Tag Archives: dante’s inferno

Steal this game idea!

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Copying another game has been a time-honored tradition in game development. You can go all the way back to the beginning where Pong beget numerous Pong rip-offs, Space Invaders lead to Galaxian, Pac-Man lead to Devil’s World, and Mario/Sonic lead to a bazillion different mascot platformers to see the proud tradition of stealing game ideas. And stealing game ides exists for a good reason; game design is often an iterative process and it’s cool taking a neat game mechanic borrowed from another game and tweaking and expanding it on your own. Without such liberal uses of copied game design the evolution of certain genres would have never happened.

Yet two separate games/incidents have brought this practice of borrowed game design to the forefront of discussion. First is the release of EA/Visceral Games’ “adaptation” of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno (unsurprisingly) called Dante’s Inferno which is heavily-inspired by the God of War series. And second is the now-pulled iPhone game Trundle which noticeably lifts a lot of influences from the Nicalis/Nifflas’s unreleased WiiWare title Night Sky.

With Dante’s Inferno its clear that in many ways this is an original game. No one would ever confuse the aesthetics of Dante’s Inferno with the God of War series. The setting, the graphics, the visuals and sounds are all completely their own. The thievery in this instance is one of gameplay. Every review of Dante’s Inferno has unquestionably noted the same thing: outside of a few minor tweaks to the combat system Dante’s Inferno fundamentally plays the same as God of War. From control layouts to action combos to even the same annoying button-mashing necessary to perform minor tasks it becomes evident that Visceral Games goal with Dante’s Inferno was to ape God of War.

And for this sin Dante’s Inferno is being punished by the game media. Both the negative and positive reviews for the game have commented on the lack of originality of Dante’s Inferno and this more often than not has helped sour the reviewer on the game as a whole. It’s one thing to copy another game, but to copy and not surpass the original as Dante’s Inferno seemingly does makes the transgression that much worse. And while big-budget titles in recent years haven’t been known for their desire to push originality and innovation the shamelessness of Inferno’s copying seems to be a step too far for even the most cynical player.

While the connection of Dante’s Inferno and God of War is mostly beneath the surface the case of Trundle and Night Sky is about copying what’s on that surface. While the gameplay of both Trundle and Night Sky are quite similar the base premise of platforming with a rolling ball is one that isn’t original or unique by any measure. It’s the effect of combining similar gameplay with obvious stealing of the unique visual style of Night Sky that makes the thievery by the developers of Trundle clear.

Understandably there has been a bit of an uproar over the entire affair. Indie games are also in a bit of a unique situation here. It’s not unheard of indie games to borrow concepts and mechanics from other indie games (think of how many physics platformers or bullet-hell games exist). But to steal another game so directly and especially when the theft is perceived to be taking away the livelihood of a very popular indie figure once again is a step too far. Even the Mobile Bros. – the developers of Trundle – seems to have realized so and have since pulled the game from the App Store and released it again with modified visuals.

With both of these games it’s clear that gamers and developers can only tolerate so much unoriginality before rebelling. It’s not that stealing game ideas is bad by itself as many of the best games in the industry at one point or another started off as clones. But at a certain stage during development they went above being a mere clone and took those stolen ideas and made them their own. With the backlash its clear both Dante’s Inferno and Trundle never took that extra step.

Adaptation in games and Dante’s Inferno

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The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And EA’s new Dante’s Inferno is another cobblestone on that road. Based off one of the most famous pieces of literature in the western hemishere, The Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno is an attempt to adapt that masterful work of religious symbolism and political satire into a game. Let’s clip from EA’s own press release:

“The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience that, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art,” said Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante’s Inferno. “It’s the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story.”

Adapting such a difficult, inherent un-game work for the medium I’m sure was an immense task. Dante’s Inferno is full of grotesque imagery, but little action. A lot of the themes will be exceedingly difficult to translate effectively. It’s an ambitious step to take for EA.

Or you could just make another 3D gory action brawler ala God of War. That might certainly translate Dante’s work into the medium.

This is not to say that in the end Dante’s Inferno won’t be a good game. In fact, with the collective might of EA behind it I’m sure at the very least it will be a polished affair that borrows some of the best modern tropes of action titles. With a little luck you may have a game that rivals God of War or Devil May Cry as some of the best beat-em-ups of recent years.

But to claim you’re making an honest attempt at adapting Dante Alighieri’s work and ending up with another over-the-top action game seems disingenuous at best and just dishonest at worst. No medium is a stranger to adaptation, games for the longest time have borrowed from film and films themselves like to borrow from literary sources. Yet as much as we hate it when film adaptations of books miss the mark in concept so should we be disappointed when a game attempts to do the same.

Borrowing from greater works raises expectations of the adaptation. Adapting an action film is easy, adapting The Divine Comedy is quite difficult and it takes a certain amount of laziness to end up with the same solution in both cases. With Dante’s Inferno it looks like EA is just borrowing the names and some imagery behind the work resulting in a work that might be better labeled as inspired by The Divine Comedy. Which is perfectly fine, God of War borrowed heavily from Greek mythology, but no one really complained there since God of War never claimed to be a tool for familiarizing the unfamiliar with the remarkable details of a great work of art.

And in the end, that’s really the heart of my complaint with Dante’s Inferno. There’s nothing wrong with creating an action game inspired by Dante. There’s nothing wrong with liberally borrowing from the source. But don’t pretend you’re doing the original work any justice with this creative bastardization. Don’t sprout off meaningless PR jabber attempting to make the game seem more notable than it is. Just call the game Seven Circles of Hell, put in an inspired byline, and call it a day. Don’t drag better works to your level.