Marvel enlists Alex Irvine 'to tell a story' in Avengers Facebook game

Look, in this economy, work is work. But comic book author and novelist Alex Irvine sees his next gig as much more than that. Marvel has hired a writer to pen the story for Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the Disney-owned comic book company's first ... Facebook game. So yeah, you could say that Marvel's taking this project seriously.

"It's a new thing, for sure," Irvine told Mediabistro's GalleyCat blog. "The big difference so far that I see between this and other Facebook games is that Marvel really wants to use it to tell a story. The story involves this event, called The Pulse, which has all sorts of unusual effects around the Earth. And the game focuses on New York City, which becomes a target for a number of the world's super villains who are trying to recover this substance called ISO8."

In Marvel's upcoming game, players will assume the role of a new S.H.I.E.L.D. agent recruited to help The Avengers fight these various super villains, understand the mysteries of The Pulse and learn how to stop it. According to Irvine, the game will be more RPG (role-playing game) than your standard FarmVille. However, the game will involve your friends, who will help with missions.

Players will learn more about the story as they progress through the various missions in Avengers Alliance, which has been in the works since November 2010, according to Irvine, and will pack around 6,000 lines of dialog at launch. Later in the game's life, the Avengers Alliance storyline will tie in with other unannounced Marvel projects.

While writing the storyline for a Facebook game was a new experience for Irvine, he expects social games will heavy stories to become a trend, and it's time other writers got involved. "Social gaming space is moving fast, this game is one early example of what you can do," Irvine said to GalleyCat. "I would expect to see a lot more games like this for people who want to do this, I would say give it a try." Check out the full audio interview right here.

Does Irvine's involvement in Marvel's first Facebook game make it more interesting? Could more social games use deeper stories? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.