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Adam Riches, the co-founder of Robust Games (the developer of the excellent indie point-and-click adventure game Loco Motive), has revealed that he once had the opportunity to pitch Red Dwarf co-creator Doug Naylor on making a game based on the cult British TV show.
Red Dwarf, if you happened to live in the UK and were a sci-fi fan in the late '80s or early '90s, was pretty much must-watch TV, skilfully combining incredible practical effects and miniature work with a charismatic leading cast, clever scripts, and memorable comedy one-liners. Originally airing in 1988, the show initially focused on the adventures of the loveable slob Lister (played by Craig Charles), who is frozen in stasis aboard a mining ship and marooned three million years into the future, waking up to a dead crew and only the ship's computer (Norman Lovett), his former roommate-turned-hologram (Chris Barrie), and a humanoid creature evolved from his pet cat (Danny John-Jules) as companions.
From there, it lasted for 11 more seasons (that's if you count the 3-part special Back to Earth as season IX, as some apparently do!), and a 2020 television special, Red Dwarf: The Promised Land, with other notable additions to the cast during this time including the introduction of Robert Llewllyn as Kryten, a mechanoid who joined during season 3, episode 1 of the show).
Commenting on BlueSky, Riches said, "A while back we had the wonderful opportunity to pitch a Red Dwarf adventure game directly to Doug Naylor himself. While the project didn't end up going ahead, we're now free to share some of the work we produced for the pitch!"
The image Riches shared shows the interior of Star Bug rendered in a classic pixel art style similar to LucasArts games of the '90s, with Lister, Cat, Rimmer, and Kryten sat in their respective places. As a fan of the show and a lover of old point-and-click adventures, it's exactly the sort of aesthetic I've always dreamed of when I imagined a video game based on Red Dwarf, and it seems I'm not alone either, with Riches being immediately inundated with a ton of comments praising his artwork.
Dave Gilbert, the CCO of the independent game development studio Wadjet Eye Games, for instance, stated, "Oh god damn this looks great. Need to do a dimension jump to a universe where this happened," while the comedian Alasdair Beckett-King jokingly replied, "> CHANGE BULB" a reference to an iconic scene from the much-loved show.
According to Riches, he worked on the pitch alongside Matt Griffiths, co-founder of Bird in Sky (the studio behind 3030 Deathwar - A Space Odyssey and the upcoming "four-story narrative game" The Passing Place), but sadly, the project wasn't greenlit for undisclosed reasons.
Griffiths also made his own post about the project. In it, he wrote, "Unfortunately we won't get a chance to make our dream Red Dwarf adventure game right now, but here's one for all those who love the gang."
What do you think? Would you be interested in a Red Dwarf adventure game? Let us know in the comments!