When I started thinking about a Frankenstein game based on the book itself rather than pop culture’s representation of “Frankenstein”, I first started with some differences between the two. In pop culture, the monster is evil from the get-go, and is completely unintelligible and inhuman. Dr. Frankenstein is a crazy mad scientist, who is highly intelligent but insolent. The focus is completely on sensationalizing the monster. In the book, the monster starts off innocent, but soon turns evil because he is not accepted by humans. The monster is also able to speak clearly and intelligently. Frankenstein is just a naive young student carrying out an experiment. He is less crazy, and more unfortunate.
A game based on the book would need to capture the same feel that the book has. It is creepy, but it starts out with experiments for which the intentions are innocent enough. The game could possibly start out with the player character searching for knowledge in some form or another. The “knowledge” could be represented by some kind of symbol, like books or letters (letters/writing seem to play a large role in the novel.) Maybe there is a point at which you discover too much knowledge, or too many secrets of life, and an imbalance is then apparent. But in order to progress through the game, you must hit this point. It may seem like you are failing (monster comes to life, but have you gone too far? oh no, he has not been accepted by anyone and is flying into a rage!) but this is actually what you should be doing game-wise. As in the IF Dead Like Ants, you must die to win.
It would be great to be able to play with the perspective of the player character. If you could play as Frankenstein, the monster, and Walton (the letters of whom tell the story of Frankenstein) there could be a really interesting dynamic. Walton would be told the story by Frankenstein on the tundra. You would be playing him imagining the story from his perspective. In the end, Walton decides to stop searching for the North Pole because he saw the consequences of Frankenstein’s pursuit of discovery. Playing as Frankenstein, you gather the information and create the monster (however he was created), but end up performing none of the responsibilities of a “parent” or creator, slowly creating this ravenous monster who kills all your loved ones. Then you become a monster yourself, following the monster around, attempting to destroy your own creation until eventually it kills you. Playing as the monster, you start out innocent, but cannot handle the rejection and loneliness you must face being a hideous, gigantic, strange form of life. It would be really great if all three (or at least Frankenstein’s and the monster’s) perspectives became more and more similar toward the end of the game. All face loneliness, isolation, and especially Frankenstein and his creation see themselves transforming into bloodthirsty monsters.
The time period could work really well in modern day, and maybe have a little commentary on our continuous quest for knowledge and technology. At what point should we hold back on our scientific endeavors? Although the original old 19th Century England would be cool and classic as well.
I have no idea what platform this manifestation of this game would work for. Maybe something more ambiguous and vague, like interactive fiction. The visuals might be difficult to deal with because of the typical portrayal of the monster in pop culture. Or if there were visuals, and they were different from the usual “Frankenstein”, it could be refreshing. And then the player wouldn’t automatically have the stiff-limbed green flat-top sporting character in his/her mind. This is a very jumbled idea at this point, not visually clear yet in my mind. But I think if a game were able to capture the feel of the book, as well as offer a few different viewpoints, it could be a nice revival of Frankenstein in modern day technology.
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