We all have a book series that was a firm companion throughout our childhoods. For me, it was Redwall, by Brian Jacques. I have fond memories of excitedly awaiting new launches, writing school reports on my favourite (The Pearls of Lutra, by the way), and curling up with well-worn copies in a rain-battered caravan during our not-so-sunny annual holidays to Cornwall.

Jacques sadly died in 2011, but his Redwall legacy lives on through other media. Today, Soma Games is launching The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology, which brings together the three previously released acts into a single upgraded title, as well as the brand new cooking game, The Lost Legends of Redwall: Feasts & Friends. As a lifelong fan of the series, I approached this collection with a feeling of warm nostalgia.

Related

Stop Motion Indie Harold Halibut Is Like A Playable Wes Anderson Film

Harold Halibut is a Wes Anderson-esque stop motion masterpiece

Posts

We recently spoke with executive producer Chris Skaggs, art director Erin Marantette, and narrative designer Samantha Taylor about adapting the beloved book series into video games.

Did you know that Soma Games was originally brought in to make a mobile game that would complement a film adaptation of the first book, Redwall? The film was ultimately scrapped, and there was some legal uncertainty about where the team stood after Jacques passed away, but eventually they went on to create brand new canon for the world of Redwall.

Skaggs says that being able to create their own original story within the world of Redwall was “an accident” in a sense – thanks to the failed movie and resulting licensing shenanigans – but one he’s grateful for. “In hindsight, it was really great. The opportunity to add to the canon gives us so much more freedom. As much as all the readers love those stories [told in the books], they also know those stories. More and more, we've had fans who were just glad to see something new in a world they really loved.”

As official games, the team worked closely with the Redwall Abbey estate, “They were very good to work with,” Skaggs says. “Everyone was very collaborative. There were definitely some guard rails, but we never disagreed with any of them. I think what was interesting is the different family members from the estate all have their own particular memories and thoughts. So what wound up being the official line was if it's in the book, you can do it. If it's not, then you're out.”

The team opted for a non-violent game as they didn’t have the experience to create combat. Instead, they opted for a platformer that implemented a unique scent mechanic and leaned into the idea of these animals living in a world where they often use their noses. “For some Redwall fans, that’s a big disappointment,” Skaggs admits. “They want the war and the battle. But the majority, I’d say 80 percent, were just glad to have something that’s pretty peaceful, pretty cosy.”

Close

Marantette explains that one of the first things she had to tackle when working on The Scout was how to anthropomorphise the animals effectively. “How do we make it so that it's feasible that the same sword in the hand of a badger still looks good, but also can be the same [in the] hands of a mouse and still not be super overwhelming, right? And how do we treat tails? Is it another limb? Is it just separate?”

“I remember having an early conversation about whether or not they should wear trousers,” Skaggs adds. “There was this long conversation about animal pants.”

The team admits they weren’t experienced with combat, and so didn’t want to “mess it up” by trying a combat game, but choosing to be more narrative-driven was an important decision. “There's a pretty famous interview many years ago where Mr Jacques said there would never be a Redwall video game,” Skaggs says. “He had talked about this limitation of gaming at the time, that he never wanted it to be like a splat the rat. Back when he mentioned that, there wasn't a lot of deep story in games, but things have come along so much. We were focusing on narrative. We were focusing on character development. That closed the deal. This is a different medium now than it was ten years earlier.”

Narrative was the team's core focus, as it had to reflect the values present in the Redwall books. When working with the Redwall Abbey family estate, it was emphasised that these values were important, and the team weren’t allowed to reboot or turn the series into something else through this new medium.

Every member of the Soma Games team had to read at least the first book, though many read a lot more. Knowing the world's lore was incredibly important for creating games that remained faithful to the source material. “At one point, we were setting up a campfire in a forest, and I realised, I can’t remember which book it’s from, the mice very distinctly put out their fire before they left because they were not going to leave the fire unattended in a forest where it could burn their home,” Taylor says. “The rats did not care. That became a defining moment in terms of how we treated the rats and then the mice, and the other forest critters. Most of our light for our good guys is enclosed in lanterns rather than open fire. Rats have torches and an open flame.”

Though the series is aimed at children, many fans who grew up with Redwall are now adults. With that in mind, the team looked for ways to incorporate more adult content. “Relationships [are] going on in The Scout that, if you realise what you’re reading, there’s actually a lot of depth. There’s a lot of complexity. There are things like broken marriages, restoration, affairs. Those things are going on in the story, but you’ve got to know what you’re looking for. That was a lot of fun to age up the subtext.”

When I was a child, the Redwall books were abundant everywhere. Readily available in school libraries and bookstores, taking pride of place in the children’s section. As an adult, I find these classics harder to come by, and despite over 20 books in the series, most high street bookstores fail to stock even one.

Despite this, the team was never concerned about whether the games would succeed. When they signed on, they believed the movie would bring the series to the forefront again and introduce Redwall to a new generation of fans. When that fell through, Soma Games saw the bright side of establishing themselves and the games properly. But now, with Netflix picking up the rights for an adaptation, it’s looking like the series could steal the spotlight once again.

When the team first obtained the licence, they ran an informal poll to ask fans what they would want from a game based on the series. “One thing we learned is how much every fan seems to identify strongly with some particular species,” Skaggs says. “This idea of roleplaying and inhabiting a certain character was really strong with a Redwall audience. That also led to a strong emphasis on diversity in characters.”

Though The Scout focuses primarily on a village of mice, the team includes rabbits, moles, and other characters, and you can see the range of creatures by the different-sized furnishings. They also have concept art for other creatures that didn’t make the cut due to technical limitations or narrative issues.

Evidence of badgers is present, but an actual badger never appears, as it wouldn’t make sense in the tale. The games don’t venture as far as the city of Salamandastron (where the badgers are found in the books), and the nearest place would be Redwall Abbey itself, where there would be one badger we are already familiar with.

The Lost Legends of Redwall: Escape the Gloomer

Soma Games went in another direction with The Lost Legends of Redwall: Escape the Gloomer, creating a text-based narrative adventure based on the second book, Mossflower.

The Lost Legends of Redwall: Feasts & Friends

This makes Feasts & Friends its third foray into a new genre. As food is a strong theme throughout the books, Skaggs agrees that creating a cooking game was a “no brainer”, but they wanted to create something more than the typical cutting, chopping, running around, and time management we normally see from the genre.

“[There] was a moment where we were trying to figure out what is fun about cooking,” Skaggs says. “At the time, I had a friend over for dinner and at one point, she picks up a meatball, and her eyes roll back in her head, and she's like, ‘That is the best meatball I've ever had.’ It was that moment where I was like, that's the thing. It's about joy. It's this thing about community, family, and interacting with people. This is actually a story game. Cooking is a mechanic as a means to more story because that was our strength. I think where Redwall is strongest is in the storytelling.”

Taylor explains that once the team realised Feasts & Friends would still be story-focused, it allowed her to bring in elements and plot threads from The Scout that had been lost in development. Originally, The Scout would be followed by another game called The Miner, which was hinted at throughout the trilogy.

Because it never happened, there’s a whole character arc that remains open, with Feasts & Friends was used to bring some sense of closure, “When we changed to a more linear progression, it opened up all of this wheelhouse for deliberate deep storytelling and ended up being a delightful venue for me to close threads or speak to threads that got lost during the development of the Scout.”

I’ve been trying to push Redwall onto my son for years, but I think the physical size of the books scare him. Based on his tastes in books and films, I know he’d fall in love with them if he gave them a chance, so perhaps the Redwall games can lure him in when his mother's constant nagging won’t.

As of today's launch, The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, while The Lost Legends of Redwall: Feasts & Friends is now available for PC via Steam.

Next

Warhammer 40K's Ongoing Narrative Is More Explosive Than Ever Right Now

The Pariah Nexus, a war between the Necrons and Adeptus Mechanicus, is about to explode

Posts