One More Story Games of Barrie is on a roll.
The game developer husband and wife team Jean and Blair Leggett recently won Toronto Game Devs #1 PC Game of the Year for their game “Danielle’s Inferno."
Now the Leggetts are getting set to release an interactive story game based on the book Shakespeare's Landlord by New York Times best selling author Charlaine Harris. Harris has sold over 36 million novels and is best known for her The Southern Vampire Mysteries series which was adapted by HBO for its dramatic series True Blood.
"Is it a dream come true? It is," said Leggett, company CEO, of the nearly four-year effort. "I'm really looking forward to letting this out in the world and showing people what we can do. This is the one that's going to have people in the games industry turn their head. It's also going to have people in the publishing industry turn their head."
The main character is Lily Bard, a sexual assault survivor who is dealing with PTSD while in a murder mystery trying to figure out who is trying to frame her.
Leggett says Bard is like "Nancy Drew meets Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. Little bit inquisitive. Little bit of a bad ass."
She draws parallels between Lily and the #MeToo movement, noting people always ask why women don't come forward sooner or talk about incidents of harassment or sexual misconduct.
"For a lot of people they just want to get away from it. This character is four years past her trauma. I think there's something really timely about this topic that we're taking on."
One More Story is targeting women over 30 who like to read. Leggett, 40, has been playing games since she was 8. Most people think gamers are teenage boys but in fact Leggett says the largest segment of games consumers is women 30 plus.
Shakespeare's Landlord will take about six hours to play, the longest product yet for One More Story' whose previous games have been about two hours. If you've read Lily Bard novels, the Leggetts are incorporating two plot paths: one, true to the novel and an alternate version that will take players on a different series of events.
"It really is a hybrid between a book and a video game. I really believe there's a market for it. I want to take this kind of game mainstream and I want to work with best selling authors around the world," Leggett said.
The husband and wife team have been together for 22 years. They are devoted to the gaming industry but it has its chalenges. They've raised $500,000 over 4 years, trained 18 Georgian College students and had summer camps teaching kids 10 plus how to create games with their software platform StoryStylus (www.storystylus.com).
The One More Story team is 'small and mighty',' Leggett says.
Jean is executive producer and CEO and husband Blair is creative director and CTO. There's also lead artist Anthony Caruana of Midland, game writer Sara Jeffers, artist Harrison Smith, composer Hazel Turnbull and Megan Anne, a Barrie singer who has written and will perform an original song called Peace for the outgoing track of the game.
The company's website for game playing is www.onemorestorygames.com and for info on the new game go to www.lilybard.com.
"I'm very proud of the work we do. Maybe our standards are too high, which drives both of us crazy. I don't want to put out mediocre stuff. The world has enough mediocre. I really want to hit the high bar."
A 20-minute demo version of Shakespeare's Landlord will be ready in February. The full game is set for release in May.
In March, there will be a contest to get your face or voice in the game.
