More details on James Patterson game @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on February 05, 2008

News: Women's Murder Club is coming in May.

Back in August, James Patterson confirmed that Oberon Media would be turning one of his books into a video game. The game was being aimed at the casual game market, which is predominantly female, and Patterson's readers, who are also predominantly female. But since that announcement, little has been revealed about the game. Until today that is.

Today, The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Patterson again and he filled them in on the progress of the game. It will be based on the Women's Murder Club series of books, of which the most recent, 7th Heaven, was just released in stores. The series is no stranger to adaptations either, as the first book, 1st To Die was turned into a TV movie and the series as a whole was adapted this year into the ABC series Women's Murder Club.

The game will be a casual adventure game with clues to find, puzzles to solve and over 40 "rooms" of gameplay that is being overseen by Jane Jensen, co-founder of Oberon and creator of the Gabriel Knight series.

"We are sort of baby-stepping our way towards a full adventure game while still keeping the elements that I believe are really good about casual games," she says, "meaning that it has to be immediately intuitive with no barriers for entry and it has to be immediately rewarding."

Patterson himself is also involved in the game's development.

"He's had a lot of input into making sure that the game stays true to his concept," Jensen adds, "and he signs off on everything we do."

No platforms were revealed for the game, but Patterson stated he was very impressed with how Nintendo was able to expand the idea of what a video game could be with the Wii, so a Wii version probably wouldn't be out of the question. A PC release seems like a certainty.

Women's Murder Club will be released in May and we'll have more soon.

source: Hollywood Reporter