Who an interesting opportunity for proper big games that already exist. The Doctor can go anywhere. They can turn up in EVE Online. They can pop into Fortnite. I’d love to see the TARDIS land in Sea of Thieves, personally. We’ve actually seen a bit of that already.
Have you ever played another game and thought, ‘this setup would work for a Who game’? Peter Hickman: When you are working on the brand at BBC Studios, you think about it all the time. That said, the first time I ever considered it was when I was playing 3D Monster Maze on the ZX81. I always
Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time
So, the game’s environment might present a
mysterious puzzle and an environment where the companions explore and talk to help The Doctor clarify the mystery and how he might solve the issue. I think a faithfully designed Doctor Who game doesn’t need a huge budget.
Richie Turner: A flagship property such as Doctor Who should get much more funding, admittedly, it’s been better since the “reboot”, but it’s started to show its purse-strings again recently. Shows like The Mandalorian have led the way recently with new technologies such as The Volume AR soundstage, which show how sci-fi can be done at a relatively lower cost.
Peter Hickman: The biggest problem with Doctor Who gaming is that people automatically assume that you’ll be jumping around different time periods with lots of art and audio assets – not true! Think about the show itself, very rarely does The Doctor spend the episode jumping between planets and time periods. Generally, the TARDIS lands, The Doctor becomes embroiled in a mystery and the story plays out as The Doctor discovers what the mystery is, who is causing it and ultimately solving and stopping it. The BBC can do a lot to help out as well with 3D
scans of the TARDIS interior, style guides and access to actors. Making a Doctor Who game on an AA-scale budget should not be a scary thing. Something smaller that is high quality and fun is absolutely possible. Of course, Doctor Who is a licensed property, so there are lots of stakeholders and approvals for all aspects of any game, but the team at BBC Studios work very hard to make things as straightforward as possible.
Christopher Dring: I actually think this makes Doctor 48 | MCV/DEVELOP October/Novemberr 2023
thought that a Dalek chasing you through the maze rather than a T-Rex would have been really cool.
Nick Holden: I think of dialogue based games like The Stanley Parable: I believe it would work to have the play-off between video game conventions and the player – as seen in The Stanley Parable – applied within a Doctor Who game. It could be combined with other elements such as story threads containing intergalactic diplomacy, inter-species relations and technology puzzles.
Sean Millard: I’d love to see a really good ‘point and click’ style adventure that features The Doctor. Charles Cecil of Revolution Games worked really closely with us throughout the development of The Adventure Games. I often thought a really good format for Who would be his puzzle led gameplay and brain-busting conundrums. Check out the more recent games from Revolution and imagine them Who-ified. It’s an easy connection to make.
Christopher Dring: I want an XCOM-style game set in the world of Doctor Who. Perhaps set during the Time War. The Doctor and their companions could be non-combat characters, alongside those that do a bit of shooting. Fun fact: original XCOM creator Julian Gollop made an unofficial Doctor Who game called Time Lords. It was his first video game that he made at school. I bet that would look great today.
Avoiding the more obvious ones like Daleks and Cybermen, which Doctor Who antagonists do you think would be an interesting challenge for game designers and/or players - and why? Sean Millard: Everyone is going to say the Weeping
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