5 Ways a Hunger Games Video Game Could Work, Killer Kids and All

Sooner or later, we're going to get a video game based on The Hunger Games. No film can be as popular as this one, raking in just under $155 Million opening weekend, and not bring a huge amount of tie-in products in its wake, video games included.

As KPCC's Matthew DeBord notes, there are a lot of potential problems with making a video game that centers on kids killing other kids in brutal bloodsport. But if handled properly, a video game based on the world of The Hunger Games could be amazing for all the same reasons the books are.

There are gonna be some Hunger Games spoilers in here, so if you haven't read the first book or seen the first movie, consider yourself warned. I'll also allude to things in the second and third books, but I'll keep those allusions vague.

There are indeed already video games that wear the Hunger Games brand—Adam Atomic's The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire presents a fun and arcade-y iOS romp shooting Tracker Jackers as Katniss. It remains unclear what The Hunger Games Adventures on Facebook is all about, but I'm doubtful it will be a bold and intense re-creation of the games themselves. We've yet to hear a peep about any major studio daring to do something with the brand.

Surely that is in part because the deck would be stacked against any big-budget developer making a Hunger Games game. Video games' perception in the public eye has become tainted to the point that making a video game, any video game, about kids killing other kids could simply be a non-starter, no matter how well-executed the game itself might be.

That said, I truly think that if handled properly, a Hunger Games video game could be smart, intense, emotional and provocative. It could be the kind of game that everyone plays, and everyone talks about. In other words, it could be just like Suzanne Collins' books.

Here are 5 ways that a Hunger Games video could work.
Don't Base It On Katniss' Story

Between the book and the movie, the story of Katniss, Peeta, and the 74th Hunger Games is pretty well covered. But that's okay! There have been 73 Hunger Games before Katniss', and most of them are never discussed in the books. Anything could have happened!

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As Batman: Arkham Asylum proved, a video game that is tied to a franchise without being tied to a specific movie release gives its developers the luxury of time and creative freedom. There will be at least two more Hunger Games films, and they'll doubtless be released over the next 2-3 years at least. That's more than enough time to develop a great video game, and if the team isn't tied to one of the films, they'll have a much better chance of making a game that's interesting.

What's more, that whole time, people will be really pumped up about anything related to The Hunger Games. There's no need to rush a game out, or to tie it directly to one of the books. I can think of few things less interesting than a video game in which I simply control Katniss as she sneaks through the woods and reenacts the events of the first book.

By making a video game about the event The Hunger Games but not the book The Hunger Games, the game's writers would be free to build a whole new experience with all-new characters. They could set up a similarly dark, impossible set of circumstances, and focus on characters from one of the other districts. The first book is easily the strongest of the three books, mainly because there is so much uncertainty and tension. What is going to happen? What are these Hunger Games all about? Who will survive? How could this possibly end happily?

All of those questions feel less pressing in subsequent books, as the scope of the story by necessity grows broader and broader. By setting a game during an earlier, unknown Hunger Games, those initial questions could become vital once more.

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