The Play team debate which kids book they would turn into a game

In this month's Play Magazine, the team is debating which kids book they would turn into a game, with some pretty bold claims coming from the gang. 

Inspired by the upcoming Lies of P, which is a Bloodborne-esque take on the story of Pinocchio, here are the children's tales which the Play staffers would take and mold into a videogame. We're already getting chills thinking about some of these Grimm adaptations... 

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Rachel Watts, Staff Writer

Any fairy tale by the Grimm brothers would make an excellent creepy but cutesy horror game, and Hansel And Gretel would be my first choice. I love playing horror games with friends and so my adaptation of the story would be a two-player co-op adventure in the style of Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons meets Little Nightmares. There would be stealth elements for when the siblings need to escape their stepmother and woodcutter father, puzzle elements for laying down the breadcrumbs, and then, of course, a boss fight against the witch.

Miriam McDonald, Operations Editor

Move over, Noctis and co, because some better bros are going on an RPG road trip. Gentle Mole, water loving, capable Ratty and impetuous, speed-loving Mr Toad are out to traverse a world more familiar than Eorzea but no less characterful. The Wind In The Willows has it all: driving challenges in a stolen car, the dangerous Wild Wood that’s full of evil faces (random battles ahoy!), a stealthy prison break disguised as a washerwoman, horse theft, and even a final battle (with some help from wise old Badger) with the wicked weasels who’ve taken over Toad Hall.

Oscar Taylor-Kent, Editor

Forget Babylon’s Fall. The only fantastically large thing I want to climb is The Faraway Tree from Enid Blyton’s series of books. The giant tree, with houses up its trunk and ever-changing lands at the top, is magical. But something has always struck me as suspicious about Moon-Face, one of the denizens of the land above. This would be a gritty, gruelling climb taking the kids on a perilous procedurally generated ascent that gets more dangerous the closer you get to the top, where the round headed creature awaits for a final, brutal challenge. 

Only once they’ve climbed the tree can they be free of the nightmares that terrorise them. But with Moon-Face vanquished, your character looks into a puddle of rain to find their own head has become spherical. The cycle always continues, and you become the boss for another player

Jessica Kinghorn, Games Editor

Fairy tales serve well as malleable narrative wrappings around game mechanics. Many feel the best-known versions of these tales, as collected by the Brothers Grimm, are far too violent to be bedtime stories for modern tiny wees, but perhaps they’d fit right in with another medium. Any folklorist worth their salt will tell you there’s plenty else to draw on besides such Grimm things but just picture it: Red Riding Hood as a stealth game. Snow White And The Seven Dwarves as a dating simulator. Hansel And Gretel as a Hitman-esque puzzle game where you race against each other’s ghost data as you try to shove the witch in the oven – the designs write themselves!