I would play the shit out of a Supernatural video game. Just think about the possibilities in what types of gameplay modes and story lines you could have. Sam rescuing Dean from Purgatory, Castiel torturing and smiting demons, levels in heaven and hell, battling hell hounds, leviathans, vampires, wendigos, jin, witches, ghosts, necromancers and other assorted monsters.
Co-op with Sam and Dean, Ruby and Jo, Garth and Bobby, Castiel and Crowley, Charlie and Krissy or a mixture of all the characters.
Now I'm depressed that something this awesome will probably never happen.
As far as the whole licensed games question goes, I don't think that there's anything intrinsically wrong with them, but I think that even with equal dedication of time and money they are still harder to pull off. You are much more constrained as far as story and character go, and as the video game creators, you are forced to work off of the template of somebody else's artistic vision. Because of this, I think that licensed games are harder to pull off and do a great job on. However, you could make the same argument with a studio making a sequel to another studio's franchise, and that often works out great. So honestly, it might just be that licensed games are usually rushed, cynical cash grabs.
I think that if it was done very carefully and in the same spirit and visual style as the original cartoon series (maybe with less racism), you could have a very enjoyable and fun Tom and Jerry game. Roadrunner and Coyote could be even better. This would be a ridiculously easy idea to fuck up though, so I'd almost prefer that no one even attempt it. A safer idea would be a Stephen King adaptation done in the style of Alan Wake. The Shining maybe, or a weirder one like insomnia or Lisey's Story. Some sort of epic Dark Tower series would be amazing too, but I can't really picture how you could make the gameplay work.
I reckon that most franchises could be pretty safe, aslong as there's no recent or upcoming movie, to rush the project.
There's many good Starwars games (aswell as duds). Also consider Dune, Warhammer 40K, Bladerunner, Discworld, Batman, just to name a few IPs. Basing a game on an existing book, movie or comic doesn't have to be a problem.
It requires time and an inspired dev.
How about a puzzle-adventure game based on Hellraiser?
Heh, the most simple argument for Supernatural being sexist is as follows - how many current, recurring female characters are there?
It's character, singular. She's had about three episodes so far, good luck to her!
For the totality of my reasoning, well, we'd be here all day. It's probably the most sexist show I've seen willingly. It's always off-putting when I watch the show. =/
yeah i figured you would go with that argument, and i'm not disagreeing with that they should have at least one or two recurring/main female characters that don't die, unless for good reason, i don't think it's intentionally sexist.
http://spn-heavymeta.livejournal.com/425753.html
female survival rate is actually almost double compared to males. (however that isn't as noticeable due to the cannon fodder that males pop up for, it often seems like a sausage fest unless dean is lookin to get jiggy with it)
I do think they could go with having gender neutral/ gender less characters arcing towards females more, but
since bobby is dead, cass is the only male that they are close to (which are angels even inherently gendered? i don't remember if they answered that question or not.) and the show does revolve around everyone close to them dying, as them being loners and such, otherwise i think the appearance of some more plot heavy females would do good for the show.
also another fun read, just to mull over in your head?
i'm definitely with you that there should be more of a long term female presence on there, and it's a shame that they didn't get one or two early on to stay or become plot important. (such as that bar owner with the daughter? they were a kickass combo i thought)
Personally, my favourite is Supernatural - I'm not a big fan of the show, but the the structure of the episodes give itself to a set game mechanics which are really appealing to me.
Here's how it should go down; It's an open-world action-RPG based on the first couple of seasons of Supernatural. Most of the game goes exactly like an episode of the show does - you investigate some strange deaths, and then research what the method you need to kill the creature. There are just a few things you'll absolutely need to make this process fun;
* You need to be able to get it wrong.
So that wendigo the was ripping apart people in the woods? It was actually a werewolf! Now you've got to get out of there as fast as possible, or improvise to kill it.
* The monsters should all feel very different.
Each monster shouldn't be the same - some should be creepy, some should just be dangerous - and how you take them out should feel different. A demon? Try to trick it into a devils trap and exorcise it. A ghost? Remember that level in Vampire; the Masquerade - Bloodlines? That was perfectly creepy. Each time should be different, to where they haunt to who they kill. There is some awesome folk-lore to draw from here.
* It's not all about action.
I kind of touched upon this in the last point, but it should be said twice - while some action packed monster encounters is fine (necessary, even!) I don't want to be following the same process each time - it should not be find out which monster then pick the right McGuffin to shoot it with.
* Give me multiple ways to get the information.
Let me impersonate law-enforcement officials, or just let me asking around town. Let me break in to steal records. Or let me comb through old newspapers articles. And so on, the more the better!
And there you have it - a relatively unique set of game mechanics with the possibility for wildly varied experiences - and that's not even all this game has to offer. Supernatural had a pretty iconic mixture of muscle cars and mullet rock and it was somehow perfect.
Let me pick from a decent variety of muscle cars, give me some basic customisation for it. Some licensed music would be nice but as long as you make it relatively simple for me to play my own music I'll be plenty happy. Then all you need to give me is some nice environments to look at as I move from each small town and I'll be having a ball just driving.
As for the plot - keep it simple. There's nothing wrong with chasing after a big bad monster as the core of your plot. What should happen is to bring in writers who are talented at writing memorable characters and dialogue. Bonus points for making me laugh.
Should it be in the same time/universe/etc as the TV show? No. I don't really want to see an awful cameo by any of the recurring characters or to have my actions dwarfed by those of the brothers. I just want to exploit the atmosphere and the potential of the universe for an interesting game with some cool new mechanics.
Other things I'm too lazy to expand on:
* Co-op would be kind of fun, though I'm not sure how you'd handle dialogue.
* Get rid of the under-lying sexism present in the show, or I'll be upset. Seriously, I might even mist up a little.
I really liked that show and often thought the exact same thing during the first few seasons, that it would make an awesome video game.
Man, now I want yet another game, that will probably never see the light of day (the other one being a XCOM clone in the ME universe).
I also want a game based on "Vikings". You would be the leader of a raiding party and sail up and down the coast to raid villages and towns.
The world would be open or a sandbox with some special missions to spice it up and move the story along.
For the combat mechanics it should play somewhat like Mount&Blade, where you lead a group of men and women(shieldmaiden ftw) into medieval melee battles.
Some rpg-elements so you could learn skills with your partymembers and get them new equipment, would be nice.
Also you would have a homebase where you repair ships, recruit new warrios, and your smiths forge new equipment.
That would be my very rough sketch of a cool game based on a franchise, that almost asks for it.
Personally, my favourite is Supernatural - I'm not a big fan of the show, but the the structure of the episodes give itself to a set game mechanics which are really appealing to me.
Here's how it should go down; It's an open-world action-RPG based on the first couple of seasons of Supernatural. Most of the game goes exactly like an episode of the show does - you investigate some strange deaths, and then research what the method you need to kill the creature. There are just a few things you'll absolutely need to make this process fun;
* You need to be able to get it wrong.
So that wendigo the was ripping apart people in the woods? It was actually a werewolf! Now you've got to get out of there as fast as possible, or improvise to kill it.
* The monsters should all feel very different.
Each monster shouldn't be the same - some should be creepy, some should just be dangerous - and how you take them out should feel different. A demon? Try to trick it into a devils trap and exorcise it. A ghost? Remember that level in Vampire; the Masquerade - Bloodlines? That was perfectly creepy. Each time should be different, to where they haunt to who they kill. There is some awesome folk-lore to draw from here.
* It's not all about action.
I kind of touched upon this in the last point, but it should be said twice - while some action packed monster encounters is fine (necessary, even!) I don't want to be following the same process each time - it should not be find out which monster then pick the right McGuffin to shoot it with.
* Give me multiple ways to get the information.
Let me impersonate law-enforcement officials, or just let me asking around town. Let me break in to steal records. Or let me comb through old newspapers articles. And so on, the more the better!
And there you have it - a relatively unique set of game mechanics with the possibility for wildly varied experiences - and that's not even all this game has to offer. Supernatural had a pretty iconic mixture of muscle cars and mullet rock and it was somehow perfect.
Let me pick from a decent variety of muscle cars, give me some basic customisation for it. Some licensed music would be nice but as long as you make it relatively simple for me to play my own music I'll be plenty happy. Then all you need to give me is some nice environments to look at as I move from each small town and I'll be having a ball just driving.
As for the plot - keep it simple. There's nothing wrong with chasing after a big bad monster as the core of your plot. What should happen is to bring in writers who are talented at writing memorable characters and dialogue. Bonus points for making me laugh.
Should it be in the same time/universe/etc as the TV show? No. I don't really want to see an awful cameo by any of the recurring characters or to have my actions dwarfed by those of the brothers. I just want to exploit the atmosphere and the potential of the universe for an interesting game with some cool new mechanics.
Other things I'm too lazy to expand on:
* Co-op would be kind of fun, though I'm not sure how you'd handle dialogue.
* Get rid of the under-lying sexism present in the show, or I'll be upset. Seriously, I might even mist up a little.
I really liked that show and often thought the exact same thing during the first few seasons, that it would make an awesome video game.
Man, now I want yet another game, that will probably never see the light of day (the other one being a XCOM clone in the ME universe).
I also want a game based on "Vikings". You would be the leader of a raiding party and sail up and down the coast to raid villages and towns.
The world would be open or a sandbox with some special missions to spice it up and move the story along.
For the combat mechanics it should play somewhat like Mount&Blade, where you lead a group of men and women(shieldmaiden ftw) into medieval melee battles.
Some rpg-elements so you could learn skills with your partymembers and get them new equipment, would be nice.
Also you would have a homebase where you repair ships, recruit new warrios, and your smiths forge new equipment.
That would be my very rough sketch of a cool game based on a franchise, that almost asks for it.
Make it focused on swordfighting with a puzzle-based casting system for spells, and then have the ability to cross into Death where you can face necromancers and fight against the current of the Nine Gates.
Yes, isn't it? I made myself totaly excited for that hypothetical game writing it down
I don't know if you'r right about he M&B mod. But M&B did not have sailing mechanics, or did it? I only played it a little at my brother's so I'm not quite sure.
"Vikings: The Game" should have those, sailing would not be like fast travel, instead you would have to actually sail across the sea. With some decent sailing mechanics I could see that being super fun. You would have to sail with the winds and ride the waves so that you dont get crushed on high seas, additionaly avoid bad weather and storms, or risk loosing people going over board.
Yes, isn't it? I made myself totaly excited for that hypothetical game writing it down
I don't know if you'r right about he M&B mod. But M&B did not have sailing mechanics, or did it? I only played it a little at my brother's so I'm not quite sure.
"Vikings: The Game" should have those, sailing would not be like fast travel, instead you would have to actually sail across the sea. With some decent sailing mechanics I could see that being super fun. You would have to sail with the winds and ride the waves so that you dont get crushed on high seas, additionaly avoid bad weather and storms, or risk loosing people going over board.
None of the Mount and Blade games - to the best of my knowledge - have sailing mechanics of any kind. That said, the modding community is fairly impressive, so it would not surprise me to see it already implemented in some fashion.
At any rate; a mod for Mount and Blade wouldn't do justice to the idea. I can't quite remember which game it was, but I remember playing a pirate themed game with excellent sailing mechanics for something like this. Next time I go 'home' I'll look through my games. Was incredibly fun.
I'd love to see co-op Vikings! Controlling a raiding party along side your friends in a multi-player campaign game? Yes please!
At any rate; a mod for Mount and Blade wouldn't do justice to the idea. I can't quite remember which game it was, but I remember playing a pirate themed game with excellent sailing mechanics for something like this. Next time I go 'home' I'll look through my games. Was incredibly fun.
I'd love to see co-op Vikings! Controlling a raiding party along side your friends in a multi-player campaign game? Yes please!
Maybe we should take that idea to some dev.
The Assassins Creed guys maybe? They have awesome meleecombat, a sanbox world and naval mechanics down. All those would need a few changes, but then they had the basics already in place.
On a more serious note: I hope the next Witcher will have a few elements from your Supernatural idea, namely the more ritualistic monster hunting.
I would like to see Geralt investigating what hes up against and then figure out what he needs to get rid of the thread and pull that off.
I did not read the books, but from what I hear he does this there.
I really want to exorcise ghosts, break curses, etc. instead of just straight up stab everything with my silversword. The Witcher 2 already had some quests like that.
At any rate; a mod for Mount and Blade wouldn't do justice to the idea. I can't quite remember which game it was, but I remember playing a pirate themed game with excellent sailing mechanics for something like this. Next time I go 'home' I'll look through my games. Was incredibly fun.
I'd love to see co-op Vikings! Controlling a raiding party along side your friends in a multi-player campaign game? Yes please!
On a more serious note: I hope the next Witcher will have a few elements from your Supernatural idea, namely the more ritualistic monster hunting.
I would like to see Geralt investigating what hes up against and then figure out what he needs to get rid of the thread and pull that off.
I did not read the books, but from what I hear he does this there.
I really want to exorcise ghosts, break curses, etc. instead of just straight up stab everything with my silversword. The Witcher 2 already had some quests like that.
Eh, in the books he does it more often than in the games - but not much more often. In fact, I can't remember doing it in any way, shape, or form in the second book. Then again, it's been awhile since I've read them.
I, too, had hoped I'd get to do exorcisms, break curses and other interesting options aside from "hit target until dead". I've always loved all the different ways your suppose to slay creatures in monster stories and I really want a monster hunter game that carried over those traditions.
Eh, in the books he does it more often than in the games - but not much more often. In fact, I can't remember doing it in any way, shape, or form in the second book. Then again, it's been awhile since I've read them.
I, too, had hoped I'd get to do exorcisms, break curses and other interesting options aside from "hit target until dead". I've always loved all the different ways your suppose to slay creatures in monster stories and I really want a monster hunter game that carried over those traditions.
Sorry, but this gets now completly off topic:
Since you read the books, would you recomend them to someone who think The Witcher is the best rpg series ever? I read very little for entertainment these days, thats why I have not picked them up yet. And i heard the author hates the games so I was never sure if they carry the same atmosphere as the games do.
Sorry, but this gets now completly off topic:
Since you read the books, would you recomend them to someone who think The Witcher is the best rpg series ever? I read very little for entertainment these days, thats why I have not picked them up yet. And i heard the author hates the games so I was never sure if they carry the same atmosphere as the games do.
I've only read the first two, as they were the only ones which were translated into English when I bought them. The first, a collection of short stories, was fantastic. A lot of twisted fairy tale stuff all loosely connected by a central plot. The second book was all one central plot and while I felt it was a little weaker, it was still very enjoyable.
A lot of the characters you're familiar with from the games have their origin in the books, and they're all handled just as well in the books as they are in the games. Was great, especially considering I was reading a translation.
Sorry, but this gets now completly off topic:
Since you read the books, would you recomend them to someone who think The Witcher is the best rpg series ever? I read very little for entertainment these days, thats why I have not picked them up yet. And i heard the author hates the games so I was never sure if they carry the same atmosphere as the games do.
I've only read the first two, as they were the only ones which were translated into English when I bought them. The first, a collection of short stories, was fantastic. A lot of twisted fairy tale stuff all loosely connected by a central plot. The second book was all one central plot and while I felt it was a little weaker, it was still very enjoyable.
A lot of the characters you're familiar with from the games have their origin in the books, and they're all handled just as well in the books as they are in the games. Was great, especially considering I was reading a translation.
Well thanks I will get the first one then, for starters.
Now I just have to figure out which translation is better, german(my native tounge) , or the english one. You wouldn't happen to now something about that by any chance?
Sorry, but this gets now completly off topic:
Since you read the books, would you recomend them to someone who think The Witcher is the best rpg series ever? I read very little for entertainment these days, thats why I have not picked them up yet. And i heard the author hates the games so I was never sure if they carry the same atmosphere as the games do.
I've only read the first two, as they were the only ones which were translated into English when I bought them. The first, a collection of short stories, was fantastic. A lot of twisted fairy tale stuff all loosely connected by a central plot. The second book was all one central plot and while I felt it was a little weaker, it was still very enjoyable.
A lot of the characters you're familiar with from the games have their origin in the books, and they're all handled just as well in the books as they are in the games. Was great, especially considering I was reading a translation.
Well thanks I will get the first one then, for starters.
Now I just have to figure out which translation is better, german(my native tounge) , or the english one. You wouldn't happen to now something about that by any chance?
Unfortunately not, my multilingual skills go as far as attending a few classes of Italian, French and Japanese because I felt like appeasing my old High School for a little while. Though I'll go out on a limb and say unless the quality of the German version is really bad, it'll be a case of just choosing whichever language you enjoy reading in the most.
Unfortunately not, my multilingual skills go as far as attending a few classes of Italian, French and Japanese because I felt like appeasing my old High School for a little while. Though I'll go out on a limb and say unless the quality of the German version is really bad, it'll be a case of just choosing whichever language you enjoy reading in the most.
Yes, when in doubt I go with german. I just ordered "The Last Wish"/"Der lettze Wunsch" of Amazon. From what I understand its the shortstory collection you talked about, and the first book in The Witcher series.
Unfortunately not, my multilingual skills go as far as attending a few classes of Italian, French and Japanese because I felt like appeasing my old High School for a little while. Though I'll go out on a limb and say unless the quality of the German version is really bad, it'll be a case of just choosing whichever language you enjoy reading in the most.
Yes, when in doubt I go with german. I just ordered "The Last Wish"/"Der lettze Wunsch" of Amazon. From what I understand its the shortstory collection you talked about, and the first book in The Witcher series.
Yep! I'm not sure if it will hold up as well as I remember (there may or may not having been various substances consumed that could have affected my memory at the time I read it and in the time since then). At the very least, it provides some additional background on Geralt which is always nice.
While I voted "usually rushed", it's more complex than that. The insane deadlines on video game tie-ins is a killer (production windows of six months is not uncommon, which is insane).
However, that's likely not all. First off, how many people get into the industry to make tie-ins? I imagine the people working on the product are demotivated and understandably may have trouble giving the prerequisite number of fucks.
Secondly, you're usually tied on your hands and feet with little to no artistic license. The game needs to follow the game closely, which means the studio isn't free to adapt the game properly to a different medium.
Thirdly, I hear the movie producers tend to be kind of dicks about sharing what the game studio need to do their job. Scripts and such usually end up arriving fairly late, so the production is difficult to plan out.
That's not to say that there's something intrinsically wrong with games based on movies. It's the tie-in model that's problematic.
As to the thread title question, I'd love to see a Carnivale game. The setting and aesthetics are plain amazing, and I think it'd make for a fantastic story. It probably wouldn't sell too well, though.
While I voted "usually rushed", it's more complex than that. The insane deadlines on video game tie-ins is a killer (production windows of six months is not uncommon, which is insane).
However, that's likely not all. First off, how many people get into the industry to make tie-ins? I imagine the people working on the product are demotivated and understandably may have trouble giving the prerequisite number of fucks.
Secondly, you're usually tied on your hands and feet with little to no artistic license. The game needs to follow the game closely, which means the studio isn't free to adapt the game properly to a different medium.
Thirdly, I hear the movie producers tend to be kind of dicks about sharing what the game studio need to do their job. Scripts and such usually end up arriving fairly late, so the production is difficult to plan out.
That's not to say that there's something intrinsically wrong with games based on movies. It's the tie-in model that's problematic.
As to the thread title question, I'd love to see a Carnivale game. The setting and aesthetics are plain amazing, and I think it'd make for a fantastic story. It probably wouldn't sell too well, though.
You see a franchise licens well executed, when the devs use the hype surrounding a movie to get the green light for their game, then take it and do their own thing.
The Batman games are a prime example for this, at least in my opinion. I also liked the Wolverine Origin game very much, and that too did not try to stay to close to the movie.
Daft Time said:
Yep! I'm not sure if it will hold up as well as I remember (there may or may not having been various substances consumed that could have affected my memory at the time I read it and in the time since then). At the very least, it provides some additional background on Geralt which is always nice.
The book was only 10? and thats really not much, so even if its not all that good, the additional witcher lore will be worth the money. For me it was always more of an "getting my ass up to start reading for entertainment purposes again"-issue, why i haven't startet with the Witcher books yet.
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