The Hobbit Preview

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Players who haven’t read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit should know that they’re missing out on quite a lot. The Hobbit is a wonderful book, with an amazing story, a story that needs to be told because it has something in it for everyone. Throughout the years it has achieved nothing but high regard. Consequently, the legend of Middle Earth and of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men, was expanded later on to the Lord of the Rings trilogy - a tale now so popular, its glory exceeds the likes of any of the modern fantasy worlds.

Most of you are probably keen to find out more about what the crew at Inevitable Entertainment is doing with their upcoming game, The Hobbit, which is naturally inspired by the aforementioned novel. The game was initially announced for the GameCube and was subsequently declared as a multiplatform product. After some efforts, we finally managed to get in touch with some of the people at Sierra, who have granted us a closer inspection of this interesting game set in Tolkien’s rich fantasy world. We speak with Troy Skinner, Producer at Sierra Entertainment.

Action Trip: The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tale of young Bilbo Baggins and his adventures in the lands of Middle-Earth - an enchanting tale, which preceded the Lord of the Rings trilogy. How do you guys feel about working on one of the most popular stories ever?

Troy Skinner: It’s definitely a daunting task! But it’s a fun one, too - everyone on the team at both Sierra and Inevitable is a huge fan of Tolkien’s works, so the opportunity to work on a game like this is very exciting.

AT: Are you planning to make a deviation from the book, just in terms of the way the story is laid out?

TS: There are some twists and turns in our game, but the basic storyline is exactly like the book. Playing our game will be like living "The Hobbit" from beginning to end, with some nice bonuses thrown in there to surprise even the die-hard fans.

AT: Describe some of Tolkien’s vivid settings such as Lonely Mountain, Mirkwood, etc? Just how many levels are there altogether?

TS: Our game will have eleven enormous levels. Any fan of the book will recognize our versions of Lonely Mountain and Mirkwood. We have three Tolkien consultants who are experts in the Lore of the world on staff to help us faithfully recreate everything just as it is written in the book. Lonely Mountain looks exactly like one would expect a deserted Dwarven kingdom to look like, and Mirkwood is a foul, pestilent, giant spider infested, murky forest just as Tolkien described it.

AT: Gollum’s cave may not be an essential part of the plot in The Hobbit, but it represents a decisive moment for the entire saga. Will this scene be included in the game? Explain how you’ve incorporated the One Ring into the gameplay.

TS: The encounter with Gollum was a big challenge early on in the design phase of the game. We spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to handle this exciting portion of the book. The challenge is how to make great gameplay out of a riddle contest? After a lot of passionate discussion from the designers, we decided that the best way to treat this part of the book was to represent it as a high-end, blow the doors down, make people’s jaws drop, pre-rendered cinematic that functions as a reward to the player for getting that far in the game. When you see it, you will know exactly what I mean.

The One Ring plays a pretty significant role in the game - you can use it to sneak past enemies, of course, but the Ring has a mind of its own and often will "fall" off your finger at the most in-opportune times. Managing the use of the Ring becomes increasingly more important as Bilbo proceeds through his adventure.

AT: We’d like to know more about some of the characters Bilbo will run into on his journey. Will we see any NPC’s that might help Bilbo along the way? Will we get to meet some of the gang; Gandalf, Thorin, Gloin...?

TS: Gandalf, Beorn, Bard, the Elven King of the Woodland Realm, Thorin and his entire throng of dwarves all make appearances in the game.

AT: Orcs and Trolls are obviously in the picture when it comes to enemies. Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on some of the different types of foes young Bilbo B. will come up against?

TS: In addition to Orcs, (which for some reason Tolkien called goblins all through The Hobbit), and Trolls, Bilbo will run into Spiders, Stone Giants, Wargs, various and sundry monsters that have been created exclusively for this video game.

AT: Since we've approached the matter of enemies and NPC's, let's talk a bit about their behavior. Tell us a little about what your programming team is doing with the AI.

TS: Each of the enemy types Bilbo comes across has its own combat AI, which will present unique challenges to Bilbo (Ed - Well, he wasn’t very articulate on that one, maybe they are still working on that part.)

AT: What do you think will make The Hobbit stand out from the vast crowd of games out there?

TS: Well, first and foremost, we'll be the only game based on the book. J In addition, Inevitable has done a great job of mixing action and adventure gameplay with platforming that makes sense in the context of Middle-earth. Also, the game has a unique graphic style that looks great, and is also an extremely faithful representation of Middle-Earth.

AT: And now for the big question that's probably on everyone's mind... Are we going to see Smaug? Do tell...

TS: Hmmmm...we can’t quite decide. Just kidding. Smaug is in and he is marvelous. Not much to tell about him, really - he’s just your standard dragon that billows smoke, shoots out jets of fire and guards enormous piles of treasure.

AT: Our readers our probably very eager to find out when the PC version will be out. Can you estimate a release date?

TS: The PC version will ship simultaneously with the console versions this Fall.

We'd like to thank Sierra Entertainment and Tolkien Enterprises for making this interview possible.