Midnight Rises: Out January 29th!
Posted on January 23, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
Most of you know by now that for the last couple of years I’ve been working with game studio Industrial Toys to help create a mobile-based video game called Midnight Star, and an accompanying graphic novel (also for mobile devices) called Midnight Rises. During that time we created, and tweaked, and beta-tested and tweaked some more. And people asked: When? When will we see these for ourselves? And I always said: Soon, I hope!
Well, in the case of Midnight Rises, “soon” now has an actual date attached to it: I’m delighted to announced that Midnight Rises will be available for iOS devices on January 29th, i.e., less than a week from now. In less than a week you can meet Charlie Campbell and the crew of science vessel Joplin as they prepare for a secret mission! There will be spaceships! Fights in bars! Sarcasm! And also, technologically speaking, a very nifty way of making a graphic novel work with the mobile interface, not just in it. Midnight Rises was written by me and illustrated by Mike Choi, who did a fantastic job.
Midnight Rises will be available as its own app, and the first chapter of the story will be free for the reading. My understanding is it’ll be available worldwide, but I’ll need to double check with Industrial Toys on that (they will have their own post up about it soon (Update, 12:37pm: Here it is!)). We’re doing iOS first, but I believe other formats will follow.
I’m excited for you to see this graphic novel. It’s my first, and I had fun with it. I think you will too, when you see it next week.
And Midnight Star? When will it be out?
Soon. Really soon now.
I’m happy to answer questions you might have here in the comment thread. Ask away!
That said, please don’t gripe about MR initially being available on iOS and not other platforms (yet). Griping about this specific business decision will do nothing in terms of getting it to other platforms, and there’s not anything I could do about it at this point anyway. So, yeah, table it for now. Thanks.
Cool. I’m excited to read it. I’ll wait patiently for the android version. I’ll bet you’re glad to get it out there, even if it’s just on one platform to start with.
Cool. I remember your first few posts on this, and it looked like it would be fun!
1) is the graphic novel connected to the game so that reading it helps you advance in the game?
2) as I remember there was some interactivity in the GN. Do your choices affect the outcome of the way the story is told?
Looking forward to it.
Whaaaaaa? Awesome! : D
I’d be interested to hear how the process of writing the story and working with the illustrator worked. How does it compare to just sitting down and writing by your self.
Awesome, can’t wait :)
Congratulations John. I’ve been looking forward to this! How many chapters will the novel have? Any word on pricing for the next chapters?
Sarcasm? In something you wrote? I am shocked, shocked.
Gbutera:
Yes, and yes.
MobiusSamurai:
There are three chapters. I believe the additional chapters will be 99 cents (or its equivalent elsewhere), but for one of the chapters there is also a free option.
Please do other formats. Apple is a company I will not support so iOS is a platform that will never be useful to me.
Not complaining about it, but just a question: Any expected release date for other platforms? Your comment leads me to believe that there is an anticipated release for other platforms at some point, or am I reading that incorrectly?
I’m interested in your process of creating a graphic novel specifically for mobile devices:
1. Did you create the book as its own app for a specific reason (e.g., the existing technology wasn’t up to par or was exclusive to certain devices)?
2. Did you have to adjust/design the pacing of the story knowing that people would be reading it by swiping frame by frame? Did this change how you approached the story?
Thanks! Can’t wait to read this!!
No, no, no… You’ve got the game release terminology mixed up.
It’s ‘When it’s done.’ =)
Tangentially, this also leads to interminable questions in software development about the definition of ‘done’ which has lead to the actual term(not kidding at all!) of ‘done done’.
At some time in the future, and when if yes, will this be available in a ink-on-paper product? Please?
Well, it looks like I purchased a smartphone just in time, then! Perhaps by the time it comes out on Android I’ll have figured out how to get games working on the silly thing too. (Note I am assuming it will come out on Android, because I figure the company you’re working with isn’t daft enough to deliberately cut their income from the game in half).
I look forward to playing this one!
I have to laugh a bit at something I’ve noticed – the only time a certain idiot obsessed with Scalzi mentions his vapourware game which has been “in development” seven years now butcominganydaynowwepromise is when Scalzi updates news of the actual game project he’s associated with. The jealousy is laughable.
No question here, just squee! Looking forward to this, and super excited that the release is worldwide (here’s crossing my fingers that “worldwide” means *all* iTunes stores, including the one I shop at, not merely “one or two areas outside the US”).