Last week we learned that a superstar lineup of indie developers led by Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman are developing a game based on The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire, an upcoming movie adaptation of the popular book series. Not a lot was known about the game at that time, but Adam did reveal that even though it will feature a running character it isn’t simply a re-skinned Canabalt, and will focus more around marksmanship and strategy. He also made it sound like the movie’s studio, Lionsgate, was pretty open to giving the team the freedom to create the kind of game that they want to make, which can be rare when dealing with licensed properties.
In a recent interview over at Joystiq, Adam goes into a few more details on what kind of game The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire will be, as well as some of the thought that went into shaping its development. Saltsman talks about his main motivation behind the game being “to just pretend I am making a movie tie-in game for the Super Nintendo, only actually fun to play" which is an amusing dig at the glut of terrible movie tie-in games released during the 16-bit era. You can totally get that vibe from the pixelized movie poster-style teaser art for Girl on Fire (click for full size):
Saltsman goes on to explain that the game sticks close to the source material of the movie and books, and that series author Suzanne Collins even contributed some guidance and ideas herself. While the game takes place in the Hunger Games universe, it will apparently deal with new events than what can be found in the books or movie. Since the core idea behind the iOS title has been to make a “teaser game" that leads into the movie, the events of the game will take place before the actual Hunger Games arena event in the story. The developers are also drawing inspiration from the female main character, such as “the heroine’s talent for archery, her tendency to go for long walks in a sort of forbidden forest area, and her brains-over-brawn approach to solving problems."
The full interview is a great read, and provides additional insight on how the team approached making a game using a hugely popular IP. Make sure to check it out at the link below. The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire on iOS is slated to hit at the same time as the movie’s release on March 23rd.
[Via Joystiq]
