Book(s) that would translate well to games.

[Lieju]

The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings.

Seriously, when I was reading it I couldn't help but to think the plot was meant for a video-game.
Not a good video-game, plot-wise anyway, though.

But it had aspects, like the plot-device (Knife or book or something) telling the characters to go to point B, then they did stuff there, and usually recruited a party member, then the thingy told them to go to point C etc, that were very video-game -like.

They even had a mechanic for teleporting back to places there had been in.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

You know what? A Discworld RPG would be pretty rad. Centered around the Watch, set in an open-world Ankh Morpork and written by Pratchett himself. Yeah... that would be fantastic.

 

[The_Lost_King]

The Inheritance Series. Pretty much similar to Skyrim with ancient words of power and chosen ones and all that.

Oh that would be amazing. Though it would probably have to only take place in the universe rather than focusing on Eragon's story. Well it would if you wanted an open world experience. Since you would probably be a Dragon Rider. Unless you wanted to take the route of the Third Era( a LotR game that ran parallel to the fellowship's quest. It had turn based combat.) Then you could choose to be a warrior, a magician, or a assassin. Then you could choose dwarf, elf, or human. Though it would be kind of hard to display the mental battles of the magicians. I guess you could just do a dice roll but that isn't any fun. Maybe The Inheritance series isn't so good for videogames(or movies apparently. That movie sucked).

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Clive Barkers Imajica would make a great RPG. 5 worlds, including Earth. Multiple evil characters, even God appears at one point. ;-) Amazing book.

Also The Great and Secret Show/Everville.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

You know what? A Discworld RPG would be pretty rad. Centered around the Watch, set in an open-world Ankh Morpork and written by Pratchett himself. Yeah... that would be fantastic.

I think they did one along time ago, think it was point and click abit like Monkey Island. But a brand new version of his books would be awesome.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

You know what? A Discworld RPG would be pretty rad. Centered around the Watch, set in an open-world Ankh Morpork and written by Pratchett himself. Yeah... that would be fantastic.

I think they did one along time ago, think it was point and click abit like Monkey Island. But a brand new version of his books would be awesome.

Yeah, i know, there were a few Discworld games. They were nothing special.

 

[Wintermoot]

what about Mog World? I think it would be fun as a singleplayer RPG

Harry Potter

What's that? Harry Potter games exist? *slap* No they do not, now eat your waffles.

Harry Potter 1-3 on the PC where pretty fun especially 2 and 3.

 

[Veylon]

The Game of Thrones would make a great strategy/intrigue game. I know they made some sort of RPG, but it seems to kind of miss the point when the series is all about political maneuver, battle strategy, and lining up allies. It should really be more like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or even War in Middle Earth.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

'Finnegans Wake' by James Joice.

You could make any kind of game about anything and just slap the name of the book on it. Seeing how the book is just meaningless gibberish. James Joyce was a fuckin' troll.

Those shitty Tom Clancy books actually make for good espionage games.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Not sure why so many people pick the Wheel of Time series as a proper candidate. If you ask me it's just too big to make a proper game out of it. Way too many little plot arcs, a world that's just too damn ginormous, magic that isn't even visible for people not attuned to it and immense amounts of talking, talking and more talking. Fantastic as a literary series, but as a game? I don't know.

If you want to translate a fantasy book to a game I'd say Mogworld. That sounds like a fun little RPG romp.

However, my ultimate choice is:

The Dresden Files.

Protagonist is a wizard in his late thirties. Plenty of Lore and background. Wizard council, evil wizard council, all kinds of different faeries. Complex Vampire society as well as 3 different types of Vampires. Conspiracies, plots, wars, love, relationships, - Ah fuck I have to read this series again!!!

I envisioned it as a Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines-esque RPG where you don't actually play Harry but rather a character of your choosing that's just discovering his/her magical talents. Or lycanthropy. Or vampirism. Or something else. Harry would be one of the guys you encounter during the game. Just like Murphy. And the vampire clans. And the Kingdoms of Faerie.

See where I'm going with this? An entire universe yours to explore. You can pick who you fight for, how you'll fight, you name it. Now there's the matter of making a coherent plot amidst all that player freedom.

Red Dead Redemption meets Lord of the Rings need I say more?!

 

[David Dryden]

If I could see any book series as a game, I'd have to go for pretty much any of Peter F. Hamilton's massive space opera sagas (Night's Dawn Trilogy, The Commonwealth Saga, The Void Trilogy) as an MMOFPSRPG with space combat elements.

I'm leaning more towards the Night's Dawn trilogy, simply because the main plot involves the souls of the dead coming back to possess the living, and gaining reality warping powers in the process. Since the dead are constantly trying to attack or infiltrate the living in order to acquire more people for souls to possess, it would be easy to have two very clear cut sides.
Since technology fails in the presence of the dead's powers, the two sides would play pretty differently (basically it would boil down to magic versus technology).

Although the other two stories would work pretty well too.. since an aspect of both the Commonwealth Saga and the Void Trilogy is the ability to bring the dead back to life through memory download into clone bodies, which would work very well in a game setting.
They both also include travel between planets via a network of wormholes link by railway, which is practically begging to be used as a means to create separate/instanced areas in an MMO.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

It's been proven to work better than adapting one to a movie as The Witcher series has shown us. So what series of books or stand alone novel do you think would work best as a game?

Make sure to write what said book or series is about as well.

My vote: The Dark Tower series

Series about:
Gunslingers questing across a post apocalyptic western esque world (while occasionally traveling to different universes) in order to stop a manic demon from destroying The Dark Tower a.k.a the apex of goddamn existence. Lots of fantastical elements(demons, ancient evils, magical artifacts, prophecies, etc.) Bunch of references and cameos from other Stephen King books, plenty of action, complex characters, and quite possibly my favorite protagonist of all time.

As a game:
Red Dead Redemption meets Lord of the Rings need I say more?!... What? Well o.k. then fine... 3rd person shooter as a prequel before the fall of Gilead. Make it semi open world ala Witcher with branching story lines as different gunslingers on both sides of the conflict as they traverse In-World.

What has your vote?

I agree with the Dark Tower, and your idea of how it should play out . . . for the most part. The only part I don't agree with is having gunslingers on both sides, seeing as they're a pretty sacred blood line and order.

A little off topic, but did Journey vaguely remind anyone else of the Dark Tower in some ways? Is it just me? The feeling is vague, but still, it's there.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I'd say The Old Kingdom series, but I know it would be fucked up in some way and I would cry with angry, manly tears. So I'd rather it didn't happen.

 

[mrjoe94]

I can see the Dresden Files as a good game candidate, but what type of game would it be? I can see there being some investigative elements (Arkham City is what comes to mind) but how would combat work? Would you play as different characters? Combat with a character like Michael would work, hack and slash and all that.

 

[Judgement101]

The hunger games i'd say

I'd have to say this. Like an open world Multi/Singleplayer human hunting game would be rather fun. I would be happy to see this be made into a game unless it becomes a movie tie in, in that case, I will be very upset.

 

[Baldur Moon]

I would love to see Starship Troopers turned into a game. Based off the book, not the movie. You can get rid of all the social commentary, just gimme a power-suit with some jump-jets, hand flamers, and shoulder nukes to go to town on some bugs and skinnies.

Spoiler

Your welcome!

Percy Jackson

Greek Mythology theme, quest narrative, new powers as he gets more experienced, companions for escort quests or multiplayer...

It's basically a videogame already

So basically a pg-13 version of God of War with a coherent plot and humor.
Yea I'd play that (not sarcastic I promise you)

It's been proven to work better than adapting one to a movie as The Witcher series has shown us. So what series of books or stand alone novel do you think would work best as a game?

My vote: The Dark Tower series

As a game:
Red Dead Redemption meets Lord of the Rings need I say more?!... What? Well o.k. then fine... 3rd person shooter as a prequel before the fall of Gilead. Make it semi open world ala Witcher with branching story lines as different gunslingers on both sides of the conflict as they traverse In-World.

I agree with the Dark Tower, and your idea of how it should play out . . . for the most part. The only part I don't agree with is having gunslingers on both sides, seeing as they're a pretty sacred blood line and order.

A little off topic, but did Journey vaguely remind anyone else of the Dark Tower in some ways? Is it just me? The feeling is vague, but still, it's there.

I'm not sure (it's been a while since I read the whole series) but weren't there some defectors that sided with John Farson?

Also... A game about a robed figure traversing a vast, ruin covered, desert in order to reach a foreboding and ever present goal in the distance... How could that possibly remind you of the Dark Tower?

 

[TrevHead]

While a picture book (manga), Gantz and Platinum Games would be a match made in heaven

 

[NerfedFalcon]

The hunger games i'd say

Here you go. Most people who play it tend to die in the first ten seconds, but keep your wits about you and learn how to dodge the knife, and you'll have a blast, I guarantee it.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

I would love to see Starship Troopers turned into a game. Based off the book, not the movie. You can get rid of all the social commentary, just gimme a power-suit with some jump-jets, hand flamers, and shoulder nukes to go to town on some bugs and skinnies.

Spoiler

Your welcome!

Percy Jackson

Greek Mythology theme, quest narrative, new powers as he gets more experienced, companions for escort quests or multiplayer...

It's basically a videogame already

So basically a pg-13 version of God of War with a coherent plot and humor.
Yea I'd play that (not sarcastic I promise you)

It's been proven to work better than adapting one to a movie as The Witcher series has shown us. So what series of books or stand alone novel do you think would work best as a game?

My vote: The Dark Tower series

As a game:
Red Dead Redemption meets Lord of the Rings need I say more?!... What? Well o.k. then fine... 3rd person shooter as a prequel before the fall of Gilead. Make it semi open world ala Witcher with branching story lines as different gunslingers on both sides of the conflict as they traverse In-World.

I agree with the Dark Tower, and your idea of how it should play out . . . for the most part. The only part I don't agree with is having gunslingers on both sides, seeing as they're a pretty sacred blood line and order.

A little off topic, but did Journey vaguely remind anyone else of the Dark Tower in some ways? Is it just me? The feeling is vague, but still, it's there.

I'm not sure (it's been a while since I read the whole series) but weren't there some defectors that sided with John Farson?

Also... A game about a robed figure traversing a vast, ruin covered, desert in order to reach a foreboding and ever present goal in the distance... How could that possibly remind you of the Dark Tower?

You may be right about that thing with John Farson. I haven't read the Fall of Gilead or Battle of Jericho Hill tie-in comics, so I might have missed it.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

Oh, and as for similarities between Journey and the Dark Tower, let's not forget the ending