I think rapscallion is definitely onto something with his suggestion that an Usagi adventure game could work, and indeed work well, but do remember that the adventure genre is, by and large dead. Adventure games on release are few and far between. Crying shame, mais c'est la vie...Todd Shogun wrote:Agreed. And this is the main goal of the UY Dojo... to get us there! In fact, it's my opinion that Usagi should start off as a video game first, before going into TV series and movies and such. The seriousness of the series could be kept easily in tact in a game. Wouldn't need to worry about studio peeps dumbing it down to market it for kids. Serious games play, sell, and are much more popular than "Mario" games...they appeal to a much more wider audience.
Usagi is already being published by one of the most media-oriented comics companies ou there... like you say, it's only a matter of time.
I have to disagree slightly with todd, however, who said it wouldn't be marketed down to kids. It would, and far more than necesary. Publishers want returns, and the visual style Stan uses lends itself primarily to a young audience at first, until such time as the depth of the characters and story is allowed to show. Being a series that is not read or known that widely, i fear a greedy publisher might exploit the franchise and not let it breathe as it needs. You seem to underestimate the severe difficulty of making gamers care about the characters they play. (I personally put it down to developers underdeveloping this aspect of games, but hey, each to their opinion!
). A tv series, on the other hand, would first expose Usagi to a very wide audience in a media form more adequate to what Usagi represents, allowing for the general public to get to know the characters and familiarise themselves with them. The exposure could only be good, and would certainly draw more readers in too. If they then saw a game in the shop with Usagi, wouldn't they immediately associate it with the already excellent series they've seen? 
I think the best way of approaching how an excellent Usagi game could be made would be to think of who should actually develop it, and be able to do so well.
Ubisoft as a publisher has really been stretching it's limits and trying new things, and, by and large, has done extremely well. Look at the recent (but horribly undersold) Beyond Good and Evil. French developers have an excellent track record on adventure games also, having brought us the wonders of Broken Sword and, i think, Alone in the Dark even. Lucasarts have a proven track record in adventure, but it seems unlikely they'd take it as it's not SW related!
For an RPG game, i think only Bioware could possibly do it justice (or the former Black Isle staff), and as for fps devs... well, let's just say most of the best developers are either defunct or it's not the kind of game they'd be suited for. Shiny or Planet Moon Studios might pull something fantastic and entirely original from the Usagi franchise though!
. The Secret of Monkey Island will always be one of the best videogames ever. It's a shame that they don't do this kind of games any more.
