Game of Thrones: 5 Ways to Make a Great Video Game Adaptation

5. Don't Base It On The Television Show

When playing the Game of Thrones RPG, I couldn€™t help but feel that the potential for greatness was squandered by its faithfulness to the look and feel of the television series. The developers claim that the game was being developed before the series was released, and I believe them, as it only further validates my belief that the series success negatively affected the final product. They had their own designs and look for Castle Black, the Red Keep, King€™s Landing, and other notable locations from the books. However, at some point, they were informed that they should make the game more like the tv series, and this had to have taken up time better used to further polish the game. Characters now had to look like the actors portraying them on the show, and locations had to look like the sets. Not only was the look of the show reused, but even the music was. No original music was composed, and familiar tracks from the show make up the entirety of the score. I adore Ramin Djawadi€™s score, but I expect to hear new stuff from a video game, not recycled stuff, as great as it is. The final product comes off as rushed in every aspect. Martin€™s universe deserves better than rushed, and it deserves to take on a life of its own outside of HBO€™s adaptation. I understand why publishers and developers, as well as HBO, feel safer adhering to the look and feel of the show, as that is what catapulted the franchise into popularity, but doing so limits creativity and imagination. Instead of letting numerous artists create new interpretations of characters, settings, and locations, they instead have to simply render what already exists. This may be faster and more efficient, but these components do not make for a polished, well conceived video game. Passion does not sprout from strict adherence to the work of others, nor from efficiency-based development, and for a video game to be good, passion must fuel it. In order to generate passion, reference and adherence to the HBO series must be thrown out. However, even forgetting all that, I just want to see another version of this universe. I don€™t want to see the tv series translated to video game form. If I want to see that version of the universe, I€™ll watch the show. When playing ASoIaF video game, I want to experience a new and different version of this familiar world. I want to see a different Tyrion, a different Eddard, a different Jaime, etc. As good as the actors of the tv series do at portraying them, they are the cinematic interpretations, and should stay that way. For the video game to truly stay faithful to the feel of the series as a whole, it should put its own creative stamp on it. Basically, the game should be based on George R.R. Martin€™s A Song of Ice and Fire, not HBO€™s Game of Thrones.It would make for a more exciting and enriching game.
Contributor
Contributor

Film and video game obsessed philosophy major raised by Godzilla, Goku, and Doomguy.