First screens of John Carmack's mobile-exclusive Orcs & Elves

Right, there's a hot new mobile fantasy-RPG called Orcs & Elves, and… Wait! Don't run away! Come back! This one's worth hearing about.

Okay, so the subject matter is just a little bit geeky, but Orcs & Elves is important for two reasons.

Reason one: It's the first entirely original mobile game to be published by Electronic Arts, marking a shift from the game giant's previous strategy of only releasing mobile games based on its existing console or casual-web titles.

More interestingly, two: The man behind the game is John Carmack of id Software. Y'know, one of the key figures behind the PC shooter classics Doom and Quake.

Id is working with mobile developer Fountainhead Entertainment on Orcs & Elves, which will apparently combine the first-person-shooting action that made Carmack famous with more tactical turn-based RPG elements. Oh, and it's got a magical talking wand, an ancient Dwarven fortress and dark elves to keep the geeks happy.

The game is partly based on the engine from the Doom RPG mobile game that came out last year, and promises five hours of gameplay.

"The formative computer games of my youth were fantasy games, so I am happy to finally bring one to market," says Carmack. "Orcs & Elves has been explicitly designed to play to the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the mobile platform, with easy gameplay, a tight design, and a rewarding presentation of a world we think players will want to see more of."

Americans can get their hands on it in the next two months, and while EA is staying tight-lipped on a European release date, we'll eat our flaming sword if it doesn't turn up here this year.

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