Dante's dev to follow-up with Macbeth?

By Ellie Gibson Published 3 February, 2010

Visceral exec inspired by Shakespeare.

Visceral Games, the studio behind Dante's Inferno, may take inspiration from another literary classic for its next project.

"Macbeth the game is something I've been thinking about for years," executive producer Jonathan Knight told Industry Gamers. "Now, I think the emotional quality that games are achieving and the value level of the acting and the sound work makes it possible.

"The thing is, the unique quality of games is being interactive; it's about action and killing things and pursuing those mechanics is tricky when bringing in classic media; Dante's is more of a violent interpretation of the poem, for example," Knight continued.

"Macbeth would be great, though; there are witches and a supernatural experience along with plenty of intrigue and murder."

Knight isn't the first person to suggest a game based on Shakespeare's play could be good. Back in December designer Marc Ecko said he had the same idea, and that his Macbeth game would put the emphasis on "cutting people's heads off". Ecko's project never got off the ground, however.

Find out what we made of Dante's Inferno when the Eurogamer review is published later today.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (54) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • f00b_inc #1 2 years ago

    Inspiration for next game: 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark and Hamlet is taking out the trash'

  • the_dudefather #2 2 years ago

    Go more modern, would like to see their take on 'Harry potter and the Philosopher's skull' :)

  • Tomo #3 2 years ago

    I would *love* to see a game of something like Macbeth done well, but it's inevitably going to be about chopping things up, like this dude is talking about. Why not just try making something closer to the source material, that doesn't necessarily involve mashing buttons - something more thoughtful?!

  • PlugMonkey #4 2 years ago

    @ Tomo: Thoughtful doesn't sell! People want killing! And death! And murder! And mayhem! And classical literary characters with 10 foot long scythes! And more killing! And boobies! Especially boobies!

  • Antaios #5 2 years ago

    Dear god, please, no. I hope making brutal and bloody hack 'n slash games out of literary classics isn't going to be the next best thing in gamesland.

  • Fab4 #6 2 years ago

    I can imagine the reviews:

    "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing."

    3/10

    :-)

  • Skurmedel #7 2 years ago

    It is... I'm looking forward to Uncle Tom: Blood on the Sand and Grand Theft Auto: Oliver Twist Stories

  • scowat #8 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 16:41:01 08-02-2012

  • jonbwfc #9 2 years ago

    I think they should go the whole hog and do their version of 'Schindler's List'. Ben Kingsley hacking up Nazis with a big sword while a 50 foot tall Hitler wails & thrashes in the background.

    In black & white, of course.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 09:28

  • spekkeh #10 2 years ago

    The thing is, the unique quality of games is being interactive; it's about action and killing things

    designer Marc Ecko said he had the same idea, and that his Macbeth game would put the emphasis on "cutting people's heads off"

    I think I'm going to be sick. Why does it appear that some game developers never leave puberty, is it because they don't get girlfriends? (no I don't believe you have a girlfriend "cliffy motherfucking bee-atch", enjoy your hand)
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 09:29

  • erp #11 2 years ago

    Games are about more than "action and killing things".

  • GrumpyLlama #12 2 years ago

    "Games are about more than "action and killing things". "

    Yeah what about the driving and jumping bits ; )

  • Skurmedel #13 2 years ago

    jonbwfc: That's a great concept, don't forget the girl in the red coat.

  • knocker #14 2 years ago

    An accurate version of Titus Andronicus would be fun. Rapes, murder, dismemberment .... you can stay close to the source material and cause confusion among the censorship posse.

  • TeaFiend #15 2 years ago

    I am holding out for Twelfth Night: The Game.

  • laharl80 #16 2 years ago

    Shakespeare but with the emphasis on cutting peoples heads off?Hmmmmm.........i suppose it couldn't be worse than getting up-contents under pressure.
    Maybe he could make a shakespeare/postal mash up.
    As for visceral i suppose macbeth is a step up from making god of war clones.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 10:02

  • monkie_king #17 2 years ago

    There was a Macbeth text adventure on the C64. It was split into four chapters as I recall. The first one had you playing as Macbeth, 'GET DAGGER. NORTH. NORTH. ENTER BEDCHAMBER. STAB DUNCAN IN FACE.' etc.

    In the second chapter You were Lady Macbeth trying to dispose of the evidence before the alarm was raised. Text adventuring against the clock, there's a winning formula ...

  • Triggerhappytel #18 2 years ago

    The thing is though, the links Dante's Inferno actually has with the man and his works are so tenuous they could have not even bothered, changed a few aspects of the game and saved themselves the licence fee. It's not like most of the people who play the game will be particularly familiar with The Divine Comedy, so it seems like a bit of a wasted effort.

    I'd imagine the same is true of Macbeth. Although it's a classic piece of literature and very highly regarded, etc, most of the teenage boys who play games like GoW or Dante's won't know or care where the ideas came from.

  • MyPointIs #19 2 years ago

    Well, they have to move on to another title. Because, let face, Dante's Inferno II starts sounding rather silly.

  • thubie #20 2 years ago

    Macbeth heavy rain rip off confirmed.
    j/k

  • the_dudefather #21 2 years ago

    @Triggerhappytel
    'saved themselves the licence fee'

    Hasn't it been public domain for a few centuries by now?

  • Boku #22 2 years ago

    Well, they have to move on to another title. Because, let face, Dante's Inferno II starts sounding rather silly.
    Well, there are 2 more to go: Purgatorio and Paradiso. :)
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 10:36

  • spekkeh #23 2 years ago

    Well, there are 2 more to go: Purgatorio and Paradiso. :)

    Bayonetta did it.

  • asphaltcowboy #24 2 years ago

    Oh full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife...

  • AJGB #25 2 years ago

    It's like watching terminal cancer. I can't believe this guy.

  • Murton #26 2 years ago

    If we're going to try and shoehorn Shakespeare in the gaming space then it has to be done in a way that doesn't devalue his work. Translating his plays into something like Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain would be good as it allows you to stay true to the source material. Whereas action games such as a "Macbeth May Cry" or a Godfather-like Romeo and Juliet where you and your fellow Capulets wage a street war on the Montegue House would be nothing short of criminal.

  • Zephro #27 2 years ago

    Oh god no! He needs to be sectioned so fast.

  • spekkeh #28 2 years ago

    Now, I think the emotional quality that games are achieving and the value level of the acting and the sound work makes it possible.

    This is also a real beauty. He's probably thinking about the scene where Lady Macbeth is naked, trying to rub out the spot, and how her boobs and moaning is going to give him a hard-on.

  • figgis #29 2 years ago

    'Waiting for Godot' would make a better game.

  • M_of_the_sys #30 2 years ago

    "If we're going to try and shoehorn Shakespeare in the gaming space then it has to be done in a way that doesn't devalue his work. Translating his plays into something like Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain would be good as it allows you to stay true to the source material. Whereas action games such as a "Macbeth May Cry" or a Godfather-like Romeo and Juliet where you and your fellow Capulets wage a street war on the Montegue House would be nothing short of criminal."

    This.


    ...actually sounds quite good. :p

  • Midnight_Raven #31 2 years ago

    @Triggerhappytel
    'saved themselves the licence fee'

    Hasn't it been public domain for a few centuries by now?

    @the_dudefather: Yes, you're right. As far as I know, all classical literature and music is public domain since it was produced before anyone thought about something like intellectual property.

  • Shinetop #32 2 years ago

    "Dante's is more of a violent interpretation of the poem, for example," Knight continued."

    Dante's has fuck. all. to do with the poem. I wish they stopped lying about how incredibly true to the source material they're staying.

    So if they continue in the same vein, I look forward to the level where MacBeth goes "Is this a dagger I see before me" and proceeds to shoot flaming daggers from his handheld dagger cannon.

    Holy crap I hate how immature the games industry is.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 12:52

  • jidnffc #33 2 years ago

    This is probably the most broken record anyone's heard on this topic but here goes

    Using classical literary characters and stories = good

    Completely destroying any of the characteristics they had to meet "modern demands" = bad

    Now Dante's Inferno may well prove to be a good game, but the association with the play does nothing to either encourage the less literary gamers out there to check out the source material or help the image of games in general as little more than a violence/sex obsessed medium rather than the art-form it should be becoming. Instead of becoming art itself, it is simply devaluing the art-forms which came before it at its own expense.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 13:06

  • metalmike25 #34 2 years ago

    Is this a QTE i see before me?

  • SpaceMonkey77 #35 2 years ago

    Macbeth, eh? Interesting, I'd like to see the end result of that.

    Dont get me wrong, but there's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from books and poems. Ask yourselves, is anyone else doing this? Only other stuff I know of is Ubi's Tom Clancy games (lame Harry Potter games) and that's it. Visceral are onto something, cause Dante's Inferno looks crazy and I think its going to surprise a few people, who've prematurely judged it harshly, because of its source material being treated like the Bible itself (get over yourselves).

    Good god, if Visceral were to do Homer's Iliad, I'd personally buy two copies, and I reckon it would have potential to knock God of War, right on its ass (with its faux greek mythology). Visceral also have the needed balls to make such a game 18/Mature, meaning all the awesome and messed up stuff, that runs throughout greek mythology can be included. There's a lot of good book stuff out there that games can take advantage of .

    The Tragedy of Macbeth though, why not? Might encourage people to read something.

  • Skurmedel #36 2 years ago

    SpaceMonkey77: I don't think the problem is taking inspiration, I think the problem is that they call it Dante's Inferno and harps about how it's based on the book when the only link seems to be that the main character is called Dante and he's in hell. Which is bound to make many people think that's how the book is.

    Frankly I was rather pissed with Steven Spielbergs crap-take on War of the Worlds (despite me being a big Spielberg fan), since I really liked the book and it deserved a better rendition. That said, I have not read Dante's Inferno bar an excerpt in school so I can't really whine about it.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 13:34

  • Zephro #37 2 years ago

    I think the reason people don't like it is because they're as mature as 14 year old boys obsessed with guns and swords.

  • Murton #38 2 years ago

    M_of_the_Sys: now that I think about it, I would probably buy that game, I used it as an example mainly because I just completed Godfather 2 yesterday and despite everyone telling me how bad it was beforehand I quite enjoyed it. Someone bring me an EA Exec and quick, I see my road out of here :p

    Point is, if the games industry is going to start raiding literary classics then the gameplay has to match the tone of the source material, the games industry has a hard enough time being taken seriously right now without classic literary characters tooled up with machine guns and hunting down vampires, leave that shit to Hollywood.

  • dahsif #39 2 years ago

    "Macbeth would be great, though; there are witches and a supernatural experience along with plenty of intrigue and murder."

    /Facepalm

    @Shinetop ""Dante's is more of a violent interpretation of the poem, for example," Knight continued."

    Dante's has fuck. all. to do with the poem. I wish they stopped lying about how incredibly true to the source material they're staying.

    So if they continue in the same vein, I look forward to the level where MacBeth goes "Is this a dagger I see before me" and proceeds to shoot flaming daggers from his handheld dagger cannon.

    Holy crap I hate how immature the games industry is."
    This post is full of truth, I agree 100%, Dante's Inferno -the game- is a disgrace, and these new comments are unbelievably cynic at best or ignorantly immature at worst. or vice versa

    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 14:08

  • Zephro #40 2 years ago

    This is the kind of reason gaming is still an embarrassing pursuit for so many of us. There is no way to justify this to non gaming friends.

  • PlugMonkey #41 2 years ago

    "Point is, if the games industry is going to start raiding literary classics then the gameplay has to match the tone of the source material,"

    What? You mean instead of a thinly veiled reskin of God of War?

    And by 'veiled' I mean 'transparent', and by 'thinly' I mean 'blatently'.

    Edit: And by 'blatently' I mean 'painfully'.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/10 @ 14:51

  • dahsif #42 2 years ago

    @PlugMonkey
    .and by "blatently" you mean "blatantly".

  • Triggerhappytel #43 2 years ago

    the_dudefather - "Hasn't it been public domain for a few centuries by now?"

    Ah, of course; I forgot that work this old belongs to no-one. Does that mean the same applies to the works of Dickens, Shakespeare and co? I always kind of assumed that big famous pieces of work belonged to particular estates or foundations.

    I might go and write a Ben 10-style TV show based on The Artful Dodger.

  • Fab4 #44 2 years ago

    In the UK, I think its 70 years after the author/creator's death.

  • PlugMonkey #45 2 years ago

    @ dahsif

    Indeed I did! :D

    And by 'transparent', I meant 'hackneyed'.

  • metalangel #46 2 years ago

    For fuck's sake.

    Richard the Third, reimagining the play in the 1930s with Ian McKellen as a fascist King Richard = good.
    Macbeth, with Macbeth as a tortured hero rampaging around slicing up all and sundry for hours and hours = shit.

  • Antaios #47 2 years ago

    spekkeh: "Bayonetta did it."

    Ha! But did the Simpsons already do it? :p

  • ongjg #48 2 years ago

    "Dante's is more of a violent interpretation of the poem, for example,"
    No, the game is a violent GOW clone with the facade of dante's inferno tacked on top. No 'interpretation' at all. I bet this guy hasn't even read it.

    "Macbeth would be great, though; there are witches and a supernatural experience along with plenty of intrigue and murder."
    We'll all enjoy that witch boss battle then ... not

    "The thing is, the unique quality of games is being interactive; it's about action and killing things"
    someone tell bioware this then

    There should be a special circle in hell for the douches who want to ruin classic literature by throwing it onto a blatant rip-off.

  • jonbwfc #49 2 years ago

    @skurmedel.

    Of course yes, there'd be the girl in the red coat. And by 'girl' I mean 'woman' and 'the red coat' I mean 'naked'.

    Jon

  • Skurmedel #50 2 years ago

    jonbwfc: Yes you are working on a masterpiece, and she must be troubled by her experiences which the hero no doubt will want to take advantage of to further his array of sexual conquests. First she shuns him but is later drawn to him by his mysterious, dark, but kind, soul.

  • sneetch #51 2 years ago

    @Skurmedel @jonbwfc

    That's beautiful, in fact it made me weep a little but I just want to confirm something, do you mean proper naked or good bits covered by shadows/hair naked?

  • jonbwfc #52 2 years ago

    @sneetch
    There will be some scenes with tasteful covering, so we can give out screen grabs for mags to use. The rest will be nude. This is acceptable because this is not gratuitous tittage for teenage boys, it is 'art'.

  • the_mtfr #53 2 years ago

    "...the unique quality of games is being interactive; it's about action and killing things"

    That's not their main point you fucking wanker.

  • a_radiohead #54 2 years ago

    hmm, I don't like that idea at all to be honest.