Full Circle: Novels influenced video games. Can video games now influence novels?

[JHY]

I started a thread on the idea of SoulsBorne style literature, and there already a number of great posts. I’d like to expand the discussion to how we can be influenced by video games in general in our stories. The first point I would like to bring up, is that what works in a game will not always work in a book. Therefore, the challenge is to break down what we love about different games and figure out how we can find ways of reproducing those elements in a novel.

P.S. This is about the traditional novel format, not litrpg.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Characters, worlds, plots. I know this is obvious, but why look at the gameplay of Osu or Counter-Strike, when you can look at the world of Evil Islands(Allods) and take inspiration from it, or, for example, look at the characters from Persona, from MGR or Final Fantasy and take inspiration from them?

 

[Poleg]

from MGR

 

[melchi]

I think it is important to note that writing for a video game is different than writing for a novel. There was an old extra credit's video (Which I can't currently find) that talks about the #1 goal of video game script is creating a narrative. Telling a story is secondary to having a robust narrative.

Example: A fantasy RPG... suppose town A has a main quest that is to defeat the goblin boss in the cave, each NPC can be a tool to add to that narrative. Townspeople talk about how it is bad having the goblin boss. Goblins attack as soon as the hero is traveling in their turf. There are cutscenes where the bad things happen that paint the goblin boss as a villain.

The goal is to repeatedly drive home a certain narrative.

Now in a traditional novel if there are 100 npcs that the main character talks too with one line of text how does that transfer? How many townsfolk conversations about the goblin boss are enough to annoy readers and want the story to progress already? It doesn't work so well. However, games have things like coding constraints that novels don't have.

Can someone make a novel that is a rogue-like that people will want to read? How can someone make a story about two teams with their own bases in a boxed canyon that have to fight each other over and over?

 

[JHY]

Characters, worlds, plots. I know this is obvious, but why look at the gameplay of Osu or Counter-Strike, when you can look at the world of Evil Islands(Allods) and take inspiration from it, or, for example, look at the characters from Persona, from MGR or Final Fantasy and take inspiration from them?

I always wondered if analyzing gameplay could somehow help a writer with constructing their combat scenes. And there is a treasure trove of characters and character dynamics to draw from. I also think about how exciting it would be to read a book with the kind of heavy atmosphere some games have; Hollow Knight jumps to mind as an example. Or the atmosphere and show-don’t-tell nature of Team Ico games.

 

[ElijahRyne]

I started a thread on the idea of SoulsBorne style literature, and there already a number of great posts. I’d like to expand the discussion to how we can be influenced by video games in general in our stories. The first point I would like to bring up, is that what works in a game will not always work in a book. Therefore, the challenge is to break down what we love about different games and figure out how we can find ways of reproducing those elements in a novel.

P.S. This is about the traditional novel format, not litrpg.

Oftentimes video games, or at least the good ones, rely on the setting and the stuff in it to do the world building while using the player character(s) and their choices to tell their own story in that world. Oftentimes the big story beats are the same, but how long it takes the player to get to that point and what they did to get there are typically all different.
In books we have our protagonist(s) to make the choices, therefore they need to be well written or else they would feel like the author‘s puppet dancing to keep the story going. From here it is, typically, how the protagonist(s) react that move the story along.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I always wondered if analyzing gameplay could somehow help a writer with constructing their combat scenes.

I disagree. Almost every game(with a few exceptions), even fightings, especially fightings, has the same unrealistic style of fighting. If you want to write a fighting scene that will look really fresh and interesting, watch and analyze MMA or some other martial art. As for armed fighting, watch Hema or something similar and incorporate it into your writing.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

In my case, it's about loving a person working on games.

 

[LilRora]

I once heard a very astute observation that we come up with the best ideas when we are under restrictions. In games... you could say it's budget, processor capabilities, and human resources, but that's not what I'm talking about here. What I mean are self-imposed limits - for example, someone says "Let's make a two-dimensional platformer game without killing in a three-dimensional world" or "Let's make a game where the main character can only use cards as their weapons".

The problem here is the fact that the same limit in a game and in the story translate to completely different aspects of the story you need to focus on - in a game it is, well, gameplay, and in the story it will be the main character. Let's see the first example I gave here: "A two-dimensional platformer without killing in a three dimensional world" As a concept for a game it sounds amazing - a good challenge, creative, and novel, but if you think about applying that idea to a story... well, I don't think I need to explain what I mean. There's just no way to make a story based on that idea - it would simply be incredibly boring as is.

Another good example here is dungeon delving stories, like Danmachi from the top of my head. The dungeon-delving element comes directly from the stories, but the focus of the story itself is not on the dungeon, but on the interactions between Bell and whoever else there is. I haven't read or watched the thing. The dungeon is more of a background there.

Back on tracks, when you're writing a novel, the type of self-imposed restrictions you make is for example "Let's write a story where the main character saves the world from the demon lord only to realize he becomes no different from him" - and again, problem is, that idea is hard to apply to a game, because it doesn't tell you absolutely anything about the engaging parts of the game, for instance how it can be challenging to clear.

There are, of course, games that focus on the story (Ori and the Blind Forest and the continuation, for example) and stories that heavily focus on the game-like elements (not even counting LitRPGs, and I'm not even gonna start listing them out), but the thing is that those stories have both of those elements. The engaging story and the interesting gameplay, just that it's seem from different perspectives.

And that's the ideal of what should be done - combine the restrictions like "Let's make a game where the main character can only use cards as their weapons" and "Let's write a story where the main character saves the world from the demon lord only to realize he becomes no different from him", and you have an amazing foundation for a story... just as well as you have a foundation for a game. Any questions?

So, to conclude, while video game can and do influence stories, the elements that make games and stories interesting are completely different. Trying to directly use what makes a game engaging in a story (and vice versa) simply cannot work by itself, because what makes games interesting will definitely not sell if you put it in a story without any elements that would make the story itself engaging. The challenge is not as much in reproducing what we love in a game in a story as it is in including the element of a game we love in an engaging and interesting story.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

I started a thread on the idea of SoulsBorne style literature, and there already a number of great posts. I’d like to expand the discussion to how we can be influenced by video games in general in our stories. The first point I would like to bring up, is that what works in a game will not always work in a book. Therefore, the challenge is to break down what we love about different games and figure out how we can find ways of reproducing those elements in a novel.

P.S. This is about the traditional novel format, not litrpg.

Yeah video game fanfics

 

[AiLovesToGrow]

You say this isn't about LitRPG, yet that is an exact corollary that really shouldn't be ignored. Both games and books are at their core a way to convey a story. World building, plot, characters, flow of prose, all are directed by the creator and then enters the minds of the audience. Many Final Fantasy games are directly responsible for how I look at plot and characters. I created my LitRPG boxes to directly simulate the default blue with white text on top that was a major part of growing up for me.

So what doesn't work? The same things that don't work in books don't work in games: lack of connection or catharsis. People remember games because of accomplishment. The same is done through stories because the audience is engaged with the characters. The trap in both games and stories is when the reader gets to either the end or an end, there needs to be a release of the built up tension and a sense of accomplishment. What that accomplishment is can be really anything, so long as the game creator or writer is able to connect meaning between the story and the characters and the audience.

 

[Le_ther]

I started a thread on the idea of SoulsBorne style literature, and there already a number of great posts. I’d like to expand the discussion to how we can be influenced by video games in general in our stories. The first point I would like to bring up, is that what works in a game will not always work in a book. Therefore, the challenge is to break down what we love about different games and figure out how we can find ways of reproducing those elements in a novel.

P.S. This is about the traditional novel format, not litrpg.

Well mostly it's just plot and characters that are influenced. Idk about the world though. But if it's a visual novel game then it would be easier to adapt to a novel because you know... visual novel

 

[melchi]

Well mostly it's just plot and characters that are influenced. Idk about the world though. But if it's a visual novel game then it would be easier to adapt to a novel because you know... visual novel

I actually think a visual novel would be harder. They tend to have the most endings of any kind of game. I guess unless someone is going to write a choose your own adventure book.

 

[JHY]

Testing my sig in my own thread, because I can.