FTL: Faster Than Light Composer Wants To Hear Your Lord Of The Rings Game Pitches
You've got an idea, a studio, and the budget to develop a great Lord of the Rings game. What do you make?
Ever thought you could make a decent video game if you landed a job as the person in charge of ideas and left all the other work such as programming, marketing, art design, sound engineering, and so much more to other people? How about a Lord of the Rings game then? While the video game industry isn't yet ready to announce a recruitment drive for Middle-Earth: Tokyo Drift, FTL: Faster Than Light composer Ben Prunty is curious to hear your elevator pitch for a Lord of the Rings game.
On Twitter, Prunty set up the fantasy scenario of a team being handed a chance to create any game in the series or its prequel The Hobbit, provided that it wasn't an action-adventure RPG hybrid or yet another war strategy game. What would Prunty make if he was given the chance? A "chill" town-builder game where you have to successfully make a town for Hobbits.
So you're given a team and tasked with developing a Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit game, but it can't be an action/adventure/rpg or a war strategy game. What do you make?
— Ben Prunty (@benprunty) August 7, 2021
I'm going with a chill, Banished-like town builder where you have to make a successful hobbit town.
With that idea in mind, other developers and followers quickly threw their pitches into the ring. Some of these ideas were great. Some of these ideas deserve to be cast into the fires of Mount Doom lest they bring eternal darkness to the world. These are some of the former pitches.
Eagle Simulator
— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) August 7, 2021
combat racing game where you ride various mounts while dishing out and fending off attacks from the other racers.
— cory balrog 🖖 (@corybarlog) August 8, 2021
A Diner Dash style game where you need to greet, entertain and serve the dwarves during the Unexpected Party dinner so they don't just get trashed and destroy your house.
— Eric (@EricWoodard1) August 7, 2021
"Eleventy First!"
— Owen K.C. Stephens has a Patreon! (@Owen_Stephens) August 7, 2021
It's a deckbuilding card-management game as you try to throw Bilbo Baggins the best possible 111th birthday party... while the old rascal KEEPS mysteriously disappearing when there is work to be done!
A VN dating sim. Your end goal is to save Middle Earth by making the evil party discover the power of falling in love. Saruman is a particularly tough cookie.
— Ruki 🎮 (@Rukifer) August 8, 2021
You're a horse trainer in Rohan.
— BloodyGoodReviews™ 🚪 Death's Door (@Bloodyspasm) August 8, 2021
After every successfully trained horse, you get told their story: which battles they rode into, how many they survived and how they eventually met their end.
(I liked how most of the horses in the books were named)
Build a Hobbit Pie culinary empire. Spread your pies across Middle-earth, even into Mordor itself! But the jealous elves will be there to compete, with Lembas bread and the silent efficient murder of your supply trains.
— Dave Dexter (@DaveDexterMusic) August 8, 2021
"Looks like pies are back on the menu, boys!" - Ugluk
I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS FOR THIS
— 🧋 c o r t 🌿 (@TipsyDixit) August 10, 2021
1) Nintendogs but you're an Orc training and collecting the big scary war elephants
2)Cooking Mama / Papers Please hybrid in the prancing pony. you have to cook + throw out annoying adventurers + mitigate crises + choose to let people board or not
Dunno if it's too close to adventure/RPG but one I've had on the back burner for years, an "adventuring party manager" game.
— Robin Johnson (@rdouglasjohnson) August 7, 2021
Recruit adventurers, send 'em on quests pinned to the pub noticeboard, buy gear, all the joy of character management with none of that tedious questing pic.twitter.com/ES22P85U60
For now, Lord of the Rings fans will have to patiently wait for Nacon's Gollum game before they can return to J.R.R. Tolkien's world, as Amazon's take on the fantasy property was canceled back in April after a contract dispute with Tencent hindered further production.
Beyond video games, you can also check out the first image of Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV series, an animated film from Warner Bros. is in development, and details on a Balrog-sized six-movie collection have emerged.
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