Featuring pivotal environments from the movie, the vivid characters are brought to interactive life, featuring the likeness of the movie’s impressive cast, which includes Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel and newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra Belacqua.

Produced by New Line Cinema and Scholastic Media, The Golden Compass follows the screenplay adaptation of the first book in the acclaimed trilogy, capturing the exciting fantasy adventure set in a parallel world where giant armoured bears rule a kingdom, beautiful witches fly through the frozen skies, and human beings’ deepest essence is manifest as talking animals that remain their faithful companion for life – their daemon.

Speaking about voice acting for the videogame Dakota commented, “I do find it quite difficult, but I also find it fun, in the same way that I found doing the green screen stuff fun [on the film set].” The Golden Compass is Dakota’s first major acting role and she was picked from 1000’s of hopefuls who auditioned for the part of Lyra in the film.

Lyra can also use her daemon, Pantalaimon, to collaborate with in-game characters and to help her get through certain difficult situations. The role of Pantalaimon is voiced by Freddie Highmore, who starred as Charlie Bucket in the 2005 version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. However, this is not Freddie’s first voice-over role as he remarked, “I have performed voiceover work in the past. To convey the essence of a character you’ve got to believe in it and I think you have to get into the character, because if you don’t believe in it no one else will.”

Players can assume the role of Lyra, a young girl, along with her daemon Pantalaimon (Pan), as she travels through the frozen wastes of the North collecting special items in order to explore, evade and deceive her way through confrontations to rescue a friend kidnapped by a mysterious organisation known as The Gobblers. Lyra can also use her daemon and collaborate with in-game characters to journey through an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well.

Gamers can also take on the character of Iorek Byrnison, a great armoured polar bear who joins the quest. Iorek battles to protect Lyra during their journey using a riding mechanic and special attacks to fend off enemies, players will also be able to unlock secrets and mini-games using a mysterious truth-telling golden compass device called an alethiometer. The Golden Compass has 13 vast locations to explore including all-new, breath-taking environments not seen in the books or the film, on this massive journey of collaboration, exploration and the eternal struggle between good and evil.

The Golden Compass video game is being developed by Shiny Entertainment, best known for developing games based on the blockbuster The Matrix film franchise. Shiny was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment in October 2006. The Nintendo DS version is being developed by A2M.

The Golden Compass videogame is releasing on PS3, Xbox360, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS & PSP on December 4, 2007, three days before the film.