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Turning Classic Literary Works Into Games
Adventure Classic Gaming is running an interview with Chris Tolworthy, an indie game designer who is working on a project to make video games out of various literary classics. His decision to develop these kinds of games was sparked by a desire to reach out to gamers who want more "serious" subject matter, as well as finding an audience among people you would find in a book store, rather than a game store. Tolworthy has already released one game, an adaptation of Les Misérables, and has almost finished Dante's Divine Comedy. After that is done, he'll move on to other works, including Theogeny, by Hesiod, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, aiming for two or three releases a year. He said, "I try to keep as close as possible to the original text. When I create a game I simply go through the book and adapt it chapter by chapter. As far as possible all my puzzles are based on ideas in the original book. So my Dante's Inferno is a lot closer to the book than EA Games' Dante's Inferno that changes Dante into a warrior with a giant scythe! Although I stick closely to the story, I would find it boring to only give the straight text, so my games always give a different twist. For example, I show Les Miserables from the point of view of a minor character who dies early on. In my Divine Comedy I show other points of view as well as Dante's, and they don't see things the same way. Really, what I'm doing is what theater directors do when they put a Shakespeare play into a modern setting. It's the exact same story, but presented in a new way."
Kinda ruins the game, already knowing the ending and major plot-devices, doesn't it?
Anyway, it'd be great to see games dominate the popular iconographic imagery of literary classics in the same way that films have. Will Frankenstein be perceived as a beautiful artifice once again, I wonder...?
Meta will eat itself
Now apart from the obvious point of "errr so we know where this is going" which just means its a directed rather than open-ended game this is really just like using the standard film adaptation approach and applying it to games.
Its not that it is really new, Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy did something similar many moons ago. Playing on throw away lines to drive the puzzles (tea and no tea) in some cases but generally following the plot of the book.
Really not a new idea either in concept or application.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
There is "Outlook" game, based on Kafka's novel "The Trial".
839*929
Navigate your way through the maze of 18th century social etiquette!
Avoid Mrs Bennett's attempt to ensnare you with unsuitable gentlemen!
And of course, there's always the zombie version:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice_and_Zombies
Back in the days of adventure games, there was a bit of focus on the older gamers as well as the younger players. So you could have games with a lot of material that WOULD appeal to the crowd Chris Tolworthy is targeting. The problem is that in those days, you didn't see enough marketing to try to draw in that sort of customer.
Take a look at Gabriel Knight 3, which came out well before Da vinci Code even was written(1999 for GK3, 2003 for Da Vinci Code). Yes, the 3D engine wasn't very good, and there were things that could have been done better, but the writing was very good, the puzzles were pretty solid, and if it were to get a face lift(using a new 3D engine), it would appeal to those who prefer books to most games.
After the death of Sierra and Interplay, there has been a shortage of publishers willing to back games targeted at an older audience. It seems like the focus is the teen market, and if you are older than 25 years old and prefer something other than a first person shooter, your choices are more and more limited.
If every movie were rated PG, with the content of a PG movie, it wouldn't be long before the majority of adults would just stop watching movies. People grow up, and want things that THEY find entertaining. If the movie industry can have a wide variety of movie types, from the really bad formula action adventure movies, to the highly artistic types, to romance, comedy, and drama, then why has the computer and console game industries focused primarily on first person shooters that only appeal to one type of game player?
A video game of The Old Man and the Sea would suck even worse than the book.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Methinks the biggest problem with translating a book to a game is: with a book, the main characters usually make some grand mistakes (very specific ones) and then spend the rest of the tale trying to recover, while with a game the emphasis is NOT making mistakes - any mistakes. Readers want to see characters fail and overcome; players ARE the characters, and don't want the hit on their ego. We're fascinated by characters in books, but rarely would want to _be_ that character.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
I mean, I am genuinely puzzled. I know the Commedia fairly well, and I've read most of it in the original. And I simply cannot imagine how you turn it into a game.
Unless of course the author has merely nicked the characters?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
[ In the Barn ; 34 points ]
The air in the main barn is stuffy, almost claustrophobic,
despite the large size. Beams of late-afternoon sunlight
angle down, with flecks of hay and dust suspended in the
stagnant air. A barn door leads out.
There is a broken puppy here.
There is a broken Candy here.
> out
[ Curley's Ranch ; 34 points ]
> go through gate
[ Entrance to Curley's Ranch ; 35 points ]
> go down path
[ By the Pond ; 36 points ]
You see a crying Lenny here.
> ask about the rabbits
Lenny sits down and tries to explain about the rabbit farm
of his dreams again, calming him somewhat.
> shoot lenny
THE END
36 points
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