Point of View
POINT OF VIEW
The challenges of transposing a literary classic into new and interactive formats
WORDS Guy Gadney
E
ARLIER THIS MONTH we at To Play For announced a rights agreement with Pollinger Ltd and the John Wyndham estate to develop
an interactive game based on the author’s 1953 novel, The Kraken Wakes. The most common response from industry and social media has been genuine curios- it about how a classic fiction title can be developed into interactive media. With the London Book Fair in full swing again and the digital rights landscape continuing to evolve rapidly, here are the top five ingredients we look for to make a successful interac- tive adaptation. Firstly, the creative transition of books into inter- active media can enable audiences to spend more time in the story than any other visual medium. The average console game has a playtime of 12 hours— time for the characters, themes and plot of a book title to be built up and extended significantly. A story that enables audiences to immerse themselves in the narrative and explore its themes will translate well into digital. Secondly, the form of the story is important. Generally speaking, stories are made up of char- acters, narrative and storyworlds. Narratives are difficult to sustain in interactive media as the pace and tension is constantly being interrupted by, well, interactivit. Storyworlds work well as places to explore, but recreating Hogwarts, London, or even outer space is expensive. That leaves characters. The internet is a communications medium, and
it’s well-suited to the development of characters. Marshall McLuhan’s “medium is the message” holds true and books with strong characters and relation- ships provide audiences with people with whom they can connect.
Number three is a personal preference for books
writen in the first person. There is no fourth wall in the interactive world, so voices that speak directly to audiences are closer to the personalised world of interactivit. A film producer friend told me recently that books writen in the first person are much harder to make into films. For us, it is a bonus. The fourth is that certain genres make beter adap-
tations than others. Tom Clancy’s action thrillers make highly popular 3D action games, but we find that crime, psychological drama, science fiction and espionage are more interesting because they ask questions of the audience. They engage directly with a player and ask the “whodunnit” question through- out the whole storyline, rather than just at the end. Finally, the digital world is changing and accelerat- ing on a daily basis. To set strategies and understand this world, it is vital to share the knowledge and results of our projects with our partners. This knowl- edge of audience behaviour, download numbers, successful revenue models and new content forms is used to refine our own projects, and contribute to partners’ future digital strategies.
Data-led
Aſter launching the official app game for the BBC’s “Sherlock”, we could see that users were finding it difficult to solve the first case. So we made it easier, dynamically updating the storyline for level one, and saw an immediate increase in the number of play- ers completing the game. All this data—including detailed revenue reports—was shared with our part- ners so they could learn as much as we did. With The Kraken Wakes, we dealt with Lesley Poll- inger and Kat Loffman at author agency Pollinger. The agency is progressive and knowledgeable about digital. It is an excellent partnership and what is useful—for all parties—is that we will be sharing data about about audience behaviour and revenue. The Kraken Wakes is not the first adaptation that we have worked on, and it will not be the last. For those rights-owners who are confident and keen to reach new audiences, there are opportunities to evolve and learn with minimal risk. The new busi- ness models and creative opportunities are evolving rapidly as digital media evolves. A digital adaptation allows for growth of the book and the author’s brand. And with direct links in the game through to online bookshops to capture impulse purchases, as well as the usual tie-in promo- tion, sales increases can be quantified. Experimentation, partnership and learning need
to be at the heart of growing an author’s brand and value in a cross-media world. Our view is that inter- active media offers both a creative and commercial set of opportunities that can build products that are atractive to the book industry and audiences alike. ×
Guy Gadney is the c.e.o. and founder of digital start-up To Play For. He will be talking about The Kraken Wakes and interactive storytelling today at 13.00 in the Cross Media Collection
www.thebookseller.com
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