Traveller’s Tales spent $1 million pitching a game primarily based on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit movie.
According to Traveller’s Tales founder Jon Burton, the studio finest recognized for creating LEGO games pitched a game primarily based on The Hobbit and spent $1 million on it.
Burton mentioned in his GameHut video, which exhibits footage of the failed pitch for Xbox 360, the demo was designed to persuade Peter Jackson the studio was properly outfitted to provide a game outdoors of the LEGO collection. The pitch was additionally to be despatched to Guillermo del Toro who was at one time attached to direct the film.
The studio was given six months to create a demo for the game to pitch on the finish of 2009. To exhibit how the studio felt a film tie-in game must be created, the crew used The Lord of the Rings as a template. In the top, Traveller’s Tales made 4 totally different polished ranges and 5 further tech demos.
Two of the degrees featured stealth gameplay starring Frodo, one other was of Gandalf combating Saruman in Isengard, and one other stage was of Gandalf combating the Balrog in Khazad-dum (Moria).
In addition to the degrees, there was a demo of Aragorn combating Uruk-hai at Amon Hen, Frodo and Sam at Weathertop (Amon Sul) making an attempt to keep away from the Nazgul, a tech demo displaying what number of enemies that might be utilized in battle, Frodo and Sam wandering across the Shire, and fast sequence in Rivendell to point out how the crew might use movement seize to recreate moments from the movie.
“So we basically went way too far and spent way too much money making this demo,” mentioned Burton. “But I really wanted to show what we could do beyond just the Lego games,” Burton mentioned.
In February of 2009, Burton says he packed up his Xbox 360 and flew to New Zealand to pitch the demo to Jackson and del Toro.
“The demo went fine, it didn’t crash or anything, and Guillermo [del Toro] in particular was super-positive and very excited by it,” mentioned Burton. “The feedback we received was that they were happy for us to make a live-action Hobbit game.”
However, ultimately, Warner Bros. which holds the rights to the movie and game franchise wished a game that wasn’t primarily based straight on the flicks however one set in the identical world.
“I have no idea if internal politics played a role in the decision or not, but in the end, the game was never greenlit,” mentioned Burton.
If you have an interest in taking a look at clips of the pitch, you must give Burton’s video a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grwnHJykybM
