Orson Scott Card Talks Ender's Game: The Game

[Keane Ng]

Orson Scott Card Talks Ender's Game: The Game

The last time Ender's Game [http://www.hatrack.com/][/I].

The first Ender's Game interview [http://www.chairentertainment.com/company/news/press_release/press_release_chair_entertainment_acquires_interactive_rights_for_enders_game] with Sci-Fi Channel.

Instead of simply creating a minimally interactive retelling of the novel's narrative, Card wants to immerse players in the Ender's Game universe. "In other words, you don't play the game once, so you can act out the story (as with, say, the Harry Potter movie-based games), and then discard it," Card explained. "The Ender's Game games will immerse you in the experience of different aspects of the life of these kids who train together in order to fight a war. I can see a Battle School online game as well as a Battle Room game, various Formic War games, even the Mind Game (or Fantasy Game) that Ender plays relentlessly on his computer."

It's nice to see a writer treating the adaptation of his work with this much earnestness and ambition, especially in the light of other [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88152-EA-Unveils-Dantes-Inferno] videogame adaptations of literary classics. I'm not sure Card will ever get a fraction of the dozens of his ideas made into reality, but if you understand half of what Card's talking about (Formic Wars? Wha?), I'm sure you're excited for the possibilities.

[Via MTV Multiplayer [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/12/23/ambitious-enders-game-ideas/]]

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[L.B. Jeffries]

The Formic Wars was the whole battle with the alien buggers, wasn't it? Sounds interesting though, whoever he gets to design that beast is going to have to invent an entire genre of zero-G close quarters combat. Good luck Major Tom.

 

[xitel]

This sounds awesome. I've always thought that Ender's Game lent itself well to a movie or video game.

 

[man-man]

For the Battle School, a multiplayer first/third-person shooter would probably work, with the selling point of zero-G combat. Fast hard-hitting games... just remember, the gate is down.

The wars against the buggers were more like a strategy game - commanding fleets of ships against the buggers. Could go the multiplayer route and have a player per ship with a commander overseeing, or stick to singleplayer... or both.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

The Formic Wars was the whole battle with the alien buggers, wasn't it? Sounds interesting though, whoever he gets to design that beast is going to have to invent an entire genre of zero-G close quarters combat. Good luck Major Tom.

As hard as that would be, can you imagine how awesome it would be if they did it well. I'm filled with glee just thinking about it!

 

[Theissen]

I remember thinking, "I want to play that game!" when reading Ender's Game.

If this works out well... I might die. Well, not literally. More as in go-numb-from-over-excitement.

 

[Lance Icarus]

My girlfriend goes crazy for Ender's Game. She's going to be very excited to hear this.

 

[CoverYourHead]

Finally! Ender's Game is the best book ever, I just hope the game can deliver on the promise by the book.

 

[Virgil]

So... real people are going to play a game about playing a game that is actually real?

That's so meta.

 

[Dubiousduke]

The physics engine for that has got to be top-notch.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I'd rather have Zone of the Enders 3. Though this does sound a bit interesting.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

As an avid fan of Ender's Game (and sequels), and as a CS student studying AI, physics and game design I say:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!

Whoever designs this is going to have one hell of a time getting it right, and if they get it even slightly wrong, it'll miss the whole damn point and they'll have the fans like me tearing them a new one. I hope it happens and I hope it works, but the odds are a longshot. I'm talking similar odds to ones Ender faces in the novels type longshot - they can't just take the best of existing games to make it, they have to build a whole new engine, no, practically a whole new GENRE of gameplay to make this work. I mean... ragdoll physics and third-person shooters will take care of n% of it, but... it hurts to think about. The mind boggles.

As for the Formic Wars, that's some crazy complex 3d strategy going on there.

And as for the Fantasy/Mind Game...

no, just no, never ever ever ever ever not until immersive virtual environments exist and complex heuristic AIs are invented will that EVER work. In essence, that game is either a lame clone of Myst, or what was actually depicted in the book. Nothing else works.


God I hope all three happen within my lifetime.

 

[Veylon]

I hope they don't reach for too much in one go. I'd hate to have a game that's like hanging around the Gold Saucer all day, gambling tokens on minigames.

The main thing that looks like it could go "wrong" would be the 3D Zero G practice game. Platforming is hard enough from a first person perspective, even when only the feet are used in a few ways. A 3D Zero G FPS would have all those difficulties in spades. And you have to command other people too.

The Formic Wars (and trainers) would lend themselves better as games, if only because it's all been done before. My ships vs. your ships, but in three-d. Some missiles and bullets, and the little doctor. Very dry and abstract, at first glance, but the easiest to do.

Various minigames, yes, but we have Popcap for those.

I predict that what will come out of this will be either:
A) A paint-by-numbers RPG that follows Ender Wiggin. Expect lots of cutscenes to balance lack of gameplay. Plus minigames. In Space.
OR
B) Battle Training Simulator Commander, or whatever they title it. Take command of a band of young recruits. Train them, organize them, lead them, and battle other groups to be number one. Lends itself to online play, and could be very fun. Or the aforementioned difficulties of the newly-founded gengre could make it horrendous. Plus minigames. In Space.

[Edit]
I hope Card does get lots of say. Feist's dialogue and plotting are a big chunk of what made Betrayal at Krondor so great.

 

[Corven]

Yay! This makes me so happy to hear this, for the zero-g rooms they could do something like dead space but remove the magnetic boots.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

I've always wanted to play that fantasy Mind Game.

 

[Avatar Roku]

This sounds awesome. I've always thought that Ender's Game lent itself well to a movie or video game.

Ditto. This will be so cool if it works, but if it goes even slightly wrong, it'll probably be horrible.

I could see this being like the Harry Potter Quiditch game, in a sense, because you could choose your team, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Yes, you can choose Ender's army, but maybe you won't. See what I'm saying?

Oh, and then you could control the commander of whatever Army you choose out of the war games.

 

[Dragu_]

I'm excited yes but I guess I'm just too much of a pessimist to accept that this will be good.

 

[reaper_2k9]

I loved the book it is one of my all time favs, but to turn it into a game? I heard some rumblings that it would be made into a movie, which if done right would have been awesome. But somethings just wont translate well as a game.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

The Formic Wars was the whole battle with the alien buggers, wasn't it? Sounds interesting though, whoever he gets to design that beast is going to have to invent an entire genre of zero-G close quarters combat. Good luck Major Tom.

As hard as that would be, can you imagine how awesome it would be if they did it well. I'm filled with glee just thinking about it!

Who am I kidding? I'll be first in line. Wonder if it'll be a Wii version?

The arm waving might be appropriate for once.

 

[Jumplion]

I never read Ender's Game, but I did read Ender's Shadow and I quite enjoyed it.

But Jesus, I didn't think so many people liked that Ender book! I have my doubts that it would work, it works just as often as a movie adaptation of a book which isn't very many times. Book to video game doesn't seem like the exception.