For this month’s round table it’s about taking our favorite books and imagining them as a game first. For my round table discussion I’m going to go the quantity route and put together some game ideas from some of the various pieces of classic literature I’ve read.
Lord of the Flies: Even though I posted my game idea that honors the book, it still doesn’t equal the same impact that a game based on the source material would do. I can picture an action adventure/strategy management game, as the player takes the role of the leader of a group of children on an unknown island. At the start you can decide if you belong to any clubs or not, being in a club affects relations with those members and clubs that aren’t as friendly to that club. It could also affect any initial stats you would have as well. Your job is to manage the children and try to keep order as you set up shelter, gather food and explore the island. The player can both send children to perform these tasks or do it and take children to help them. It will also be your job to divvy up any materials to the various groups for them to either make new equipment or do their jobs better, this will also cause tension between the groups. Besides the friction between each club, the clubs also have different feelings on control. Some feel the weak should serve the strong, others don’t care and many are in between. Eventually you will have to make a decision and base your leadership on it.
At some point the bubble will burst and anarchy will hit the island and you’ll have several options. You can either pick a side to fight with, try to reclaim order, or just attempt to get the hell off the island. During your time on the island you can of course try to keep a rescue fire going at all times, much to the dismay of the kids who have to gather wood for it.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: I just finished reading the story for the first time and I think I can do a better job then the horrific NES title. My game will deal with the issue of allowing your dark side full reign and not having to worry about guilt or remorse. I can picture an open world setting which you’ll be able to explore both as Jekyll and as Hyde. Similar to the GTA series you will have a threat level which measures how much destruction you’re doing, however it will go away when you transform back to Jekyll. At the start you can choose when to transform between the two and commit any crimes or murders as you want, however eventually you will lose control and will have to be careful about where you are. I would also like to show how Jekyll loses control over Hyde as eventually you’ll be required to perform X amount of illegal acts to appease Hyde to try and force a transformation back. I could see this game being similar to how people will sometimes go nuts in a GTA setting to see how much destruction they can cause before being taken down, but here it’s the knowledge that you can possibly get away with it Scott free which should be interesting.
Robin Hood: I would like to create a game based on the legend of Robin Hood itself. I can imagine an open world game that has the player starting out as Robin and builds the myth from there. The player can go into town, explore, attack rich travelers in Sherwood Forest and try to ruin Prince John. You’re basically creating the myth of Robin Hood from your actions, not killing people or giving to the poor will help shape the people’s image of you. There will be a lot of stealth options as you can try to enter towns that are on alert or castles to try to break into the vaults. You will build up your forces of Merry Man who can aid you as well as spreading the good word. Your mission is to hurt Prince John’s power and money to the point that he can no longer keep control of the throne and is kicked out. I would also like to have an in depth sword fighting system for combat allowing Robin to wound, knock out, or kill people depending on the player’s actions. I could also see using a form of the Assassin’s Creed engine for this game.
Originally I was going to post my idea for Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein along with the other ideas; however I think it is my weakest idea. So I thought up something interesting as I know that there is a game in there, I just can’t find the perfect form for it. My challenge to you is to try to come up with a game idea based on the novel, to be fair here was my idea that I decided to take out of my entry:
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein: I’ve read this book at two different times of my life, once in middle school and again late in high school, I really do need to reread this yet again. For this title the game will be split between two parts, creating the creature and then dealing with the creature. In the beginning you will have to explore around London to gather information on where to find the parts needed. Some parts you could try to order from medical faculties while others you will have to steal from. The better the part is the harder the game will become as those who have read the book know. The best parts will require you to break into places to steal them creating a stealth aspect. Once you have finally gotten the parts needed and brought the creature to life is when the game changes.
What parts you’ve used will affect the creature, better parts will make him more dangerous and harder to appease. As the creature learns it will make greater demands on you and if you fail he will break out and start to make life difficult for you. The second half of the game you will be trying to find and kill the creature before he ruins your life. It is possible to try to keep the creature happy but this will be incredibly hard as he will eventually ask you to create a wife for him.
With Hollywood’s obsession with remaking classic movies and literature I can’t help but think it’s only a matter of time that we’ll see movie based games of the up to date version of these classic stories, which makes me a little scared to be honest.
Josh
