Books to games

[Phase_9]

Books don't translate well, since much of the action is pre-scripted in cool ways that can't be replicated in gaming, the story is made to be PASSIVE, not interactive, and finally, much of the insight and story comes from the thoughts of the characters, which are either omitted altogether (making for a confusingly garbled story), or are included which creates way too much dialogue and cutscenes. Basically, only in circumstances where you can deviate from the written account, such as the Watchmen's The End Is Nigh, which takes place before the book. Another good example is Lord of The Rings Conquest, where the story does not focus on the main characters, allowing the developer to create a more interactive storyline and can create abilities tailored to good gameplay, not ones that "need" to be shoe-horned in to give the game the same feel as the book (most of these are impossible to include in gameplay without dumbing them down, which pisses off the fans).

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Co. are good ideas, because they don't interrupt the popular continuity, even though they dumbed down signature moves, it felt like Star Wars because Bioware kept to the Star Wars ideals while creating a unique story that didn't ruin continuity, which is VERY difficult.

Basically, unless you are a visionary or a genius, just stay away.

 

[mark_n_b]

I don't really like the idea of making a game from a book. Mainly because I like a game which gives me an amount of freedom to do a bit of "Sandbox"-ing whilst being able to continue the storyline, like GTA:IV did.

Books into games just makes a rather linear game where the player can't do much exploring of the game world and has to follow the storyline which kid of sucks because the only reason you buy a game based on a book is probably because you've already read said book and therefore know half the bloody plot already, the Harry Potter series of games is a good example me thinks!

glib much? Lord of the Rings Online is based on a book series, and it is traditionally MMO sandboxish in its design. And that's just one example.

You seem to be processing turning a book concept into a game as a period of directed game-play followed by being fed the book's text. Ignoring the several hundreds of successful games that follow that exact formula, I can name tons of Movie and Comic book franchises that do not use that game style.

Eyes roll at how remarkably dense a comment that was.

The last time this question was asked on the forums, I suggested Dante's Inferno would be a solid title for game development and what has been announced since?

Crime & Punishment would be an awesome sandbox title.

Shakespearean plays, Imagine the game-play that could be taken from Hamlet or Macbeth.

The Grecian theme is really popular right now, so How about a game based on Oedipus Rex or Orestes?

I could go on, there is a lot of potential in literature when it comes to developing interesting game mechanics.

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

I dunno if anyone would agree with me but I'd like to see an MMO based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I know there was a brief card game based on them and that if an MMO was made it'd be mediocre at best but I think it's a rich enough universe.

 

[FURY_007]

The count of monte cristo would be pretty interesting, then my second choice, pretending the movie never happened, twould be the league of extraordinary gentlemen. Or I just thought of 20000 leagues under the sea

 

[Rush_Thores]

There already is a bible game. It doesnt follow the bible or anything, but it's just worth pointing out. There is a The Bible Game. Answering bible trivia. At one point it cost the standard 50 bucks good games did . . .

 

[ganpondorodf]

To Kill a Mockingbird. It could be a Phoenix Wright-type thing.

 

[fedpayne]

True but they made the movies of harry potter into games and never followed the books, same with lord of the rings

The film rights and book rights were held differently. There was a game based on the first book. It wasn't very good. The fucking tree boss was impossible.

 

[Puppeteer Putin]

The bible would have some pretty interesting gameplay in it.

That or The Darwin Awards (Gain points by killing yourself in the most ridiculous manner with the set-pieces provided - admittedly that sounds like only enough to fill a minigame... meh, if we can come up with a memorable cast of characters and a loose plot, it just might work)

You are my new favorite person. Not really, but that is a brilliant idea.

Make a fantastically sadistic mini-game collection for Wii... a new take on a over-saturated genre.

I would have to say Warhammer novels. Perhaps William King and the TrollSlayer or Space Wolf series, that would be a bit of a laugh.

 

[Nivag the Owl]

Seriously everyone, listen to me. Read Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series and tell me in wouldn't make the best MMORPG EVER. It's incredible and 100% unbeatable. To be fair it's not like we need any more medieval fantasies. Maybe Robert Jordan should punch Richard Garriot in the face and steal the last going fantasy MMO slot before everybody starts hating them before they're even confirmed.

 

[Raven28256]

Nothing really, I like material to be new. OK, Clancy games are an exception to me.

The thing is that none of the Tom Clancy games are actually based off of his books. The original Rainbow Six and the novel were made in conjunction. Other than that, not a single Tom Clancy game actually follows or is based off of one of the books, so the Tom Clancy game brand hardly counts as a good game series based off a book franchise.

 

[The Wooster]

I don't really like the idea of making a game from a book. Mainly because I like a game which gives me an amount of freedom to do a bit of "Sandbox"-ing whilst being able to continue the storyline, like GTA:IV did.

Books into games just makes a rather linear game where the player can't do much exploring of the game world and has to follow the storyline which kid of sucks because the only reason you buy a game based on a book is probably because you've already read said book and therefore know half the bloody plot already, the Harry Potter series of games is a good example me thinks!

glib much? Lord of the Rings Online is based on a book series, and it is traditionally MMO sandboxish in its design. And that's just one example.

You seem to be processing turning a book concept into a game as a period of directed game-play followed by being fed the book's text. Ignoring the several hundreds of successful games that follow that exact formula, I can name tons of Movie and Comic book franchises that do not use that game style.

Eyes roll at how remarkably dense a comment that was.

The last time this question was asked on the forums, I suggested Dante's Inferno would be a solid title for game development and what has been announced since?

You honestly think that's going to work out well? From the trailer (which is far from enthralling) it looks like a very typical MCFARLANE'D vision of hell with only the most compulsory lip service to the game. Luckily not enough people have actually read Inferno to actually be annoyed when the game pisses all over the concept.

As for books being translated into games I agree with you to a certain extent. Games like LOTR work because, if you look carefully at games, particularly older western RPG's, we've always based games on LOTR. The same tropes and stereotypes that populate LOTR are the basis for RPG's as we know them.

The Discworld and Hitchiker's guide games show that you can always translate good writing into a video game format. Neither games follow the series they're based on to the letter because the story employed in a book is rarely suitable for a game where the player expects constant, if not frequent, stimulation. Mostly because in a good book character development comes before action. Pulp schlock and 'ranger/warrior/dwarf-kill-the-evil-wizard books are an exception.

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

My Dad says that The Hobbit on the ZX Spectrum was great (for the time anyway). LOTR pushed the boundries too much in his opinion.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I think that the Dragon Riders of Pern would make a great game.

Was already done Erana.
http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/dragonriders-of-pern-games
One of my friends programmed it.

 

[Erana]

I think that the Dragon Riders of Pern would make a great game.

Was already done Erana.
http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/dragonriders-of-pern-games
One of my friends programmed it.

Oh, drat. I'm gonna have to get a Dreamcast now.

 

[O maestre]

i am legend(the book, not the travesty of a movie that bears its name, damn im still bitter at how that turned out, it is the second time that one of my favorite books has been turned to thrash on screen with will smith in it, though i dont think it is his fault)

i have no mouth and i must scream, granted it has been done before but a new and take on it wouldn't hurt

some of willam blake's poems could be a great source of material the entire mythos is very exciting.

the dark tower books could be awesome as an action rpg of sorts

cant think of anything else at the moment

 

[Ambarato]

Books to Games? Hmmm... Well books to movies are generally good (LOTR, H.Potter etc.) while movies to games are generally terrible. The main thing you have to look at is the length, movie games are bad because they are trying to stretch a 2 hour movie into a much longer game. Movies based on books take the best bits of the book and put it into those 2 hours. If I was to estimate I guess a book and a game are roughly the same length so on average a book game might actually be quite good.

 

[meece]

Seriously everyone, listen to me. Read Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series and tell me in wouldn't make the best MMORPG EVER. It's incredible and 100% unbeatable. To be fair it's not like we need any more medieval fantasies. Maybe Robert Jordan should punch Richard Garriot in the face and steal the last going fantasy MMO slot before everybody starts hating them before they're even confirmed.

Feasable but I think the main issue with that would be choosing at what point you wanna put the timeline?
Most MMO's are just a snapshot of a timeperiod and choosing a particular one in the wheel of time would be....hard. But yea it does have a lot of potential.


Starship Troopers might be able to be turned into an FPS.

Think about it, either humans vs. bugs a la battlefield style OR just have the players on the side of the humans and give the bugs some kinda evil AI like the left4dead one and have the humans try and win.

 

[DanDanikov]

I have a friend who is very keen on seeing some kind of RPG based off of the idea of Special Circumstances [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Circumstances] from Iain M. Banks' culture novels. I'd have to agree with him that it's definitely an interesting idea.