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A new crossover project bridging the worlds of books and video games is in the works at UK studio RedBedlam.
The developer has teamed up with Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre to create a series of first-person shooters based on the writer’s latest books, with the games’ storylines written by Brookmyre himself.
The first title in the series will be called Bedlam, which will tie-in with a novel of the same name that will be released in paperback on January 21st, 2014. The hardback edition is already available.
The book tells the tale of a man that wakes up to find himself in a video game world, not as the protagonist but as one of the game’s cannon fodder grunts.
His journey to find out how this has happened and how he can escape takes him through a series of familiar gaming settings, which players can explore themselves when the Bedlam game arrives on Steam next summer. Environments range from World War II to sci-fi spaceships, with RedBedlam promising visits to other genres such as arcade platformers and real-time strategy – all from a first-person perspective.
"A lot of my writing has been inspired by video games and it has always been a big part of my life," explains Brookmyre. "When the guys are RedBedlam got in touch to see if I was interested in creating a game with them, I jumped at the chance and have since been consistently thrilled to see my own literary worlds visualised so accurately.
"Bedlam is a tribute to gaming in all its forms and the part it has played in all our lives – as well as being a top-quality FPS adventure in itself. I look forward to seeing more of these fantastic characters and worlds fully realised and I think people are going to really enjoy what we’ve put together."
The game will be developed in association with Standfast Interactive, with at least two more novel and game tie-ins planned. You can check out the first screenshots below.
