True Blood's Charlaine Harris Now Writing Video Games

First there was storytelling around the fire. Then books. Then plays, then screenplays, then TV scripts. Nowadays a writer can spin a tale through a video game. Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books — which spawned HBO’s vampire soap, True Blood — has done just that.

“Dying for Daylight” features an original tale starring Dahlia, a wisecracking, fashion-forward vampire hunting for a potion that lets vampires survive in sunlight. A hidden-object game designed for casual play by both women and men, it aims to bridge the gap between paperback readers and gaming fans, leveraging Harris’ gift for crafting clever characters and scenarios.

Okay, but if writers start working on video games, is anyone going to work on books? Harris says:

“I hope that books will not completely go by the wayside, but I fear they will. I love to hold a book in my hands, but I can’t deny it’s much more convenient and green to have all my books on one device and to be able to take that device with me when I travel, instead of bulky and heavy books. For that time alone, eBooks are worth it. And the same thinking applies to all the other uses. Portable is the way the world is going.”

But books are portable! And if there hadn’t been a Sookie Stackhouse book, there would not have been a TV show which led to a video game. Sigh. On the other hand: Props to Harris for entering the digital world. Plenty of women love video games… but how many video games are written by a woman?

‘True Blood’ Author Rewrites The Script On Video Games [CNN]
Dying for Daylight [I-Play]