Why this story and gameplay style?

Deciding on a single text to adapt to a video game is a daunting task. Terry Pratchett, Timothy Zahn, and Ray Bradbury floated to the top of the pile. But it was Robert Heinlein that ultimately won my approval; in particular, his novella “If This Goes On—” piqued my interest.

Early in my thought process, I was sure I wanted to create a narrative driven experience. “If This Goes On—” provides a straightforward plot and interesting insight into the political climate of the last decade. In the story the United States had become strongly politically polarized during the 2010’s and given rise to a theocratic dictatorship. The story then revolves around a group standing up to, and eventually overcoming this harsh tyranny. With the intention of making an adaptation with modern relevance, my next decision may seem counterintuitive.

The Prophet’s Angel, my adaptation, is presented as a mid-90’s adventure game. Modern hyper-realistic graphics, while beautiful, can make criticism hit too close to home. Stylizing the art can help the player step back and enjoy a story that might otherwise make them uncomfortable. The pixelated art style draws a line between life and the game, while human characters keep the tone from drifting towards whimsical and fantastical. Like games of the era, the environment and character art are bright and diverse; while serious, the tone is not intended to be overly dark.

The original story, like much of Heinlein’s work, has a very realistic and matter-of-fact tone. His style, while science fiction, does its best to convince the reader that everything he presents is expected and reasonable. It falls much more in line with Star Trek than Star Wars. My adaptation aims to do the same, players should feel as though they are in a familiar reality, so the purpose behind the story has more of an impact. One addition I made was to add some quips and one liners for occasional comic relief. This was inspired by the Lucasarts adventure games which always had a joke to make, even when the story was getting heavy. But overall, the tone in Angel closely resembles that of the original: realistic, serious, and direct.

Following our discussions of adaptation types in class, I chose to make Angel a fairly straightforward adaptation. The source material, while perhaps unfamiliar, is relatable to a modern western audience. Instead of metaphorical and allegorical references to the text, the plot, setting, and names are all taken directly from the source. Unlike adaptations such as Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, I want the player to come away from Angel feeling like they have read the original material. My intention to keep the source at the forefront informed the decisions on gameplay as well.

Keeping the focus on the narrative meant excess mechanics like collectables and side quests would detract from the story and were therefore unnecessary. Initially, I envisioned a stealth action game with an isometric viewpoint, similar to Pokémon or Zelda’s visual design. While this format might work well for the first half of the game, I struggled to imagine how well it would engage with the story. So, I shifted my focus to story heavy game styles and ended up deciding to retell the story in a point-and-click adventure game. Point-and-click adventure games offer a certain simplicity in their design. There are few objects to interact with and only a few actions that can be done with each. Their slow-paced nature means the player can give more effort to learning and understanding the story instead of focusing on mastering combat, crafting systems, or any number of potentially deep mechanics. The puzzles encourage the players to closely inspect the few items that can be picked up, offering more opportunities for world building. “If This Goes On—” is actually part of a timeline of interconnected stories by Heinlein, so there is much more lore that could be included than what is in the novella.

My included storyboard depicts a scene which illustrates the format’s penchant for exposition. As the player walks through Lyle’s room, the mysterious figure that has appeared can talk, or Lyle can comment to himself, and the player is able to focus on what is being said. The player will click to move Lyle and the gameplay requires no attention until he gets to his destination. This leaves the player free to listen to what the characters have to say. Since there is no draining health bar or enemy fire to avoid, the player can take their time and closely inspect items. The second section of the storyboard in the torture chamber illustrates what I hope are tension points in the gameplay. This scene and the Stellar Hawk scene shown on the box art will be more action driven to bring the tension to a peak at important story points. The original story uses most of these scenes in the same way, as they are turning points in Lyle’s character and the overall plot.

“If This Goes On—” and many other works by Robert Heinlein hold a certain importance to me. They embody a fear of what could come, but also a hope that humanity is not as depraved as we imagine. My adaptation aims to preserve as much of Heinlein’s original sentiment as possible. The Prophet’s Angel was born out of a wish to expose more people to the hopeful excitement towards the future that many of these early science fiction stories contain, so keeping it true to the source is a matter of the utmost importance.