Poll: Games based on literature? or Literature you want to turn into a game?

[DonMartin]

I just think this would be an interesting idea. Look, with movies the game developers have very limited freedom. They're restricted to the setting of the movie and the actors. With books, developers would be given a lot more freedom to reimagine the characters, the design and look.

I mean, a lot of games are based on books and literature.
God of War takes a lot from both the Odyssey and the Iliad.
American McGee's Alice is based on the famous book.
Dante's Inferno, of course, but Im not sure it was executed all too well..
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is based on H.P. Lovecraft's stories.
Pacman was based on War and Peace.


And what particular piece of literature would you like to see turned into a game? Bear in mind, this can be any genre. RPG, RTS, action, adventure, puzzle, horror.. Anything.

Second, How would you do it? How would you adapt the book to an interactive media? Would you change a lot of the content? Would you stay true to the original story? Would you just base the game on the universe of the book?

EDIT: Remember the Reservoir Dogs game? Wouldnt a lot of the liberties they took with that movie work with most books? (not saying that the game was particularily good, though.)

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Books are too linear. I would, however, support taking the world, characters, and rules of a world in a book and implementing them into an original storyline.

 

[Krythe]

I've been mulling over this possibility myself for a while now.

Yes, I believe that Video Games allow for the proper amount of time and plot development to encompass a good book.

What I'm most concerned about are game companies fucking with decent literature with gimicky mandated playstyles, ruining artwork to make it more palatable to the shit-spawned PC populace, or being too afraid to cut down on any of the fluff necessary to keep the action fast-paced. (It's time we admit this to ourselves LotR Fans: Cutting out Tom Bombadil changed nothing in the overall story, or half the song ques from that same trilogy. I kid you not, read the original books. it was like some creepy Nordic Disney movie.)

So I think it's a good idea, just one that needs to be handled with the UTMOST care.

Normally I'd recommend some books, but the last thing I read was a text on viral protein folding, so you can forgive just advice this time. "AAAAAHHH!!! The Rhabdoviruses have come to be endocytosed!! Flee for your lives!!!"

 

[twistedmic]

There are a few books that, if done properly, could make for a good game. 'Starship Troopers' for example could be turned in to an awesome game. Either if it followed Rico's carer from boot camp (tutorial level) all the way to the last battle of the book or just used the book universe (planets,species, weapons etc.) and created a new character for the game.

 

[youdontbelong]

Metro 2033 was based on a book, it seemed to work well enough. and for some reason i really wish someone would make a 2D point and click adventure of the gormenghast books

 

[Zyst]

Books, when well written convey a experience and a story to the reader. I think that many books can easily find themselves adapted into a video game, and working magnificently. The only problem would be the linearity?

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I'm an avid lover of both books and videogames. Most of the books i read are fasntasy, so I suppose one could argue that they could be made into an RPG.

If we're talking about, say, Percy Jackson and the Olympians "The lightning Thief" being turned into a video game, I don't think it should happen. An author uses his own imagination to create a world and a story. His words shape the story and I personally think that he wrote the book at is was intended to work. Turning that work into videogames wouldn't be enjoyable for me, because you get the product of someone else's interpretation of that book, rather than the freedom to imagin it as you wish.

however, lets take a realm. Forgotten realms. You can make games situated in the forgotten realms universe "Faerun" without breaching the exact storyline of any of the books (Neverwinter Nights and such) these are okay, as you might get an interpretation of small bits of that world, but on the whole, you are still free to perceive all the events and characters of your books for your own.

 

[octafish]

Metro 2033
Stalker
The Witcher

All based on books.

I'd like a game based on I am Legend with the book ending.

Or you know what? Frankenstein, where you play as both Frankenstein and the creature, sort of like Call of Juarez or Indigo Prophecy, that could work.

 

[Kapol]

Games based on books have happened, like with Metro 2033. I think they can be done well, but it all depends on the book, and what you would consider a 'game.' That last point is because some people consider the interactive books or manga or whatchamacallit from Japan to be games while some don't, and almost all books could be turned into something like that.

As for a game I'd like to see based off a book series, I'd have to go with The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy series. I think it would be interesting to play in the universe that Douglas Adams created, though having it follow the books would likely be a mistake. For the record, I know that there is a text-based game that follows the BBC series of it (and I've even played the free online version of it), but I'm talking something different then that. Something that lets the player look at the Galaxy in a new way, not just following a series. If only Adams was around to make it...

 

[tetron]

A lot of games are little more than an interactive book already. Any game that is actually based on a book though would be about the same as games based on movies. If a book could easily be converted to a game I think it could be done well but for most books I think the developers would probably botch it up just like movies based on books.

 

[SturmDolch]

The Harry Potter games were pretty good, too.

I think they could at least be better than movies. Books usually have more events, and last longer than movies, so the developers wouldn't have to add filler material (e.g. "In the movie, Joe talked to Bill. In the game, you must save Bill from a billion guys with guns before talking to him."). You can do so much more with the written word than with visuals that already exist. You can get away with a cell-shaded Hamlet game, but you can't do the same for Machete and get away with it.

I'd like to see The Dresden Files be made into a game. Could be cool if done right. And maybe the Lord of the Rings, in an RPG similar in style to Oblivion... Wait, that sounds familiar. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_White_Council]

By the way, I have a feeling that book fans are capable of much greater nerd rage than movie fans. So devs, if you mess it up, grab a flamethrower and head to your nuclear missile bunkers.

 

[zhemis]

It depends. But if The Black Company ever became a game I would preorder and get all the dlc's and buy the t-shirt. As long as they don't blow it like The Wheel Of Time.

 

[Talon_Skywarp]

I find the term 'too linear' strange.

I believe I may be the only person on the Planet who dislikes open world games...

Anyway, on topic.

Books are a great way to expand gaming. Look at Dynasty Warriors. All based from the Romance of the Three kingdoms. (please everyone read this, it really is awesome)

The Road would be amazing as a game
damn can't think of anymore right now. I'll look through my collection and see what I can dig out.

NOTE- Monster Island- Zombie book but it really does kick ass. Its nothing like the standard zombie idea at all. Honestly. Turn that into a game.

 

[SimuLord]

Don Quixote would make a wonderful open-ended RPG world. The Canterbury Tales would make a nice console-style linear RPG. So would The Odyssey.

(as for The Road, wasn't that basically Fallout 3? Or---worse---Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, one of the most depressing games I've ever played?)

 

[Vault Girl]

Well look at Bioshock 1 and 2, they were both based and include Philisophical topics. The original concerns itself with Objectivism, Ayn Rands theory of Rational self intrest and the second with the principals of Utilitarianism. If a game can be based on or around something so complex that was done extremely well (at least in Bioshock) then obviously it could in theory work.

There are many debates about whether Video games make great films. Many have failed to make it such as the super mario movie but others have done well such as the Resident evil series and the new prince of persia.

I think its rather subjective. there are rumors that a friggin sims movie is in development and i don't even know how they are going to do it. the same goes for the half life film many are begging for, tis not going to do very well if the protagonist is not permitted to talk!

If you argue that games make bad movies, the you have to consider wather many media forms can make the transition. It can be the same with books. things like narrative and the whole structure are going to be affected.

i think i like the idea of a 1984 game but you would ultimately lose so the whole idea doesn't seem to work well.

 

[Marowit]

Dune as an action/RPG would be shwiggidie shweet (I am well aware of the RTSs).

I'd love to see some great Sci-Fi books made into games (of equal quality).

 

[Bobby Newmark]

The Intrepid Enchanter (aka Incompleat Enchanter). Sword-and-sorcery, written in the early 40's. The hero's a psychologist who travels to fictitious universes (like norse myth or 17th century epic poems, etc.) using the power of mathematics. In each story he must learn a different kind of magic. If done well I think it could make a very interesting game, maybe an rpg/adventure hybrid of some kind, with puzzles too.

If not that, how about DUNE!? Yeah, I know it's been done. But someone should re-do it, as an Oblivion-style open-worlder IMO. Imagine cruising around Arrakis wearing your stillsuit, mining spice while dodging sandworms and Harkonnen. It'd kick the stuffing out of anything with dwarves in it, to be sure.

 

[darthzew]

Hmm... Games based on books... Here are a few I'd like to see:
Great Expectations
Catcher in the Rye
Crime and Punishment
Johnny Got His Gun
Pride and Prejudice

And the list goes on, but I'd say these have potential!