Not all games make it to production. Lionhead looks at what could have been.

It's likely that more game ideas end up shelved then us players are ever aware of. Earlier today, Lionhead Studios took the time to give a short look at one of those titles: InkQuest. A team of four created the demo for InkQuest during Lionhead's annual Creative Day game jam.

It was part magical map, part audio book, part adventure game, and it was captivating enough that it was "incubated" - the concept was expanded further and built into a more robust, playable prototype. We explored worlds made entirely from words and investigated different ways of telling stories within them. We explored various art styles and developed some amazing technology for a kind of artist's "performance capture" - capturing and replaying our artist's creative process.

Ultimately, a decision was made to not take the project into full production, and the story of Sophie, a young girl trapped within a magical book, will remain unknown. The project definitely looks intriguing and we can only hope that one day Lionhead decides to pull it off the shelves and resume work on it once again.

"A book is more than just words on a page. Mysterious forces work between the folds of a book; forces that make you laugh, or cry, forces that whisk you away to magical lands of excitement, mystery and adventure. Most of the time, they let you come back. Most of the time."

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor