There are many stories in Tolkien’s Silmarillion that carry the seeds of greatness, and some of them might benefit from the video game treatment, but to my mind none more so than the story of Tuor and his son, Eärendil.
When a full and annotated version of “The Fall of Gondolin” came out in 2018, I couldn’t help but snatch up a copy. And once it arrived, I couldn’t put it down. So much of this story had already been worked out in the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien, and several versions of the story had been written down, but none were and never will be definitive.
Once I turned the final page, I thought to myself: where is the rest? It was as if someone had ripped out half a novel. Obviously, whatever would follow had been written already, right? No? Several stages of grief later, it was obvious to me that if I wanted to read the ending of this story then it was up to me to finish it. Nobody could do justice to this tale in the form of a novel the way J.R.R. Tolkien would have, so rather than finishing it as a novel I figured that this story might lend itself wonderfully as a stealthy action-adventure game instead.
“The Fall of Gondolin” features a strong protagonist with a single, unerring goal, facing trials and tribulations, travelling a land of wonder and mystery, facing a terrifying foe – even if he never physically appears. There is even a side-kick and a love interest. The absence of a fully fleshed out story in the canon is a great freedom to have for an adaptation that seeks to immerse players. It is up to them to see where Tuor roamed across northern Beleriand and in doing so create their own story inside the canon.
We know Tuor made it to Gondolin, and we know Voronwë guided him, but much of the specifics are lost to us. It is as if we were retelling a legend that has been passed down in bits and pieces, and we get to connect the dots. It is a thrilling challenge. Needless to say, it is project I shall be pursuing in my spare time for quite a while.
To check out some of the preliminary work I have been doing, check out the following post:
Joris Lemoine 
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