14 DAY TRIAL // Stardock, the videogame publisher behind strategy titles like Galactic Civilization II and Sins of a Solar Empire, and Random House, the well known book publisher, have announced a partnership built around Elemental: War of Magic.
The newly created Random House Intellectual Property group is set to build the world of Elemental and create a narrative for the videogame at the same time publishing a book based on it, called Elemental: Destiny's Embers, which should arrive in August 2010.
The new Random House division will seek to work with other media companies to create a unified universe that can be sampled through videogames, movies, books, social networks and mobile platforms.
There are quite a lot of videogames, which get accompanying novels at the moment but this is the first time that those in charge of the novel will also be handling the creation of the narrative thread of the game itself.
Brad Wardell, the Chief Executive Officer of Stardock, also leading development work on Elemental, stated that “A good story doesn’t necessarily have to begin and end with a game; it can and should encompass as many creative mediums as possible in order to provide fans with the most complete rendering of a fictional place or time. With Elemental having an incredibly rich back story to tell, partnering with Random House allows us to create the most immersive universe possible for our fans.”
Elemental: War of Magic is a direct result of Stardock's efforts to acquire the Master of Magic franchise. When that did not come through, Brad Wardell decided to create a spiritual successor in Elemental, focusing on how the player can influence the game world and on providing satisfying turn-based kingdom management coupled with character development and magic feats. Elemental also aims to be completely moddable.