Officials from inXile Entertainment (
The Bard’s Tale) have announced that the company has acquired the console development rights for the popular Flash game
Line Rider, and that versions for both the Nintendo DS and Wii are expected to ship in Spring 2007.
Described by inXile's chief executive officer Brian Fargo as “a fully animated Etch-A-Sketch”,
Line Rider was first
launched on the internet on September 23, 2006, and has since gone on to attract over 15 million viewers and become the source of over 11,000 video posts on popular video community site YouTube.
"I have been around the interactive entertainment industry long enough to have seen similar phenomenon like
Tetris and
Bejeweled become massive international hits, and
Line Rider has all the elements to do the same," noted Fargo, who added that the game “will be perfect for the Nintendo DS and Wii.”
According to the title's original creator Bostjan Cadez,
Line Rider is a "toy" that allows players to construct their own track filled with as many ramps, hills, and jumps as they can imagine utilizing a pencil tool. Once the player is done creating their course, they can send a virtual sledder down the route until he wipes out.
"
Line Rider began its life as a project I did for illustration class," commented Bostjan Cadez, who created
Line Rider in his native Slovenia. "As much as people see it as a game I think of it as a toy because there is no score and no one wins or loses while playing
Line Rider. I'm looking forward to working with inXile entertainment on the new Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii versions as they will bring added gameplay and features."
