The Story to the Overlord Sequels Will Be Written by Rhianna Pratchett

Overlord was a very interesting game, giving you the possibility to play as a dark warrior called, what else, the Overlord. You had the ability to summon little golem-like creatures called minions, which did all of your dirty work in battles and in other parts of the game. The story was quite unique, taking a very different perspective on the usual good versus evil gameplay, as this time you were the evil one and had to take the country back from the corrupt heroes.

This story was the creation of Rhianna Pratchett, a well known fantasy writer who was nominated to the Writer's Guild Award. Recently, Codemasters, the publisher of the first game, announced that she would be joining the development team at Triumph Studios to create the story for the next titles in the Overlord series. These games will be the direct sequel, Overlord II, and the versions for the Nintendo Wii, Overlord Dark Legends, and for the DS, Overlord Minions.

"Writing for games is part alchemy, part narrative woodwork and part swimming in shark infested waters wearing ham pants, so it’s a real honour to be nominated for Overlord. The Overlord titles are fantastic creative projects and Triumph and Codemasters make a talented and supportive team who keep some of those sharks at bay," said Rhianna Pratchett. "It’s a real pleasure to be back in the evil writing seat and taking the Overlord and the Minions to new lands and new adventures for the 2009 titles."

Quite a major achievement for Codemasters, as few studios bring actual fantasy writers for their games, let alone bring them back for the sequels. This isn't Rhianna Pratchett's first contact with videogame developers, as she is also responsible for the story of Electronic Arts' upcoming title Mirror's Edge. One thing's for sure, if more and more studios bring actual writers to work on games, more great titles will come. Let's just hope that some of the other gaming companies take account of such actions.