Popular iOS Flying Game Will Soon Be Flying Off The Shelves
March 20, 2012
As a fan of Whale Trail and an even bigger fan of books, I couldn't be more delighted by the news that the endless flyer game by ustwo is making the leap to the world of publishing. In a story posted on The Next Web, the London-based developing studio of Whale Trail announced that it recently scored an expansive book deal with Puffin Books, no less.
"When I downloaded the app, I was hooked," said Eric Huang, Publishing Director of Media & Entertainment Group at Puffin. "There’s something so fresh and cool about the art direction. I wanted to know more about Willow and his world and thought, we should publish a book."
As Penguin's leading children's imprint, Puffin has published countless books for kids. And lately it has been acquiring the publishing rights for popular digital brands, including Moshi Monsters and Skylanders. As for Whale Trail, Steve Bittan, Marketing Director at ustwo, said that an e-book will be the first outcome of this new partnership. Presumably, the initial e-book will tell the colorful origin story of Willow the Whale to young readers. And although Whale Trail is a digital creation, a former App Store Game of the Week that has so far topped 170,000 iOS downloads for that matter, the possibility of releasing print books is not at all ruled out.
While Angry Birds is all over the place with hit consumer merchandise and a feature film in the works, Whale Trail is flying high in the psychedelic literary sky.
