Friday, May 23, 2008

Halcyon plans two games based on Phillip K. Dick novels

Halcyon plans two games based on Phillip K. Dick novels

The Halcyon Company is a "privately financed, media development, production and financing company...designed to create, acquire, manage, publish and maintain the creative integrity of each and every project delivered.." At present, they own all rights to the Terminator franchise, and recently secured the rights to Phillip K. Dick novels, which they plan to adapt into at least two video games, amongst other projects in other mediums (two films and an animation, as of yet).

For anyone not familiar, Phillip K. Dick (oft called PKD by his fans), is a novel writer behind the likes of A Scanner Darkly, VALIS, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was famously adapted into the film Blade Runner. Dick struggled and lived in near-poverty  for most of his career (he died in 1982). Especially in the last couple of decades, his works have seen heightened popularity, as highlighted by film adaptations such as A Scanner Darkly, Total Recall, and Minority Report.

The securing of rights to his works is a big deal for at least two reasons. One, according to Halcyon Co-CEO Victor Kubieck, the estate was more coveted than they had thought:

"Philip's daughters have never allowed anyone this kind of access before," said Kubicek [in an inteview with The Guardian]. "We've forged a very trusting relationship with them and we truly share a similar sensibility. Until we closed the deal we didn't realise how coveted the library was in Hollywood."

Two, the right company behind PDK-based video games could offer something largely unexperienced in the video game world: a wonderful blend of surreality, metaphysics, parallel universes, beautiful animation, and a freaking good story. Yeah, there were those Total Recall game adaptations, but they don't count much. Work like his on modern hardware has tons of potential in every realm of development; here's hoping justice is done to the art.




Stalin Vs. Martians RTS for the PC in development