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Ponycorns Developer Untold Entertainment Announces Graphic Adventure Word Puzzle Mash-up Game Spellirium

Untold Entertainment [1]Toronto-based Untold Entertainment Inc. [1] has officially announced its upcoming game Spellirium [2], 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 spellirium game screen [3]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 [4] on Twitter, Like the game on Facebook [5] or visit the official website [2] and Designer Diary.

Untold Entertainment regularly partners with Canadian kid’s spellirium saloon [6]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 [7], 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 [8] 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.