We’ve been alluding from the start that Morning Star is going to be much more than the game itself. It’s a universe that we plan on expanding in a bunch of interesting ways. Today’s announcement previews one of those ways, and it’s a project that John Scalzi and Mike Choi have been working feverishly away on called Morning Star Alpha.

From John Scalzi’s announcement post: “What is Morning Star Alpha? The simplest explanation is that it’s a graphic novel, written by me and illustrated by Mike Choi, which ties into the events of the Morning Star game. But please note that this “simplest explanation” really is too simple. For one thing, Morning Star Alpha is its own app; you explore it on your tablet, and we’ve built the app and the story to take advantage of the medium we’re working in — which means it’s a pretty cool new graphic novel experience. You can make choices in Morning Star Alpha which affect the storytelling, and your actions while exploring inMorning Star Alpha can have an impact in the Morning Star game (and vice versa). You’ll learn more about the characters who populate the Morning Star universe, and what motivates them to action.”

From Kotaku.com: “This isn’t going to be your average digital comic book. For one, it’s not going to be one of those glitzy animated affairs — Harris and I agree that they are a blight on the comics industry, taking control of the experience away from the reader. In fact, it’s the antithesis of what Morning Star Alpha aims to do — give the reader more control over their experience, both in the comic app and the game itself.

Morning Star Alpha will feature interactive moments… The choices made in the comic’s story will carry over into the full game when it launches. Treat a character one way in the comic, and they’ll react accordingly in the game.

If that sounds awesome, it gets better.”

Indeed it does. Stay tuned for more details as we finish the artwork and assemble the experience. Scalzi’s script is done, you’re seeing the fruits of Choi’s artwork efforts here in this post, and we’ll be talking about the interactive elements as we get closer to announcing a date.