William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has finally been restored to its original second-person non-linear branching narrative format. The greatest work IN English literature is now in the greatest format OF English literature: a chooseable-path adventure game on your home computer! Available now to play on PC, Mac and Linux, via Steam or the Humble Store.
To Be Or Not To Be comes from the awesome mind of Ryan North, author of Dinosaur Comics, the Adventure Time comic book series, and Marvel’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. He has teamed up with the Tin Man Games, purveyors of digital gamebooks and interactive fiction, who have developed over twenty-five rip-roaring adventures on a number of platforms.
Players can become three different characters from Shakespeare’s classic: Hamlet, Ophelia, or even Hamlet’s Dad, King Hamlet (Spoiler: you get ghost powers and then must investigate your own murder). Travel through time, fight pirates and sensibly bring evil King Claudius to justice in a court of law or stuff him into a cannon and fire him into a wall. It’s up to YOU!
Yorick skulls mark the choices Shakespeare took in his play which can be followed for the original story or abandoned to carve out a new adventure. View the Haml-o-meter at the end of each story to see how well you stuck to the Bard’s vision!
Ryan North said: “Having To Be Or Not To Be turned into a game is basically the best thing to ever happen IN ALL TIME. Tin Man Games is riding on a terrific streak of gamebook apps and games, and I’m happy I’ve convinced them to tackle Shakespeare as their next project. They’ve added music, achievements and even a secret ending onto the original book! It is going to be INSANELY RAD.”
The original print version of To Be Or Not To Be was a huge Kickstarter success, helped by the fact that Ryan enlisted a crack team of the coolest and most attractive artists of our time. These include the talents of Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Anthony Clark (Nedroid), Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade), Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal), Ethan Nicolle (Axe Cop), Andrew Hussie (MS Paint Adventures), Zach Weiner (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) and a host more that couldn’t possibly fit into this press release!
To Be Or Not To Be has been developed using Tin Man Games’ critically acclaimed Gamebook Adventures Engine. A dyslexic friendly font support has been added for readers with dyslexia and for the first time since the Kickstarter, it is now narrated in English.
Ryan North’s To Be Or Not To Be is now available to download from Steam and the Humble Store. It costs $11.99. It will also be available in March for iOS and Android smart phones and tablets.
video trailer is available at bit.ly/ToBeGame.