Fantasy-adventure game “Neverland: A Peter Pan Adventure” will be the first title to be produced by Second Star Games, a new U.K.-based game development and publishing studio.
The Manchester, England-based studio is headed by Tom Stone, former managing director of TT Games, whose credits include “Lego Star Wars,” “Lego Batman” and “Lego Harry Potter.” Stone’s team includes many key members of the former Lego games development team.
Great Ormond Street Hospital, which has a perpetual right to remuneration for adaptations of Peter Pan, and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, which has developed the games’ new world of Neverland, have granted Second Star Games a long-term, worldwide, exclusive license to create a suite of video games around the IP.
GOSH Charity will receive royalties from all sales of the games to raise funds for the seriously ill children who are treated at Great Ormond Street.
J. M. Barrie donated the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street in 1929, after he was asked to sit on a committee by the hospital but thought of a better way to make a difference. Two months later the hospital learned that he had donated the rights to his much-loved play and novel “Peter Pan or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” to them.
GOSH Charity’s senior brand licensing manager, Jenny Martin, said: “We are delighted to be working with expert partners Second Star Games to bring the magical world of Neverland to life for a generation of young gamers. Neverland, a place of adventure and imagination, provides an amazing backdrop to what we know will be a first-class game. What’s more, every game sold will help raise funds to support seriously ill children at Great Ormond Street Hospital. We can’t wait for this next chapter in our Neverland journey.”
Grahame “Chily” Chilton will be the lead investor in Second Star. Chilton was an early investor into the first “Lego Star Wars” game in 2005 and both Chilton and Stone served on a fundraising board of GOSH Charity between 2014 and 2016.
