smoking-gun-interactive posts

It's a mysterious world out there. You may think you have a handle on what's going on, but the truth is that there are things going on just outside your normal life. What is going on in the world and how would you deal with it? That seems to be the premise of the back story that game developer Smoking Gun Interactive is creating for its debut game (which at the moment does not have a title).

Smoking Gun was formed in Vancouver by many former members of Relic Entertainment and has already raised over $6 million in funding to develop its first game. But well before that title is released, the company is laying the groundwork with an online comic that has links to interactive browser-based mini-games. Big Download got a chance to ask Smoking Sun's co-founder John Johnson about their plans for the game and their unique approach to storytelling. By the way, although Johnson does refer to the game as a console title in the interview he told us that they would develop it as a PC game if their eventual publisher gives them the go-ahead.

Last week the Vancouver-based Smoking Gun Interactive started their teaser campaign for their upcoming debut title in an unusual way. It launched an online comic book with some interactive and viral elements. This week the the comic has added even more pages on the Exoriare.com teaser web site.

The developers, along with its writer Douglas Rushkoff, have created a very complex back story for their game teaser. It's full of conspiracies and stuff like mysterious ships that appear over Los Angeles after someone flips a switch. The alternate reality game that is currently running in the background of all this is very intricate but the big question is what is this leading up to? Hopefully we will find the answer soon.

Smoking Gun Interactive, the Canadian-based developer, was formed in 2007 by former members of Relic Entertainment. Since then the developer has been keeping its first project well under wraps although back in May it announced it had recruited author Douglas Rushkoff to work on the storyline for the game.

Today Smoking Gun launched a new teaser web site that showcased a new online comic book called "X". Written by Rushkoff, the comic has art from Smoking Gun's own Cheoljoo Lee and Younger Yang. It will have new installments on the site every week for the next few weeks. You can check out the first three pages of the comic in the gallery below. As you can see the comic is a bit like a more adult Indiana Jones story with conspiracies and mysteries. There's still no word on when the actual game from Smoking Gun will be revealed.

Update: We don't want to give away exactly where this happens but there's something . . . interesting that you can activate by clicking on a certain section of the online comic.

Smoking Gun Interactive, the Vancouver-based game developer that was formed from former members of Relic Entertainment, has been pretty silent about what they have planned since they first announced themselves two years ago. Today the company didn't really reveal anything about the game itself but did announce a collaboration with author Douglas Rushkoff.

Rushkoff has written a number of acclaimed books about new media and popular culture as well as two novels (Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy). He will work with Smoking Gun Interactive on the storyline for their still unrevealed game "across a range of media formats that can feed off one another and exist concurrently". Whatever that means.

Rushkoff himself adds, "I'm going to get to work closely with them, writing narrative pathways that carry readers through the universe of the game world. We'll all be writing for and stealing from one another, developing plot points, set pieces, and characters that have both stories in the books, and purposes in the games." This sounds needlessly pretentious but as long as the game itself is fun to play we will go with it.

In 2007, former members of Relic Entertainment, including many who helped to create their award winning RTS game Company of Heroes, left the company to form Smoking Gun Interactive, a new Vancouver based game development studio. The company has yet to announce what they are working on but today they announced the acquisition of a new multi-million financing deal.

The deal will allow the company to expand its team and remain an independent game developer. Smoking Gun co-founder and CEO John Johnson states the new financial deal will allow the company to , "...deliver on our vision of taking interactive entertainment in new directions, and redefining what tomorrow's games can be." Specific financial numbers and the names of the private investors were not revealed.