Star Wars: The Force Awakens director is making brand new action-strategy RPG
JJ Abrams and his team at Bad Robot are working with Infinity Blade developer Chair on a new action-strategy game with RPG mechanics.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams is working with Infinity Blade and Shadow Complex developer Chair Entertainment on a brand new game, the studio announced today. Called Spyjinx, the action-strategy game is expect to launch for PC and mobile devices in 2016.
The game is being developed by Bad Robot Interactive, a division of Abrams' film and production company, in association with Chair. Details are light thus far, but the game will run on Unreal Engine 4, the graphics technology that is owned by Chair studio owner Epic Games.
"Spyjinx features a unique mix of action-strategy gameplay, dynamic world-building, and RPG character development--all set in a thrilling, treacherous world of espionage," reads a line from the game's official description. It also notes that spring 2016 marks the "initial" release of Spyjinx, suggesting some kind of phased roll out or episodic model is planned, though this is not confirmed.
"I've been a fan of video games for years, envious of the artists and storytellers who have gotten to play in that world," Abrams said in a statement. "Over two years ago, we met with the geniuses at Chair in the hopes of collaborating with them. The result has been something beyond any of our expectations. Since then we have been working closely with them to create something that I cannot wait to get into the hands of gamers all over the world."
Chair boss Donald Mustard added: "Bad Robot is uniquely talented at making you deeply care about characters and the trials they experience. As game developers, we knew that if we could apply that knowledge to creating game systems that help players care about the world we build for them and then give them tools that let them shape and exercise agency in that world, then we could create something really special."
A closed beta for Spyjinix will begin in 2016 and you can register for a chance to play at the game's newly launched website. Check out the video above, featuring Abrams and Mustard, who talk about how their partnership came to be, though don't expect any hard details on Spyjinx.
"It's not quite like anything" Abrams says about Spyjinx. "The early discussions of this thing were very ambitious. And to see what it's actually becoming and knowing the trajectory that it's on with the help of the beta community, what it will be is really thrilling. If it ends up being what we think it is, I'm definitely going to be playing this game far too much."
In February 2013, Abrams announced a partnership with Valve for a new game, while Gabe Newell teased that he and Abrams were potentially going to work on a Portal or Half-Life movie. None of those projects have yet to see the light of day, and no updates for them have been provided in quite some time.
Bad Robot previously worked with Valve on a new Team Fortress 2 mode.
Abrams is currently wrapping up The Force Awakens, which comes to theaters on December 18.