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[Zombie Zak]

There are a BUTT load of RPG games based around books, stories, etc.  There is one for Cthulhu, also.  When I get home tonight, I'll look up a few.

A lot of the newer ones are designed, in the same was as the video games, around an "engine" that shares compatability with others.  D20 is one of the current so called engines.  D&D is currently based that way.  All you would have to do is license the core rules, and modify them to suit your world.  There should be some contacts available for that sort of thing at GenCon which is coming up soon (it's a gaming convention.)

[BlueasJim]

I haven't read the novel yet. I have read the samples and such and even tried to buy it, but I see it isn't ready yet. Anyways. I think after I read it, I could give some good ideas or imput for a RPG. I am a long time player of old and new D&D and vampire along with many other such games. And depending on the dice system you choose, I think it could be a sweet idea AND a fun game.

[Zombie Zak]

Try This

Game Trade Magazine is an RPG (plus other types) gaming mag.  The companies listed on this page produce a bunch of different RPG games.  I haven't been as plugged into it as I used to be, but I recognize most of the companies listed.

PS: If you do a google search on horror RPG, you'll get half a million hits.

PPS: Yes, I'm a geek, and yes, I used to play.

Car Wars anyone?  How about Paranoid?

Have fun.

[Collin]

I also like the idea of an RPG based on the book a bit more than a computer version. You can still do far more with a pen & paper RPG and a bit of imagination than you can do with most computer games. Steve Jackson Games makes G.U.R.P.S. (Generic Universal Roleplaying System) which even has a world book for Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' novels. I'm not sure how hard they might be to sell on the idea though.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/ & http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/horror.html

You may want to contact them. Even if they didn't sell it through their store, they may give you permission to develop it and sell the world book yourself. Heck, there may even be something about that in the base rule book. I'll have to remember to dig it out and look.

Also, if you are interested in doing a boardgame version, you could try contacting Cheapass Games: http://www.cheapass.com/about/index.html

There are probably a lot of other places to contact as well. Those are just two that I'm pretty familiar with.

[Creepsville]

Another idea may be to contact a person or team who makes FLASH video games on the net. You could make an action game or even a cool episodic "choose your own path" game. Make it free for the public. Not only will it promote your book in a fun and interactive way, but it may also be valuable material when pitching a big budget video game later on. For instance, web comics gather a huge following before they make it to print sometimes - so you could possibly get a huge following of your Roses of Blood game and then get it published by the big game makers (who really do need more original ideas these days!).

[Snell]

I spoke to Loktar over at Undead Games, and he said a Half Life 2 mod would take too long to complete and it would limit my audience to people who own the game and a high-end computer.  I asked him about Flash games because Creepsville mentioned it here (thanks, Creepsville), and he said that’s my best bet: he says they're quicker to make, just about any computer will run them, and the user doesn't have to own a preexisting game.  I just need to find a design team.  Loktar said to offer money…

I haven’t looked into the RPG yet, but since you guys have given me some good info, I definitely will...

[Stephen Blundell]

I'd still go the UnrealED, my oldest brother Chris Blundell, started out just making maps with the Unreal Engine, and progressed on to getting jobs through Epic (He did a couple of multi-player maps) for UT2004.  And worked on the ill-fated Stargate:Atlantis as a map designer, he also worked on Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Heart of Gaia, and a maps for Rainbow 6: Athena Sword, as wells as Devastation.

The big plus of working the UnrealEd, is that it has its own level editor (which is really good, and almost real-time in processing lighting and creating the map build!), it has excellent AI path points and is visually very easy to get to grips with, I played with it about four years ago and had no time picking it up.  Also there is books on the UnrealEd for creating games which is very cool.  Adding in new scripting seems to work well too.  Plus there are tons of map-makers out there who would love to be in a mod project.  The best idea is to pick scenes out of the book, and do briefs ... how you see them etc etc.

In my brother's words, it is a lot harder to create maps for Half-life 2.  Being that you have to make a lot more geometry cuts. 

Unreal engine would be my way of thinking.  Plus UT games can be snapped up at a fraction of a cost of what Half-Lie 2 is selling for at the moment.

David, there would be no reasons to not being able to keep selling your book, if a mod was in development.  Even if you took it to a major software studio, you would need to have that in the contract.   

To take it further to the "big boys" you would first need to do a design document.  Much like a synopsis ... you could bring to the party with concept drawings, etc etc.

Regarding Flash games, there's potential, but overall the games (in general!), are of limited size.  So it might cover a sequence and not the whole book chapters.  But then, it may work well, as a "episodes" concept ala Half-Life, Sam & Max or Sin!

The other ideas on the game matter would be to look into DarkBasic, you own the use of the engine, was compiled its a self-run game.  And has the ability for 3D applications, and various add-ons (say a character studio) which will import 3D characters from other software (C4d, Max etc etc)

[Stephen Blundell]

yep ... with every Unreal Tournament game came the UnrealEditor (UnrealED).  Its a fantastic map creation software.

[Snell]

Hmm... would your brother be interested in working on this project?

[Stephen Blundell]

I'm not sure if he has a lot of time on his hands at the moment ... he works as a highschool teacher, and acting deputy principal.  While doing his Masters of Education at the same time, where he's using the Ut 2 engine and flash (I did very quick cartoon pieces sketches for his character in it) to help demonstrate what computers can do for the classrooms.

http://www.plutonicdesign.com/ is his site ... he won a lot of contests for his map making skills.

He's a talented bugger!

[Thom Brannan]

i'm studying this thread for "Cemetery Gates" as a game. there are a load of video game companies in Austin. har!