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Since first receiving widespread attention and acclaim for the first season of The Walking Dead in 2012, Telltale Games has been working on building up a strong catalogue of episodes choice and consequence games.
in 2012, Telltale Games has been working on building up a strong catalogue of episodes choice and consequence games. Upcoming titles include Game of Thrones , Borderlands tie-in Tales from the Borderlands , and (at some point) a third season of The Walking Dead .
Game of Thrones is set for release later this year and will break the current tradition of Telltale’s games by having six episodes instead of five, and by putting players in the shoes of five different playable characters rather than a single protagonist. Details about the story and how it will fit into the canon of George R.R. Martin’s world have largely remained a mystery, but now Telltale has offered the first big information drop regarding the game’s setting and characters.
In a post on the official Telltale blog, the developer explains that Game of Thrones will be based on the TV show rather than directly on the book series, and that the events of the game will begin towards the end of the TV show’s third season and conclude just before the start of season five. The video game will, however, focus on a family that hasn’t yet been seen in the TV show: House Forrester.
House Forrester is a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Bannermen to House Glover, they have always offered unswerving loyalty to the ruling great house of the North – the Starks. The Forresters are seated at Ironrath, an imposing stronghold surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Built over fifteen hundred years ago by Cedric Forrester and his triplet sons, Ironrath is a testament to the strength and endurance of Ironwood. The Forrester house words are ‘Iron from Ice’, which echoes their belief that – like the ironwood itself – the adverse conditions and unforgiving landscape of the North only makes them stronger.
Ironrath sits on the edge of the largest ironwood forest in Westeros, which has proven to be a strategic advantage for the House. The trees are a valuable commodity; many of the best weapons, ships, and defensive structures include the use of ironwood. House Forrester controls the majority of the ironwood forests in the Wolfswood, much to the chagrin of their bitter rivals, House Whitehill.
Locations that will be visited in the game include King’s Landing and the Wall, as well as Ironrath itself. Each of the five playable characters is a member of House Forrester, whether part of the family or simply in their service, and decisions made while playing as one character will ripple out to affect the stories of the others.
Basing the game specifically on the TV show is a good way to draw in Game of Thrones fans who perhaps don’t normally play video games (the season four finale drew 7.1 million viewers), and since Telltale’s gameplay tends to be pretty accessible this could in turn introduce more people to the studio’s other titles. The other side of that, of course, is that the game could end up being confusing for those who aren’t familiar with the books or TV show, but hopefully Telltale will find a way to prevent Game of Thrones from being too baffling for newcomers.
Game of Thrones Episode One, ‘Iron From Ice,’ will be available on PC/Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and iOS (with additional platforms to be announced) in 2014.
Source: Telltale Games