, based on the book, will be published by Aspyr Media and will release this holiday season.

Jackson and Livingstone have both been involved with the project, helping Big Blue Bubble nail the look and feel of the Fighting Fantasy universe. While the last Fighting Fantasy book to be made into a video game, Deathtrap Dungeon, wasn't particular successful -- or good -- Warlock of Firetop Mountain looks to remain much more faithful to the book. Hey, games industry. You know what else would make a good transition from book to game? The Lone Wolf series. You should get on that.

Tags: big-blue-bubble, fighting-fantasy, ian-livingstone, steve-jackson, warlock-of-firetop-mountain

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shabran @ Jul 9th 2009 6:01AM

No Way. In my second year of uni I created a game based on this book. A point and click game and we had to record all our own scenes. Awesome!!!!

scott.greig @ Jul 9th 2009 6:11AM

The first 2 books of Lone Wolf are available as homebrew for the DS already, and they're pretty amazing. You can check it out at http://www.projectaon.org/staff/frederic/index.php

tbosky @ Jul 9th 2009 9:53AM

They are amazing! They're a completely faithful translation, down to the illustrations and mechanics and they retain the best Lone Wolf feature: your character/equipment/abilities carry over from the first game to the second.

This is reason why I bought an R4 card.

MechaBouncer @ Jul 9th 2009 4:24PM

Agreed. Having never read/played the original books, I actually prefer being introduced to them by way of DS homebrew. The fact that you don't need to carry around paper, pencil, or dice in addition to the book make it much easier to take with you. Plus, the music gives it a much better ambiance and sets the mood. These could work really well for value or DSi download titles.

Damon @ Jul 9th 2009 6:27AM

Ha! Old fantasy gamebooks (And tabletop RPGs in general) really make you think about how far we've come in crafting believable worlds and adventures. Like, in the old days Dungeons where just a series of rooms with monsters and traps and features interconnected with no rhyme or reason. A bottomless pit with a bridge guarded by a troll would lead to a restaurant run by three dwarves. I'm not kidding. Something very much like that popped up in one of the gamebook suppliments. Guess the dwarves where really paranoid about security or something.

I suppose a bad DM or a video game intentionally self-parodying itself (I'm looking at you, nippon ichi.) can still invoke this chaotic feel. Warlock on firetop mountain certainly had it. Wonder how the DS game will treat it.