Plug in, Press Play: Reimagining Podcasts as Games

If there’s one thing video games and podcasts have in common it’s that they’ve both broken more into the mainstream over the past few years. Once only a niche interest of closeted nerds, people can envelope themselves in a hands-on digital world or tune into a story with just the press of a button.

Escapism comes in many forms and seeing as how video games and podcasts are some of my personal favorite time-killers, it’s no wonder I found myself contemplating what a merging of formats would like.

Call it a tall order, but with the off and on success of translating beloved books into movies or television series, I’d definitely imagine audio drama getting the same treatment if someone was willing to put in the effort. 

Wolf 359: Sci-Fi Survival

Less Mass Effect and more Alien Isolation, but Wolf 359 does have the merits for a very intuitive and narratively rich science fiction game. With its interesting cast of characters and claustrophobic environment, any number of scenarios the heroes end up wrapped up in could make for a great series of levels. 

But an idea that comes to mind is a style inspired by the indie darling Observation, wherein you take on the role of a failing ship’s artificial intelligence and try to keep track of a lone survivor after the rest of the crew ends up missing. Keep the original Hephaestus crew in the cast, switch the main role over the Hera, and that would provide a challenging and very personalized look into what it’s like to be in her hardware.

After episodes like “Memoria”, Hera has more than earned a chance to flex her abilities first hand and that extra gut punch of emotional trauma the player would have to experience would just make the experience all the better. Maybe a gameplay style vaguely akin to the Bioshock pipe hacking minigame you’d have something very visceral that lets you be a slightly less sadistic version of Portal’s GLaDOS.

The Penumbra: Mystery and Crime Drama

The adventures of Juno Steel would make for some cool, science fiction exploration where you hop from case to case, helping random clients and uncovering a bigger, much more meaty mystery overtime. As far as a template goes, The Wolf Among Us comes to mind with maybe a sort of Dangan Ronpa style of fast pace, mini-game investigation.

In-between, maybe the occasional shoot out or stealth mission with the help of Juno’s handy laser gun, giving this particular game just a touch more hands-on action in between all the deductive reasoning.

Archive 81: Psychological Horror

Horror podcasts aren’t exactly a dime a dozen and horror games even less so. That’s why an execution of a video game that encompasses Archive 81’s unique take on found-footage supernatural horror would be a welcome challenge.

Personal favorites like the sadly canceled Silent Hill PT with just a pinch of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard would be the ideal starting point, favoring atmosphere and tough decision making with often grizzly consequences, something Archive 81 is more than familiar with.

Dark Dice: Dark Fantasy Role Play

Okay, this is an awful redundant description for what’s already a dark fantasy themed dungeons and dragons podcasts, but in practice, I imagine Dark Dice would be wonderfully different with a controller in hand.

A game like this might be akin to Dark Souls or Skyrim where you take on a character in the party, or perhaps integrate an online multiplayer to fully utilize the whole group, and pursue the quest to find the missing children. 

Decision making is already an essential part of role play be it tabletop or digitally, and seeing Dark Dice’s taste for morbid yet strangely beautiful world building fleshed out with art would really succeed in setting the mood and stakes. 

Alternatively, taking a sort of omniscient role in the gameplay as the dungeon master would grant full control of the story while still letting certain consequences, deaths, and mistakes fall on the shoulders of the player, probably a dream come true for veteran DnD fans.

The Bright Sessions: Visual Novel

Combine complicated emotional intimacy with superpowers and you get The Bright Sessions podcast by Lauren Shippen, and in my opinion, the same formula translates nicely to an interactive, branching path visual novel. 

Now, I’m certainly showing my anime fan side with this entry, but visual novels are an interactive fiction video game that originated in Japan. 

The subversive psychological horror, Doki Doki Literature Club! might be more familiar to western audiences and shows like Clannad, Steins;Gate, and Fate/Stay Night got their start this way before becoming full blown franchises. 

I feel this sort of emotion driven, text heavy game would befit The Bright Sessions’ general appeal, even strengthening parts of the narrative with the help of beautiful art and emotive character sprites. 

Ideally, I’d imagine taking on the role of Dr. Bright, picking and choosing dialogue options for each of the clients and ultimately setting them on different paths depending on your decision making. With the cast of characters, it be easy to separate them into individual routes or even seeing them clash with only yourself to blame or congratulate depending on if anyone gets a happy ending.