It's a funny old world.  Well, actually it's a funny new world full of old ideas.  We're told that there are only so many stories – Shakespeare says 12, Goethe and Polti say 36 – one thing though is certain.  Certain recurring characters, ideas and references have appeared and reappeared in human myths, legend and story-telling culture since such things began.

In the world of The Missing Ink, these stories, legends, fairy tales and adventures have all been brought to life – but something is drastically wrong.  Each of the stories are strangely corrupted.  The knight in shining armour has gone missing and the damsel in distress is really quite happy with her lot.  The star-crossed lovers aren't interested, the big bad wolf has eaten some very dodgy magic beans and nobody can find the Emperor's new clothes anywhere.

So it seems a mysterious evil force is taking all of our most beloved stories and ideas and, for some despicable and inconceivable reason, messing them up a treat.  Into this world step the players, using their PCs and Macs (tablet version to follow next year), either with a free download or directly in the web browser. 

As well as exploring this almost-traditional MMORPG, dungeoneering, questing and, quite literally, setting the world to rights, each player also has their very own sandbox virtual world in which their own imagination runs free and, with the fun and free construction tools provided, can create virtually anything their heart desires.  Virtually.  D'ya see?

Kerry Fraser-Robinson, RedBedlam's Managing Director commented, “leave me alone – I'm busy.”  Later, he somewhat more constructively added, “Oh for the press release?  Right.  Let me see.  Tell them it's funny.  Ground-breaking.  Innovation oozing from every pixel.  A showcase for our artistic talent and technical expertise.  And it's free.”

The Missing Ink will run an open Alpha promotion in December 2011 and is expected to make the leap to Beta in early 2012.

The game employs a freemium business model and RedBedlam is currently in negotiation with a number of publishing partners.