It seems like a no-brainer to me to turn many of the really good sci-fi books into video games, not just your regular old RPGs. There is so much scope for multiple genres pulled from the pages of some of the best-loved science fiction books, with the right direction.
Science fiction books that should be video games
One or two of these may have already inspired video games, either obscurely or directly. However, they usually go in the wrong direction. There really aren’t many science fiction novel adaptations to games out there. Not successful ones, anyway.
2001: A Space Odyysey
As a simple concept, the amazing 2001: A Space Odyssey could be turned into a video game by simply having the player try to reach their destination, avoiding a murderous HAL. It would play out as a trapped horror, navigating space in which the ship itself is dedicated to murder. Various ways to stay alive would be possible, making each playthrough unique. All you need to do is stay alive long enough to reach that distant planet without HAL getting the better of you. I think Arthur C. Clarke would love to see his sci-fi become a video game.
Altered Carbon
With the idea of Shells and rebirth used in Altered Carbon, the gameplay of this adaptation would make for a good rogue-lite. Akin to the book, a crime must be solved, but what if someone was out there trying to get you? Every time you die, a fee must be paid, and progress must be regained. Clues will be gradually collected, and the player will move ever closer to the answer. But every death will result in a loss of items and finances.
Dune
This book has once before been made into a video game, but as a science fiction adaptation, it could do with some updating. In my mind, the Dune books could be combined into one, starting with the Fremen, deep in the desert. While playing top-down, god game style, it is up to the player to collect resources, conserve water, develop the Fremen, welcome in the Al Gaib, and, over time, take over the galaxy. Dune The Video Game would be a resource-collecting empire builder that eventually spans the galaxy in a game akin to EVE.
The Dark Tower series
Embracing The Dark Tower series’s various worlds, interlinking storylines, and complexity as a game would be hard but not impossible. With the vast struggles of the characters in the book, it would make for a fantastic souls-like, I think. The various, weird worlds would suit the Miyazaki art style.
Travelling backward and forward through time, meeting the various monsters, and knowing death is only one Lobstrosity away would be gripping. The deep and intricate mystical science fiction in these books would make for some beautiful, if not challenging, games.
Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd has, of course, featured in at least one game I know of. He is shown as Judge Bro in Broforce, with his homing pistol and all. However, I think as a third-person shooter embracing the wicked stories, it would shine much better.
An over-the-shoulder, cover-to-cover style game akin to Gears of War would suit the Judge to a T. Many of the long, arching storylines of wars in the Megablocks and evil monsters that live within the post-nuclear city could provide more than enough material for some serious storyline based shooter action.
The infinitely stylish comics, with their high-speed motorcycles and wild weapons, would translate beautifully to the screen. Imagine fighting your way up thousands of floors of a Megablock. The cyberpunk art style of the science fiction books would look great, flashing across the screen of a well-made video game.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The core of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? is about capturing rogue androids through a series of questions in the vain hope of being able to afford a real-life animal, and it’s the inspiration for Blade Runner. That’s a game ready to be made. Think Papers, Please combined with L.A. Noir. It would be up to you to perform the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test and then decide whether or not to put a bullet between the eyes of the android. There would be a goal to reach enough money to afford the animal. But, just like in the book, life gets in the way. It is a science fiction indie game waiting to be made with this book.
The Children of Men
The film does the wonderful The Children of Men justice in that it takes the theory of a world with no future and makes it into a fantastic watch. I feel that a successful game would work in much the same way as the film adaptation. An open-world RPG could be possible for this science fiction book to work as a video game.
As you make your way around a world devoid of hope, rumours of a new birth have been heard. It is up to you, a smuggler, to not only find the child but then transport it across the environment to safety. Factions, new environments, alliances, and wars could be spread across the game, creating a rich and diverse world. I would love to see the idea of a world devoid of a future plays out in an RPG setting.
The Commonwealth Saga
There are so many ways in which the Commonwealth Saga books could play out as science fiction games. The space opera covers a vast array of action and world building. However, the way I would like to see it play out is by playing as the Alpha Prime itself. Why not be the bad guy? Why not wipe out the human race?
As the Alpha Prime, it is up to you to spread yourself across the galaxy, terraforming planets and destroying every living thing but yourself. With a worldbuilder-style game, it is up to you to take resources and develop yourself through DNA theft and stolen tech. Over time, you can spread to other planets with the sole purpose of being the only living being in the universe.
The Culture Novels
There are plenty of little and large tales you could pull from the incredible worlds of Iain M. Banks’s culture novels. However, something I always loved in his books was the Minds and their habitable spaceships that casually float around the galaxies. These mega minds house millions of inhabitants in some cases, and others work as planet-crushing war machines.
The many varied Culture spaceships are what this science fiction book-to-game adaptation would focus on. As a player, you could build your own Mind ship, taking part in the economy of the in-game universe. Do you want to focus on building a Fallout Shelter-style habitation ship, or do you want to build a scouting ship, ready to explore the depths? Maybe you want to create a moon-sized warship. This game would be a combination of MMORPG economy games mixed with some world-building.
Fahrenheit 451
So, hear me out. It’s basically a cookie-clicker game, but you’re throwing books onto a fire. The more you burn, the better equipment you get in order to burn more books. Subsequently, the more stuff you get to burn. You can move on to music, then plays, then art, and finally, you get to burn the literate! These are the kind of science fiction books we need to turn into mobile games.
Does this trivialise one of the finest works of science fiction? Absolutely. Does it make a statement about the triviality and dumbing down of the population with moronic, endorphins-injecting mobile games, slowly pulling us away from independent, critical thinking? I don’t know. What do you think?
