Article:
Could Books Make Great Games?
Back in January, I wrote an article about whether games will ever make great films and this has brought me to another interesting question. Could books make great games? Often, you will find that books are made into films, and then the film is turned into a game. However, you don't regularly see books being made straight into games and this makes me wonder why.
So, Why aren't they directly ported?
After doing some research, I found no evidence of books that have been made straight into games, they only become games after being a part of a successful film. I think the most potent reason for books always being made into films first is that they share a similarity. Both of them are "one way only", by which I mean you read a book or watch a film but it does not interact with you.
Despite this, I still feel that directly porting a book to a game could be a far better way of keeping true to the story. I believe this because a film is limited to a maximum of four hours running time and they rarely are longer than three, a game on the other hand is far less restricted by time, which means it can include all of the key points in the story.
Gaming is highly expansive
As I mentioned earlier, gaming has a lot more potential to explore the story on a wider scale than a film ever can. If you make a book into a film, and then the film into a game, you will find the game play is often limited to what you were able to see on the screen, which can make it very boring. Equally, it puts less emphasis on enveloping you in the characters and story, just expecting that you have read the book or seen the film. If a book was handed to a dedicated and experienced games development team, I am certain they would work hard to making the characters close to you and the environments feel real.
Furthermore, if the developers could get the author on board with the project they would cut out a lot of time writing the back story and have a whole pool of extra creativity at hand. the author could also help them fill in any plot holes, gaps or additional areas they want to add into the game.
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Computer games as much more visual and cinematic media only tend to come as prospects off the back of films and tv shows.
There are still a few examples of bookx translating directly to computer games though:
- The Hobbit game produced by Beam Software in 1982
- The HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game produced by Infocom in 1984
- The Dune game produced by Cryo Interactive in 1992
- The original Aliens vs. Predator game for the SNES in 1993 was technically inspired by the graphic novels as much as the original films
- There are a number of games based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes such as those recently published by Frogwares
- The many Harry Potter console games are technically based on the books, rather than the films (even if they use a lot of the imagery of the latter)
I do find it surprising though that there not more computer games based on successful novels. I suspect that a lot of it is to do with the cost of licensing and the limits on creative freedom. It's much easier in comparison for a computer games publisher just to build their own franchises from the ground up...
- The original Lord of the Rings paper RPG pubolished by Iron Crown Enterprises was licensed directly from the original novels
- The original Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper and Slaine RPGs and board games published by Games Workshop in the 1980s were taken directly from the 2000AD comic
- Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber was ported to a D&D module before Guardians of Order released the Amber Diceless RPG
- The Warlock of Firetop Mountain board game published by GW in 1986 took its name and its theme from the FIghting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure book of the same name
- Mag Force 7 published a CCG based on the Star of the Guardians trilogy written by Margeret Weis
- The Starblazer paper RPG recently published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment was taken from a series of British comics
Maybe next time dig a little deeper...? ;)
Further News
It is estimated that 130,000 books are published each year in the United Kingdom, so as you can see I still feel there is such a large pool with a very little turn out. I definitely agree with you in terms of the limit to creative freedom, but I think publishers exert tight control on developers.
My thoughts are that perhaps the publisher won't be so restrictive if a game is based on a successful book, thus retaining more creative freedom in some ways.