posted
I was raised around video games. While kids my age were growing up with Power Rangers and Transformers, I was playing Mario, Sonic and Zelda games. Really, my most fond memories on a television screen had nothing to do with cable, but rather video game consoles attached to them.
I have been worldbuilding in my series for nearly 3 years now. I'm starting to see the pieces come together. However, while talking about various battles, I have, without fail, gotten this comment:
"Wow, that sounds like a video game."
I don't believe this is a good or a bad thing. If nothing else, it'll give my work a slight twist on everything else on the market. However, so many of my scenarios are extremely sensory based. I have a world where music and sound is very important. There are areas where the world is literally being redrawn in front of the main characters. A friend whom I respect has voiced her opinion on how difficult it will be to properly display this world in a book.
This is a bit of a rant, but I guess my final question is this: in a fantasy universe where the world is constantly changing into extremely unique landscapes, will I be able to do the story justice on paper? I believe the answer is yes, but what kind of troubles should I expect to encounter?
posted
Pacing. I would think with everchanging landscapes, the pacing would be very hard to do and still paint the scene for the reader. It would depend on how often the landscape changes though, and the scenes it pertains to. If it changes everyday, not so much a problem, but if it changes every minute, even a everyday walk could become very exciting, but at the same time very confusing to the reader.
posted
I think you should write it as both. Then you can send whichever one is better to the publishers and whoever takes in scripts for games.
I have one story that only works as a comic or other visual medium. I have another that started as a comic but is being reimagined as a book, and I'm not sure if it's an improvement or if it'd work better as a movie.
The point is that if it'd be better as a video game, then go with that. It's important to get the right medium for the story.
posted
I hope I've avoided the problem. I dropped away from video games after Pac Man...the few I've tried, video game or computer game, have been in some way associated with something I liked ("The Simpsons," for instance) or something that came with either of my two-so-far computers. Or simple stuff like Solitaire or Hearts or Minesweeper.
I wouldn't really want my stuff to read like a novelization of a video game, though. I'll stick with them looking like bad imitations of better science fiction, thank you.
(Not that I'm down on video games as an artform---I think with a certain oomph! behind them...attention to detail, to character, to theme, to meaning...one might someday see video games comparable to novels. (Comic books have reached this stage, after all---maybe some video games have made it and I haven't heard...))
posted
I would think that story told well enough to make it seem video game-ish would be a plus. In a world where computers are now morphing into gaming tools rather than primarily used for writing, you have a receptive audience. I'm very lost in that world, but my eight-year-old daughter acts as though playing with the stuffed animal in her lap as a digital character online is a perfectly natural thing for a little girl to do. So, it seems that gaming is a pretty wide spred recreation and you will find many readers able to relate.
Now, me on the other hand, I'm scared that by the time I figure out how to write well enough, "Jane" will have made the recreational reader all but extinct.
If your work feels to overkill in any direction, you may want to think about choosing an author close to the type of book you'd like to have as a finished product and see if you can't find anything of theirs in audio format. www.audible.com is a great site. I think there is a difference between listening to an author's work and reading it. Hearing the cadence of a story similar to the one you'd like to shape your own into may grant the light needed to find your own -just perfect you- voice for your story. Don't forget, though, it is YOUR story. And if you can see it one way and try to force it to fit what might seem like a more mainstream mold, it may begin to unravel. Overall, though, I think the concept is unique and interesting. It can't be too common as the gaming perspective is fairly new, and the games in the last five years blow away Mario, so you will have the edge of unusual and people like new ideas.
posted
Do they mean video game like its fast paced and full of action? Or do they mean that your plot is linear and as they read it they hear corny music in the background?
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posted
Well, they mean that its very fast paced. There's very little conventional fighting so far in the series, and there are a couple of large monsters to fight. Just like in video games.
Some of the action is also very visual and aural. See, for example, the way you use magic in this series is through art (Painting, acting, dancing and playing music). Or, there's a battle where you fight something made of sound. Just stuff like that. It's very different, and some of the stuff is fairly sensory based.
I don't think I would intend for this to be a video game. I'm sold on the medium as an art form, but I believe that video games should be a more linear experience. There is way too much material for it to be a movie, and I feel like making this as a television series would throw off the entire pacing that I have in my head.
Thanks for all of the comments so far guys. Anybody have other advice? Anybody know of books that describe music and dancing as actions well?
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