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[laserghost]

I read this book when I was a kid called Interstellar Pig, about a bunch of kids next door who play a board game that turns out to be a real intergalactic war. Really fun story. I don't know if the game's rules were ever laid out in the book, but it'd be cool to make it a real game.

http://www.amazon.com/Interstellar-Pig-William-Sleator/dp/0140375953/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220573665&sr=8-2

[deadeye]

I read this book when I was a kid called Interstellar Pig, about a bunch of kids next door who play a board game that turns out to be a real intergalactic war. Really fun story. I don't know if the game's rules were ever laid out in the book, but it'd be cool to make it a real game.

http://www.amazon.com/Interstellar-Pig-William-Sleator/dp/0140375953/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220573665&sr=8-2

Dude, William Sleator is awesome.  I read all his books as a kid.  House of Stairs freaked me the fuck out.  Singularity and The Boy Who Reversed Himself were pretty sweet too.  I think my favorite though was The Green Futures of Tycho.  All that time-travel fuckery is just .

Damn, now I want to read those books again

[laserghost]

I've always thought Interstellar Pig was so obscure, but just today it came up in a completely unrelated conversation. Weird how things like that can happen...

[moi]

Some dude mentioned it on indiegamer.com not long ago too.

[PowRTocH]

SPACE CAT

[reetva]

SPACE CAT

Yes yes yes, one million times yes.

[Bree]

I think it could be even more epic than Bioshock. There, I said it.

[PowRTocH]

Quote from: Cow on Today at 05:55:55 PM

Damn I'm good.

[difficultman]

I always imagined Atlas Shrugged as a fighting game.

[GregWS]

Oh my!  Cow, you seem to have damaged my Victorian sensibilities! 

[Bree]

Hey, if someone can make a fighting game out of Les Miserables, why not?

[GregWS]

I think I'd heard of that fighting game before; I haven't read the book but it looks pretty funny.

Every once and a while Kotaku will link to some article about books that could be games, and there have been some pretty hilarious ones suggested for old novels from that era (many of which I haven't read).

At this point, for a lot of these novels to work as games, I think games in general (I'm speaking in terms of genres and types of gameplay) will have to evolve; I don't think many of these books could be squeezed into all ready existing genres without making a mockery of them (not that that is always a bad thing; satire can be incredible when done right).

What I also find interesting would be games that "teach" the player about concepts present in non-fiction.  For example, instead of reading a book about urban planning theory, someone could play a city sim game that thoroughly and obviously implements the ideas from the book.  The player would be exposed to, and forced to work with, the concepts instead of just passively reading about them; they would experience the ideas first hand.  All the better if the game was addictive.

[KennEH!]

Hey, if someone can make a fighting game out of Les Miserables, why not?

Holy crap, that just made my day.

[William Broom]

I would like to see a Japanese-style RPG like Kingdom Hearts but for Shakespeare plays. It would be set in a crazy version of the real world where only Shakespearean locations exist (i.e. Denmark is ten miles north of Verona). Romeo would be perfect as the whiny JRPG hero, Hamlet as the dark mopey one, Macbeth as the badass villain who's in the party but is kind of suspicious, Prospero as the wise old magician, and Viola as the obligatory transvestite. Also, Lavinia, the vengeful mute with swords for hands.
Then they would all have cheesy JRPG special attacks. Macbeth would be able to summon Banquo's ghost to help him. Prospero would conjure Ariel and Caliban. Viola would have different abilities depending on whether she is dressed as a man or a woman. Romeo and Hamlet would be similar, but Romeo's attacks are risky while Hamlet's are safer but less powerful.

[GregWS]

   That just made my day chutup!

So now that you've mentioned the Shakespeare as JRPG idea, I think I'd actually like to see them as individual JRPGs for each play, instead of the mix-up you suggested.  I think they'd certainly be a lot shorter that average, but I think that would be good as people that don't usually play RPGs (due in no small part to length) might actually give them a try.  I think they could perfectly satirize both the plays and JRPGs in general, to great comic effect.

[neon]

this is a treasure trove of good ideas.

my contribution: camus' the stranger.  you play mersault, and you go through the story, but you are presented with a ton of little choices which determine whether you decide to kill the group of arabs and go to jail, or to befriend your neighbor, or go to your mom's funeral, or all of the stuff that happens in the book.

the interesting part about this is that in the book, mersault is an emotionally empty person, devoid of conscience, love, hate, or feelings of any power at all.  so then there is no problem of detachment between you and the character (i.e. the character's feelings and your own, which are separate), because of this incredibly bland, apathetic protagonist.

i think to do it in a fairly realistic semi-lowpoly 3d style would work really well, but it would need to be really atmospheric and awesome - old world algiers, a bit stylized but also realistic -  .  i think a kind of GTA-like free-roaming (to a point) game mechanic would fit in well with the story and stuff.

also, if you haven't read this book..!  it's insanely good.


edit:  and redwall, and moomintroll!  yes!  i especially like the idea of redwall becoming a game.  but moomintroll is so great too!  oh man.  they both need to become really good games.

[neon]

but, you guys know, if any of these games are adapted badly, it'll be a tragedy.   

[William Broom]

I really want to do an 'adaptation' compo in the future. Some people are already doing that with the demakes compo (Cake was demaking a classic novel or something, and someone else was demaking Watchmen IIRC).  But a full-blown compo, which allows adaptations from books, movies, comics, TV etc... that would be awesome. The hard part would be deciding which one to do  :D

[GregWS]

Yeah, that's a great idea for a compo, but I think it would probably still have to be bootleg to avoid any possible legal issues.  And the only gripe I have about that is that once you bootleg something it is very hard to keep anything about it serious, even the serious elements of the original.

[Pacian]

Yeah, that's a great idea for a compo, but I think it would probably still have to be bootleg to avoid any possible legal issues.  And the only gripe I have about that is that once you bootleg something it is very hard to keep anything about it serious, even the serious elements of the original.

Why not just restrict it to classics that are in the public domain?