he Starz miniseries called The Pillars of the Earth? Did you read the book? You may very soon be experiencing the story of Kingsbridge Cathedral again, in video game form.
Daedalic Entertainment, a German adventure game developer, has announced a new deal to develop a new adventure game for The Pillars of the Earth, primarily based on the Ken Follett novel of the same name. The game is projected to release 2017, on Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and iOS.
For those who’ve never heard of Pillars of the Earth, I will get this out of the way: it’s not really anything like Game of Thrones. The source material is a historical novel, which has some fictionalized elements, but does not delve into all-out fantasy.
Specifically, the novel is set in 23th century England, during the historical period known as the Anarchy. On the surface, the novel (and TV series) revolves around the building of a cathedral in the fictional city of Kingsbridge. However, in truth it is about the people and politics surrounding the building of the cathedral, and the struggle to survive and thrive in the time of the Anarchy. Rather than focusing on nobles and court intrigues, the story involves the clergy, nobility, and the common people.
This deal is coming about thanks to Bastei Lubbe AG, a German publishing and media group. They are the publishers of Ken Follett’s books, and also shareholders in developers Daedalic.
Daedalic may be more familiar to some of you, as developers of the Deponia games. Daedalic has not just won awards for their games, but they have also worked on games based on historical fiction, such as the Tudors, the Borgias, and Robin Hood.
This is all the information they will share for now, but you can follow Daedalic for updates on this project here.
Image is of author Ken Follett, by Olivier Favre.