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Press release:
Paris, France, March 21, 2024.
The Roubaix-based (France) indie games publisher Ankama Games and Brittany-based (France) indie games developer Blue Banshee, are today very glad and proud to announce that their charming adventure-RPG “Maliki: Poison of the Past“, is now in development for PC and the Nintendo Switch.

Inspired by the comic book of the same name, Maliki: Poison of the Past is a single player adventure RPG with a focus on turn-based combat and exploration, available for pre-order today on the independent platform Kunekune.fr.

Maliki: Poison of the Past is the culmination of 20 years of existence of the Maliki comic book, with its 8 volumes selling over 300,000 copies worldwide. The game is developed by the studio Blue Banshee, co-created by Souillon, the author and creator of Maliki, who adds:

“Maliki has always been a transmedia universe, with the comic book, the novel, music, and animation. Exploring it as a video game was long overdue, it just needed the stars to align (we pushed them a bit…).”

Players are invited to join Maliki and her eccentric family in their epic battle against Poison, a formidable plant creature that has colonized space-time. They will embark on a fantastic odyssey through the ages, offering a unique blend of exploration, temporal puzzles, and turn-based combat full of surprises. The game will be fully localized in English.

Key features:

▫ A quirky and engaging narrative – In a world where a defeated humanity clashes with invasive and vengeful natural forces, a small group of colorful adventurers attempts to restore balance to the world and save their home. But who is Poison? What is Maliki hiding? Can we pet the cats?

▫ Battles of a new kind – Utilize a unique mechanic in turn-based combat: temporal manipulation! Alter the course of time to create powerful combos between allies, shift your opponents into the past, and chain your attacks by sliding them into the future!

▫ A refuge outside of time and chaos – Between temporal explorations, the Domain is the ideal place to recharge your batteries. Develop your haven of peace: plant, harvest, cook, tinker, and nurture the Thousand Roots Tree that holds back time!

▫ A unique graphic style – Bringing together the talents of renowned comic book artists and seasoned game creators, Maliki: Poison of the Past offers dynamic and vibrant graphics embracing the fusion of French visual culture and Japanese chibi.

▫ 20 years of fabulous stories – A nostalgic journey for many readers, the Maliki comic book makes its first foray into the world of video games and offers a new entry point to easily discover its universe.

Kunekune is a brand new pre-order platform founded by prominent content creators with the ambition of supporting project creators without any speculation. That’s why the Maliki team has chosen it as a partner. Fans can visit the dedicated page on the site starting today. The game’s team will unveil many exclusive surprises throughout the campaign.

The Steam page Maliki: Poison of the Past is live, and players worldwide can now stay informed by adding the game to their wishlist.

About Ankama
Ankama is an independent French company dedicated to the creation, publishing, and distribution of entertainment works worldwide. Since the success of its online game DOFUS in 2004 (with over 100 million accounts created worldwide), Ankama has invested in several areas of activity to become a true transmedia group. From video games to board games, from manga to anime, it controls the entire production chain of its creations from A to Z. Creator of a vast universe called the “Krosmoz,” known for its multiplayer online role-playing games DOFUS and WAKFU and their eponymous animated series, it also produces animated feature films such as DOFUS – Book I: Julith or Princess Dragon. Driven by creativity, Ankama also designs and develops board games and figurines such as Krosmaster Arena, Monster Slaughter, and Arkeis; mobile games like Tactile Wars, King Tongue, Super Nano Blaster, or DOFUS Touch; as well as comics and manga such as Radiant, Shangri-La, Carbon & Silicon, In the Mind of Sherlock Holmes, DOFUS, or Mutafukaz. Following the principles of transmedia, Ankama’s teams create universes that they develop into multiple stories, across different media, offering their loyal communities of players, readers, and viewers an immersive and complete narrative experience on all popular platforms. With Ankama, each story is unique, but all are connected. In 2020, Ankama broke the European record for crowdfunding for an animated series on Kickstarter, raising over €1.5 million to produce the fourth season of WAKFU. In 2023, the company once again demonstrated its creative power with the release of two animated series, The Last Adventure of Count Lancedur on ADN, and its new major game in the Krosmoz universe: WAVEN in Early access on PC. The fourth season of the WAKFU series was released in February 2024 with audience ratings for an animated series on France Télévisions.

About Blue Banshee
Blue Banshee is an independent French studio, born from the meeting of a comic book author, a game designer, and a pioneer of French animation. Its ambition is to create independent games in fantastic and whimsical universes, with just the right amount of poetry and gameplay to appeal to both the brain and the controller. The Banshee, a Celtic female deity, sometimes a charismatic monster of role-playing games, sometimes a protective entity of the family, is a symbol that perfectly corresponds to its values, and that never goes unnoticed! Its first game, Maliki – Poison of the Past, will be released in late 2024. It comes from the universe of the famous webtoon Maliki, launched in 2004 by Souillon, sold in over 300,000 copies on various media and never before adapted into a video game.