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[Chris Whitman]

I've decided to do a poorly translated demake of a classic novel into a NES-style game, possibly an RPG. I'm not entirely decided on which one yet, but here are some possible candidates from perusing my bookshelf:

Remembering Things That Happened: In the Way of Swans
Franz Kafka's Crazy Castle
The Estranger
The Picture of Kid Artist

[Hideous]

Tolstoy's War and Peace.


 

[Ivan]

It's an awesome idea, but I think it strays from the compo rules quite a bit too much.

[camosid]

I would recomend maybe Faust. If your willing to go farther in the time spectrum maybe a Vonnecut novel would be interesting to see. Or even Food of the Gods by H.G. Wells.

[Chris Whitman]

Tolstoy's War and Peace.
 

Dude, we only have a month.

It's an awesome idea, but I think it strays from the compo rules quite a bit too much.

You think so? A movie adaptation was ruled as officially OKAY. I agree it isn't perhaps the most applicable, but I figure it'll be funny and I wanted to do something a bit different.

[increpare]

Castle would be a good idea.  Deffo.

[Melly]

It's an awesome idea, but I think it strays from the compo rules quite a bit too much.

I think it's okay to do it.

[moi]

THE CALL OF CTHULU

[Moon Goon]

Hmmn.. Maybe..

Gran Turismo: Chariots of Fire
God of War and Peace
The Great Gatsby Sisters

P.S.

I was imagining a group of business-types getting together to cash in on some novel license, having perhaps skimmed the book and without having much idea of what video games are about..

It's been done before.  Ever hear of Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaACyIy0XgM

[Chris Whitman]

The problem with The Call of Cthulhu is that there are already a million things based on it. I figured it would be funnier to videogame-ize, in the tradition of bad movie tie-ins, something that was very un-videogame-like. I was imagining a group of business-types getting together to cash in on some novel license, having perhaps skimmed the book and without having much idea of what video games are about, then outsourcing all the real work to developers in Japan who have never even heard of the novel and just want to finish their work days so they can get to drinking.

The result would be pure gold.

Personally, I'm still siding towards either The Castle or In Search of Lost Time, both of which would work very well, I think.

[William Broom]

You know SUDA51 is already planning a game based on The Castle, right? Not saying you can't do it too, but I thought I'd just point it out.

[Ivan]

I always wanted to do one based on Dostoyevsky's "The Posessed"

[camosid]

Its not really related but I want to make a point and click adventure based on the 2001:A Space Odyysey.

[Chris Whitman]

You know SUDA51 is already planning a game based on The Castle, right? Not saying you can't do it too, but I thought I'd just point it out.

I don't know who SUDA51 is, but from his name I assume he will ruin it anyway.

Also, demakes aside, I don't really see a way you could legitimately capture a Kafka novel in game form. How do you bring interactivity to someone whose hallmark was the terrifying restriction of incomprehensible social structures?

[Chris Whitman]

I mean, not to be a huge jerk about it, but The Castle is all about the idea that all of the protagonist's actions are rendered meaningless since every character in the novel carries around this intensely unique and complicated social model around in their head through which they are interpreted, but all of their views are disparate and without resolution, so there is no discernible, objective meaning for anything. There is simply no information available other than a mess of contradictions, and the lack of objectivity is intensely hopeless and alienating.

If you captured that in a game, it would be a game which constantly taunted you with the promise of success, but which you could never win, where no one could even really tell you, after playing it, what the rules had been. Basically, it would be marketing suicide and no one would ever try to make it as a commercial game, which is why I think that anyone making a game based on The Castle is just going to end up making something slightly confusing with some quirky characters and a bit of misleading dialogue.