Movies get made into games by the dozens each year. Not so for books. That seems a shame to me, as I often try to imagine how the action I consume in good science-fiction, fantasy and horror novels could be translated into interactive entertainment. Indeed, here are five novels that I think could make for splendid games:
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
Clearly, this story about a child who also happens to be a brilliant tactician and military commander would make a great strategy game. My instinct would be to design a turn-based game in which players take on the role of the titular character as he shuffles his student fighters around the book's famous zero-g training arena. The novel's premise, that Ender can never lose, plays perfectly into the old video game convention dictating that players must win battles to advance the plot.
Ringworld (Larry Niven)
Already dubbed " Halo before Halo" by some, this 39-year-old sci-fi classic focuses on an ancient, monstrously large, artificially constructed ring-shaped world that loops around a sun at approximately the same distance that Earth orbits Sol. I see this book as being a massive, open-world role-playing game in which the player steps into the boots of an explorer who crash lands on the surface and must explore its vast planes and ruined cities to look for a way off the ring. We'd have to deal with killer plants that reflect the sun's rays in an attempt to incinerate us and protect ourselves from the ring's technologically regressed, spookily cultish inhabitants.
World War Z (Max Brooks)
The book is written from the perspective of a man who lived through an international zombie holocaust that nearly wiped out humanity and is now documenting stories from other people who survived the horror. I think the game could keep the same basic premise. Each of the author's stories could be presented as its own level, with players taking on the role of a new character every chapter. It would have a bit of a Left 4 Dead vibe, with some stories depicted as all-out zombie sieges, some as races to find safety, and some as cat-and-mouse hunts through deserted buildings. Not all stories would end with the player character's survival.
Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut Jr.)
There's not much action in this 45-year-old classic, but it seems to me that something could be done with the book's provocative idea that by messing with the molecular properties of water we can alter it to freeze at room temperature. Ramifications include oceans instantly transformed into skating rinks and people becoming ice cubes at the touch of a single drop of H2O. How about this: A 3-D action/puzzle game in which water is the enemy. Players must carefully make their way through landscapes covered in ice, avoid rain and puddles in equatorial climates, and explore sweaty caves where infected water still appears in gaseous form.
The Dark Tower, Parts I through VII (Stephen King)
Despite what you might think, this daunting series of books wouldn't have to be transformed into a long succession of games, but could instead be just one epic adventure. The quieter parts of the books could be condensed into lengthy and luscious cut scenes based on the art in the trade paperbacks while the more lively segments would involve gunfights - I've always wanted to play out the Gunslinger's famous desert town battle - platforming action, and mind-bending puzzles. In fact, some of the conundrums could be lifted directly from the pages of King's 3,000 page masterwork, wherein our hero confronts some real brain-twisters.
The Globe and Mail's game blogger is currently recovering from surgery, reducing the frequency of his posts for several weeks. To see how he's mending, visit his personal blog at: http://gutless.posterous.com .