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[mrfredman]

How many of you guys have read Redwall by Brian Jacques? I grew up on them, and they actually inspired me to learn to read. My dad was reading me Redwall before bed every night, but he wasn't going fast enough for me, so I would stay up with a flashlight slowly making progress myself.

Cute stories aside, I was just sorting through some old books and it got me to thinking that some game company should really jump on the Redwall IP. There are just so many ways that they could be turned into really awesome games. You could do a RTS that included all of the various epic battles and focused on tactics and strategy. You could do a kid-friendly Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon type game with Redwall abbey where you get to interact with cute woodland creatures and play in the gardens.  You could do a Elder Scrolls type sandbox RPG where you are a lone warrior in the Redwall universe and you have to wander around and have adventures and stuff. I dunno, I have a million more ideas, I'm not sure I want to give them all away.

If I had the time and the resources to make these games I totally would, but seeing as I don't, someone else should! It would make me so happy to play a well-made Redwall game, I hope I get to some day. Until then we can fantasize and brainstorm and maybe hope that Bethesda or Blizzard is snooping around the General forums for game ideas to steal.
(I hope that last sentence isn't the focus of any replies, because its really Redwall I want to talk about)

[azeo]

All it seems to me is that you're taking games and applying Redwall to them. Still, I used to love Redwall, and it is long due for a game.

[Xion]

Oh man I loved Redwall. They were the drain into which many lost hours spiraled, and many nights sleep gone unhad. Truly, they were among the first non-picture books I'd ever read, and inspired me to write stories of my own. They even "inspired" me to join a furry community for a bit (As Arcblade Swift, the black wolf). Fortunately that didn't last very long, but it was the first online community I'd ever joined and been active in, which I guess you could say led me to other communities like Pixelation and ultimately TIGs. And I still love anthropomorphic characters/talking animals. Mouse Guard FTW. I stopped reading them after a while, though, when I recognized a formula: Redwall in trouble, small group leaves to find some artifact/person/cure, bad guy attacks multiple times, bad guy goes crazy, bad guy hardly ever dies by the hero's hand - it's always some third party like a traitor, or an accident, or the environment or something. Anyway though, yeah, <3 Redwall. Otters are awesome, too. I should read some of the newer books.

I would love to see a Redwall game, as I mentioned in the "Books that should be games" or whatever thread, but I think it would work best as a kind of freeroaming adventure type game, merely based in the Redwall world rather than on any specific book. I get the feeling that if it were done the latter way it'd be way too linear and unfun.

[Melly]

Heh, most of my game ideas feature that kind of anthropomophic character. I just find them interestingly iconic.

[deadeye]

I've never read the books but I've seen a couple episodes of the cartoon on PBS.  It seemed interesting but I had no idea what was going on.

All it seems to me is that you're taking games and applying Redwall to them.

There's nothing wrong with that.  Not every game has to be innovative.

[mrfredman]

I've never read the books but I've seen a couple episodes of the cartoon on PBS.  It seemed interesting but I had no idea what was going on.

I've seen a few episodes of the cartoon too. Its really weird, and as someone who has read practically all the books, I had no idea what was going on either. I recently went back and tried to reread some of them, but I couldn't get into them because now, being a well-read individual, I found them very simple and unoriginal. He just took every archetypal heroes journey and populated it with woodland creatures. I'm glad I got to enjoy their magic when I was still young and untainted.

All of the attempts to convert the books to other media that I've seen haven't been very successful. Thats why the idea of a game got me so excited, because I think thats the only modern Redwall incarnation I'd be at all interested in. I mean I would really love to be interested in the tv show or the newer books, they're just too juvenille now...

[hershc]

Yup, I read the first book (its a series, right?)...wow, quite some time ago. I remember being a bit intimidated since it was a pretty thick book (hey, I was young!), but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[michael]

I recently went back and tried to reread some of them, but I couldn't get into them because now, being a well-read individual, I found them very simple and unoriginal. He just took every archetypal heroes journey and populated it with woodland creatures. I'm glad I got to enjoy their magic when I was still young and untainted.

this exactly. i would say that this shows more how great the series is for children, rather than how dull and unoriginal the plots were. they were just epic enough.

i dont know if they need to make a specifically redwall game. we've got overgrowth, which will probably be better than most companies could do.

[Titch]

Brian Jacques actively opposes selling a Redwall video game license AFIK. I remember reading it sometime when I was fourteen and looking for Redwall MUDs. Probably because it will be combat heavy compared to the books. I think it would be pretty hard to translate a lot of the books into a single game without creating a bunch of minigames to cover the feasting/riddles and such.

[PaleFox]

[Xion]

[William Broom]

Redwall, fuck yeah! I loved those books - although I did find them kind of formulaic after a while.

I even had the official papercraft Redwall Abbey. It was actually quite stupid because they tried to make it so that there was no cutting or gluing whatsoever - there was just this huge single piece of cardboard, and you just folded bits and slotted tabs and stuff. In practice, erecting it was like wrestling with a snake. As soon as you jiggled one bit into place, that would unhook something elsewhere in the structure. I never did manage to completely assemble it.

[Xion]

I even had the official papercraft Redwall Abbey. It was actually quite stupid because they tried to make it so that there was no cutting or gluing whatsoever - there was just this huge single piece of cardboard, and you just folded bits and slotted tabs and stuff. In practice, erecting it was like wrestling with a snake. As soon as you jiggled one bit into place, that would unhook something elsewhere in the structure. I never did manage to completely assemble it.

Oh dude, I had that too! Same deal with not finishing it though, and I have no idea where it is now. I've still got the "Redwall: Friend and Foe" and "Redwall and Surrounding Lands (or whatever)" booklets on my bookshelf though.

[Biggerfish]

Same story with the books for me as well, loved them when I was younger but they lost their magic, I guess, when they started becoming formulaic. The only way I really see them becoming games is if they were a sort of Harvest Moon / sim type game, because for me, the most enjoyable part was just their everyday lives and the society,

[William Broom]

It could have a very interesting message if you combined elements of sim and action. For most of the game you are just Animal Crossing around, drinking cider, preparing feasts and whatnot. Then halfway through the game, you get invaded/catch a plague/whatever and have to go on an adventure to save your beloved sim abbey.

The twist is, the action gameplay is really hard and not fun at all, and you only persevere through it because you've got such an emotional attachment to the sim part of the game, which you have customised so that it is unique and irreplacable, that you want to save it from destruction.

[Biggerfish]

A lot of people would just give up when it gets too hard. I mean, if I were playing a relaxing sim game, I wouldn't want to have to put myself through pain to get it back because it was suddenly taken away.

[PaleFox]

It could be about the construction of the Abbey, and it could play like Chaos Seed (my favorite simulation game). I think with some tweaks to the systems it'd fit relatively well, which would be good.

[salade]

I loved Redwall as a kid! The hares were always the coolest.

It seeems like redwall would be the perfect setting for a mmorpg. Each animal could be a class, all the various adventures that have been chronicled could be quests, there could be raids against people like scrunny or that pirate guy... I could see it, but i don't think anybody would be willing to put in the work to make it happen.

[Titch]

It could have a very interesting message if you combined elements of sim and action. For most of the game you are just Animal Crossing around, drinking cider, preparing feasts and whatnot. Then halfway through the game, you get invaded/catch a plague/whatever and have to go on an adventure to save your beloved sim abbey.

The twist is, the action gameplay is really hard and not fun at all, and you only persevere through it because you've got such an emotional attachment to the sim part of the game, which you have customised so that it is unique and irreplacable, that you want to save it from destruction.

You can't force emotional attachment on players. You would have to come up with some clever means of primarily establishing that attachment and secondarily measuring it and scaling the difficulty with the level of attachment. If anything I would do it in reverse.

The game plays out in a set number of ages (which would be like a single book in the series) of the Abbey. The first part is building the community animal crossing style. The more the player involves themselves to build a large prosperous community the larger and more epic the adventure they have. Bigger battles, crazier set pieces during the journey, So on and so fourth. More epic adventures have a higher risk/reward ratio that scales with the community they have created.

Of course, that's way out of scope for something indy. It's nice to dream though.

A lot of the immutable rules of the Redwall Universe make it less than perfect for making a game. Stuff like fighting always being a last resort and woodlanders not being capable of evil.

[Craig Stern]

Dude, I used to love the Redwall series! I started reading the Redwall books in 3rd or 4th grade, if I remember correctly. I spent way too much time reading those books--more than I spent studying, by a long shot. In fact, I think I still have an autographed, hardback copy of Salamandastron back in my old room in Nashville. It's funny that so many of the people on these forums liked them too, though maybe I shouldn't be surprised about that.