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Beowulf: an Indie game

Name:	Anton Bursch
Date Posted:	Jun 18, 2007
Rating:	Not Rated
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Well, I'm busy for the next year working two part time year long contracts. A 20 hour a week and a 30 hour a week. Making pretty good money. Not to bad for my second year working full time on game programming. Both studios are very cool to work with so far. I'm pretty darn happy with my career right now.

So, now, I have a little free time again and I'm starting to work a few hours here and there on a game based on Beowulf. Yeah, I know there's a big studio game being made already and probably another based on the 3d animated movie coming out, but those are mainstream games. I want my Beowulf game to be very much my own creation the way I want it and I will probably release it for free.

I'm using TGE for now. Until I get up to speed on TGEA again. The game play will be action and adventure. A LOT of dialog and walking around with a bit of action here and there. I want to make this very dramatic. I'm going for a very story telling way of making the game. I want to see if I can make a playable story rather than just an action game. In fact, I'd say I'm shooting for only 10-15 percent action for the game.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Iceland to do some 'research' and photograph for this game sometime in the next year or two. Here's a few pictures from someone's trip to Iceland on the internet
http://www.simonho.org/Photos_Ice.htm.
Imagine this in Torque Advanced.

Click image to see fullsize.

Click image to see fullsize.

Here's a couple pics from the Gerard Butler( 300) Beowulf and Grendel movie from last year. I was lucky enough to be in one of the cities that screened this movie in theaters. I've got it on DVD now. Great film despite it's low budget. This movie is much more what I'd have in mind for my game then say... the 13th Warrior. More drama less action.

For now I'll be working on making the main setting for the game. The village. Get a good visual for the game while I'm working out from the book how to translate the story to a game. Or I may write my own Beowulf adventure and base the game on that. We'll see. If I can translate the book into a game I will. I do have a feeling I will be writing my own Beowulf adventure.

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List:	02/05/08 - Super Tuesday!!! 11/05/07 - Indie First Person Shooter 09/22/07 - Social Impact of Games or Are Games Just For Fun? 06/18/07 - Beowulf: an Indie game 05/25/07 - Car Datablock Edit Gui 03/28/07 - FREE MIT COURSES ONLINE 03/15/07 - One Year Anniversary 01/02/07 - Do We Need Game Producers?

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Matt Huston (Jun 18, 2007 at 07:21 GMT)

Beowulf story has always intrigued me. In High School we had an option of taking English Literature or American Literature, and I really had begun to hate American Literature by that time in school (read: American Literature that is taught in schools - not, "American" Literature) So one of the stories we read was Crichton's Eaters of the Dead (13 Warrior) and of course some of the poems. We of course also read Shakespeare and those stories are quite interesting as well, Julius Caeser and MacBeth being my favorites.

I also really like the stories of Conan and that world these days. I didn't realize until a couple years ago that Conan wasn't just a movie, the original stories were created in the 1930s - pre-Tolkien. I find it fascinating that it actually is supposed to take place on Earth (10,000 BC or so - during the time of Atlantis) as opposed to some other fantasy world.

There was also an odd Christopher Lambert film a few years back that was called Beowulf, what was interesting about it was that it was post-apocalyptic style yet fantasy. It was fantasy as people used swords, however the castles had electricity and raid sirens (I can't remember if some people actually had guns or not).

Anyway, best of luck on the game Anton.

Leroy Frederick (Jun 18, 2007 at 09:13 GMT)

Nice images, looks like some good potential game settings! I wish good fortune with the project Anton, and congrats on your contracts and career efforts :-)

Martin Schultz (Jun 18, 2007 at 09:45 GMT)

@Anton: An ex-colleque of mine owns the license for Beowulf for the world-wide game market. He's the one also involved in producing the Beowulf "mainstream" game. If you want to contact him in regarding if you can use the name or stuff, I could send you his e-mail.

Matt Huston (Jun 18, 2007 at 11:00 GMT)

@Martin
There is a license for a poem that was written 1200 years ago?

Martin Schultz (Jun 18, 2007 at 11:36 GMT)

Yes, as far as I learned from my ex-colleque, there is. I have to admit I never listened very carefully about that project because I'm not so into those kind of stories, but what he told me was that they produce the game along to the movie coming out by Robert Zemeckis (the one from back to the future). Maybe I should re-ask him about the status of this stuff.

Aaron Ellis (Jun 18, 2007 at 11:44 GMT)

@Anton

Great linked pics. Be sure to post your islandic 'research' photos whenever you get out there. Inspirational stuff says I.

@Martin

Yes, the Beowulf story is ancient. So old, in fact, that no one knows the name of the original author or any surviving members of his estate. The original Beowulf story remains safely in the public domain.

A game based on a modern movie/comic-book adaptation of the story would be another matter.

For example, as I understand the issues, a game about any one of the folk-tales within the Brother's Grimm collection or even the brothers themselves is permitted.

However, a game based on new characters & story elements that were created for the 2005 movie (The Brother's Grimm - with Matt Damon) would be restricted -- and subject to one or more license agreements.

That sounds like the case for your friend's license. Which means your friend can make a game based on the movie version of Beowulf, AND Anton can make a game about the original story of Beowulf. In effect, Anton would be creating new, protected intellectual property from a public domain source.

The best part of it is that Anton doesn't have to ask permission from anyone to make such a game -- except, maybe, his wife. :)

Neo Binedell (Jun 18, 2007 at 11:46 GMT)

Beowulf (the name, poem and story) cannot be copyrighted (although some translations could be copyrighted) and is in the public domain. Your friend most likely has rights to one of the movies etc, which is a specific interpretation and has no legal recourse against any other implementation or interpretation.

Neo Binedell (Jun 18, 2007 at 11:54 GMT)

Sheesh Aaron you typed all that in the time it took me to type my little paragraph ;p

Martin Schultz (Jun 18, 2007 at 12:42 GMT)

Sent a mail to the former collegue regarding his license, but I guess it's like you said Aaron, a license for the movie based game.

Martin Schultz (Jun 18, 2007 at 12:46 GMT)

Hehe, and we're all writing this while Anton is asleep (as I guess, because of the time difference). Anton will have something to read when he's awake, LOL :-)

Aaron Ellis (Jun 18, 2007 at 13:05 GMT)

@Neo
I guess I type really fast. :)

@The Sleeping Anton
I've always loved games with ancient settings. Drakan, Rune, Bard's Tale, etc. -- the genre really appeals to me. Can't wait to see and hear more about your project.

Matt Huston (Jun 18, 2007 at 13:52 GMT)

@Martin

Well Anton always knows when he posts a blog he's going to get a lot of responses :)

Martin Schultz (Jun 18, 2007 at 14:25 GMT)

Hehe, right :-))

Martin Schultz (Jun 18, 2007 at 17:26 GMT)

Just got a response mail: The guy I know currently sells his license (trademark) to Paramount as they bring out the game in november along to the film and he says they badger their lawyers on anyone trying to make something similar. I was wrong with that he's making a game himself, maybe it was only what he wanted to do, but he actually did not start the game itself.

asmaloney (Andy) (Jun 18, 2007 at 17:29 GMT)

If you can't base it on modern published translations due to copyright, I might have the translation I did in university lying around... :-)

Anton Bursch (Jun 18, 2007 at 19:14 GMT)

@Martin Schultz

Yeah, I see that Paramount is using the Beowulf game that's already been in production. Good for the studio, maybe not so good for the game if you remember what happened with first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and how they got Sea Dogs 2 and rushed it out with a few changes to make it a POC game. Sad to see this happening to this Beowulf game. I hope they were close to finishing already.

@asmaloney (Andy)

I'd definitely be interested in seeing and possibly using your translation for my game. I'm leaning toward my own story using the characters from the book, but I'd love to read your translation. That's just absolute coolness that you did it.

I have a few classic books I want to make games of eventually: Beowulf, Robin Hood and The Maltese Falcon(or any of Dashiel Hammets detective books). Obviously, Maltese Falcon is not in public domain... yet. Robin Hood is too big of scope for an Indie game. Beowulf, if I take an intimate approach similiar to how the movie Beowulf and Grendel did, is a good scope for being made an Indie game. The big costs will be animated characters(though, there are very few actually), sounds, music and voice overs. This isn't going to be a regular game. No pointless tasks or repetative fighting. I want everything to happen as a progression of the story. I want this game lean.

asmaloney (Andy) (Jun 18, 2007 at 22:08 GMT)

Yeah - it was a very cool course. I was the only non-English major in the course of about 7-8 people - mostly grad students. We spent the first term learning to read and 'pronounce' Old English, then the second term doing translations of parts of Beowulf. That was over 10 years ago, so I don't know if I even have any of that stuff anymore. Next time I'm in a position to look for it [if it still exists it would be in a box on the other side of the country...] I'll see what I can find.

Melissa Niiya (Jun 19, 2007 at 18:03 GMT)

What a great idea. Inherently dramatic, mystical, action and as you say, the settings.

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