Invincible, the comic book-turned-animated TV series from Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman, is being turned into a fully-fledged visual novel. Attached to Invincible Presents: Atom Eve are Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Mothergunship and Assassin’s Creed devs, who will centre the single-player game around the superhero from the original series.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve, to give the upcoming game its full title, is billed as the first “original video game” set in the universe of Kirkman’s colourfully violent love letter to superhero comics. The comic book – which ran for 15 years from 2003, before being turned into an animated Amazon series in 2021 – was recently announced to be getting an idle mobile game developed by Ubisoft, Invincible: Guarding the Globe.
In contrast, Atom Eve will be a single-player ‘visual novel RPG’ that follows the superhero seen in the series as she juggles everyday school life with fighting villains. That split will be complicated further by needing to manage relationships with her friends, family and love interests, with a branching story offering up different dialogue options and events depending on the player’s choices and how they decide to develop Eve’s abilities. There’ll also be an element of turn-based combat as players use Eve’s powers to take down foes.
Leading development on the visual novel will be creative director Jill Murray, the co-writer of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Joining Murray will be art director Rossi Gifford, who has worked on projects for League of Legends devs Riot Games, as well as comics giant Marvel and Invincible publisher Skybound. Murray and Gifford will work with developers Terrible Posture Games, who handled The Walking Dead: Last Mile – a sort of blend of ARG and TV show based on the hugely popular zombie franchise – and, unexpectedly, bullet-hell FPS Mothergunship.
According to Kirkman, the visual novel will put a “fresh spin” on Eve’s appearance in the comics, while managing to stay true to the character’s comic-book origins; the game’s announcement trailer shows comic book-like boxouts and speech bubbles. Murray added that the story will give Eve’s “complexity, creativity, and wry sense of humour” a chance to shine alongside her superpowers.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve will be released on Steam later this year.