Joystiq

The evolution of Morning Star's ugly-cute bad guy, the Renfield

Jessica Conditt — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:00:00 EST

Morning Star, from Halo creator Alex Seropian and Seven Lights founder Tim Harris' studio, Industrial Toys, pits players against a variety of alien enemies in a hardcore FPS for mobile devices. The Renfield are a race of agile, bulldog humanoids subservient to the main conquering race, the Dust, who are vampiric monsters bent on destruction.

The Renfield take their name from Bram Stoker's Dracula and its secondary antagonist, R.M. Renfield, a psych ward patient with a penchant for consuming living organisms. In the novel, Renfield is under the control of Count Dracula, just as the Renfield in Morning Star are slaves to the Dust. Marvel artist Mike Choi designed the Renfield in Morning Star in one sketch, and from there the enemy has evolved into varying classes: sniper, trooper and "some surprises," Harris writes.

Get a good look at the Renfield on the Industrial Toys blog.

The evolution of Morning Star's ugly-cute bad guy, the Renfield originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Morning Star comic app weaves into the game, from John Scalzi and Marvel's Mike Choi

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:20:00 EST

Morning Star - the hardcore, mobile FPS from Halo creator Alex Seropian and Seven Lights founder Tim Harris - is more than an iOS game. Seropian and Harris' studio, Industrial Toys, employs a wide range of geek experts, including Redshirts author John Scalzi and Marvel artist Mike Choi, both of whom are collaborating on an interactive, graphic novel app to tie-in with Morning Star on a deep level.

Morning Star Alpha will expand upon Morning Star's tale, frequently allowing readers to make choices that are saved to their accounts and ultimately affect the game itself, at least when that drops a few months later. Conversely, discovering certain things in the game will unlock aspects in Morning Star Alpha. It's sequential-storytelling symbiosis.

"We're doing some interesting things with this experiment by trying to take sequential storytelling's creative and enjoyment processes to the next level, using the mechanics available to us without the restrictions of a paper default - to coin a phrase - and also making it so that no two reads of the story are the same," Choi says.

Players won't need to read Morning Star Alpha to enjoy Morning Star, Harris tells us, but the app will add another layer of experience to the universe.

"The game will enhance and add to the graphic novel experience," Harris says. "For players who want to dig into the things they encounter in the game, tons of extras and narrative elements will unlock and bring those explorers down the rabbit hole. We call it the Nerdopedia internally, but it's so much cooler than that - it will be fed by the game and continue on through our later episodes and issues."

Scalzi's script is complete and a sample of Choi's art is hanging out above, though there is no release date for Morning Star Alpha yet.

Morning Star comic app weaves into the game, from John Scalzi and Marvel's Mike Choi originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Serj Tankian composing the beats behind Morning Star

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:45:00 EST

Morning Star, the first mobile FPS from Alex Seropian and Tim Harris' studio, Industrial Toys, will feature a full musical score from System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian. Seropian and Harris are pretty serious about their premiere, and this sounds like part of that effort to make a truly hardcore mobile game.

"We've been big fans of Serj's for quite some time," Seropian says. "The opportunity to collaborate with him on Morning Star gave us a way to take the game to a whole new level. We knew his score would be unique, but it's his ability to interpret a scene or gameplay element and come up with something that makes it moodier, more dramatic or just more awesome that's really got us pumped."

Tankian, a self-described poet and political activist along with his musical duties, composed the music in the above trailer, for those interested in a teaser.

"I'm really enjoying working on Morning Star because it gives me the ability to create new musical worlds to complement the new visual worlds in the game," Tankian says. "Though most of the gameplay will be action-oriented cues, the stunning artwork and static scenes have inspired unique sounds unheard before."

Continue reading Serj Tankian composing the beats behind Morning Star

Serj Tankian composing the beats behind Morning Star originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'Morning Star' is a mobile, space FPS from Halo creator's Industrial Toys

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:00:00 EST

In 2132, Charlie Campbell boards the MSRV-Joplin, an interplanetary research vessel outfitted with modern military equipment, to investigate a signal emanating from Saturn's largest moon, Titan. His team reaches the signal and discovers an alien artifact distributing an SOS call - but it's more than a cry for help. It's a powerful portal. The artifact transports Charlie and his crew to Oberon, a barren, devastated planet wrecked by war and lorded over by the Dust, an evil, vicious race responsible for the surrounding destruction and bent on slaughtering everyone in sight. And then:

"Some bad shit happens," Industrial Toys co-founder Tim Harris tells Joystiq. "Awful, awful shit goes down."

Awful shit, such as Charlie's entire crew dying and the artifact causing the sun to implode, instantly incinerating the Earth and every human on it. The Dust, it turns out, have sabotaged the portal to destroy the system of the creature that finds it - though perhaps not permanently.

It's an alien artifact, an SOS signal, a portal, a remote killswitch, and, apparently, a time machine, potentially allowing Charlie to undo what the Dust have done. In the battle for humanity's survival, Charlie is our only hope, and Industrial Toys is pulling his strings.

Gallery: Morning Star

Continue reading 'Morning Star' is a mobile, space FPS from Halo creator's Industrial Toys

'Morning Star' is a mobile, space FPS from Halo creator's Industrial Toys originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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