Firefly: The Game

[Therumancer]

Everybody here knows about Firefly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)], right? OK.

Why have they not made a Firefly game yet? Both 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios have some rights (Fox to the show, Universal to the movie), and Universal at least has shown willingness to license the franchise. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(role-playing_game)] It seems like an excellent property to develop for a video game: A franchise with a famously loyal fan base that also extends into much of the rest of geek culture (the primary buyers for video games) and they get to splash Joss Whedon's name in the marketing, which can't be bad for business. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_(2012_film)]

What's more, it doesn't have to be a AAA game with a massive investment in money: depending on where the developers get the license from, they can reskin some landscapes from other games as Persephone (basic city) and/or various Outer Planets (any wilderness they have lying around. Even the core gameplay can be a basic third-person action-adventure style, as you play a captain leading his crew in smuggling missions (or even as the crew of Serenity itself, if they feel that would be a bigger draw).

Alternatively, if they feel it warrants it, they could produce an open-world game where you explore the universe conducting deals (many of which are not strictly speaking legal). Introduce an RPG system of leveling up the player character and outfitting the ship, as well as a companion system to collect and control your cast of misfits, and you have a game with the same basic elements of Mass Effect, but with a well-established property that you can be sure will draw a lot of positive support and press (and therefore stand a better than even chance of making money).

So my question to you is in two parts:
1) Should they make a Firefly game?

2) Do you think my idea is any good, or do you have a better one for such a hypothetical game?

To be honest the basic idea of a more RPG-focused version of "Elite" is not a bad one, several companies have tried exactly that kind of thing in the past. Using the "Firefly" universe probably wouldn't work too well because the show was extremely character driven and there isn't enough world development to it if you look closely to allow that kind of free form play, especially seeing as a lot of the biggest enemies and mysteries in that universe were kind of wrapped up.

Incidently, this is also why I think we'll never see the IP return, it's simply been too long, and the cast has aged too much to just pick it up again like nothing happened. There isn't enough of a world there to really sell it without the characters that made the show what it was.

It's sort of like why I kind of doubt anyone is ever going to pick up a lot of Joss' other work for a return, like Buffy or Angel. The world and the characters are pretty much one and the same, and pretty much anything that is introduced to build on the world winds up getting wrecked/destroyed/beaten by the end of the arc, leaving pretty much just the characters waiting for the next threat. It works well for building a TV series, but not an ongoing universe that people can really play with and develop other properties. Similar kinds of set ups can be created though.

That said it would be cool if someone DID take the whole "Starpoint Gemini", "Star Wolves", (or insert other space trader/Open World/RPG hybrid Elite varient here) to the next level with AAA development costs, but really I don't see the game industry as it is now taking that kind of risk when they can just throw out another action game. Getting them to produce a real RPG without turning it into some kind of action game or shooter is hard enough without seeing them move into an entirely new genere.

I'll also say that on an MMO level something like this was attemped before with EA's "Earth And Beyond" it wasn't a bad game for it's time (and an Emu exists) but it died pretty quickly, largely because it was competing with EVE, and had some massive design flaws in the form of things like the amount of down time involved in simply warping from place to place.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Name one good movie/show-turned-game. I dare you, I double dare you.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds was a pretty decent game.

Ha, what? The game with the multiplayer mode which included randomised power-ups, one of which was "DEATH!" and instantly ended the game?

I respectfully disagree

 

[Driekan]

Will it (Or should it) be made? I'd say probably not. You'd have to really do something extraordinary to be able to make money with it: You'd need to make an adaptation of a TV Series which actually draws in people who never heard about the series in the first place. Either that or you'd need to make a niche game about some tiny chunk of the universe (Examples have been mentioned: A ship captain simulation game, a trading company simulator, a space warfare strategy game...), and you'd probably realize that having the IP slapped onto it would be hindering rather than helping.

Firefly had, overall, amazing storytelling. People mention the characters, but that is only one corner of the triangle of good storytelling, and Firefly had all 3 corners: Character, Action and Environment.

Example: Jayne is a fun character, yeah. But Jayne fixing up one of his old messes in a town full of people who think he's some Robin Hood character is amazing.

If you want to recapture the show in any way, you'd need to reproduce that. What this means is having the crew of the Firefly as the main characters, the kind of story you saw in Firefly, and the environments from the show.

To be honest, the first thing I thought of when considering how to adapt Firefly was Red Dead Redemption.

- Set the game between the series and the movie (All the crew are still there, and maybe explain how Book set that settlement up, and why Inara left the crew).
- Create several (Obviously smaller) "Open worlds", linked together by the Serenity (Hop in there and fly to another world). The Serenity itself is, of course, entirely modeled, explore-able and there's content in there. It is, after all, the most important environment in the setting.
- A Main Quest and Side-Quests you can do at your own pace. All of them keep with that "trying to make ends meet" theme from the show (No getting fabulously rich and sticking a big honking cannon on the Serenity).
- Open-World content enabling you to just break into Alliance facilities and wreak havoc or some such (Instead of enabling you to go on rampages on towns and all that).
- The strong narrative and character interaction that has already been proven to be possible in this genre.

On the hands of a very good team, and with an amazing budget, I could see this happen, seriously. But would anyone sink the kind of money needed to create an Open World game into this IP? I don't think so.

 

[SonicWaffle]

It's sort of like why I kind of doubt anyone is ever going to pick up a lot of Joss' other work for a return, like Buffy or Angel.

Just FYI, Buffy and Angel never actually went away. They just moved to the world of comic books, where the special effects budget and aging actors and various other things are no longer a concern. Angel's sixth season was fucking great, though while Buffy season 8 started well it went rapidly downhill in the last few issues and now season 9 is just madness.

 

[Rastien]

Name one good movie/show-turned-game. I dare you, I double dare you.

Lets kick it back old school here shall we

Lion King:

Spoiler

Aladdin:

Spoiler

Or for a more modern example Star wars knights of the old republic, Admittedly it didn't de-throne world of warcraft but no mmorpg has! but as it goes it was a damn good try.

Spoiler

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

snip

I keep hearing people say that the show's universe couldn't support it because the plot was character-driven, but I don't think I understand the criticism. The world has a neat mix of Western and Chinese culture, as well as one of the better Space-Western settings I've seen (proper explanation for the mix of high and low technology). Likewise, it has a lot of story hooks in the form of Alliance vs. Independence, Alliance vs. Criminals and Everyone vs. Reavers.

The game doesn't have to take place after the show or movie. If they set it up during the Alliance War, or in the decade thereafter, there are plenty of things that one can do that don't involve retconning the universe.

And I know I will catch some flak for this, but Bioware has shown that you can make new characters to flesh out a universe and provide the player with interesting interactions in a game. It seems a shame to write it off as, "Firefly was character-driven, and those character arcs ended, so we can't have a game," rather than, "Firefly was character-driven, and those character arcs ended, how can we write new characters that still capture the essence of the universe but can be dealt with within a game?"

 

[Therumancer]

snip

I keep hearing people say that the show's universe couldn't support it because the plot was character-driven, but I don't think I understand the criticism. The world has a neat mix of Western and Chinese culture, as well as one of the better Space-Western settings I've seen (proper explanation for the mix of high and low technology). Likewise, it has a lot of story hooks in the form of Alliance vs. Independence, Alliance vs. Criminals and Everyone vs. Reavers.

The game doesn't have to take place after the show or movie. If they set it up during the Alliance War, or in the decade thereafter, there are plenty of things that one can do that don't involve retconning the universe.

And I know I will catch some flak for this, but Bioware has shown that you can make new characters to flesh out a universe and provide the player with interesting interactions in a game. It seems a shame to write it off as, "Firefly was character-driven, and those character arcs ended, so we can't have a game," rather than, "Firefly was character-driven, and those character arcs ended, how can we write new characters that still capture the essence of the universe but can be dealt with within a game?"

The thing is that you could do any space opera with western themes and it would wind up being more or less the same, it's the characters that made the show what it was. The basic idea of the show was absolutly ancient since people have been doing space westerns for a very long time. Most of the factions you are talking about are ridiculously derivitive and could be replaced with an equivilent very easily. Indeed one of the criticisms of the show when it failed was specifically that it was so generic, but that was also part of it's charm.

I agree with you that they should do another "spaceship" show based on a crew of freebooters, but really whether they use that universe or not is pretty much irrelevent. Especially seeing as the universe was created largely around catering to specific character arcs, as opposed to existing in of itself with characters added into it.

At the end of the day people who want more "Firefly" aren't going to care about the reasons one way or another, and will always have an answer, no matter what they are told. I really kind of wish the show didn't die myself, but at this point neither a revival or a sequel would work especially well.

I'm also probably one of the few people who will say that if I had an option I'd probably actually go for more "Farscape" than "Firefly", not that a revival of that is practical either.

I'll also say that at the end of the day it's Joss Whedon's touch and eye for talent that made a lot of his creations so enduring, even the ones that failed. Someone else couldn't pick up his stuff and make it the same. Like it or not for all his ups and downs the guy has gone big time, and truthfully when he's involved with Hollywood it's unlikely that he's ever going to return to TV full time, especially seeing as he's not a young man. Especially seeing as according to many sources he still has a lot of enemies among TV networks for one reason or another. I'm not entirely sure he could return to TV like he was even if he wanted to.

I could be wrong, but I think Joss has a few more movies in him, that will take years, then he's liable to retire as a pitch-man (as in pitches ideas) and have his name attached to products without a lot of involvement.

 

[cmrade_Dorian]

They already have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h1pirf1HLI

 

[Windcaler]

Name one good movie/show-turned-game. I dare you, I double dare you.

King Kong

quite serious. Your passive agressive meme video is an exceptionally poor counter to what was a fantastic movie game

Someday I may think of a better retort, but King Kong will always be a bad game.

No need to think up some clever retort or witty comment. Just reply with why you think it was a bad game and I may agree with your points being a contributing factor but honestly King Kong was amazing so no matter what you say Ill probably overall disagree with you

 

[Rich]

I realise it's been mentioned already, but now it's online; the crowdsource campaign for the Firefly MMO: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fuo-the-darkcryo-mmorpg-experience?c=home

Watch the campaign video, the computerised voiceover is a bit shaky, but the visuals speak for themselves. And check out the forums at http://darkcryo.com/#spotlight before you dismiss this - the proof-of-concept demo videos are up for you to see and decide for yourselves.

[And for those who are concerned about copyright issues with Fox, this is a fan-made Firefly-inspired project containing no directly derivative material proceeding with permission from Fox Legal.]