A detailed look at the business cultures of the literary industry versus the games industry. As viewed through the experiences of award winning British author Christopher Brookmyre and UK based Indie game developer RedBedlam for their book and game project "Bedlam". Possibly the first true book and novel tie-in where the novel was written specifically to be followed by a game. From Chris's initial skeptical discussions with his book publisher, especially as all his previous work to date had been crime fiction and this was Sci-Fi. To seeing the hardback novel top the UK Sci-Fi charts and RedBedlam begin to receive interest to fund the follow-up game's development. As RedBedlam's funding discussions accelerated a host of interested parties began to ask "what does a deal look like?". Nobody from the Literary side had any idea how the games industry worked, as various unworkable deals were put forward. Eventually a compromise was found, the deal was put together, signed off and funds released for development to begin. Followed by a brief summary of the creative process between the writer and developer, how they worked together and the benefits to a developer working with professional writers. Finally, we look at how the two industries have made some moves to work more closely together. This has happened within the time-frame Chris and RedBedlam have been working on the "Bedlam" project. For example, this years London Book Fair hosted its first ever gaming section, whilst a high proportion of the discussions and presentations at the trade event referenced the games industry and the need for closer ties.

1. From novel to game and back
again – Christopher Brookmyre
Coming Soon…