The love affair between literature and video games keeps going strong. Who’s the newest literary figure to cross over?
Why, Jane Austen, of course.
App developer Feel Every Yummy presents Word Fighter, a head-to-head word puzzle game starring literary characters. The game looks like Street Fighter crossed with Boggle, and here’s the trailer, which can only be described as AWESOME:
Players can battle as Edgar (Allen Poe), Agatha (Christie), and yes, Jane (Austen). Forbes has the scoop:
When Gian Cruz and Kris Zabala, the founders and sole employees of up-and-coming app developer Feel Every Yummy, came up with the idea for Word Fighter last year, they originally planned it to look similar to Street Fighter, and created their own cast of tough-looking characters that paid homage to Capcom’s beloved arcade fighting series. However, they felt that for their new word game, a literary take might make more sense and have a broader appeal.
“We changed our art direction because the majority of the feedback we got was that the gameplay was quite solid, but the gritty Street Fighter-style of our early builds made the game feel like it catered to boys,” said Cruz […] “For Jane in particular, I essentially wanted to make a bad-ass version of Princess Peach,” he added, citing the Super Mario Bros. character famous for being constantly kidnapped.
The game is slated for release later this year on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Given my chronic Words with Friends addiction, I may have to download this one as well…
Further Reading:
- Not into Austen? Dip into our blog archives for video games based on The Great Gatsby, Waiting for Godot, City of Glass, and even Dante’s Inferno.
- Learn more about the serious links between video games, narrative, and fiction with these two essays here on Fiction Writers Review: “Games Are Not About Monsters” by Christine Hartzler, and “Writing the Great American
NovelVideogame” by Michael Rudin.
