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Why aren’t there more games based on literary IP?
- Thread starter NattyBo
- Start date
It was once pointed out to me that Dante's Inferno tried to make Dante into a badass by making him into a soldier. Except the real Dante was already a soldier; he fought in the Battle of Campaldino.
I think a game based on books, when you have to acquire an IP first, doesn't have a huge selling point in most cases that's worth the effort.
OP
OP
Yup imagine playing around with surges. Being a wind runner would be badass
Arguably the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series is a rather successful or at least long-lasting one.
I've never played the Cryo Interactive adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Ubik. Looks to be a just a squad shooter based on the corporate espionage angle of the book, which is a shame, since there's a lot of potential for a game to get really creative with how the dream-reality regresses to earlier technology. For instance, modern visuals could deteriorate into earlier gens' graphics, or apply gameplay trends that were popular in the past. PKD's proposed movie adaptation was all about playing with different film-making techniques, so that can be translated into video game principles easily.
I suppose the PKD short story Paycheck could also make a fun basic point and click adventure, regardless of the film adaptation's faults. The genre is already about finding uses for esoteric items seemingly given out arbitrarily.
I suppose the PKD short story Paycheck could also make a fun basic point and click adventure, regardless of the film adaptation's faults. The genre is already about finding uses for esoteric items seemingly given out arbitrarily.
People who read don't use crude language or abuse acronyms unnecesarily; checkmate.
What kind of nonsense is that? You can't be serious with that kind of generalizationOP, here's a chart explaining why.
Most old books do not have enough action for a game. LOTR has that warlike image thanks to the films especially because in the books Tolkien did not particularly like to write about battles.
In modern books it is the same situation with movies: Why pay an author for rights when you can make your own ip?
In modern books it is the same situation with movies: Why pay an author for rights when you can make your own ip?
I'm sure Brandon Sanderson said last year that he was in talks about licencing the stormlight archives for film.
It would make an incredible game. He also expressed interest in CD project red doing mistborn which world wise would be great but the combat would stuck
The books that are adapted are usually fantasy or thrillers, i.e. stuff with lots of combat which translates easily into the standard gameplay loop of most AAA titles.
The more novel approach of indie games are probably better suited for more literary works, with room for experimentation or more thoughtful pacing, but there's then the barrier of licensing costs or the fact you're bringing your project under greater scrutiny. Walking sims feel like they'd lend themselves nicely to a lot of literary pieces—imagine a game which is focused entirely on recreating simply walking through Inferno. VR also feels like a good fit, and there's was a project in Boston College working on Ulysses VR,
The Animal Farm game sounds interesting. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
The more novel approach of indie games are probably better suited for more literary works, with room for experimentation or more thoughtful pacing, but there's then the barrier of licensing costs or the fact you're bringing your project under greater scrutiny. Walking sims feel like they'd lend themselves nicely to a lot of literary pieces—imagine a game which is focused entirely on recreating simply walking through Inferno. VR also feels like a good fit, and there's was a project in Boston College working on Ulysses VR,
The Animal Farm game sounds interesting. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Also an incredible risky/hard one.
Getting the rights can be already hard in some cases. Not every writer wants to see their material being used like that.
It's hard to pull off the right way without pissing off existing fans.
Also kinda hard to determine what kind of budget you would give the game, as the book readers aren't automatically gonna buy the game.
I just think that alot of companies are rather cautious with IPs that aren't really theirs, unless it's a popular one or it's part of a specific niche genre.
The Telltale games didn't exactly set the world on fire and they were already done on a much smaller budget compared to the big players in the AAA industry.
Overall I kind of agree. It's not even the fantasy stuff that really draws me in (allthough I would love to see some of these worlds within a game), but even the smaller scope stuff. Like there are so many decent mafia/crime books out there, that would set up a great initial premise and could still be adjusted to a certain level.
Wiseguy for example worked wonderful as a movie (Goodfellas) and could have also been a great game, depending on the quality of the studio.
There are others, but I can understand that this is still a field that hardly anyone wants to touch and can be incredible risky.
Anyway, I think part of the problem is that literature doesn't tend to work well in an interactive medium, same as most films/TV don't really work in an interactive medium.
I was just about to post this. It's a great game.
I enjoyed The Scar a lot more than Perdido Street Station, though New Crobuzon would probably make a better setting for a game. I think I'd prefer a game set in Bas-Lag with an original story more than a direct adaptation of any of the books.
Perdido Street Station desperately needs the open world eurojank RPG treatment.
I don't think video games could adapt most novels well, but they can certainly take place in the same world.
Worlds I want to play in:
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea
Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Series
Discworld (I know we already got the PS1 games.)
The Twelve Kingdoms
Temeraire
Mistborn
But mostly I really, really want to sail around in Earthsea like in Wind Waker and use BELL magic as an Abhorsen in The Old Kingdom.
Worlds I want to play in:
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea
Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Series
Discworld (I know we already got the PS1 games.)
The Twelve Kingdoms
Temeraire
Mistborn
But mostly I really, really want to sail around in Earthsea like in Wind Waker and use BELL magic as an Abhorsen in The Old Kingdom.
YES EXACTLY.
I see a lot of untapped potential in books like:
- EX (Peter Clines)
- Guardians of the Night (Sergej Luvjenko, I know, a (bad) game already exists)
- Temeraire (Naomi Novik)
Heck... even BAD books like Leviathan could turn into good games.
- EX (Peter Clines)
- Guardians of the Night (Sergej Luvjenko, I know, a (bad) game already exists)
- Temeraire (Naomi Novik)
Heck... even BAD books like Leviathan could turn into good games.
Wildbow's Worm is ridiculously good -- I'm currently at 70% through, and though the superpowers, politics, and character interactions here are far too detailed for anything game-like to be able to approach them, I'm convinced that its large, diverse cast of characters and its high-octane writing would make for an excellent visual novel.
Why spend millions of dollars to buy rights to make games on a popular book series and then also be restricted by its world and characters when you can do all worldbuilding yourself by spending the same money on hiring your own writing team?
Not only that, when you are investing 100+mil $ on a game you would want to have complete control over it. The creator of the series could just decide not to cooperate with your studio on the rights anymore once your contract ends and boom you cant make money off making games in a series you spearheaded and popularised in the gaming community.
Not only that, when you are investing 100+mil $ on a game you would want to have complete control over it. The creator of the series could just decide not to cooperate with your studio on the rights anymore once your contract ends and boom you cant make money off making games in a series you spearheaded and popularised in the gaming community.
It would be nice if more comic books were turned into games. I think when they were cranking them out like crazy, Telltale could have done a cool job with Y The Last Man. Especially since they already had worked with Vertigo for Fables/Wolf Among Us.
What time of genre and gameplay do you imagine for this?
Because the worldbuilding of some of these novels are way better than anything your writing team can imagine. :(
It's probably easier for developers/publishers to just create their own IP without the limitations of the book world. A movie-based game might lead to a lot of people buying the game based on the IP, but a book based game probably not.
Most major book->game IPs followed a book->movie->game pattern... Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Tom Clancy, The Godfather, etc. THere's a handful of book->games like The Witcher and the Metro series that break the mold. Even lesser known IPs like The Pillars of the Earth were a prominent book series, and then they became a BBC TV miniseries, and then a videogame. I believe the Walking Dead followed the same format (book->TV->game). I'd imagine most books that would make great games would also probably be good for movies and TV, and so you generally see that trajectory.
I think devs/publishers would rather just base their IP off of a well developed book IP, and then have the freedom to do what they want with the story, or mash together several different IPs. For instance, Bioshock is clearly influenced by Atlas Shrugged, 1984, Brave New World, Brazil, and other post-civilization neo-utopian/dystopian fictional properties, without needing to be strongly tied to a single property to maintain continuity.
There were probably more examples in the early videogame scene than there are today, because SciFi and Fantasy were less explored concepts in film & television, and so there was room in the nascent videogame industry for people who were passionately into those genres.
Most major book->game IPs followed a book->movie->game pattern... Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Tom Clancy, The Godfather, etc. THere's a handful of book->games like The Witcher and the Metro series that break the mold. Even lesser known IPs like The Pillars of the Earth were a prominent book series, and then they became a BBC TV miniseries, and then a videogame. I believe the Walking Dead followed the same format (book->TV->game). I'd imagine most books that would make great games would also probably be good for movies and TV, and so you generally see that trajectory.
I think devs/publishers would rather just base their IP off of a well developed book IP, and then have the freedom to do what they want with the story, or mash together several different IPs. For instance, Bioshock is clearly influenced by Atlas Shrugged, 1984, Brave New World, Brazil, and other post-civilization neo-utopian/dystopian fictional properties, without needing to be strongly tied to a single property to maintain continuity.
There were probably more examples in the early videogame scene than there are today, because SciFi and Fantasy were less explored concepts in film & television, and so there was room in the nascent videogame industry for people who were passionately into those genres.
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Probably because on average women tend to be the bigger market when it comes to books, which is a sharp contrast with video game were it's still geared towards the male market.
Oh no :( my life will never be the same again without this product of my imagination.
User warned: Posting NSFW content
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This is why we can't have nice literary things.
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Oh, I'll completely agree that the adaptation of the source material was trash, but the gameplay itself was a really, really good God of War clone.
Sorry, sorry, you're right. Here's the correct chart:
OK, now that's funny
I haven't played this but I've read through the babel fish puzzle right at the start, and it's great. That perfect combination of witty humor and sadistic cruelty of the series fits so neatly into an adventure game context, unsurprisingly.
I actually never read the book but the thought I had through the entire film was "So, like, how is this not a Sierra-style inventory adventure game"
People who read have a lot better grasp of the language and more varied use of both acronyms and insults.
Meaning that you clearly misconstrued my GTFO as a simple crudeness when in reality it was much more than that.
Right, it takes a veritable Nobel prize of literature to spew a GTFO. You sure made quite the dazzling display of magnificent eloquence. :D
