One of the first things players see when they step into the world of new narrative sim video game “Tales of the Shire” is the iconic “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” character Gandalf. He’s there to welcome you to your new life in the Shire and help get you settled, but from there, the developer notes the stakes will be much lower than what Bilbo or Frodo Baggins encountered when they met the wizard in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel series.
“The world of the Shire is the core for what the whole battle of the Ring and the wider story of what Middle-earth was fighting for: preserving that perfect ideality in the middle of all that chaos,” Stephen Lambert, the Wētā Workshop Game Studio-produced game’s creative director, told Variety. “And so much of a hobbit’s life and their daily activities revolved around food that that became a natural core pillar of the game. That food was love and that that was going to be held, and we were going to run our day around preparing meals, sharing meals, building relationships with other hobbits through your making of meals and then all the activities that kind of led into that.”
Art manager Mhairead Connor says the intention with the undeniably cozy game was to give “people that feeling of calm and comfort, and the values that I think Tolkien had about what things were important in life.” Tolkien penned his popular fantasy series during World War II.
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“It’s always really interesting that he was writing those books, and so much of that world, at a time that they were having quite a lot of intense stuff happening in the world,” Connor said. “And part of it was this return to what is worth protecting, what is worth fighting for: song and cheer and friendship. And I suppose we hope that people take a little bit of that love and our love, because that’s what we wanted the game to be.”
Connor notes that “Tales of the Shire” takes place at a point between Tolkien’s iconic works, but contains “a lot” of Easter eggs for eagle-eyed fans beyond Gandalf’s presence.
“The game is set between ‘The Hobbit’ and the events of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ so people will be able to do the maths and see which NPC characters in our world connect with those bigger stories,” Connor said. “There’s a few little treasures that you’ll be able to find. Foraging is one of our mechanics in the game that, if you learn all the stories, there’s definitely a few little treasures that people find. But also, just the delight of rolling into The Green Dragon. That’s pretty cool.”
“Tales of the Shire” was delayed from release at one point amid the sale of game publisher Private Division, formerly owned by Take-Two Interactive and now purchased by private equity firm Haveli Investments and a company funded by Annapurna Interactive alums. Despite the shuffle, the Wētā Workshop team says the creative direction of the game itself was unaffected.
“We were very heads down, just trying to make the game and pouring all our heart and energy into it,” Connor said. “And I think we were very lucky that that stuff was somewhat externally, in terms of the publisher and those kind of changes. Obviously, we were aware of them. But for us, the focus was so much on just making the game and keeping going making the game.”
