Why are there no videogame adaptations of Don Quixote? Indie game Hidalgo will convey “its essence in a modern message”
Don Quixote is regarded as the foundation novel on Western literature and one of the most important and most read ever books of all time, so why are there so few adaptations into modern media?
One of the year best selling games is an adaptation (one of many) of Journey to the West, the most important Chinese novel of all time from the 16th Century. But Miguel de Cervantes’ Quixote of La Mancha doesn’t receive the same attention. Why is that the case?
“I think that’s because probably there’s a prejudice inside even our country, a prejudice about our things, our own culture, but you know Don Quixote is the first modern novel”, explains Juan Pablo Guzmán, Infinite Thread Games’ CEO, talking to Gamereactor at Barcelona IndieDevDay.
“All characters from that moment, from that point, are just copies from Don Quixote and Sancho. Well, not a copy, but an inspiration: Batman and Robin, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, even Gandalf and Frodo”.
Hidalgo, a modern retelling of Don Quixote’s values, going into Kickstarter soon
Guzmán is leading a eleven people team working on Hidalgo, a cozy puzzle adventure game set “somewhere in La Mancha”, that can be played co-op playing as both Don Quixote and Sancho.
Your goal is to solve parallax and perspective puzzles in first person, jumping into Quixote’s delusional mind as he uses objects in the background and foreground to create shapes like the windmill and the giant.
But Hidalgo goes beyond your typical adaptation, as it actually takes place in a hadmade diorama a family has created in their attic. In a metatextual narrative twist, Guzmán teases we will get to know this real world, a “story of rediscovery, the fun of playing together and spend quality time together.”
Guzmán believes Don Quixote “is a fantastic story with a lot of values, with an universal message, and we have to exploit it and tell it worldwide, to everybody”, but recognizes the book is “quite old”. That is why they are trying to create, “in a modern message, all this essence of Don Quixote.”
You can watch our full interview with Juan Pablo Guzmán about the gameplay, the art style and the story of Hidalgo below. The Kickstarter campaign will start October 29 with the goal of launching the game on all platforms next year.