Slashdot Mirror
On Licenses That Should Be Made Into Games
Ant writes "GameSpy has an article discussing their favorite ideas for licenses that should be made into games, but haven't made the transition yet." The piece, thankfully, notes that we "often get slammed with hideously inappropriate or just badly implemented and misbegotten licensed creations", but also argues: "For every Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Superman for the N64, we'll occasionally get a Tron 2.0, or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic", before picking The Road Warrior, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Ender's Game, among others, as licenses they'd like to see made into games. Which licenses do you think could survive the transition to games intact?
When I first read this I was thinking, you want to make psychological torture a game? (then I remembered daikatana) but seriously, I was thinking that while Ender's game is probably one of the best science fiction books I am trying to think how one would make it a game that needs to be made
1. The initall battle seens at battle school never really were about the battle but about Ender being tested to see just how much they could push him before he broke. ie Could they push him more than the enemy could and of course we find out (at least I think so) that "we" pushed him much harder than any space-faring alien race could, and it made much about our nature and what we will do achieve them
2. I was thinking about the space seens but I tell you, they were always abstract in the book , and I think the closest thing I can think of, is HomeWorld2, again a game that's already been made and made well
anyway, would care to hear your thoughs
Sigs are dangerous coy things
boy, i don't know if anybody could make a mmog (or rpg) out of it, but the whole time i was reading the otherworld series, i envisioned it as a game.
it would probably be too expensive to make it into a stand-alone game, but not as a multiplayer game.
in a similar vein would be Chalker's Well of Souls series. 1500, if memory serves, worlds to explore? i'd pay $20 a month for each of those.
stored on computers from birth to the grave
I must have played every single Dune related game ever made, I am quite the Dune fan. But no game has even begun to capture the slightest glimpse of the amazing work of Frank Herbert. I would really like to see Black Isle (makers of Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment) make a Dune RPG, and at least try to decently cover the story of the first book instead of making up idiotic deviations. If not them, then someone with the slightest bit of a clue.
I still think the best Dune game so far was the first, made by Cryo back in 1991. The CD version was particularly nice, but now Cryo is dead so I guess it's about time someone gave it another shot. The new Sci-Fi channel mini-series have been drawing attention to the "Duniverse" so it seems like a good time to get something like this off the ground.
i'd rather just see good games with good ideas rather then trying to adapt something from a media thats already been created and formed into its own art. why innovate when we can invent?
THE GPL!
If they're ever going to develop an Ender's Game, uh, game, I sure hope that the developers doesn't read this Penny Arcade strip.
That said, it would probably have done much better as a 2d platformer in the days of the NES.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
An excruciatingly massive multi-subject dungeon. Get points from the Mods, avoid the Trolls, and battle such bosses as Cowboy Neal, Billy Borg, and the top Boss, the Cmdr himself.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Seriously, the idea of colored bears bouncing around as a result of gummiberry juice ingestion is very appealing to me. Could be a potentially fun game for mindless, fast action, kind of like the Sonic games.
Also, how about a Lone Wolf game not based on LWAC, but on the real Lone Wolf? Make it a Zelda-style game or an RPG, and you're golden. Use memory card data from previous games in the series to keep track of your character's encounters, skillset, and items, just like the character sheets that were used to keep track of your character between volumes in the game book series. God, I miss those books. They got me through so many boring days in elementary school.
I always wanted to make a game out of the tv show "7 Days," but that probably just means I'm insane.
How about we just stop paying money into things that are owned by that homophobe Orson Scott Card, okie dokie?
Of course, there's more to the Road Warrior than just driving around, but that should be a large part of it. Done right, it could be pretty cool :)
"GI Joe"? "The Transformers"? "Thundercats"?
Ever since squad based tactical shooter type games started coming out, I've been wanting a more action oriented take on the genre using the Stargate SG-1 license, but I'd rather control some other team than SG-1 itself so that there could be some actual character development across missions. The thought of strolling around the SGC between missions, attending briefings with General Hammond and Colonel MacGuyver, and then walking through the Stargate to some distant planet on a diplomatic mission that goes sour as Jaffa start invading just makes me giddy. They could even use the time for dialing the Stargate and that twisty wormhole animation to hide load times.
I don't know how many of you have seen this movie, it's not great, but it had some great ideas.
Nutshell movie-theater:
An inventor makes a machine that can make ice (genius!) but no one stateside appreciated his invention. So he buys a plot of land in the jungle. Packs up his family and moves em there to start a civilization based around his ice machine. Airconditioning the jungle per say. Tells his family that the united states is no longer, destroyed by nuclear war with the Russians. To do a bit of Castaway.
Imagine a game like The Sims, social interactions but with a Sim City twist. Keep the villagers happy, resource management and an ice tech-tree, keeping out the missionaries and militias.
Kind of a cool movie that I don't think many people saw, you could rent it for $5, but you could probably buy it for $1.
Is it just me, or is Mad Max in The Road Warrior, the only straight male in the whole movie? I'd hope for a Mad Max 2 game done right so badly, I could even tollerate the Humungous in his leather speedo.
I'm a sucker for things that fit into White Wolf's World of Darkness. I felt the Hunter games they made for X-Box (especially Redeemer) were good, and the new Vampire game looks incredible.
That and I would actually like to see a game based off Underworld. It shows potential for a good FPS game, some tactical elements, open story... Of course people would probably bork it up...
Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
called Dr. Mario
It wasn't bad, as I recall:
4
http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=219
Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets Off On A Technicality --theonion.com
Am I the only person that thinks the old BBS door "Legend of the Red Dragon" would make a killer MMORPG?
Seth Able is sitting on a gold mine.. if he still owns the rights to it.
Let me preface all this by saying I'm only talking about console games, my data come from sales figures tallied by NPD, which is a commercial reporting service and I define commercial success as sell-through of over 250,000 units.
90% of all videogames launching new properties are commercial failures. This is well above the overall failure rate of 78%. The sad truth is that most gamers stick with familiar themes and simple concepts. The quirky, unusual, original games you and I like (over 20 of the PS2 games on my shelf sold under 100,000 units) just do not pay the bills.
Therefore it behooves us to think about how to make games that we can enjoy but which will also speak to the mass market. My personal opinion is that the real inventiveness is best served in gameplay mechanics and control. Use the licensed theme as a base to build from. The game market is coming close to maturity. It grew and grew through the 80s and early 90s and now it's near a plateau in terms of userbase. One sign of this is the gamer's average age increasing year on year.
Right now there are plenty of relatively new gamers for whom simple action-shooter, driving and hack-slash gameplay is appealing. They'll quickly grow into more sophisticated play concepts, just as today's hardcore gamers did in years past. The people who figure out how to keep that large pool of gamers interested will be the people who succeed in the industry.
Graham
my wife used to work for a major games company as a senior artist. in or around 1999, george miller was in talks with them to make a ps2 game out of road warrior. A demo tape of rendered footage was made, and much of the game was plotted out. Miller didn't like the game, but the footage grew legs and got bandied around hollywood for a while. I'm surprised it hasn't hit the net as a hoax. I have a copy, but it's only on VHS. I'd be happy to hand it off to a /.er who lives in Australia to get it saved as an mpeg and set loose.
Really, that is the stupidest thing I have heard all day long, and I've been talking to myself since I woke up!
The Big Lebowski Bowling Challenge
What the hell did you expect?
And it's not like he's raping toddlers or something. I don't think we have anything to fear from his opinions, so buy as many of his books as you want. I, for one, can separate my opinion of a man from my opinion of his work.
Rob
Hmm, I can imagine it now...
Grand Theft Auto, but you just copy cars, rather than stealing them. And if you crash them or change them and then drive them around, you have to let other people copy the changed ones!
And the police would be replaced by... err... SCO! And they would be going round trying to extract money from everyone, claiming they 'Cars' eveyone is using are theirs, and they have to licence them! And the boss in the big mansion would be Darl!
Yea, it would be GREAT![/mood]
Mental note: Dont post on Slashdot at 3:30am...
A Clockwork Orange, the great film by Kubrick.
An well-developed adaptation of the movie could take the horror genre to new heights..
I have all ways wanted a Zombie MMOG. People get to play survivors, group into clans to defend buildings from the hordes of undead. The great thing about this is it gets rid of camping because the MOBs come to you.
"I'm not high, just stupid" --JY
Thundering across the stars, to save the universe from the monster minds... Jayce searches for his father, to unite the magic root and lead his Lightning League to victory over the changing form of Saw Boss. Wheeled Warriors explode into battle - lightning strikes!"
One of the best action/sci-fi animated series ever, no question about it. Could be turned into a great game - or an awesome movie!
Circumcision is child abuse.
Kids (and a lot of junior high / high school youth) love the Veggie Tales videos - so why not a collection of mini-games ala Wario Ware? Maybe "Find the Hairbrush" or "Canoe with the Cebu", or "Make The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Do Something"... I'm sure it would be a big hit.
Please don't give Mel Gibson any more money.
[o]_O
I was going to mention that as well. I'd kill to get my Kai on in an Ultima/Gothic style RPG... Such an imaginative series deserves to see some new life breathed into it instead of being relegated to the occasional lucky find in used book shops.
At least with Superman 64, Superman fans were willing to admit that the game sucked.
anything else by Neil Gaiman for that matter. Good Omens and The Discworld Books would be awesome too, if done correctly.
I have always thought that Starship Troopers would make a great game. Imagine a MMOFPS similar to Planetside...
How about a good GhostBusters FPS. It would be the perfect idea for a TEEN rated game... maybe even younger. Hopefully, shooting a positron collider at ghosts won't cause any underage violence issues, but then again, parents need something to blame their failings on.
Space Balls the first person shooter! Space Balls the real time strategy! Space Balls the turn based strategy! Space Balls the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game! Space Balls the role playing game! Space Balls the fighting game! Space Balls the racing game! Space Balls the kart racing game! Space Balls the platformer! Space Balls the flight sim! Space Balls the vehicular combat game! Space Balls the stealth espionage action game! Space Balls the point and click adventure game! Moichandizing! Moichandizing! where the real money from the video game is made.
I've thought about doing a battle room map for UT, but given the game physics it would be hard to do, make it act like water, you cant push off things, but if you do it with .01 gravity or watever, theres still an up/down etc etc... Anyone know of anyone whos gotten this to work somehow?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I've always wanted to play on the World of Tiers with Kickaha the Trickster.
I have misplaced my pants.
I've met Card and had the chance to talk with him. (I worked at a sci-fi/fantasy bookstore where he held a signing - unfortunately the bookstore eventually collapsed under the weight of Borders' and Barnes and Noble's competition, but that's another story...) You are definitely right, in that Card is a very religious socially conservative man. He is, for religious reasons (he's a practicing Mormon), firmly against the very idea of homosexuality. His non-fiction writing (such as the essay linked to on this thread) as well as some of his fiction writing (the Homecoming series, Folk of the Fringe) show his feelings. And let me preface the rest of this post by saying I firmly disagree with his anti-homosexual and (in my opinion) women-as-second-class-citizens attitudes.
I don't think his idelogies negate the fiction he has written. Ender's Game and - to a lesser extent - the rest of the Ender-related books he has written are excellent science fiction. They are not the height of literature in the 20th Century, but are extremely enjoyable books that I have read again and again.
Even though I disagree with some of Card's social ideas in the very core of my being.
When I worked in the sci-fi/fantasy bookstore we (fellow employees and the owner) had a long discussion before Card came about his politics. Everyone at the store was liberal and had trouble reconciling Card's fiction with his ideology. If you can get your hands on it, read "Magic Mirror" by Card (do an Amazon or Google search for "Magic Mirror" and "orsonn scott card"). It's a fairy tale, but with very blunt social commentary. The family it concerns has fallen into dispair as the 'King' (dad) works too much, the 'Queen' (mom) isn't with the children enough, the 'Princess' (daughter) is out partying and the 'Prince' (son) is playing videogames. In the end the 'Queen' is in the kitchen (where she 'should be') the 'Prince' has left videogames for more 'appropriate' activities, the 'Princess' had left her goth ways to become a prim-and-propper teen blond (the most controversial change, as two of the women working at the bookstore were quite goth), and (in the only change we all agreed with) the 'King' cut back on work and spent more time with the family. While other books Card has written show some facets of his politics, this seemed to sum them all up in one little package, complete with disgustingly bright illustrations.
So what do to about Card's ideologies? While none of us were perfectly happy with it, we all were able to hold a dual view of Card: pleased with (most of) his writing, and disagreeing with (most of) his political and social views. It's not a very satisfying sollution, but I do think Card is an amazing author (some of his older short story collections are a real treat if all you've read is Ender's Game and Co.) and it would be a shame to miss out on his writings because you disagree with his philosophies.
In a more extreme case (that I hope won't allienate those of you who stuck with me thus far...) I'm able to enjoy "Battlefield Earth" as trashy sci-fi even though L. Ron Hubbard had his head shoved so far up his ass that it came back out his mouth.
The writings of Card that I have enjoyed the most (mainly Ender's Game and Co. and his short story collections) were not religious or social commentaries. While I could enjoy them as fiction (mainly because I got used copies dirt cheap while at the bookstore) I did not care as much for his more commentating endeavors.
I realize this post has been kind of rambling and offtopic, so I'll bring it back home: I think it is entirely possible to enjoy Card's writing and not feel guilty supporting the man, even though I think his views on (among other things) homosexuality are entirely and completely wrong.
-Trillian
those games were intended to be Mad Max tie-ins but the publisher couldn't afford the fees to license the movie properties. So they had to keep them generic (but obviously inspired by it)
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Holy shit I would so buy that game. I'd even play it on Saturday.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Red headed Russian chick with a bangin' figure. And a psychotic nympho twin sister? No, in this case, I think the password is, "lonely."
The premise:
:-)
You're the founder of a town in the wild American west just before the peak of the gold rush. Like the HBO show, you'd play the role of a bad guy. You're objective is to make a whole bunch of money before 1) the town revolts agaisnt you 2) the local budding government gets a whiff that you're town is worth paying attention to (taxable). Of course you can kill people who oppose you (but do it quietly) and you can bribe officials, so you just need to not screw up.
It'd be a cross between a RTS and an RPG. Slower paced RTS with more RPG-like detail.
I think the rough-and-tumble western style could seriously kick ass.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Nothing like cutting people's heads off until there's only one. Imagine the multiplayer modes!
The Road Warrior should be a vehicle-capable MMO -- a free-for all with PvP from day one. Guzzoline would be the basis of the game's economy.
Think about it. You have your brain-twisting story. (times ten), that despite seeming cliche at first manages to avoid most of the common anime traps. You have your extremely likable trio of protagonists (Roger, R. Dorothy and Norman). And you have a good number of varied opponents: Beck, Schwartzwald, Vera, a number of the early enemies-of-the-week, and eventually Alex Rosewater.
But best of all... GIANT ROBOT FIGHTING! Giant Robot Fighting that feels heavy and real! Look at how they designed Big O's controls in the show, with the big, sliding arm levers. Imagine a controller like that! We're not talking about MechWarrior-style giant fighting. We're talking about a completely serious version of the giant robot fighting in the N64 Goemon games. I'm of the opinion that the rockage quotient of that game would be very high.
Probably a bad idea.
Nobody has suggested the General Public License as a game. It'd be a great game! Going around thwacking SCO and other bad guys who attempt to subvert the good innocent little license for thier evil ways. It would be much better than any EULA that MS could put out as a video game!
That's not what's meant by a license that should be made into a game? That's unclear wording....
Something "vehicle-centric": Fight exponentially growing clouds of Mantrid drones - enjoy the breathtaking view from a balloon suspended between the planets Fire and Water - keep Lyekka from eating Japan...
Action adventures: Escape the frantic to-and-fro of the Heretic-sabotaged "Cluster" - have Poetman show you around ancient Brunnis - visit the Wife Bank...
Strategy: Have Prince and Kai play for your life a la "Battle Chess"...
First Person Fast-Away-Runners: Take a ride on the Narcolounger - meet the crazed inhabitants of K-Town and the Tunnels...
Musical/dancing games: Re-enact Brunnen-G history to the tune of German nursery songs - sing "Row, row, row your boat" with the other trees in Oberon's forest...
Not to mention dating sims: frustrate yourself swooning for the dead guy/any woman who won't try to eat you...
And all of that without the bother of digging for trade-able minerals, shopping for weapon systems and blowing up countless petty space pirates and whatever else tends to make sci-fi games such a hassle sometimes. Nor would anybody care about "continuity", "canon", "plot holes" or whatever else Trek fans get to worry about all the time.
Hunhh... I think I might actually buy that. Scary thought.
The Amber series by Roger Zelazny.
Yeah, damn, I totally thought they were talking about that kind of license for the first half of the description text. All I could imagine was, bad guys being allowed to copy my ammo, but only if I got a share of their frags..
How about a game about Jesus.
I've already started a new game of Morrowind with a character name "Jesus Of Nazareth", class "Savior and Messiah", and race "Son of God".
He's got a nasty distaste for anything that looks Roman and a destruction skill of 120. Look out Fort Buckmoth!
But uhhh yeah.....the biblical video games are highly underrated. If you have a god/jesus game, it's perfect for those that like to cheat.....the whole game is in god mode. If you're into sims, you could do like 'sim creation' or 'sim city - soddom and gammorah'.
It could be fun
That 'verse is simply aching to turned into a tabletop pen and paper RPG. Nothing would bring me more joy then to see that ill-fated series turned into something that could be played at the periodic gaming sessions my friends and I hold.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
It's got a giant monster, a babe in a skimpy outfit, lots of mayhem, lots of locations for different levels (jungle, mountains, caves, the ocean, Hong Kong City!!)
YEAH!
However, the books and stories that defined this world have largely petered out - Niven seems to have run out of ideas after three trips to the Ringworld and there can only be so many "Man-Kzin Wars XX" books before they all look like the same thing.
There was a Ringworld-based game years ago. It played kind of like the Space Quest series but without the tongue-in-cheek attitude. I think Known Space would be a great place to roll out any or all of the current game genres (RTS, RPG, FPS...)
The first time I stood on Halo and lifted my viewpoint to the "arch o'er the world" I realized that they... almost had it.
How long can you play without shooting Villa?
And if you accidentally run over people with them then you HAVE NO LIABILITY. HAR HAR!
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
...the game
It would sort of be like duck hunt but with a keyboard instead of a gun
FRIST POST!
By the way, if Lone Wolf is accompanied by a Cub, then he is not longer 'Lone' is he?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I think that an excellent idea to port to the game genre would be an action/adventure title based on the adventure of Dirk Pitt, Clive Cussler's NUMA hero. Not only would this translate into good adventure but it's also along the lines of something different than the same old Dungeons and Dragons and/or sci-fi theme. Another concept that seems to escape the gaming genre is the old west. It's only been attempted a few times and poorly at that. I think the Old West scenario would work well for a MUD or MMORPG.
Jay Dale "If you're not living on the edge then you're taking up too much space!"
i think snow crash would make a great game. maybe add a little technical stuff so YOU to can save the world.....like a mini language........and have meta world as the multiplayer. just an idea
This could be the coolest game ever! Remember what a great show Sliders was? Four people with vastly differing personalities traveling to a new parallel dimension every week trying to get home. It had a natural episodic structure built into the premise, which also allowed them to try all kinds of different stories and even genres. The first three seasons had lots of high points; it jumped the shark when Professor Arturo died and was replaced by the sexxxy but braindead combat girl and the show became about fighting the Kro-maggs. If someone announces that they're making a game about Sliders, and the plot is fighting the Kromaggs, it'll suck. If they base it on the early seasons, it'll be great.
Wouldnt need to be based on any specific movie (although if it was it might sell better) but it would be a game (how about a MMO game) where the aim is to get different cars and then get parts for them (e.g. get a car and add a turbo or extractors or whatever other high performance part) then you would go drive these cars in burnout comps drag races and whatever else. The aim being to get more money to get a better car etc etc.
Transformers PS2
if we're gonna go this route, we might as well do the obligatory:
- akira2: you play an evolving human with superpowers you can't control unless you
can get special power-ups(downs?) to control your powers. you gain control of each power
(telekenesis, control of inanimate objects, morphing, fire, etc.) by completing each level.
you have to avoid the army, the rebels and the return of Tetsuo as the final,
unpredictable, completely random Boss.
- FLCL: great music dominates this action packed shooter as you attempt to gun down unruly
robots that pop out of your head. you can also whack them with the +5 Fender(tm)SuperMega Axe.
ride around a creepy town on your Vespa(tm) eluding the guy with the mono-brow and his cohorts.
Bonus points for actually making out with the fabulous alien girl(this requires a hack to unlock, of course.)
naturally, the story line, what there is of it, is confusing and bizarre; when you finish the game, you don't
know it, it just stops(like the series on Cartoon Network.)
"...that's as white as it gets; all the bits are on..."
I'd always though that a game based on the world of Iain M Banks's Culture Sci-Fi novels would rock...
My Personal Blog on Games and Technology and More
I'd like to see Edgar Rice-Burrough's series John Carter of Mars made into some kind of an rpg. It could even be a mmorpg the way how the books are set up with different races all over the planet, inside and out.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.