The Escapist Report: How books and comics make games better

Game makers are some of the most creative people on the planet, creating entire worlds for us to play in for sometimes just a handful of hours.

But keeping everything fresh is a real challenge, and it’s no surprise that sometimes games will start to feel a little samey from time to time. However, by making use of supporting media like books and comics, the task can be shared and games can be enriched by putting more minds on the problem.

Consider the Star Wars universe. Almost every Star Wars video game ever made has been based on a book or a comic, or has drawn inspiration from a role-playing game or TV show, rather than the six core movies.

The original material determined the themes and feel of the setting, but the expanded media took it to places it might not otherwise have gone, and having that media there to draw on has proved very advantageous for game makers.

There’s no reason that BioWare couldn’t have created every single aspect of Knights of the Old Republic, for example, from scratch – the incredibly detailed setting of the Mass Effect games is proof of that - but the wealth of Old Republic comics and books meant that it could focus on making the game itself better instead.

Of course, it’s different when you’re the person holding the reins of the IP, and keeping it all under control so you don’t end up making your canon a sprawling mess is difficult, especially when you have a game to make. But for some developers, the advantages of effectively crowd sourcing aspects of the creative process to other smart and creative people are worth the extra management efforts.

We consume media very differently now from when Star Wars was released, with much higher importance placed on immediacy. The Star Wars franchise has the advantage of having had more than 30 years to grow and it would be much harder to recreate that cultural phenomenon now, but you don’t have to aim to conquer the world with your franchise to reap the benefits of expanded media.

Even something as simple as a spin-off novel providing NPCs for a piece of DLC is time saved that can be spent on making the games better, and it’s not hard to imagine spin-off books or comics inspiring whole expansions, or even whole games.

By harnessing the skills of not just a game's designers but other kinds of creative artists, a franchise can gain more depth, and grow into a much richer property. It’s not an easy process, but it’s one that can be incredibly advantageous.