News Halycon planning Philp K. Dick games

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/27/halycon-planning-philp-k-dick-games/1

Halycon Company, the production company which owns the rights to make films based on Philip K. Dick's novels, has announced plans for game adaptations too.

 

Hmm... I'd say they'd have to be very careful about how they do this.

A Scanner Darkly would be very difficult to turn into a game without adding lots of hallucinations and stuff, as well as long stretches of not really doing anything.

Blade runner would be very cool, although they'd have to get the kibble just right for it to really work, and really concentrate on the original text, rather than the (admittedly excellent) film adaptation.

I think The Penultimate Truth could make a fantastic RPG adaptation, but again, the developer would have to be very careful not to stray too far from the book's core, and lose the feeling of the novel.

 

blade runner was an amazing game, if alittle hard at certain points. still have my copy of it kicking around somewhere

 

If ASD was done well it could be amazing.

I quite enjoyed minority report on the gamecube, well enough to complete it anyways. Arcadey goodness.

 

How to make a Philip K Dick story into a game: don't finish it! Just when the conclusion to the game comes, end it there with no conclusion. Not even credits, just stop and chuck the disc out. That's how to get the true essence of a PKD story!

Damn author never finished most of his stories!

 

I was playing a short freeware game called Mondo Agency the other day which really reminded me of Dick's work:

http://64digits.com/users/cactus/MondoAgencyFixed.zip

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Krikkit (seems like we have similar reading tastes).

The best PKD film conversions are the ones that have strayed quite away from the original material, i.e. turned them into action films with the background loosely based on the novels (something I don't mind as Dick was not exactly Wodehouse linguistically, nor a creator of Dickensian characters).

Any game that takes on themes of ethics, nature of reality, drug abuse and God (god?) is monumentally ambitious and, I daresay, doomed to failure. I wish the developers all the best (they'll need it) but I'm just not sure games as a medium is capable of doing his work justice yet.

 

Ack! That's screwed up my sound card drivers

 

terible idea Philip K Dick's books that I have read have no moments of action they would only make good adventure games and those adventure games would not have a wide apeal.

 

I recall the Bladerunner game being damn good, I've still got my copy kicking about in a box somewhere I wonder if I can get it to run on XP. The graphics will be laughably crude by today's standards but the gameplay will more than make up for that.

As for the rest of PKD's inventory, sheesh unless they make some drastic changes, they might have a problem or two on their hands.

Didn't they make a game of Total Recall? I have a vague memory of this but considering how long ago they made the film then its likely to have been some dodgy sideways scrolling platform/shooter combo.

 

The problem with PKD's novels and short stories is that they rely for a large part on psychological plot devices - that is, the mind and the (possibly chemically-induced) malfunctioning thereof.

After all, most PKD stories that have been made into films have been drastically altered before they reached the silver screen. Probably the closest to the original book was "A Scanner Darkly", but even that had vast tracts removed (particularly the bit where Substance D causes Fred to spy on Arctor, even though they're the same person - you just can't do that in film and keep a coherent story flowing).

Now games do allow for more immersion that films simply because they're interactive, but I still don't see how you can portray the psychology of the story while keeping the game interesting.

 

I wonder how they'll distribute the game. CD? Digital download? DVD? LSD induced theophany? The mind boggles.