Last year, I was pleased to hear that The Games Company - otherwise known as TGC - had secured the rights to produce a PC version of the classic pen-and-paper RPG, The Dark Eye, but not too excited, in this era of acquiring squillions of rights and then sitting on them jealously while never producing anything. Luckily, my cynicism has been rewarded with a pleasant surprise, with the first screen shots of The Dark Eye: Demonicon turning up today. Looks like something will eventuate, after all.

This will not be The Dark Eye's first video game outing; the best-selling cult favourite has already made a showing in Digital Tainment Pool's 2008 release Drakensang: The Dark Eye and the old Northland Trilogy, a series I choose to forget all about.


So many bridges! Get over it!
TGC's aims with the title include dynamic combat, story-driven gameplay, and faithful reproduction of the latest edition of The Dark Eye. Hopefully this means character creation will be flexible and customisable, one of the most notable mutations of the game since first edition, rather than forcing a generic hero-type upon us.

Given that The Dark Eye rivals Dungeons & Dragons in role-playing communities, it'll be interesting to watch the progress of this one and compare it to popular D&D titles such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. While The Dark Eye: Demonicon is looking very pretty, information is still pretty thin, but rest assured, RPG fans, this will be tracked most assiduously.