What Book(s) or Author would like to be turned into a game?

[EbonyBetty]

We all have read a book and thought "Man this would make a great video game!" And most video game developers would agree with you too! (*cough * almost every fantasy game is on Tolkien's jock *cough*) So here's the place to share it! 

 

For the rules of this thread list a book or book series: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc

 

OR 

 

An author: Lovecraft, Tolkien, etc.

 

Then describe what type of genre the game would be (point-n-click, RPG, FPS shooter)! and maybe give a little description or maybe a reason why it'd be a great video game. You can list multiple books/authors as well. Even if none of these get made at least we'd get some awesome book recommendations!

 

Here's mine:

I'd love an RPG set in the world of 'Speech Sounds' from Octavia Butler's book Blood Child. It's a universe where everyone's Broca's area of the brain has been damaged due to an airborne virus so everyone in the world cannot read or speak. The virus also irritates the amygdala of the brain as well so it also makes people aggressive. 

 

I'd love to see an action-adventure game based off The Odyssey, but only the journey not the setting of Ancient Greece. Kind of like The Warriors or Brother Where Art Thou. 

 

Or another RPG based off the universe of the Crystal Rain series! Crystal Rain is kinda of like 'Futuristic Caribbean Steampunk' with pirates of flying ships. Hey, it aint Shakespeare but it is very enjoyable.

 

And then I'd love to have a video game based on anything by Gene Wolf or Harlen Ellison (yes I've played 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream')

Edited August 24, 2017 by EbonyBetty

[kirottu]

Give me Mistborn or give me death.

[SonicMage117]

I would love a Jules Verne game in the vein of Sunless Sea.

[Labadal]

Give me Mistborn or give me death.

There was supposed to be a Mistborn game in development but it was cancelled.

[HoonDing]

Tarnsman of Gor

[213374U]

Karl Marx. In the grim darkness of the near future there is only (class) war.

[Hurlshort]

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series seems pretty tailored towards an RPG or MMO.

 

I think there is an Apocalypse Now game in the works, but I'd love an actual Heart of Darkness book as well.

[LittleRose]

Maybe the Broken Blade series by Kelly McCullough. There are better books out there, but the special skills of the main character and his shadowy familiar would make an awesome stealth game. Get cloaked in magical darkness, glide from roof to roof even across the main street with the help of shadow wings, or sneak behind a guard and put him to sleep with a specially prepared egg (or better with the stuff the eggs are filled with), and infiltrate fortresses and temples without being seen. Just a few examples, there's more, but not too much.

 

Of cause the game would have to be set before the books, because in the books the temple of Namara, the goddess of justice, has been destroyed, the goddess herself is dead, and her former assassins, called Blades, are also either dead or on the run. That's no spoiler, but a part of the world design which is explained right in the beginning of the first book.

[Malcador]

Starship Troopers

[the_dog_days]

Larry Correia's Grimnoir series would make an awesome steampunk superhero shooter.

[Lexx]

Don't know any that would work as a game. The ones that could... can easily be done as something on their own, without connection to any book. As example, there is no point in a Dark Tower game, when as well you can just make a wacky Weird West game instead. Same outcome, more creative freedom, less license money to pay.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Lexx

[Mamoulian War]

Hmm, I would love to see Clive Barker's Imajica. But I am not really sure, which genre would be best for it. But I do not think, I would want to see it as something Telltale's like.

[Orogun01]

I would love a Jules Verne game in the vein of Sunless Sea.

I think there is enough material on his books to make a Verneverse.

[injurai]

Dune, but not as an RTS.

 

Maybe like an open-world Half-life or STALKER.

[Tigranes]

Honestly? Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel as an adventure-RPG, a work which details medieval folk mythology in such a way that it is entirely foreign to modern sensibilities and a masterpiece in the grotesque, before that came to mean just totally wacky alien stuff of horror in the 19/20th centuries.

 

You have senile pregnant hags; you have festivals where the king is made clown and birthing and other rituals are given mock enactments; glorious banquets with corpulent giants; medieval toilet humour and more.

 

Hell, it's already a series, with the first one "The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua". 

 

Gustave Dore's illustrations are ready-made for the CYOA sequences:

 

[Mamoulian War]

 

I would love a Jules Verne game in the vein of Sunless Sea.

I think there is enough material on his books to make a Verneverse.

Just out of curiosity, is his work now completely in public domain?

[algroth]

Honestly? Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel as an adventure-RPG, a work which details medieval folk mythology in such a way that it is entirely foreign to modern sensibilities and a masterpiece in the grotesque, before that came to mean just totally wacky alien stuff of horror in the 19/20th centuries.

 

You have senile pregnant hags; you have festivals where the king is made clown and birthing and other rituals are given mock enactments; glorious banquets with corpulent giants; medieval toilet humour and more.

 

Hell, it's already a series, with the first one "The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua".

 

I'd love to see this. Heck, an RPG setting based on a collection of grotesque fairy tales and folk stories the likes of this or, for example, Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone as well.

[Orogun01]

 

 

I would love a Jules Verne game in the vein of Sunless Sea.

I think there is enough material on his books to make a Verneverse.

Just out of curiosity, is his work now completely in public domain?

 

https://www.quora.com/Are-the-books-written-by-Jules-Verne-in-the-public-domain-such-that-they-can-be-distributed-commercially

[EbonyBetty]

 

Honestly? Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel as an adventure-RPG, a work which details medieval folk mythology in such a way that it is entirely foreign to modern sensibilities and a masterpiece in the grotesque, before that came to mean just totally wacky alien stuff of horror in the 19/20th centuries.

 

You have senile pregnant hags; you have festivals where the king is made clown and birthing and other rituals are given mock enactments; glorious banquets with corpulent giants; medieval toilet humour and more.

 

Hell, it's already a series, with the first one "The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua".

 

I'd love to see this. Heck, an RPG setting based on a collection of grotesque fairy tales and folk stories the likes of this or, for example, Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone as well.

 

Oh man, yes! I was thinking about this yesterday! I really want an RPG in a mythological setting with unconventional mythical creatures. No elves, dwarves, or wizards but rather: centaurs, tengus, selkies, banshees, popobawas, and vejigantes! I like the idea of a reverse Secret World and Fables series type scenario. Where the mythological and folklore creatures all aware of each other and try to keep their world hidden from modern day humans.  

[ShadySands]

Any decent urban fantasy

[melkathi]

Anything written by the awesome dude going as melkathi

 

Dune I always wanted to see as an RPG. But the prequel novels crimes have put me off. Now I want nobody to touch the IP out of fear that Brian Herbert would influence the game and turn it into garbage.

 

I would have liked Metro 2033 to be turned into a strategy/management game, where you have a small group of survivors in a metro station and have to run that, trade with other stations, send out scavenger groups etc.

[Raithe]

Hm, I do wonder if you could pull off a decent version of Count of Monte Cristo as a game.

 

That would take a dose of heavy rpg, a way to handle gameplay set across several years for the training, the financial management and spymaster / information gathering / detective build up to engaging in sprawling revenge plans.

 

The trouble with the idea of taking a book and turning it into a game is that book plots rarely work well as a direct transfer. You tend to need it to be more a "book universe" and a seperate story that works with the flow.

 

Hm, Honor Harrington universe has been mentioned for tactical / strategy gaming - technically, you could also use it for FPS, Manticoran Marines doing boarding duties or..hm that action/rpg of captured Navy officer doing an escape.

 

Heh, if zombie apocalypse wasn't being played to death so much of late I'd consider John Ringo's Black Tide series as a universe to do a mix of game genres in.

 

Rather than name a specific book, there is that whole genre of "guy from modern day world gets dumped in a fantasy / medieaval anologue world and uses his engineering / science skills to build ****, win wars, get the girl, repeat." That could make an interesting rpg / tactical mix, designing a character and establishing what modern day knowledge they have and then how it would interact with things in the new world. From expected practicalities of basic engineering and knowing sanitation and plumbing, to things like computer programming skills enabling you to use magic in a way no-ones seen before.  A modern day doctor with some practical chemistry skills being able to become a mythical healer and such. Using some basic chemistry and understanding of economics to kick start a pseudo-industrial revolution with the introduction of lamp oil, ether, franchises and banking...  Although that would be an utter bastard to design in practical gaming I imagine.

[Blodhemn]

The trouble with the idea of taking a book and turning it into a game is that book plots rarely work well as a direct transfer. You tend to need it to be more a "book universe" and a seperate story that works with the flow.

Yep. Use the lore and forget about copying the narrative.

[redneckdevil]

Lovecraft

Crpg (don't care if turn based or rtwp)

 

Set in the Victorian England 1800s. A group of reg people (cops, doctor's, artists, musician, etc etc) get tied up to try and foil the evil scientist (Mr jeckle/Dr Hyde) who has teamed up with Mr Smiley and have them face all the old school monsters from the black n white horror films (Dracula, werewolf, it came from the deep lagoon, etc) and make them lovecraftian monsters.

Edited August 27, 2017 by redneckdevil

[Sarex]

Wheel of Time.