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Brian Sullivan (pictured), a key player in the creation of Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires franchise, has inked a deal with THQ to publish a new action role-playing game. The game is currently being worked on by the 20-plus-and-growing staff at Sullivan's Iron Lore Entertainment. Although today’s news specifies a PC release only, both parties indicated that they were contemplating other platforms.

Sullivan left Ensemble--which he founded with Tony Goodman, Rick Goodman, and Bruce Shelley--in October 2000. Shortly thereafter, he founded Iron Lore, where he currently serves as president and lead designer. The studio laid down roots in the bucolic Boston suburb of Maynard, and Sullivan quickly started building the action RPG of his dreams from the ground up.

In a conversation with Sullivan, he said there will be a “certain degree of both Diablo II and Age of Empires-type gaming” in the upcoming title. “A lot of the design sensibilities are taken from Age of Empires.”

Sullivan and THQ business development VP Dan Kelly were eager to convey that their new partnership was a meeting of the minds: Iron Lore found a publisher with worldwide reach and a track record of nurturing successful independent titles (Full Spectrum Warrior, for example, from Pandemic Studios), and THQ found another independent studio worthy of sinking company funds and talent into as it has with Dawn of War developer Relic Entertainment, which it eventually bought.

“Only the very, very best games in each genre have any level of success,” Sullivan told GameSpot today. ”We really tried hard to find a publisher that saw the marketplace as we did--and would support the product as we thought it needed to be supported.” And with a tip of the hat to the deep pockets of THQ, Sullivan added that “THQ believes in big-budget PC games...and we wholeheartedly like that direction.”

In Iron Lore's new game, Kelly says he saw “an innovative and highly commercial game, but behind it,” he added,” we found a very experienced team at Iron Lore, one that was professionally managed in the area of project management and budgeting.” (See staff photo in this story's screenshot gallery.)

Addressing THQ’s track record of working with independent studios, Kelly said, “We don’t want independent developers to ever confuse us with some of our competitors who are somewhat hostile to external developers. It is fundamental to our growth to find the best independent developers and work with them.” He emphasized that he and his team at THQ, which fields hundreds of game pitches a month, are “always happy to find a strong developer with a commercial idea that has clear positioning...we have a real appetite to work with those developers.”

Iron Lore's RPG is slated to get additional exposure next May--at the very latest. Says Kelly, “E3 will be a key event for the title and it will be more than ready.”