Editorials
5 Stephen King Stories We’d Love to Play as Video Games
Note: some minor spoilers from the selected stories.
Stephen King’s prolific career as a writer has spanned more than forty years of masterful suspense and terror. That’s a lot of scary and creative stories that have been written, with several of them having films and series adaptations. I mean, did you notice how many audiovisual projects were made (and are being made right now) in the last decade? No less than eleven movies and eight series!
As happy as fans can be with all these products, I’d argue there’s still a huge medium missing its opportunity with the Master’s different nightmares. No, I’m not speaking about Tik Tok videos. We need more Video Games based on Stephen King’s work. It’s incredible that only The Dark Half comes to mind when you search for quality or at least interesting experiences. While Mr. King might not be a very big fan of video games himself, I strongly believe this can be a unique medium to create fantastic and special experiences.
I selected five very well-known stories, even a more contemporary one, based on popularity and my own personal tastes. Each one is inside a specific genre or uses a unique mechanic, to make things a bit interesting. But if I’m being honest here, this list could be significantly longer, with more unexpected and original choices. Who knows, maybe for a future list.
IT
With the recent release of It Chapter II, the old clownish murderer Pennywise is terrorizing your neighborhood’s sewers again. The story has briefly flirted with gaming, It had some 8-bit games, currently unavailable, that were on the film’s website, and a current mod for Resident Evil 2 Remake, turning Mr. X into Pennywise. However, we are speaking about It, one of the most sprawling and ambitious books King has ever written. History, geography, homophobia, abusive relationships, racism, friendship, cosmic battles with a turtle (!), among other topics. It’s indeed a book in which Stephen has written a lot, at moments leaving the iconic painted face creature in the background.
Trying to express all these subjects would be an unnecessary struggle, like it -arguably- was for the films. So, hear me out: a first-person adventure, with a linear chronological structure. The main mechanic consists of controlling each character in their unique scenarios and stories, while solving puzzles and avoiding death by Pennywise. There would be an implicit time limit to solve any task the player has, with the infamous clown creating more and more dangerous situations as the minutes pass by. Put some smart jump scares here and there, intense sequences that require fast thoughts and we have our first draft of a game. But like I said before, it isn’t all kids getting eaten and devilish red balloons here. A cohesive and balancing narrative with the losers having fun and enjoying life has to be here. We need to interact with each child -and then adult- to get to know them, in order to create bonds with them and unfortunate situations when everything goes wrong.
MISERY
Misery is often thought of as being the most breathtaking book in King’s catalog. This is undoubtedly true for two main reasons: the feeling of being complete defenseless in a highly improbable but still possible scenario, and the complex, mentally ill character of Annie Wilkes. For those unfamiliar with the story, it’s about a writer who suffers an almost fatal accident, and he has his movement quite reduced as a consequence. Annie finds his weakened body and takes care of him while he’s recovering. Unfortunately, she isn’t as cool as it seems.
My idea for Misery: The Video Game is a dialogue-driven one. Each day, you’ll have different conversation options to engage with Ms. Wilkes. Every choice affects your future possibilities of escape, creating different scenarios with unexpected variations. Depending on how you develop your relationship with Annie, she’ll treat you more violently or be a relative sweetie. While dialogue selection would be the main mechanic, you’ll have moments of freedom and more interactive options with objects near you. Perhaps you might be able to hurt your “medic” when you least expect it and finish the story early? However it may come, what I’d want from this title is the intimacy it needs to have. You are by yourself, hopeless and with very little possibilities, against a strong and erratic woman, isolated from the outside world in a cabin surrounded by snow. Let the mind games begin.
Of course, there should be a scene regarding a lawnmower…
THE SHINING
The Overlook hotel is such a mesmerizing and mysterious location, full of secrets one wouldn’t want to know. What kind of crimes and supernatural events took place inside its rooms? It would be a shame not to give it an opportunity as a proper video game scenario, with much of the terrific symmetrical design Kubrick gave birth with his film.
For this title, you’ll use the three main family members from a third-person perspective. Your main goal is just to keep them “entertained” and without murdering/being murdered by the other. This will be an easy task in the first hours: everything’s going well for the lovely family in their new home. But as days goes by, strange situations will take place at the Overlook. Shouts from empty rooms, enigmatic silhouettes across halfways and some eerie-looking girls wandering around. Each character could have a “stress” bar, akin to Gamecube classic Eternal Darkness, that you need to keep from increasing in order to survive and avoid deadly hallucinations. Ultimately, that bar would get dangerously high, and things would get pretty nasty.
There’s more than enough excellent material to take from both film and book. But one thing the former did worse than the latter is the characterization of Jack. From the first moment in screen we realized he isn’t a man slowly descending into madness by his own dramas, family issues and by the hotel “influence”. He’s troubled from minute zero, and so much of his remarkable character development is lost. We need to recover each moment, all the nuances that make these characters who they are. For example, playing as Danny should feel like having a big playroom, and the joy of exploration a kid “normally” have. But this comes with the expense of not being able to differentiate reality from imagination, as an adult would, because of his “extra-sensorial ability”. Also, Danny’s lives with ambiguous feelings towards his father figure, who’s capable of showing genuine love and violent manners when he can’t hold it together. Knowing when to trust his Jack and when to avoid him, would determine the kid’s future.
THE DARK TOWER
For some reason, anytime I have read or heard anyone speaking about the idea of a video game based on Stephen’s epic saga, The Dark Tower, their desire is for an MMO. Yes, this makes perfect sense: in case you don’t know it, TDT is a big story that brings together most of the author’s universes and characters, in vast and diverse locations. So, the possibility of creating your own character – human or another kind of creature- and make your own path through this mess of timelines and dimensions, sounds like a pretty decent idea.
However, since I played Undertale, I can’t avoid thinking it would be a wonderful experiment to try to mix the best of the two. Imagine Roland’s long journey, with his conflictive past and frustrating doubts about his and his partner’s future, narrated in the style of Toby Fox. This means putting special attention in a wide cast of interesting characters to discover, and an uncertain world crowded with secrets to unveil -but most of them will be left to interpretation. Although it’d tell a linear story, the narration would use the strengths of Toby Fox storytelling: a compelling focus on its characters, how they feel in this world(s) and how they bond with each other, in addition to freely roam through the levels and, of course, the player’s expectations subverted from time to time.
Regarding gameplay, when you find your ka-tet (let’s say your RPG party), more options will be available for confrontations with enemies. Roland might shoot most of his problems out of the way, but Susannah, Eddie and Jake would have more creative and verbal manners to move forward. They probably won’t be all nice and sweet, by the way. Eddie is well known for having quite a big mouth and a bag full of “silly” jokes.
THE BILL HODGES TRILOGY
Taking a step away from the more conventional scary stories of King’s work, I believe detective Hodges story would fit extremely well for a crime & investigations game. Following the line of titles like the recent Disco Elysium, L.A. Noire, and Heavy Rain, you’d be tasked with analyzing crime scenes, gathering evidence and interrogating subjects. L.A. Noire’s mechanic of paying attention to your subjects facial gesture, making decisions based on how they answer with their body, was a very interesting feature that we haven’t seen it in many games since then. (Maybe because it sure is expensive as hell and takes huge amounts of work, right?).
But why would we leave this here? If you haven’t read Mr. Mercedes or the rest of the trilogy, you should know that King wrote the stories from two major points of view: the detective side and from the criminal conflicted mind, too. So why don’t we build a narrative based on both characters, trying to achieve their different fears and desires? Breaking harmony with one while trying to rebuild it with the other? Heavy Rain tried to do something like this, but this would be a more direct and honest approach -I mean, for example, you would know who’s the killer from the first moment. That was a dick move, Quantic Dreams.
Bonus: Stephen King a la Twisted Metal
Do you remember Twisted Metal? Maybe you were more of a Carmageddon or Vigilante 8 enthusiast, but in my house it was TM all night long. While I was writing this article, I was chatting with a friend about it. He happily wanted to contribute and said: “hey, what about a game like Mario Kart?”. At first, it sounded silly, but with the following thoughts, it became hilarious. Imagine all the popular SK characters in a cartoonish way, throwing friendship-killer items in the last second. It certainly could work. Nevertheless, while I was designing Pennywise’s kart in my mind, a wild thought appeared: “Sweet Tooth did it better”.
Yes, we already have a killer clown who likes crashing his vehicle against others, so why don’t we borrow that idea for an oddball Kingapalooza? Select your favourite twenty characters from all his books, design a cool looking vehicle that represents them, with a dangerous unique ability and throw all of them in different sections of Maine and other locations. There would be special characters too, like Christine or the wagon from Mile 81 (maybe even a guest appearance from the Wraith in Joe Hill’s NOS4A2), which wouldn’t use a driver, of course. The final boss would be King himself. His vehicle would resemble a tall and murky tower that will scream “overpowered” just from far away. Apart from its own arsenal of projectiles, the author will be able to throw you entire new vehicles with creatures that come from his mind, making the battle an incredibly hard task.
Or he could just drive the truck from Maximum Overdrive…
And what about you, reader? Which Stephen King stories would you like to be adapted as video games?
After fifty years of continuous writing, Stephen King has become a genre unto himself.
The unrivaled Master of Horror made a splash in 1974 with his debut novel Carrie and has been terrifying readers ever since. Two years later, Brian De Palma brought this shocking story to the screen with an equally electrifying horror film that remains a genre classic and a prototypical example of “Good For Her” horror. This dual debut seemed to open the floodgates, unleashing endless waves of Stephen King films.
From the highs of Misery, Cujo, and The Shawshank Redemption to the schlocky fun of Cat’s Eye, Creepshow, and Children of the Corn, the last five decades have seen just about every notable horror creator take a stab at the author’s massive collection.
In recent years, this singular subgenre has begun to burst at the seams, expanding to include Stephen King-esque fare. In 2016, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer debuted Stranger Things, a sci-fi series heavily inspired by two of King’s most famous books. The Netflix series remixes Firestarter and It by following a little girl with psychic powers and an intrepid group of kids on bikes who must battle an otherworldly foe and a sinister government agency. With its clever blend of modern effects and comforting nostalgia, this gateway horror series paved the way for Andy Muschietti’s It adaptation which remains the highest grossing horror film of all time.
Four years later, Mike Flanagan would create Midnight Mass, a spiritual adaptation of King’s second novel Salem’s Lot. Published in 1975, the book sees a tiny New England town torn apart by a centuries-old vampire. Though Flanagan’s story is perhaps more tender, both iterations of the classic horror tale follow close-knit communities shaken to their core by the presence of an ancient evil.
In addition to these recent hits, 2025 was a banner year for the Master of Horror. Audiences delighted in six mainstream adaptations, including the massively popular It: Welcome to Derry which chronicles earlier cycles of the titular clown’s reign. With this boost to King’s cultural cache, it’s no surprise that we’ve begun to see more unofficial adaptations of the author’s work and horror creators who build their own unique castles in King’s creative sandbox.
So what defines a Stephen King-esque story?
For the past fifty years, the prolific author has dipped his toes in nearly every subgenre from supernatural stories and grisly gore to western fantasy and science fiction. Including his vast catalogue of short fiction, King has tackled ghosts, demons, werewolves, zombies, aliens, mutants, and self-driving cars, not to mention bizarre monsters of his own creation. But what truly unites this vast array of horror is King’s focus on relatable characters. In his 2000 memoir/instructional text On Writing, the prolific author describes the amusement he finds in writing disparate characters, placing them in horrific scenarios, then exploring the ways they try to survive.
An unofficial Stephen King adaptation may take place in the author’s native New England — bonus points if it’s set in Maine — and reference his well-known heroes and villains. But what makes the King connection unbreakable is a character-driven story about average people who band together in the face of abject terror.
Weapons Captures Small Town Stephen King
Following his 2022 shocker Barbarian, Zach Cregger returned with Weapons, a sprawling story that begins in a doomed elementary school. On an otherwise ordinary day, Justine (Julia Garner) arrives at her desk to find that all but one of her students have disappeared. As the mystery grows increasingly violent, Justine and Archer (Josh Brolin), the father of a missing boy, find their way to the home of Alex (Cary Christopher), the class’ only surviving student. In some ways reminiscent of Salem’s Lot, Weapons swings wildly through the unfortunate town, introducing us to its flawed inhabitants as we watch their lives fall apart.
Cregger’s setup nods to a pair of King short stories. Both “Suffer the Little Children” and “Here There Be Tygers” tackle monstrous presences in elementary schools, but as Weapons reaches its final act, Constant Readers may remember another Stephen King tale. Featured in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew, “Gramma” introduces us to George, a little boy tormented by an aging witch. On an afternoon alone with his sickly grandmother, the frightened child gradually realizes that the imposing old woman has been waiting for an opportunity to cast a spell that will extend her own life by possessing his body.
Alex finds himself similarly tortured by his aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), a garish witch who orchestrates a desperate plot to sustain her own strength. Transforming humans into mindless weapons, Gladys has taken over Alex’s family home and lured his classmates to the basement. Holding them in a comatose state, she syphons off their energy to extend her own supernatural life.
Vastly different in many ways, both “Gramma” and Weapons hinge on a sinister witch who uses horrific magical spells to sacrifice the bodies of her vulnerable prey.
Hokum Echoes The Shining and 1408
It’s nearly impossible to watch a film about a haunted hotel without thinking of King’s third novel, The Shining. This icy story follows Jack Torrance, an angry writer struggling with his sobriety and a shameful incident haunting his past. Accompanied by his wife and young son, Jack has taken a job as the winter caretaker for the Overlook, a haunted hotel situated high in the Rocky Mountains. Snowed in, Jack finds himself tormented by dangerous ghosts who amplify his greatest fears.
Damian McCarthy’s Hokum follows a similarly troubled figure. Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a surly writer who travels to the Bilberry Woods Hotel in rural Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes. Haunted by his own tragic past, Ohm finds himself trapped in the honeymoon suite, a decaying room that’s been permanently closed to protect visitors from a dangerous witch trapped within its walls. Visual nods to King’s text abound with woodcut figurines and an animated clock, mirroring ominous descriptions found in King’s text.
Another terrifying sequence sees Ohm staring with horror at a closed door, the only thing separating him from the approaching witch. As the door knob slowly turns, Constant Readers remember Jack’s narrow escape from the ghostly woman in room 217. And Ohm’s popular Conquistador books directly reference King’s long-running fantasy series The Dark Tower which follows a gunslinger named Roland Deschain tasked with protecting the nexus of the universe.
In addition to these thematic comparisons, Hokum bears striking resemblance to King’s terrifying short story “1408.” Collected in 2002’s Everything’s Eventual, the terrifying story follows Mike Enslin, a dejected writer who’s risen to fame penning essays about his adventures in haunted locations. Mike arrives at the Hotel Dolphin and bullies his way into the titular room, despite the manager’s dire warnings. McCarthy nods to this story with an ominously misplaced hotel room door, reminiscent of King’s entry to 1408, an unsuspecting portal that appears to move each time Mike looks away.
However, McCarthy’s most direct reference lies in a minicorder Ohm uses to capture notes. Trapped inside the dreaded honeymoon suite, this device offers well-timed messages while sitting next to a decomposing corpse. Mike records his time in 1408 with his own trusty minicorder. Described for the reader, his tape has captured the man’s slow descent into madness as the room prepares to swallow him whole. With conclusions that differ wildly in tone, both Ohm and Mike find their lives irrevocably changed by encounters with the supernatural realm.
Widow’s Bay Builds Its Own Version of Castle Rock
Katie Dippold’s Widow’s Bay has taken the idea of an unofficial King adaptation and turned it into an art form. The Apple TV series sees the residents of the titular island plagued by a curse that dates back centuries. Not only does the picturesque hamlet not accommodate wifi connections, those born on the island face certain death should they ever try to leave. Desperate to modernize the tiny town, Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) draws in waves of tourists just as a new cycle of terror begins.
Blending horror with deft comedy, Dippold makes cheeky references to King’s body of work. Tom warns that, “there’s something in the fog,” reminding readers of King’s 1980 novella The Mist. And Loftis’ own stay in the town’s haunted hotel sees him tormented by the ghost of a murderous clown. We even spy a vintage King hardback peeking out of a local book trade box.
In many ways Widow’s Bay feels like a new iteration of the author’s Little Tall Island, a tiny village off the coast of Maine. In addition to the 1992 novel Dolores Claiborne and a handful of harrowing short stories, this quaint fishing village is also the setting for King’s 1999 teleplay Storm of the Century. Premiering on ABC primetime, this tragic tale follows a terrified group of islanders who batten down the hatches for a dangerous Nor’easter only to find a more sinister threat lurking within.
Constant Readers may also be reminded of Castle Rock, the author’s favorite fictional town.
First introduced in the 1981 novel Cujo, the charming village becomes the star of Needful Things, King’s satire about consumerism. After several Castle Rock stories, we’re reintroduced to its residents as they gossip about the arrival of Leland Gaunt and the grand opening of his curio shop. Anything their hearts desire can be found in his varied inventory, so long as they’re willing to pay the price. Pitting cantankerous neighbors against each other, Gaunt ignites a wave of grisly violence by exploiting long-held resentments and feuds.
The town’s only defense against this supernatural threat is beleaguered sheriff Alan Pangborn. Still grieving the deaths of his wife and younger son, Alan struggles to connect with his older child and pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Also a widower, Loftis struggles to raise his own restless son and explain the strange details of his wife’s tragic death. Attempting to unravel the island’s dark secrets, Tom is aided by quirky residents including a surly fisherman named Wyck (Stephen Root) and Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), an earnest Town Hall employee. King’s own novels feature many of these proactive alliances with disparate characters combining their strengths to overcome insurmountable odds.
With Widow’s Bay renewed for a second season and Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series on the horizon, the future seems bright for new King adaptations, both spiritual and directly pulled from his catalogue. The prolific author also shows no signs of slowing down with two publications nearing release. His upcoming novel, Other Worlds Than These, is the long-awaited third Talisman book which teases direct ties to his Dark Tower world. Holly Forever will be a new installment of his crime series, offering a different kind of genre fare.
This embarrassment of riches spawning multiple worlds seems ripe for spiritual adaptation and will likely inspire horror creators for decades to come.
Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root and Matthew Rhys in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
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