Forget “Where’s the Stephen King of Gaming?” Where’s Stephen King’s games?

I was reading another one of these articles about the Shakespeare or gaming or the Stephen King of gaming and I began to think: Why aren’t there Stephen King videogames? Or at least games based on Stephen King books?

Clive Barker has lent his name to a couple of games, Undying and Jericho, but why hasn’t someone licensed Stephen King’s work? He has lent his name to at least one software title, Stephen King’s F13 (Gamespot has some images) but that was apparently some sort of screensaver-type thing and not an actual game.

Moreover, why isn’t there a John Grisham, Clive Cussler, or some other writers games? There have been games based on dead authors such as HP Lovecraft and Agatha Christie as well as literary characters such as Dracula and Sherlock Holmes (although those characters have been used by so many medium it is difficult to imagine that they wouldn’t appear in videogames). Of course there have been games based on movies based on books too such as Tolkien and JK Rowling but I’m not sure if those count.

Tom Clancy has made a lot of money from the Rainbow Six games an others. So why haven’t other authors tried to get in on the act? They can’t all be Luddites can they? I’m sure that someone has approached King about making a Shining or The Stand game but why didn’t they go through. Certainly the task of converting a novel to a game would be really tough but Is HP Lovecraft’s world can inspire a game couldn’t King’s? If Agatha Christie could inspire a game couldn’t Sue Grafton?

Where are the book-based games?

2 Comments Showing 50 most recent
  1. Steve

    There was a text-based game of “The Mist” released for the Apple ][ many, many years ago. I even had it, and managed to get as far as stepping outside the supermarket when the mist rolled in and dying in some gruesome fashion. My 13 year old brain just wasn’t up to solving whatever hidden puzzle they had to be able to proceed any further.

  2. Brad

    I think a “Splinter Cell” type game based on “Atlantis Found” by Clive Cussler would be fracking awesome. This would give Splinter Cell a real run for it’s money .

    Spoilers for “Atlantis Found” by Clive Cussler ahead……………

    Sneaking onto a 1 Kilometer long cruise ship (yes 1 KM long!) in disguise, then rescuing a beautiful woman and her daughter, then racing through the ship and on it’s onboard electric people mover train. Then jumping into a boat to race away while shooting at the the bad guys chasing you would be so amazing. Then the later fighting in Antarctica on the surface at an evil ice station then in a ice tunnel? Freaking perfect. Would be a great movie but no way the author will let it happen. Cussler hated Sahara and won’t let any more movies based on his books happen. I thought it was an ok movie though. He might consider a game. Let’s hope.

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