Creating good spin-offs can be an astonishingly difficult task. “Passion and love” are the oft-cited secret ingredients to strong reinterpretations, and though they’re undeniably integral, there’s a lot more to it than simple enthusiasm. Loving Star Wars, for example, doesn’t mean I’m capable of making KotOR.
It isn’t enough to just love something, you need to understand why the thing is loved. You need to understand what about it attracts people in the first place, and ensure that element is properly realised in the final product. At the same time, you have to make sure your product is unique and charismatic enough to be something more than a sub-par knock-off.
Thankfully we live in an age now where many licenced games aren’t the dreadful certainty they once were. Gone is the age of Superman 64 and ET, and in its place are the days of Batman: Arkham, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Alien: Isolation. We live in an era where a game “based on the acclaimed [blank]” can actually inspire hope, and Telltale Games are, at least in my mind, the masters of this art.
