Is It a Game or a TV Series?

Tales from the Loop is a fantastic art book that became a groovy game and soon will be released as a TV series.

The series is based on the work of Swedish author and artist, Simon Stålenhag, and is set against a backdrop of the future that never was. Set in a world of futuristic science where robots have a large impact on everyday life, and where cities are powered by super accelerators, the book tells the story of a group of children seeking adventure, all set to the music of Alphaville and pop art from the 80's.

The works of Stålenhag were first adapted to a pen and paper roleplaying game by Fria Ligan in 2017 and is in production for release on Amazon Prime via FOX 21 Studios. Production will start in Canada later this year.

I have read Tales from the Loop, the art book, along with the short stories in it. From that, I can say we will be seeing a different side of Sweden than you get from the real 80s. There may even be some Jurassic tie-ins as Stålenhag is into dinosaurs. I especially look forward to see what is lurking down in the maintenance tunnels below the ventilation towers. From the scenarios in the roleplaying game, we should be following the group of kids through their everyday life in school and at home. As we do, we will notice everything is not all right ... even if Riksenergi, the company who supplies power to the city, says the vibrations from the towers are not harmful. There is also a movie in the works called Electric State, to be set in the US with Anthony Russo as one of the producers.

And this is where we start off with games adapted to TV series'.

Minecraft the TV series? In an age of interaction there's bound to be attempts on new gimmicks. Minecraft, the game, was created by Mojang 2009. Telltale made an interactive version of the original game in 2015. Netflix released it as an interactive TV series in 2018, aimed at younger kids who enjoy playing Minecraft. In the series, you, the viewer, can choose different paths as to how you want to watch the story. The Netflix adaptation of Minecraft Story Mode is not the same as the Telltale Games version, but scaled down to let you choose different branches to steer the characters through the adventure. Choose your own adventure variations of games have been around since the early programming games of the 1980s and the race to corner the PC market was dramatised in the AMC series Halt and Catch Fire. I have yet to try the Minecraft Story Mode out, as I am still playing the game from 2009.

Netflix's next project with path picking is more mature in taste and is a dark story of game developing set in the 1980s.

The season 4 special episode of Black Mirror, Bandersnatch, has a similar functionality to Minecraft, with multiple choices for the viewer to make throughout the episode. Those choices lead to one of five major endings to the episode, according to Netflix. The thing with Bandersnatch is you are given the power to pick a path that is bad for Stefan, the main character played by Fionn Whitehead. I did watch the episode once and got to change my choices to get through it a couple of times to reach the end. Or is it an end? As the viewer, you are encouraged to play/watch again and see if different choices result in a different outcome.

I think Bandersnatch is a good effort as a proof of concept, but not on par with the better episodes of Black Mirror from past seasons where the episodes reflects and extrapolates our society and spins it further and asks: what if? As interactivity goes, Bandersnatch works just fine. The question with Bandersnatch is – is it a TV show or just a game? Maybe it's interactive media?

Will you tune in to watch the adventures of "Tales from the Loop"? I'm sure I will!

Or maybe, you will try out Minecraft Story Mode or Bandersnatch? I'll have another attempt at Bandersnatch and see of I get the sales numbers I want on my new game. And I even think I would have loved to have Minecraft Story Mode as a school assignment when I was ten.

Have you seen Stålenhag´s art work? Did you watch Minecraft Story Mode? Which ending of Bandersnatch did you get?