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Underground > Comic Books >

Invisibles video game

11:10 / 09.12.02

According to the latest Lying in the Gutters, the guys behind Grand Theft Auto are working on an Invisibles video game. Considering it was a theme of the series, I wonder what it will look like...

11:47 / 09.12.02

This could be seriously great. Volume II probably lends itself best to a game, with the high level action in Black Science I and II. The fight in Time Machine Go could also be another highlight. If they use a modified GTA engine, it could work well, by incorporating all the locations of the series. There's an easy excuse to allow the play to play as multiple characters, because of the fiction suit. Hopefully this will happen.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:51 / 09.12.02

And also, a bit further down, the possibility that DC will properly release Morrison's 'Doom Patrol' stuff after they've released the 'Animal Man' stuff, which may well include the Flex Mentallo stuff! (Though, by that time, Grant will have finished NXM so unless he's got another high profile successful project to work on they may not bother to continue the reprints I thinks)

12:19 / 09.12.02

Supposedly he'll be writing Ultimate Secret War and Ultimate Fantastic Four, so I imagine he'll still be on a top ten book...

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:23 / 09.12.02

Meanwhile, kicking myself to get back on topic, how could this be anything other than you playing King Mob shooting everyone with the option of turning into Lord Fanny and blasting them with your {ahem} magic staff? Or just nick the latest RPG and overlay The Invisibles over the top, so you're Boy, for no clear reason walking around a fantasy land trying to find the magic crystal of Flarg.

It might be fun to just do it with the Quake/Unreal engine and just say 'sod it' and go for the really intense game experience rather than trying to tie it in the the comics continuity. So much of the comics was about adopting a certain style in the telling of the story, adopting computer game styles to tell a new chapter might be amusing...

12:43 / 09.12.02

Personally, I think it should be like "the Sims." All the Invisibles can live in Mason's house, and then you can send them off to work during the day, after building up their skills in magic, kung-fu, dodgy philosophy, and orientalist cookery. Then they can come out with a "Time Machine Go!" expansion pack, where you laze about in a 2012 pad, taking drugs and wanking and doing sod-all else.

The Natural Way

12:48 / 09.12.02

So....if they release the DP stuff in trades, can the Flex mini be far behind?

Superlove Ninja

13:07 / 09.12.02

Flex is never being released. Ever.

The Natural Way

13:44 / 09.12.02

Okay...look, urrgh, I've heard all that. Great. I don't think it's too much of a leap to assume that, if the Charles Atlas people have green lighted the DP Flex (with his origin story - a near carbon copy of the original Atlas ads), then perhaps they might have revised their take on the Flex mini. Y'know?

13:53 / 09.12.02

As regards the VG, perhaps there could be a karma counter function, and the more people you kill, the more difficult the game becomes? That's a very simple interpretation, I'm sure it could be done better than that...
I think if it was done well, as innovative as Deus Ex with a better plot, it could be great. But it's not going to be, is it? It's going to be repackaged, pseudo-revolutionary wank, slapped onto an FPS.

14:16 / 09.12.02

If it's being developed by the team behind Grand Theft Auto, it's not likely to be an FPS, it's more likely to be a third person action game. Say what you will about the content, the immersiveness of the Grand Theft Auto gameplay is pretty much unparalleled. It wouldn't be too tough to come up with a structure that could replicate the flow of the series, and allow you to play as all the most important characters, in the best sequences from the book.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

15:21 / 09.12.02

Where is 'Lying in the Gutters' anyway? Rich's column jumps around like a weasel on crystal meth.

As for as an Invisibles Video game.... hmmmm..... I think it could be done. And if anyone could do it, it would be Rockstar.

The closest thing I can think of in recent memory would have been Max Payne which briefly veers off into Invisible territory before going back onto it's path as a not-quite-supernatural John Woo-a-thon.

Oh, and Deus Ex has some great Invivibles-esque things going on in it. And you can play it as a psycho gun-machine or get through the whole thing without taking a single life.

The Natural Way

15:24 / 09.12.02

Well, anyway, I think it's a skillian' idea.

15:47 / 09.12.02

Really?

Yeah I think Rockstar could manage it.

And they're from Scotland so they probably know Grant (all people from Scotland know each other).

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:25 / 09.12.02

Superlove Ninja Flex is never being released. Ever.

DC won the case. All they need is enough of a financial reason to make it worthwhile for them publishing it. DC have got AOL-Time-Warner on their side. Who's Atlas got batting for him?

16:48 / 09.12.02

One programmer was so excited about the collaboration that he text messaged a friend from his mobile saying "I'm having a shit in Grant Morrison's toilet!!!" at 2 in the morning.'

18:27 / 09.12.02

I guess our lives won't be complete until we've all had a shit in Grant Morrison's toilet.

Interesting link outvix. Was I the only one creeped out by that scary Mary Jane bust on that page? There'll be no sleep for me tonight......

20:29 / 09.12.02

The comments on that page make it look like the entire 'DC cannot reprint Flex' agreement was a sham, and DC in actuality has just chosen not to reprint those issues. As long as they get the books in print, I don't care much either way, and hopefully it won't take them forever to do it.

Murray Hamhandler

22:29 / 09.12.02

Invisibles game: Every enemy killed takes away one of your own lives. Make friends 'til they beg for mercy. Hugs, not slugs.

I really, really like this...

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

23:36 / 09.12.02

"The comments on that page make it look like the entire 'DC cannot reprint Flex' agreement was a sham, and DC in actuality has just chosen not to reprint those issues. "

That's EXACTLY what it was, if I recall correctly. I used to have a copy of the case and a text of the settlement, but I lost it and I no longer have my mad LexisNexis access.

But basicly, the court was coming up on the side of DC but Time Warner didn't want to take any chances. However the court recognized that Flex was "clearly a work of parody".

00:16 / 10.12.02

So Rockstar is looking to burn off some karma from all of the 'grand theft auto' mayhem? It probably could if they did it right.

01:00 / 10.12.02

Try to remember. It's only a game.

01:15 / 10.12.02

Kepping w/ the alternating nature of this thread, can I just say that the whole 'Charles Atlas/Flex Mentallo' trial thing is one of the biggest crocks of shit I've ever heard of?

Also, the more I think about this videogame idea, the more I like it.

02:15 / 10.12.02

Fanboy trivia: The chap who informed Atlas, inc., albeit out of misguided enthusiasm, of Flex Mentallo was the very same fellow who suggested Emma Frost for New X-Men.

His name is Ken Kneisel, and he's (very) active on several internet comics messageboards - MillarWorld, X-Fan, Joe Quesada. Seems like a nice guy.

The Natural Way

09:29 / 10.12.02

Yes, I've bumped heads w/ him. I think I was curt w/ him, too... Actually, I think I called him "poppet" or something...

So...he's the bastard who fucked up my chances of getting my greasy mitts on Flex... Do you know where he lives - I want to send him the deadly bottled eau-du-runce.

10:30 / 10.12.02

Try to remember. It's only a game.

Yeah.. the whole idea's so meta- it's silly..

It'd better come in "funny looking gas canister with breathing mask on the end" format or I'll be pissed off.

yawn - thing's buddy

11:23 / 10.12.02

yes - everyone in Scotland does know eachother.

I used to work in the videogames industry and two of my former colleagues (one of whom is a very dear friend) work as a level builder and producer on GTA - vice city for Rockstar North

I shall investigate further......

14:51 / 10.12.02

I know this thread has been very video gamey but I'm going to throw in my magical two cents. I think grant morrison fucked up when he was writing the Invisibles hypersigil and that's why we haven't seen an Invisibes movie. On a very literal level things he wrote about have come true. And of course, he wrote in an Invisibles video game and *ta-da* a real Invisibles video game is appearing out of the comic and into "real life". What, about 2 years later?

Another example to support my theory is that at the start of vol. 2 Mason is going on about Speed (Keanue Reeves film) and how it's a very Invisibles movie made by Invisibles for Invisibles. That was in 1997. Flash forward to 1999 (two years later) and The Matrix comes out (very Invisibles indeed.)

All of this is the reason why the Invisibles hasn't been adapted into a movie. The fucker that is grant morrison didn't write it into the comic.

ok... you can go back to talking about Flex.

yawn - thing's buddy

15:14 / 10.12.02

initial investigations suggest the rumour may be Mcbullshit...

15:35 / 10.12.02

I can't see how this could work - horrible feeling that they're going to take the shooty bits from volume 2 and Quake them. If it's going first-person, Deus Ex has to be the model to follow. Unless they're going to create a whole new sub-genre.

RPG? Create your own cell and lead them through a parallel story? Maybe, but Rockstar haven't really shown any RPG-leanings yet. Hmm...

15:54 / 10.12.02

Imagine it.You start with an ill defined character.Just a boring "normal" person avatar.
You do some exploring and stuff (in a city setting i guess) and then something weird happens.Pick aany of the Dane head fuck moments from volume 1.Follow thew chuch or the bald headed man with the spiky jacket is the choice youre presented with.You're Forced to take a side at this point in the game and from here on things will lewad you to greater heights in the outer church or the invisible order(akin to your missions in GTA 3).
Keep this fun and interesting fro a while and then BAM!volume 3 head mesing and it all comes crumbling down, with er your role in the church being threatened by KM and co or you tkaing to the outer chgurch with style.Stick in some mind bending metal gear solid "is it a game or what" kind of trickery and end your sentence on way or the other.
Thes e could be the larger arcs within the game but you could "play" again as another type of character.It's just a game after all.
After Deus ex's branching storylines and gta3's engine this one shouldn't be too hard to pull off if of course someone was really into it.Would be good for fucking with the kids heads too.
Thats just what I think anyways...

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

16:48 / 10.12.02

It could be done. An a well done Invissies Video Game would be a hell of a lot more of a head-trip than an Invisibles flick.

Games with this kind of head-twisting depth HAVE been done. TORMENT, DEUS-EX, GTA4, MAX PAYNE, and I hear METAL GEAR SOLID gets really meta as well.

It would need a good engine (GTA: Vice City's could do it) or maybe just modified Unreal Engine like DEUS EX uses. And it would need some really good writers. Some of the folks at Rockstar or Warren Spectre come to mind.

23:38 / 10.12.02

Maybe the game could be like Quake or Half-Life, except at the end you get shot by King Mob and realise you've wasted three days of your life.

yawn - thing's buddy

10:35 / 11.12.02

silent hill model may be close.

14:25 / 11.12.02

Hadn't thought of that - good idea. There are aspects of Zelda - Majora's Mask that could be used, too (the implementation of time-travel within a coherent story, mainly, but there was an awesome bit towards the end where you enter the Skull Kid's psyche/dreamworld that always made me think of the Invisible College, for some strange reason).