A Dribble of Ink

A six-time All-Star pitcher, Schilling four years ago started 38 Studios (named after the uniform number), which is unveiling its first release, the role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, this week at Comic-Con in San Diego.

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To create the game, which is due in fall 2011, Schilling has drafted an all-star team that includes artist and toy creator Todd McFarlane (Spawn), best-selling author R.A. Salvatore (The Ghost King) and game studio Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations), acquired by 38 Studios last year. “I wanted to put together a team like the 1927 Yankees (which included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig), arguably the greatest team that was ever assembled,” Schilling says, “and to do that, in my mind, I had to start with some visionairies.”

The first peek into their collective vision is a special poster and one-minute cinematic that McFarlane created for Comic-Con. “We are going to set the mood,” says McFarlane, who along with the other principals will make a presentation Thursday. “We will show a little bit of a hint of magic in it, a hint of the scale of the bad guys (and) the intensity of some of the action.”

Salvatore, who has written numerous books based in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, is tight-lipped about Amalur, but says that he has created a Tolkienesque 10,000-year-long back story: “I think we can say that we are talking about a high fantasy world with multiple races.”

The goal is a game that combines role-playing complexity with action-game intensity. “I hope it will be a breath of fresh air,” game designer Ken Rolston says.

38 Studios hopes to create a franchise for multiple games, books and other products; planning is already underway for a massively multiplayer online game.