Are the Infinity Blade iOS games necessary to play in order to read Sanderson’s novellas?
Hi, the title pretty much says everything I want to know. I have an Android device, so I can’t play the Infinity Blade games in whose world Brandon Sanderson’s two IB novellas are based. That being said, I tend to read all things Sanderson, so I was wondering if anyone out there who has either read the novellas but not played the games or done both could give some input as to whether playing the games is necessary for reading the novellas.
The answer is “Kind of.”
For the first one, all you really need to know is the basic premise of the game: In it, your nameless hero would go to fight his way through a palace in an attempt to defeat the God King at the end. (Who was deathless, a kind of immortal.) If you died fighting him (which you usually did) your character’s son arrived twenty years later to do the same thing. Eventually, when you beat the game, the king’s throne unfolded, showing some science-fiction technology.
The fun of writing the story that came after was taking video game tropes (such as generic healing rings and potions) and trying to make a complex and interesting magic system, along with trying to figure out a character and setting that would work with what the game had displayed—yet also have narrative depth.
It was quite a fun exercise, but is of most interest to those who have played the game, because of the reasons mentioned above. That said, the first story can be read with only a small lead-in.
The developers brought me in for the story of the second and third games, however, and so my novella between games two and three is directly linked to the events of the games. It will stand far less well on its own. (Though you can watch all of the cinematic cut-scenes from the second game on Youtube.)
Brandon
That was amazing. At first I thought “This guy is really knowledgeable about this”. It only makes me happier to see it’s actually you! I want to congratulate you on being awesome as well as taking part in the community that appreciates you. It makes me glad to know you take care of your fans.
My pleasure.
I hope to see more games based off your work. I think Stormlight would lend itself great to an MMO. I could see high level characters getting together once a week to take out a chasmfiend.
I’ve actually been toying around with the idea of trying to bring a Rithmatist game to life on touch screen devices. Both Rithmatic duels between players or tower defense single player modes could lead to some really fun game play.
One of my main goals in agreeing to jump on board with the Infinity Blade guys was to learn about gaming from the industry side. I’ve always played, but wanted some real experience before being involved in video games based on my own works.
One thing I found confusing in the first story was mention of some events between killing the God King and when the story started. Taking the Infinity Blade (obviously), and killing some people in a basement? Or some lower level of a building, I think. I guessed that it was from some DLC add-on to the game, but I was never sure if it wasn’t something the story added on its own.
DLC, as you guessed
Hm, I have the Infinity Blade 2 game but I haven’t gotten around to finishing it yet, should I wait to start the second Novella until I finish the game, or should I just jump in and try to recover from the possible slight confusion? Btw, I really enjoyed the first Infinity Blade Novella, not only did it give a whole new look on the game, it was also just a great story.
Wait. Seriously. There’s some plot events that you want to experience from the game.
I try to make it somewhat clear what happened at the end of the second game in the novella, but it might be a little confusing to you anyway. You COULD always watch the cut scenes on youtube, though. They’re all up there. Either way, thanks for reading!
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