For those of you that don’t know, Orson Scott Card is a prolific science fiction writer responsible for the Nebula award winning Ender’s Game series. For those of you who do know, you’re probably bouncing around in your chair right now, and I’ll have you know I’m doing the exact same thing. I’ve been hopeful for games based on the Ender saga for years now. In this interview with Gaming Today , Card talks about his many ideas for games based on his novels as well as the progress of the Ender’s Game film.
Card says about the games:
Part of the deal with Warner Brothers was for them to develop the many videogames that are possible from the book, without waiting for the movie. They never fulfilled that – which was the only part of the deal with Warner Brothers that actually made me angry. Movies are hard to make – but to make many good, profitable Ender’s Game games is a no-brainer.
He actually reviews seven different game concepts all stemming from Ender’s Game itself, not to mention the following five novels in the series. One is based on the Battle Room, a focal point of the first in novel which the child soldiers of the book fight in teams in a zero gravity enviroment. As engaging as the stories of the novels were, i can envision an amazing gameplay experience if these concepts were executed correctly.
Card also has some interesting commentary on the topic of violence in video games:
Players, like audiences, are able to distinguish very clearly between cartoon violence and real violence. Grand Theft Auto provides real-world scripts; Coyote-and-Road-Runner cartoons do not. Playing Space Invaders may make me more likely to shoot rows of aliens attacking slowly from above, but it is not likely to cause me to drive more aggressively or beat people up. To say “video games cause violence” is stupid in the extreme, like saying “novel reading causes teenagers to have sex” just because SOME young-adult novels are perhaps more sex-centered than is helpful. The question is always: Which videogame are you talking about?
The full interview is well worth the read. The film has ben in talks for some time (thank God Jake Lloyd grew up before the role of Ender was avaliable), but this project could be a truly amazing one if brought to fruition. For those of you who remember Card created the story in Advent Rising, I’m sure you are just as excited about the idea as I. There really aren’t enough creative games on the market about six year olds soldiers trying to kill each other in space. Get on it, developers!
