Game Analysis Assignment

Choose a work of nonfiction that you find moving, satisfying, or well-written and describe the rules of a game version of its stories, characters, arguments, or themes.

You may find that considering how to adapt a work of nonfiction for a game is very different from speculating about making a film adaptation, although you may have to think about what characters would look like or how the writer's prose could be condensed into script format.

You do not have to design a videogame in which the action is represented digitally on a computer screen: you may choose to adapt the book as a board game, card game, physical game, alternative reality game, etc. But the game does need to have rules and a way to keep score or register winning and losing. It should also be a good game, which you would find engaging to play that invites participation.

You may chose to focus on the instructive rather than entertaining aspects of the work of nonfiction and consider how best to persuade players how to eliminate the evils that the author is portraying.

Or you may want to use the game to encourage players to see possible counterarguments or ideological issues that the writer conceals.

Whatever you do, you should choose the genre of your game very carefully to suit the aims of your adaptation. You could design a story-based adventure game with levels and a clear objective, such as the independent game Samorost (where you can try out a partial version online). Or a game that is much more about atmosphere and visual setting, such as the independent game Cloud, or even about a soundscape, such as Pâte à Son. Perhaps you imagine a game in which one player tries out different combinations in order to figure out the rules, such as the casual game Grow Cube. Or perhaps you want to choose a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which there is a lot of knowledge-sharing among players to supplement the already generous exposition about rules that is provided by the game itself. You can look at Runescape to see an example of a free, popular, multiplayer online game. All of these examples are PC games that use a keyboard as an input device, but you may choose to develop an adaptation of your work of literature that involves a game controller, such as a PlayStation, Wii, or Xbox.