Infinity Blade is prelude to 'much bigger story'

Infinity Blade 2 will be available tonight, and is the continuation of what developer Chair Entertainment sees as an ongoing franchise. Co-founder Donald Mustard says the first game intentionally featured story hooks for sequels in case it was successful.

"The Hobbit is kind of the prelude to The Lord of the Rings," Mustard said. "What if Infinity Blade 1 was like the prelude to The Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings -- a prelude to this much bigger story we wanted to do?"

Mustard told Gamasutra that the team "imbued it with some hooks for this larger IP just in case, and it totally took off. A lot of [my] work for the last year has been, 'oh wow, this has taken off. Good thing we had some ideas for what this franchise could be!'" He says more than any gameplay tweaks, players would ask about plot points like who the God King is, and what the ending of the first game means. "Luckily, luckily, we have it actually figured out," he says.

The sequel features more RPG elements, new locations, enemies, bosses, fighting styles, and weapon classes, along with the social "Clash Mob" online feature to unlock rare items. Kotaku reports it will cost $6.99 at launch.