Slime Rancher is heading to the big screen with its own movie adaptation. According to Deadline, the popular sandbox game from Monomi Park is being adapted into a feature film as a joint venture with Story Kitchen.
Slime Rancher was originally released in early access back in 2016 with an official release in 2017. It currently holds a 98% rating on Steam, selling over six million copies and paving the way for a sequel, Slime Rancher 2.
The games have a fairly simple concept: dash around a host of colorful, chaotic alien worlds gathering up slimes, then return to your base to turn them into profit. Collect, raise, feed, and breed slimes to succeed – it’s really that simple.
However, its unique style and fun gameplay seem to have hit home with gamers. It’s a first-person sandbox experience with beautiful open worlds and a fun, cutesy style, and the sequel has done pretty well, too – it sold over 300,000 copies in its first week.
As for the film, it looks as though there’s no director attached just yet and it’s unclear how far Slime Rancher is along in the production process.
Still, it’s in pretty good hands – Story Kitchen was founded by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad as well as Sonic the Hedgehog producer Dmitri M. Johnson, and former APA agent, Mike Goldberg.
They’ve already built up an interesting catalog, with Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell TV adaptations currently in production. Story Kitchen is also bringing the hugely popular Vampire Survivors to TV with an upcoming animated series.
IGN’s Slime Rancher 2 review gave it 7/10 and said: “Slime Rancher 2 is a fantastic and charming life simulator that still has lots of room to grow. It probably won’t surprise anyone who played the original, borrowing quite a lot from its predecessor while inventing relatively little so far, but it continues to be bewitchingly fun all the same. If this is just the beginning, then I fully expect this adorable adventure to evolve into something very special – but for now, it’s just a highly enjoyable start.”
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
