Resetting Middle-Earth

"This Christmas the journey ends." Not really. Since Peter Jackson began making the elfin dreams of fantasy-fiction bookworms reality with his first Lord of the Rings installment, the media have had three years of Tolkien synergy at their fingertips. From 2001's The Fellowship of the Ring to this December's release of The Return of the King, bankrolls have swelled as this Frodo-hungry market has its fries supersized over and over again. Fast-food endorsements, Duracell commercials, you name it, the Tolkien machine does not stop at the printed page or in Hollywood.

Chuck Lupher and Bey Bickerton of Austin video game developer Inevitable Entertainment could give Jackson a run for his money as the hardest working men in the Tolkien business. With their release of The Hobbit this fall, Inevitable rewinds the Tolkien revival right to the very beginning. (For you Middle-earth neophytes, The Hobbit is The Lord of the Rings' prequel.)

Playable on Nintendo Game Cube, Xbox, and PlayStation2, Inevitable's Hobbit stays faithful to Tolkien's original through its amalgam storytelling technique, including pre-rendered and in-engine cinemas, scripted sequences, and other devices. Plotline-loyal, the game follows Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and Thorin Oakenshield's band of gold-digging dwarves on their hunt for the riches hoarded by a fierce dragon. "We tried to keep everything as Tolkien-esque as possible," says Lupher, Inevitable's creative director. "We were extremely faithful to the story. When we set out to make the game, we wanted people who had not read the book to be able to play the game and still know the story."

But this choose-your-own-adventure Hobbit has its own unique nuances. "We had to scale it down," Lupher says. "It would have taken us four or five years to make the game otherwise. But there was very little we didn't cover." To increase game play, the Inevitable team enhanced Middle-earth by peopling it with supplemental characters.

"Essentially if you look at the book," adds chief creative officer Bickerton, "as far as enemies against Bilbo go, you are pretty limited. We had to come up with new enemy characters." But some of the new additions are merely extra friendly faces. Enter Lianna, a reconnaissance-mission elf, and Corwin, a woodsman.

"We worked very closely with Tolkien Enterprises. It all had to be approved by the Tolkien people," says Bickerton. Established to maintain the integrity of Middle-earth, Tolkien Enterprises' main focus is to make sure that people don't do strange things in or with the Tolkien universe. "Any time you're working on a licensed project game, you'll have areas that are tough to get through."

"We didn't necessarily have hoops to jump through," clarifies Lupher. "We had a lot of Tolkien fans working on this, so we were close to the mark. We were working to the same end." When their trolls were too green by Enterprise standards, for example, Inevitable simply made them grayer. Aside from the project lasting a bit longer than a game untethered by literary tradition, the making of this interactive Hobbit was ultimately a smooth, collaborative process.

The Hobbit is a kinder, gentler Tolkien. Don't be expecting the same blood-drenched journey you might find in Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings video game adaptations. Like the book, Inevitable's Hobbit makes Middle-earth accessible for younger travelers. "A lot of the [LOTR] games coming out were aimed at a more mature market," Lupher says. "Our target demographic was about 10 to 14." While the rating for most LOTR games is "T" for "Teen," The Hobbit earned an "E" for "Everyone."

The expanding of such a huge enterprise by an Austin developer could mean great things for Austin's gaming industry. Already a significant player, the gaming community here -- including such heavy hitters as Origin, Acclaim, Digital Anvil, Ion Storm, and several other spin-offs -- has been growing steadily since the mid-Nineties. "This is our biggest title," Bickerton says. "An Austin company doing this title is great. It could help put Austin on the map as a major player."