1 week Ago
Sea of Conquest: Cradle of the Gods is the first major project from newly-opened Studio Ellipsis Set in the universe of the FunPlus game, it features an all-star cast of artists and writers I chatted with narrative director Guillaume about the series and what inspired it By now you’ve probably already read , head of the recently opened Studio Ellipsis. But he wasn’t the only person I was able to nail down (figuratively) for an interview, as I also got the chance to chat with Guillaume, the narrative director who helped to organise the recently released , which is also their first major project. Now it may be tempting to scoff at the idea of comic books, but being an unrepentant fan of the medium itself, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much effort had gone into creating a really enthralling adaptation of Sea of Conquest.
For a game which, I think we’d all agree, is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to story, it feels like a real attempt to flesh out the world and characters. With an all-star cast of writers and talent, Sea of Conquest: Cradle of the Gods is what initially caught my eye about the Studio Ellipsis launch even before I knew the name (I was simply something would be launching), so I was eager to hear from Guillaume as to what kicked off the idea. If you haven't had the chance already, be sure to check out my other interview with Alexandre Imanchio, who goes into a lot more detail about the inspirations behind the studio.
But in brief all you need to know is that they've got plenty of experience and ambition to make FunPlus' IP some of the biggest in terms of cross-media, including a new multiplatform IP in the works. So while I didn’t get the chance to chat with Guillaume as in-depth as I did with Alex, I think we nevertheless got some very interesting insights. So if you’re interested in the artistry behind these upcoming comics, and want to hear more about what inspired them, read on! So we thought that Sea of Conquest was a good IP and universe to start with because of the mix of humour, the tone of the IP and the pirate world.
We felt like it was a universe in which you could tell any number of stories in, and that the comic book was a good medium to use because of its graphic nature that can show you characters and locations differently than in-game. Yeah, what's interesting is that it's so I'm French and when we think about comic books in France we call that bande dessinée, and it's not necessarily the DC or Marvel comic book that you think of, but it's more Tintin, Asterix or Spirou. Moebius is of course a big name.
So I was more raised with these types of comic books, and later I was more introduced with those more classic superhero comics from other famous IPs. So in my mind, I always mix the two, and that was our aim with the Sea of Conquest comic book where we focused on finding artists and a creative team who worked with writers that are in between those two worlds. So if you see the first issue you can see a little bit of that influence from European comics, but also with the pacing and rhythm of American books that some readers are more used to.
So we have planned for 10 issues, so we have a few that are done and ready to be released, obviously, issue number one is released now, the second one is going to be issued on the 23rd of October. After that, it’s going to be monthly so we have those 10 issues planned to be released that will cover the whole big story of Cradle of the Gods. Yeah, I don't know if it's a good thing or not for us but we definitely wanted to start out big.
And since the narrative is important for us we wanted to take the time to tell a good, interesting story and to develop the characters. So we felt starting with only four or six issues was maybe too short for our first series, we felt 10 was the right number. Is there something I can reveal about that? No.
But what I can talk about is how the world of video games is evolving and I would say the world of storytelling is also evolving. We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like in five years but we definitely want to spearhead that effort into finding new ways to tell stories in these universes and for audiences to consume them. If you love pirates going on daring adventures, fighting monsters, sea creatures and crazy witches, along with some humour but also deep emotional moments I think you're gonna love this.
It starts out in a very classic way but also goes into some very dark places sometimes, and we have many great issues with great moments in them. I try to play several things at once when I can, obviously, I’ve gotten really invested in those Supercell games. But right now I'm playing one not very new game, I think it's called .
You just have to click and smash to go as far as you can, I don't have to think about it and it's perfect for playing on my phone. You can check out Studio Ellipsis first major project, the comic-book series Sea of Conquest: Cradle of the Gods . And be sure to check in and we'll keep you updated on any and all upcoming news about their in-the-works franchise.
.
