I cut my teeth on old Atari games—the Secret of Monkey Island making a lasting impression on me—and was subsequently weaned on the first generations of consoles. Things have certainly moved on since then, but I’m still an avid gamer. Rather unsurprisingly my favourite genres are fantasy and sci-fi RPGs. Much like a good book I like something I can get my teeth into and that transports me to its world through its story and characters.
Some of the best examples of these are The Witcher (based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, which I have still to read) – the storytelling here is exemplary with even the side-quests having more depth than some other games’ main storylines. Darksouls, tough, immersive and er, dark. Bioware’s Mass Effect and Dragon Age universes, and The Elder Scrolls series. I’m also a fan of the Zelda and Metroid games. Now it would be remiss of me as an indie writer if I were to ignore indie games and there have been some gems in recent years (Everyone’s gone to rapture, Journey, Braid, Inside, Edith Finch, to name just a few).
I play games for many reasons, but the selling point for me is a good story. It’s ironic then that my book’s story was created around the mechanics of games. It serves as its magic system, and as the character’s drive to become increasingly more powerful. It also seeks to address certain tropes: Why is my horse always there even though I have fast travelled across an entire continent? Why can I put infinite number of items in my bag but as soon as I store one acorn too many I can barely move? Why can’t I access this part of the map until I have reached a certain level… It also has some Zelda-esque dungeons and other obscure easter eggs. There was a lot to explore and poke fun at whilst using it as an effective means of motivating the characters on a journey to discover who they are and exactly why they do what they do…
Are there any gamers amongst you? Are any of your books inspired by games? Or alternatively do you think your book could be made into a game?
