Games Due For a Lit Course

Next Generation has published a new editorial called “Games Due For a Lit Course”, focusing on how literature positively influences the story and dialogue in video games. As expected, role-playing games are used as the primary example of such a creative process, with the likes of Deus Ex, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment cited throughout the article.

Chris Avellone, a creative director at Obsidian Entertainment who is probably best known for his work on Planescape: Torment, also cites literature as a chief influence in his work. (Many of the ideas for Torment were bred from blending ideas and characters I had read in books and novels and loved, and they were ideas that could only have been communicated through text, simply because no one would have the budget or resources to fully realise many of these fantasy works through TV or movies,) he says. (I think novels and literature have much to offer in taking stories and plotlines beyond the conventional.)