Books to games

[Butzemann]

There were several good games like:
I have no mouth and I must scream - with an extended interesting storyline
The Dark Eye - Beatifully directed adventure involving Poe's work
Stalker - loosely based on the great dark broody russian scifinovel "Roadside Picnic"
the ringworld adventures by Tsunami Games
Call of Chtulu: Dark Corners of The Earth - had some great Lovecraft moments

Here is a list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_books

 

[Tewg]

First of all I think any game made from Robert Jordan's series would be horribly made (yes there could be a exception) but it would be a slight on his long efforts, and his life's work.

Secondly in the past I thought a game made of the age before the current age in the books would fare well with me, but I can't see anything great coming from that without Robert Jordan writting it himself. :'( I can hardly look forward to the final book.

RIP Robert Jordan I will miss your writing forever. -for you who didn't know.

 

[Seydaman]

Clancy games and The Witcher...?
then there are things like LOTR games...

the witcher did a good job.

I'll probably be remembered as the guy who constatly bragged about how much he likes The Witcher, but I think they have the perfect formula:
1. Take existing books with interesting setting and characters.
2. Contact the author and have him write a game scenario for you.
3. ???
4. Profit

That way you can't know the ending or ***** about how they "ruined the book" while still beign able to make choices and enjoying a quality plot.

I hope they'll make The Witcher 2 soon. If Andrzej Sapkowski won't run out of ideas this game will kick so much ass now that they figured out what was wrong with the original Witcher (voice actors, loading times, combat, alchemy)

that could work, too well

 

[Fightgarr]

Leguin's Earthsea series could make some interesting games, but then again I don't want to see a great fantasy novel turned into a terrible game so I hope it never happens.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

A RPG set in Netherwhere, the London under London. There just seems to be so much more to that book than was layed out that I really want to explore more.

Oh, and Sandman. Play as a dream or nightmare. Hell yeah!

Both of these have zero chance of happening. Like shit is Niel Gaiman going to develop for a game. Still, we can dream.

EDIT: How about Starter for Ten? It'd be hours of playing a game you can not win, because your shit and a looser. Then at the end you have to cheat to finish it, and the game will call you a looser anyway.

Hey, I loved that book, but it was so dam depressing while still being hilarious.

Super Edit!:

I dream about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, done in Mass Effect style.

This must be done!

 

[Untamed Waters]

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)

I can see it as an arcade game, or even a LBP type game. (Does LBP even HAVE a story?)

 

[Fightgarr]

Leguin's Earthsea series could make some interesting games, but then again I don't want to see a great fantasy novel turned into a terrible game so I hope it never happens.

yupp

There is no way to properly picture Ged in a game. His adventures were more about self-discovering than pwning hordes of monsters.
But a game situated in Earthsea not featuring him could be ok.

Mabybe, but it would have to be a puzzle or adventure game. That series isn't that much about fighting battles. The other thing is that Leguin has very few caucasians in her books as Earthsea is primarily a race similar in build and complexion to native americans; and you just know that the developers would make every character white as the day with American accents.

 

[WolfThomas]

Robert Heinlein's Starship troopers (the book not the film), it would be like tribes (as it inspired it) but fighting walls of arachnids, jetting over them and flaming them.

The Forever war (by Joe Haldeman), could have some really weird game mechanic as a shooter, lock on turrets that you hold down a key to not fire and when you release it fires (your role is more to prevent them from overheating and melting), lasers with multiple setting (thick continues beams that last a moment to thousands of tiny ones fired like a machine gun), grenade launchers that can fire a close combat sharpenel that will kill everyone in like 2m but then turn in a harmless mist for some one out of the area.

Levels with varying gravity and dangerousness, like planets that are close to absolute zero in temp, shooting frozen ice would make it explode because of the huge change in temp.

The energy sphere, which teams would have to move to the enemies base to win, inside that sphere nothing can move faster then 17m/s (the suits are insulated so they don't instantly die as their atoms slow down), weapons like swords and bows with weighted arrows are used instead of high tech lasers.

 

[Grimm91]

I would like to see the book "The Eyes of God" turned into a game. It is a pretty good novel but a tad dry.

 

[Mr0llivand3r]

Homer's Odyssey is they did it right.
also, a book based on Fight Club that is actually good, because the game based on the movie was crap

 

[Iron Mal]

There are a suprising number of games that have been made from the Bible (not suprisingly, none of them are any good and none of them were made recently to my knowledge).

The Harry Potter books have been bled to death in terms of what they can squeeze out of them for cash (movies, games, toys, lego games, lego, novelty brooms that were taken off the open market...the list goes on).

Sadly, most of the books that would make decent games have been made into movies (which have had games made of them).

A game based off of 'The Preacher' graphic novels would be interesting if done right, as would Watchmen or Spawn (he has had plenty of games made before but none of them have really ever been any good).

 

[peterwolfe]

Well, the post-movies Star Wars novels would be good to see.
The Shadow over Innsmouth, an H.P. Lovecraft short story, styled after RE4 would be pretty awesome.

 

[samsprinkle]

A GOOD WOT game would be interesting...Or a Wizards First Rule game...on second thought, why ruin good literature?

 

[Taunto]

I wouldnt mind seeing a good bleach game that actualy follows the storyline or if only this game actualy would work Death Note also

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Alternately, it could be a rather predictable RTS (constant warring between the three world factions).

That would ruin it. Part of the experience was the question of whether or not the other factions existed and if they were actually at war with each other.

Argh; completely forgot about that. Good point. 1984 is a very deep text to work with, I imagine, so it'd be hard to see anything done of it without dumbing it down. Well, guess I'm back down to one idea.
Ooh, but here's another one, then. World War Z. Probably more from concept than plot, but it could come across as a first-person (possibly with RPG elements) game having the player seek refuge from the undead horde.

I'm fairly certain the opposing faction existed and the war was being fought without the intention of ever winning or the fear of losing. The wars were fought in order to consume the products of working, in order to ensure everything was scarce. The only question for me is were the bombs that often landed in Airstrip One actually being fired from one of the other nations, or simply launched by the Party themselves.