Village Gamer

Toronto-based Untold Entertainment Inc. has officially announced its upcoming game Spellirium, a unique graphic adventure – word puzzle mash-up in the spirit of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Bookworm Adventures. Equal parts LOOM and Boggle, Spellirium takes players to a post-apocalyptic world called The Land, where present-day civilization has been buried beneath a mile of earth, and reading and writing have been outlawed.

Enter Todd, an initiate in the secret society of the Runekeepers, who assembles a motley crew of companions to investigate the death of his monastic brother. Todd’s journey unfolds across a pastoral countryside, dotted with salvaged wreckage from “the Once”, giving the game an eye-popping “trashpunk” aesthetic.

Spellirium cleverly leverages a fun grid-based word puzzle game mechanic against story-based puzzles for ever-changing, always challenging gameplay. To shear a sheep, spell words like CUT, TRIM, SHEAR and CLIP. To defeat a green foe, spell words using only green tiles. Spell words in different directions to move a character through a maze. All of the words the player spells are stored in an interactive Dictionary, making for a Pokémon-like list of 50000 collectibles! Words can be used as currency to buy items, which can then be crafted to make power-ups.

Spellirium will be available as a downloadable title for PC and Mac. Partially-funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation, Spellirium is currently in alpha testing and is slated for a 2012 release. To learn more about Spellirium, follow @spellirium on Twitter, Like the game on Facebook or visit the official website and Designer Diary.

Untold Entertainment regularly partners with Canadian kid’s broadcasters and teevee producers to create specialized games and apps for kids, teens, tweens and preschoolers. Untold made a splash in 2011 after releasing Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure, a title co-created by 5-year-old Cassandra Creighton, who is quite possibly the youngest web and mobile game developer in the world. The game was subsequently named a finalist at IndieCade 2011, is nominated for a Mochi Award and has received coverage as far away as Italy and Japan.

Spellirium is Untold’s first game for grown-ups, and is one which I played very early versions of – I have been watching the game go through its various iterations, and am definitely looking forward to its official release. Spellirium will have to come with a very big “caution, addictive game play” warning on its packaging, especially for those of us who enjoy these types of games.