Game Design Challenge: Literary Inspirations

cnutt · 09-30-2009, 11:42 AM

Sorry about the week delay, but the latest challenge is live!

We have hundreds, even thousands, of years of literature to draw from -- yet so little of it has been used for source material for games. Early next year, Electronic Arts will release Dante's Inferno, a very loose adaptation of part of Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, written in the 14th century.

While it's debatable how respectful the game's content is to the original source material, it's true that the works of the past are a resource that could be tapped much more effectively in the creation of gameworlds.

It's your turn to adapt a piece of literature -- contemporary, medieval, or somewhere in between -- into a game. It can be in any genre of literature or gaming -- the core concept is how compellingly you turn it into a game idea. How will you adapt from one medium to the other? What will you cut? What will you keep? What will you change, and what will stay the same?

for full details, read the full story:

EDIT - results are in...
http://gamecareerguide.com/features/...me_design_.php

Retro · 09-30-2009, 12:14 PM

There's pretty much an endless supply of ideas here, and since the story is more or less written, the challenge here is to decide what parts of that story make sense from a design standpoint, and how they can support the gameplay in a unique way.

Making a God of War clone and throwing it into a literary setting without that setting having any impact on the gameplay... well, apparently that's what EA is doing.

But I'm really looking forward to seeing how the forumgoers approach this one.

I'll have to sit for a bit and think on this one, as there aren't really any novels that jump out at me as making good games... hmm.

ddelisle · 09-30-2009, 03:49 PM

I think it's time for a Tom Clancy adaptation. No? How about some Tolkien? ;p

Looking forward to this one.

tsloper · 09-30-2009, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddelisle

I think it's time for a Tom Clancy adaptation. No? How about some Tolkien? ;p

Ian Fleming meets Lewis Carroll! (^_^)

Retro · 09-30-2009, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddelisle

I think it's time for a Tom Clancy adaptation. No? How about some Tolkien? ;p

Why not put them together? Tom Clancy's Middle Earth. With realistic Dwarf Tossing and tactical Fellowship-based combat!

I was briefly considering using the Song of Roland (10th century french epic) as the jumping off point for a game, but I didn't want to just have the entire context of the story used as a first level, and there isn't enough to really make a full game.

Anyone who tries to make a game based off the Piers Antony novel "Killobyte" wins a tannie point (sorry, all out of brownie points).

bittman · 09-30-2009, 11:43 PM

Medievil scripts seem a good personal challenge, but it would be best for me to do something I at least know a little better than average...and most things I know well are modern or restricted to Australian publication only.

Might have to research my own books to see if there's anything of interest. I could always be ahead of my time and turn Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly into a game and then take some glory when Disney finishes making it into a movie one day in the future.

I also have a really good Star Wars literature series I've always wanted to turn into a game concept, but at the same time it's not like Star Wars hasn't been done before.

I expect at least one Shakespeare entry here by the way...but with guns...

martin.bilello · 10-01-2009, 09:36 AM

It's been a while since my last submission, but this one seems interesting.
I have always think on an RTS type of game based on Truckers, the first book on the Bromeliad Trilogy from Terry Pratchett.
The different communities of Nomes fighting for dominance of The Store and maybe adding an end like the first Civilization where they need to build a ship to escape back to where they came from.

What do you guys think?

Protector one · 10-01-2009, 09:49 AM

I'd love to see a game based on Don Quixote. I would throw away pretty much all the events in the book, and solely keep the character. Well, and I'd need a wind mill section somewhere. You can't have Donny without the wind mills. (Even though they only VERY briefly appear in the book.)

wouldyoukindly99 · 10-03-2009, 07:06 AM

I am in the process of writing a game based on The Odyssey and the old Irish myth of Fiddler's Green based in an alternate history of 1941 Spain, I just hope that I will be able to create it someday.

Tenacious Stu · 10-04-2009, 11:08 PM

I think I'm going to sit this one out. had I decided to enter, I probably would have done some sort of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Point & Click Adventure. It's hard to find a decent book that hasn't been turned into a film and in turn, in to a game. I look forward to the results though, good luck everyone!