Gamifying My Novel

I spent over a decade writing my first novel, Digital Dryad. Yet, I didn’t invest all that time merely in writing. One of the things I thought about a lot was writing games. I know, this sounds like a typical teenager, which I’m too old for, but it’s something that I’ve been interested in for a while. However, while I have done web programming, I am not a programmer, so most of my interest has been in text-based games. Things like:

• interactive fiction
• “pick a path” or “choose your own adventure” stories

I also got interested in real-life scavenger hunts like Geocaching and Letterboxing. I spent several months back in the mid 2000s thinking about how to create a local scavenger hunt that used local landmarks as clues to find the “prize” at the end.

Still, my focus centered on writing and I returned from games to stories and my novels.

Fast forward to now. I’ve finally published Digital Dryad and my thoughts are returning to writing games, because games are fun. But I’m interested in my dryad world and how it works. I spent years developing the scent/pheromone language of the dryads and their trees. I wrote an encyclopedia of the color language of the Prime and how it relates to the scent language. And my son even helped me by creating the complete Dryadic language, including:

• how it sounds
• the grammar
• etymology and how the language changed as it aged
• even loanwords from other languages

I have a strong desire to focus on developing a game that further develops this world.

What to Gamify?

The first step is to figure out what to gamify. As I see it, I have the ability to create multiple games in the Digital Dryad world.

• a language learning tool that makes it fun to learn how to speak and read Dryadic
• a similar tool/game for learning the scent and color languages
• a choose your path style game or interactive fiction that takes players through the world
• a rogue-like text-based game set in a forest (rather than a dungeon)
• a full RPG game like Skyrim, set in the Digital Dryad world¹

How to Gamify?

Once I’ve decided what kind of game I want to build, I need to figure out how to build it. I’d love to make it a web-based game using JavaScript and HTML5 because that’s a skillset I already have. (I’ve written 6 books on those topics.) Plus, in Digital Dryad, Sierra (the main character) primarily codes in JavaScript and includes blocks of code at the start of each chapter. So I’d like to have the game tie-in to that as well.

It’s Overwhelming

There are so many things to consider. Everything from:

• selecting characters to include in the game
• choosing what parts to make interactive\
• building a character creation mechanic along with inventory and skills
• structuring the quest(s) so that they are interesting and progressive
• creating branching narratives to allow players to make different choices than the characters in the novels
• drawing or painting the graphics
• making the whole thing accessible
• scoring music or hiring a musician or Foley artist to make sounds for the game
• hiring voice actors
• writing the code to make the whole thing work
• testing the game
• paying for everything, especially the things I can’t do

When you list it out, it feels nearly impossible. But I’m approaching it from the standpoint of my novel. It took me ten years or more to get my novel finished, but I did it. And I wasn’t working full time on that either. During that period, I had other “real” jobs that provided me with income, allowing me to spend my free time typing away and neglecting the laundry. Maybe I’ll reserve some time each day to make progress on my gamification project, and when I look back on this post in 10 years, I’ll smile at my foresight.

I am Choosing to Have Fun with Gamification

I want my readers and eventual players to have fun with it too. I believe it will enhance the overall experience for everyone.

But now I have to get back to writing. Aka my “real” job.

P.S.

If you think this sounds interesting and fun and you’d like to help out, drop me a line! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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