Busted!
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a snide
entry slamming a nice children's book author for suggesting her
stories as potential games. The letter I actually wrote to her was less rude
(though totally dismissive), but I was definitely a jerk here in the blog. A
partial
quote:"While
the story may be cute (in my opinion, it sounds pretty lame, but I'm
inconsiderate for saying so), it's not a
game."Anyway, I'm busted. She read my
blog, and was quite rightly offended. I'm a
jerk!-----JUNE-----Two
words for you...Harry
PotterA couple
more...Star
WarsAlienCharlie
and the Chocolate FactoryLemony
SnickettDo I need to
continue?Don't tell me a story is not a
game.-----JOE-----A
story is not a game. There are games based on the stories mentioned, but it's
nothing like the same thing.A story
is a
movie. If I hand you a story, it's pretty clear what's going to happen in the
movie. A movie based on a Harry Potter book is largely finished conceptually as
soon as somebody says, "Let's do a movie based on
The Sorcerer's
Stone."A
story is not a game. There are games based on stories, though it's rare -- many
more are based on movies, from which there's more to steal. (Music, visual
style, and so forth.)Let's take Star
Wars as an example. Say George Lucas gives me the right to make a Star Wars
game. Great story! But what's the game? Is it first-person shooter, in which
one runs around as a Jedi, blasting everything in sight? Maybe. Is it a
strategy game, in which one builds fleets and armies and tries to take over the
galaxy? Maybe. Is it a role-playing game? A turn-based strategy game? A sim?
Heck, I could even do a Star Wars version of Eric's Ultimate
Solitaire.When a game maker licenses a
movie, it's not because the story of the movie is a game. It's because the
movie has name recognition, and fans of the movie will be inclined to buy the
game. It's not because there's a game idea in the
movie.The critical part of a game
design is about the decisions a player gets to make. Readers of stories don't
make decisions. Big difference.And
June -- sorry I was a jerk. You can probably tell by my rants that this is one
of my (many) pet peeves.
Filed Fri - November 11, 2005, 10:13 AM in
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