Why Doctor Who Games Suck (And How To Fix It)

[@HarboWholmes]

click here to petition for doctor who kart www.patreon.com/harbowholmes

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

The Best Doctor Who game was in 2013 = DOCTOR WHO LEGACY, best puzzle RPG ever ! Check my channel for videos ! Also : Doctor Who Infinity ! I play the MontMartre waiter at the Café who takes the order of MISSY !

[@mattthesilent777RED]

As long as Doctor Who after Peter Capaldi is banned from the game because post 2017 Doctor Who isn't canon and it never will be

[@FamusJamus]

Two words: Abzorbaloff Katamari.

[@thebubblybubblybub]

@@FamusJamus Two words: DARN GENIUS

[@SpaceFluffDW]

I haven’t watched the video yet, but I’d love an open world Doctor Who game where you don’t play as an existing Doctor, but instead create your own Doctor to play as.

[@jeckjeck3119]

Your own rouge time lord.... Now that would be awesome.

[@cameronbrown940]

I came to comment this same idea!

[@tVt2000]

I would love that.

[@TheMostBritishBrit]

@@jeckjeck3119why specifically red

[@Chronologicalowl]

There's a fallout mod that's like that

[@Matagatsu]

here's an easy concept. create your own time lord and set off on linear adventures that have variable endings, all of them end differently depending on how you chose to solve problems with violence or intellect. towards the end of the game all of your actions commutate in a final showdown and based on your actions you can either emerge from the situation as a paragon or a renegade time lord. basically the duality of morality being the main focus of the game while you cross paths with many companions from the doctor who universe. intro cutscene has your created character deserting the battlefield during the time war.

[@Bacbi]

That would certainly be one way to do it, and your character could have darker choices since you are not bound by the Doctor's code. I do still think you could do it with the Doctor and that you would need them to sell it for and audience bigger than hardcore fans. Adventure games do pretty well imagine if they could convince Super Massive to do what they have done with Dark Anthology (since they are clearly big enough to make smaller games while working on their next big project). Make 3 to 5 episodes where instead of playing as different people trying to get them out alive. You play various Doctors per episode who talk to camera. Recalling each of their most difficult challenges they ever had to face but we didn't get to see. Asking what you would have do differently without telling you what actually happened. Hints that they didn't get everything right and ask you the player what you would do differently for a better outcome. Where the choices the doctor makes determine how many you would be able to save. Then in the final episode the big twist is you reveal this was not the Doctor looking back. But each time the game stops to pull you out of the story talking to the Doctor, you were in fact in the Doctors mind palace trying to figure it out talking to themselves. Similar to how they spent so much of the time inside 12's head during Heavent sent. Or to make it less expensive than a super massive or telltale game, you could do a disco elysium, or Oxenfree style game that could do it's own thing or with that similar premise.

[@KertaDrake]

Would be a perfect way to depict the Time War. Video games would be perfect for depicting the insanity and horror of slowly losing a war across time and space! Choose your path and try desperately to just avert a total loss in the war, either by any means necessary, or while trying to keep some sense of morality.

[@ElliotFW]

IMO there’s one genre that would be perfect for a Doctor Who game: Immersive sims. Imagine a game like Prey, except you play as the Doctor and have to think like him to solve problems, deal with enemies and get into locked rooms, all while managing resources and making impactful decisions.

[@HimboVegan]

Thats fucking BRILLIANT

[@grandon183]

Not sure what an immersive sim is but a kind of point and click game where you pick up inventory items and use those to solve puzzles mixed in with survival horror. Is that what you meant?

[@ElliotFW]

@@grandon183Kinda. It’s not point and click though, it takes place in real time. The player is given a wide range of tools and abilities to creatively navigate rooms full of enemies and obstacles. Watch some gameplay of Prey (2017) and you’ll get the idea. It introduces stuff like the GLOO gun, which fires blobs of foam used for platforming and stopping enemies, the mimic matter ability, which allows the player to take the form of any nearby object and roll around with its physical properties, and recycler grenades, which suck in nearby objects and turn them into crafting materials.

[@grandon183]

I'd like to see an old school point and click with Tom Baker's Doctor and a prey like game that you mentioned with David Tennant's Doctor preferably with a companion from the comic books

[@razzaman9]

Alien isolation style Dr Who game where you are trapped on a ship/base and the Dr is talking to you via a walkie talkie as he helps you escape various enemies from his rogues gallery. Kind of like angel bob but you dont die, and you get to experience running down corridors, logic puzzles, hiding from enemies and the villians can actually be scary as you are powerless to do anything to them

[@adamstewart9052]

Or a Wild Blue Yonder game where you need to figure out who is who and make sure the Not-things are destroyed by the bomb.

[@a-cxnt]

the biggest problem is, surprise surpise, the BBC, giving the property to these small unheard-of developers on shoestring budgets and expecting them to reach the quality of the show. if I were the BBC, I'd see the gaming industry as the massive industry it is and put actual money into it. I'd license it to well-known, respected developers and give them a decently sized budget. I'd die for an expansive Doctor Who RPG.

[@RottenMilk313]

An rpg where you play as a new unplaced incarnation of the doctor would be amazing

[@adamstewart9052]

@@RottenMilk313 He's said in the video about what would you even do as the Doctor though?

[@DeprecatedSC]

If you're going to go the RPG route, I feel that you definetly shouldn't go with the Doctor. For a Doctor Who RPG, my pitch would instead be a character with a similar backstory whose grown up on legends of the Doctor, who is still a timelord. Imagine playing as a character who during the tutorial section is learning all about things like Regeneration, TARDIS controls, ectera, on Gallifrey before the Time War starts. And just as the war is starting, something your character witnesses in real time, something happens akin to Fallout 4 that leaves your character on ice. Then, they only wake up AFTER the Time War has passed, easily explained by some chronolock or some other thing. Just make sure they go on Ice off world, one of the few remaining TARDIS's on this world for the final parts of the tutorial (presumably some kind of 'combat' tutorial based around Sonic Technology, combat based around making enemies fight each other rather than personal confrontation.) From there? You're free to explore as this young, inexperienced timelord still finding their way in the world. Your goal? Just to explore. To learn more about the home you lost, both the details we know from the show and things we've never seen before, zipping through time and space to figure out what to do with ourselves now (which also lets us meet just about any version of any other timelord while time travelling), and eventually being able to make some drastic choices. Do you want to take after the Doctor you learned about? The great but terrible hero, who you'll probably meet multiple times through the game, encouraging you to be like them, to be smart, to be kind, to move on... Or will you become a timelord like the Master? Perhaps worse? How vengeful will you be for the planet you lost? Will you do what the Doctor couldn't and try to eradicate the species that led to Gallifrey's fall? What kind of Timelord will you be? And that's not even touching on mechanics that could be included like the Regeneration system! Instead of being able to heal damage like in most games automatically, let that damage remain, so that there's a real threat of dying, which you'll have your set thirteen lives for. Every time you die, your reputation could decrease whether good or bad, due to planets needing to relearn who you are, you could find ways to remind them instantly or bask in your new anonymity, you could be evil in one life but kind in the next. You could completely shape every regeneration you go through. You could make an entire story unique to you that only you could tell of this timelord, that the Doctor just so happens to cameo in now and again if your lucky enough to find them. (Maybe it could even be entirely randomized what times and places you find him in.) I'm going to stop now cause I'm rambling a lot but this just got my brain really fired up.

[@arandombard1197]

Realistically they should just give the IP to anybody who wants it in exchange for 10% of the sales. Let the developer figure out the game and budget.

[@arandombard1197]

@@DeprecatedSC The problem is that you're utterly failing to describe any primary gameplay loops.

[@generalstaal7075]

I can't quite express how giddy I felt hearing you acknowledge and praise the Doctor Who portion of Lego Dimensions. The level that came with the main game did a great job combining the strange worlds, iconic monsters, and various horror elements the show was known for in a very fun and exciting experience for fans and newcomers alike, while the DLC Doctor-centric level is incredibly unique to the game as you have time-travel utilized as a game mechanic for solving puzzles and exploring. Those were my favorite levels in the whole game. In fact, I liked it so much, it was the whole reason I got into the Doctor Who show. Lego Dimensions was my introduction to Doctor Who.

[@samwitherington8202]

I don't know if this is a thing, but a Telltale style game as a Dr or a Companion, replicating the episodic nature of the show, could be fun. Making decisions, solving mysteries, getting people killed, doing big speeches, maybe even design your own Doctor, and do like a full season. I wrote that before you said anything, but still, I think it would work.

[@arandombard1197]

Telltale games suck. Your decisions don't mean anything and the gameplay is just boring. I'd rather just cut the gameplay and focus on story, but then at that point you may as well just watch an episode.

[@Dubble77D]

All I can picture now is a Doctor Who first person shooter where you play as the Valeyard and I can't stop exhaling a bit through my nose.

[@MortexBerri]

Lego Dimensions is the best dr who game

[@tVt2000]

Lego Doctor Who would get billions of dollars

[@nathanelb721]

A game that is 5% doctor who is better than a game that is 100% doctor who.

[@kwproductions6737]

It's sad that just a level in a bigger game is better than any Doctor Who game we've got

[@nathanelb721]

@@kwproductions6737 2 levels because there is one apart of the main story

[@Pat12379]

​@@nathanelb721I didn't play the game but I've heard the main story mission is bad

[@mateogarcia3866]

A full on lego doctor who game. That's what we need.

[@cameronbaker97]

That's be cool.

[@timlemmens1087]

With lots of Easter Eggs referencing the actor's careers.

[@thekingofcookies4877]

Dimensions had so much detail and so many Easter Eggs that honestly didn't NEED to be there, we NEED a full Lego Dr Who game.

[@cameronbaker97]

In terms of a DW game involving the Doctor actually fighting, maybe a classic Doctor could work for that, particularly the 7th Doctor, or a game about the Time War, with the War Doctor as the main playable character, those could work.

[@bagetblue2043]

What about Doctor Who as a reverse hitman game. Essentially everyone is going to die and you have to save them. At any point you can go back into the Tardis and end the level but that isn't where the game is at. Early levels having low casualty rates while harder levels could contain fixed points. Every level is it's own contained story and you can tackle them in any order. Maybe half a series worth of stories to go through. It could also highlight the difficulty of being the Doctor in that he never would but you can't, there is no way you can kill another sentient being.

[@arandombard1197]

There's just no budget for a such an extensive game like that.

[@jdg9825]

I think a Doctorless first person shooter could work if you just focus on the enemy, e.g. a human soldier in a war against Daleks a la Into the Dalek (which I believe was originally conceived as a video game idea itself)

[@adamstewart9052]

Or if you're playing as a Dalek trying to exterminate as many other lifeforms you can or kill Dalek impurities and avoid being destroyed or weakened by enemies.

[@marcamusprime9513]

I would like to be a fully customizable companion who can choose to be violent, and use guns. Or try to emulate the Doctor and find another harder way to succeed.

[@lucando13]

Omg yes! Maybe with a morality system like infamous so the approaches that you take (violent or pacifist / get most people safely out of harms way vs risk everyone for the opportunity to save someone who got left behind / etc.) impacts which ending you get!

[@marcamusprime9513]

@@lucando13 Heck yeah! But what if the morality system was your approval rating with The Doctor? You have to keep it high enough or else they kick you out of the TARDIS and you have to start a new character. Or.....join The Master and do an evil questline with them. I had imagined a BioShock Infinite style, because you have a companion character in that game. But she could be The Doctor leading you around in this one. Or maybe Far Cry style! Lol

[@MrDibara]

I want to be that one cyborg gunslinger from Matt Smith's era, capable of lethal force but _trying_ to find an alternative, because he doesn't want to exist as just a weaponnof war. You can choose to play as such, or you can try and tackle more peaceful solutions.

[@Jayforeman3047]

LEGO and Doctor Who joining forces to create toy sets and Tt video games is one of the biggest missed opportunities in marketing history.

[@ALowTierHero]

Doctor Who needs to follow a point and click Disco Elysium/Monkey Island style formula. Let us be the Doctor who has just regenerated, and our actions and choices affect the story and our companion's actions and opinion of us, we develop this Doctor from the start of their regen and mold them. Our companion is the precious doctor's and are used to him, so one of the biggest hurdles is to win them back over.

[@Roxor128]

I think the adventure game is the best genre for Doctor Who. The genre's core of Puzzles As Plot, and the genre's tendency towards jury-rigging solutions fits perfectly with the Doctor as a character. How many times have we seen him improvise some gadget out of assorted bits and pieces in the show? That's adventure-game protagonist material right there.

[@mothelysium]

Disco Elysium would be a wonderful idea

[@CrikeyItsDan]

Skyrim/Fallout, but Doctor Who in my head sounds like one of the best games ever made. You wouldn't have to be a Doctor Who fan to enjoy a game like that.

[@williamlang6728]

Action RPG would almost require being a member of UNIT, The Shadow Proclamation, or the Time Agency

[@creed8712]

I mean…mods exist for both for exactly that scenario

[@redbaron9420]

@@williamlang6728 Or... River Song/Captain Jack as a protagonist.

[@chipshop10]

I could imagine a FPS game where you play as an original timelord during the time war traveling to different planets and time periods fighting mainly daleks but other monsters along the way potentially working.

[@Kmadden2004]

I was just thinking over Christmas about what might make a fun Doctor Who game, and in the end my mind kept coming back to a Metroidvania where - through some timey-wimey macguffin - the Doctor is able to de- and regenerate into all their different incarnations and each incarnation has a different set of abilities. So, instead of unlocking the morph ball or double jump, you unlock the Seventh Doctor who can use his umbrella as a parachute or the Third Doctor and his Venusian aikido skills, that kind of thing. Add to that you can have the TARDIS as your save room/fast travel point. I also thought it might be interesting to spread such a game over multiple planets (Earth, Skaro, etc) instead of locking it down to one location, *and* having past, present and future versions of each planet that you can jump between and that alter and affect each other as the game goes on. Anyway, it was just a thought…

[@arandombard1197]

Make it a platformer where you don't fight, only sneak past stuff or manipulate the environment with your screwdriver to defeat enemies.

[@observersbirdhouse]

I think one game that I had in mind which gameplay I think would suit a Doctor Who game would be Kindergarten. It's mainly a time loop game centered around one location with the main appeal of it is to find routes to different endings which I think would fit Doctor Who quite well.

[@CineScarborough]

Saying 'Doctor Who is far from its height of popularity' is utter nonsense IMO. Doctor Who currently has a lucrative Disney Plus deal, and was reported to have been among the second and fourth most watched show when each episode released on Disney Plus overseas last year. It's bigger now than when we got the LEGO Dimensions content. I also disagree that The Eternity Clock and The Edge Of Reality were bad games. Both were incredible releases, and the former was unfairly derided by reviewers who incorrectly believed that a 2D platformer was too old-fashioned in 2011.

[@gedgenatoraj]

Hear me out: 16-but turn based Doctor who game. Low budget, high story telling potential, tried and true gameplay loop.

[@arandombard1197]

A weeping angels game already came out, except it's called 'Slenderman'. A survival horror game where you're mostly evading the full menagerie of Doctor Who monster catalogue would be great. Daleks which lock on to you and require you to take cover, but can easily change elevation. Cybermen who stomp as they catch up with you, Weeping Angels that you need to look at while putting distance between you. Sontarens, Slitheen (which can mimic friendly NPCs), Clockwork droids, Vastha Narada. There's just so much material to dig into for the monsters.

[@doctorwhomst6459]

I think if a Doctor Who game did come out, I'd want it to be an episodic title where you play as a new companion of the doctor, akin to the adventure games but more game-like. The best thing a Doctor Who game could implement in terms of branching stories and play styles would be a morality system. This is likely never going to happen, but if a game had huge sprawling paths in which you kill anything you come across, the doctor kicks you out of the tardis and you become a villain or something. Alas, the day we get that is also the day Matthew Baynton gets cast as the Doctor, so...

[@Captain_Maeve]

The game 'outer wilds' has the best gameplay that would fit a who game. Exploring a solar system figuring out puzzles escaping monsters and no weapons. Such a wholesome but existential vibe to the game as you solve a large mystery.

[@CyberNatasha]

I was thinking about this last year while playing Edge of Reality and I feel it definitely is a hard thing to work out the best strategy for the game, the Doctor being a pacifist makes it very difficult for most genres as you mentioned, and outside of trying to make something in vein of the Lego games. The best idea I came up with was a visual novel, in the game you would play companion to the Doctor and your choices in the story affect how the story plays out, the story could feature multiple monsters and baddies, maybe even an old companion or Doctor could show up.

[@VelvetCake423]

i would LOVE to see the DR WHO IP in the hands of Larian Studios. Finding out how to do combat may be a challenge but id agree that can be avoided by not having The Doctor as the protagonist

[@lukemiles04]

Garry's Mod has an amazing community of people adding tardis's to the game and it's so fun because they genuinely work like the show

[@System509]

The Doctor would work perfectly in a game setting like Alien Isolation where you’re powerless to actually stop most if not all enemies

[@josephchambers2000]

Ok, I’ve had this idea for a Doctor Who game for ages, and it goes like this, basically, using audio from either episodes or audio dramas, make those stories playable from a certain character’s perspective, be that a companion, Doctor or enemy. So like playing as Barbara Wright running over Daleks in the Dalek Invasion Of Earth, or maybe playing as one of the Cat people hunting humans in Survival, or maybe as Jackie Tyler escaping the Autons in Rose or as the Lone Dalek trying to flee Van Statten in Dalek. Just lots of little levels each telling various parts of classic and modern stories. I’d play that.

[@hampuswirsen7793]

You should look up Fallout Who Vegas, a mod for new vegas. Lots of lore, fully functional Tardis, regeneration etc. I have played like 100 hours and not even the slightest tired

[@Here_is_Waldo]

True, but there's something sad about every good game just being a mod we install on a 15 year old game. Something new would be nice occasionally.

[@WAFFENFABRIK]

We still NEED a full Lego Doctor Who game. I'm downright jonesin'...

[@adampica9815]

you can be trapped in a street time locked by the angels, and the TARDIS and screwdriver, travel back and forth to any time within that street, that is occupied by the who villains who all are trying to kill you and can't for some reason, and that would be the mystery of the game

[@MarkWiseTechno]

The best concept I can think of for a Doctor Who game is a game where we play as The Master, and specifically, a game where we play as Missy. Missy is the perfect character for an open-world, "commit violence and cause chaos at your own leisure" style of game in the vein of GTA with a story and missions you can complete whenever or not at all. Yeah, give me Missy in a game with lots of unstructured freedom, and I'm gonna have a blast.

[@davidagnew6191]

If I was the Doctor Who showrunner I would write an episode where the Doctor is trapped in a video game: The 'Gamesmaster', a renegade Time Lord (nothing to do with the 'Toymaker'), would be a someone who gets his kicks by challenging other Time Lords to games. He tracks down the Doctor to current Earth and as video games are popular on this planet, he captures the Doctor and puts him in a video game in the 'games room' in his Tardis (like Star Trek's holodeck). As the Gamesmaster relaxes in his control room with his games controller, the Doctor is fighting for his life in the Gamesmaster's versions of Battlefield or Dungeons and Dragons or World of Tanks. Because his opponents are just computer-generated solid holograms, the Doctor can abandon his pacifist principles. It would be a fun episode.

[@SubayAdamm2]

The weeping angel fangame you've mentioned is a mobile game, also for Minecraft there's more than one Doctor Who themed mods, the 2 best being Dalek Mod, and New TARDIS Mod, there's also new ones like TARDIS Refined. You could've mentioned Gmod when you spoke about the mods for other games, there is a magnificent TARDIS Mod in Gmod, which has lots of stuff in it. Nonethless the video is really good and your arguments are really valid

[@Christopher_Gibbons]

Maybe doctor who didn't have much of a market presence in the US at some point, but now that it is being made by Disney that is going to change. Also, easy win, if they want it. Just remake Starship Titanic with David Tennant as the narrator.

[@Limes_not_Lemons]

A great idea for a game would be having the tutorial be as an existing Doctor, probably a quite outdated one (like if released at time of writing it would be Matt or something), then you die fallout new vegas style, you do your character creation and then you wake up as a new doctor. Honestly a space and time hopping RPG would be pretty cool. Apart from the adventure games, any linear story based doctor who game is destined to fail. You need to have player choice be the main draw. Doctor who is all about the adventure, so being railroaded into an adventure instead of stumbling across it naturally like the do in the show. And there's ways you could naturally fix some major issues of having a time machine with you, having major plot points as fixed points that you can't effect with time travel, but smaller side plots are free to cheese if you want, but that would make it boring, but that's a great thing. Cause if cheesing the missions makes the adventure boring you'll either go for the main plot or make a good fun adventure out of it. Hell, you could even have a fallout style companion system where you can find people on your travels and take them on adventures, we're talking aliens and humans from various planets and time periods. The game could be a weird mix of No Man's Sky, Fallout New Vegas and the GMod TARDIS addon for the flight controls and bigger on the inside-ness

[@Mugiwara2k]

They could make a game during the War Doctor’s era. Since he made himself a warrior, he could get away with things like using weapons that other incarnations wouldn’t. That would make the gameplay MUCH easier to work around. And having expanded material with Hurt’s Doctor would be great.

[@ghostfezlet]

15:29 The weeping angel fangame was actually official! It's called "Don't blink" and its still available on flashpoint!

[@WinsomeJarl4342]

Great Video Harbo! I did a video on my own channel nearly a year ago discussing similar topics about DW games. I would say my mind has changed about modern games needing to match up with the current Doctors since then. Partly because we get loads of Star Wars games set at different points in time across the saga. I think it can work for Doctor Who if the gameplay loop and narrative being told is strong enough to justify it being a prior incarnation (so long as it’s a popular one) but then you’ve got the problem of it being more niche. I feel your pain when it comes to sourcing the footage 😂

[@blecis74]

Mentioned in the community post, I think there should be a game akin to Star Wars: Empire at War where you can play as the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans etc and battle throughout the galaxy, a horror game with the Weeping Angels or Vasta Nerada would be awesome as well

[@Roxor128]

The Star Trek franchise had the RTS Star Trek Armada, published by Activision back in 2000. Give that a Doctor Who coat of paint and you could have a decent seller. Ordering around Dalek ships in a war with some other Whoniverse power could be fun. And let's face it, if it's the Daleks, it's not just going to be one power they're at war with, so plenty of room for other factions to play as. STA had four: the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and the Borg.

[@blecis74]

@@Roxor128 Never played STA but would like to see a DW spin on it

[@Nutter666]

A VR game where you're suddenly pulled out of your mundane every day life by a random Weeping Angel encounter, and so find yourself trapped in some weird underground place (acting as a battery farm filled with weeping angels) ala the hotel in Angels Take Manhatten, and the only thing to help you escape is the VOICE of the Doctor guiding you could be pretty amazing without requiring a huge budget I think. Make your way through the building with the Doctor's help and guidance and they appear in person briefly at the end as a quick cameo as they take you back home to your original time in the Tardis.

[@kurocat471]

honestly, an open-world (starfield/skywalker saga type thing where you can explore planets and alternate times) game where you play as the doctor but can choose violence or peace with consequences like undertale would be really cool - peace would probably be more difficult and critical thinking based while violence would just be as simple as shoot, or use the tardis to go back and kill someone, but that's what makes it rewarding in itself

[@arandombard1197]

What would be the core gameplay mechanic though? You've only described teriary elements.

[@kurocat471]

@@arandombard1197 i'd imagine in-world puzzle solving stuff, like a point and click adventure almost but in 1st person 3d - just the same kind of investigating everything and using clues or items to solve puzzles through dialogue with yourself, your companion, or other characters

[@samgourhan207]

I think they could simply have different doctors for different play styles. Have 3,9,7 as the direct combatant play type. Have 7,4,5 as a type of builder who can disable and reapply enemy force. Have all the modern doctors except 9 and 12 be stealth infiltrators who use perception filters and psychic paper to get past enemy encounters. Maybe it could play like a mix of hitman and mass effect. You use the environment to deal with enemies. But you can travel the cosmos and recruit jack and river to help with the fighting if you want.

[@DerektheDalek]

I am actually in the process of mapping out a Doctor Who game inspired by the recent Star Wars Jedi games where you play as a new Time Lord character and their UNIT operative ally in a semi open-world Metroidvania style game with appearances by various Doctors, allies and monsters voiced by the original actors and voice alikes… I think this would be a perfect choice for a big Doctor Who game. Alternatively I could imagine Super Massive returning to the series but taking a page from their Dark Pictures anthology series and doing several stories across the Whoniverse with original casts vs specific monsters with choices and consequences. I also love the idea of both a LEGO game with all the Doctors vs Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker and an tactical RPG like Marvel’s Midnight Suns and X-COM for UNIT vs various monsters.

[@Jonewii]

Doctor Who could work as a visual novel where you can make choices that will lead diffrent endings and solve puzzles along to way. Something like Zero Escape Series. But then again that kinda writing could also just put in the actual TV episode so I guess we can't get that kinda game.

[@engineerforthefuture8593]

I think a point-and-click style adventure game would be perfect. Especially using retro pixel art. The upcoming FNAF: Into The Pit and Undertale prove these can be popular, and the recent TMNT Shredder's Revenge shows that niche but beloved properties can be very successful in this space.

[@Bacbi]

I don't think pixel art point and click would be as well received as a beat em up game like TMNT even though I know the other games you mentioned have a very loyal audience. If they couldn't do Telltale style or Dark Anthology games like Super Massive has done so that they wouldn't need to be as big. For Doctor Who I think it would be a safer bet to copy something like Disco Elysium or OxenFree.

[@Roxor128]

Doctor Who is pretty-much what you'd get if you adapted an Adventure Game into a TV Series, except that the show pre-dates the gaming genre.

[@Bacbi]

Adventure games do pretty well though imagine if they could convince Super Massive do what they have done with Dark Anthology (since they are clearly big enough to make smaller games while working on their next big project). Make 3 to 5 episodes where instead of playing as different people trying to get them out alive. You play various Doctors who talk to camera and recall each of their most difficult challenges they ever had to face but we didn't get to see. Asking what you would have do differently without telling you what actually happened. Hints that they didn't get everything right and ask you the player what you would do differently for a better outcome. Where the choices the doctor makes determine how many you would be able to save. Then in the final episode you reveal this was not the Doctor looking back. But each time the game stops to pull you out of the story talking to the Doctor, you were in fact in the Doctors mind palace trying to figure it out talking to themselves. Similar to how they spent so much of the time inside 12's head during Heavent sent. Or to make it less expensive than a super massive or telltale game, you could do a disco elysium, or Oxenfree style game that could do its own thing or with a similar premise.

[@cleebe823]

a time war game would be interesting. There can be some Doctor easter eggs and events that take place, but make it around the battles, and have a timelord character that gets thrown through time etc. Not bound by the doctor's moral compass, or regenerations (Dying could be integral to progression).

[@mike-6139]

Three words: The War Doctor. What about a game ambienced on the Last Great Time War, exploring one of the most unexplored, extensive and important periods of Dr Who lore?

[@time2rowco999]

You can make a Doctor Who game like No Man's Sky. Flying to different planets, exploring them only to find there's some sort of attack imminent so you have to mount some sort of defense by using your sonic to scan tech around you to get blueprints and having the TARDIS be your home base. Make it co-op with up to 3 different versions of the doctor that you and your friends can play with.

[@MrDibara]

For a "Doctor Who game without the Doctor", here's a crazy idea: *an RTS game.* 😏 Factions: - Daleks - Cybermen - Sontarans - Ruutans (FINALLY A RETURN) - The Shadow Proclamation (with Judoon, Wraith Warriors and maybe even some actually good Raxacoricofalapatorians as agents too) It would deviate HARD from the main thematics and tone of the show, but I think it could work because we're seeing things from the perspective of the cultures the Doctor opposes (or collaborates with, in the Shadow Proclamation's case). They're not bound by his morals, they don't follow the mindset of the Doctor or his companions and they usually have a very militaristic culture! Waging war would be their modus operandi! Hell, if you want, you can even include branching paths and have the possibility of either stumbling on the Doctor, or avoiding him entirely, depending on your decisions! Then if the Doctor meets your forces, you're usually screwed, as he sabotages your war effort into Defeat. That's my suggestion, though I admit I am _very biased_ towards RTS games like Age of Empires and Command & Conquer. What do you think?

[@greenhowie]

A FPS game where everyone is a member of UNIT cleaning up aliens would probably work if there was a lot of lore in each map and mission. I like the idea of The Doctor being a semi-mythical figure that regular soldiers whisper about and when he turns up it's a huge deal. I'm just spitballing but there's enough alien species for standard "bad guys" as well as iconic "stalkers" like Daleks and Cybermen that would need specialized tactics (or possibly a Doctor Ex Machina) - the problem is you need a good team who loves Dr. Who to make it.

[@Roxor128]

I'd like to see something akin to Under A Killing Moon, but with you playing as the Doctor on a solo adventure. Preferably the 8th Doctor, because he needs more screen time. Be nice to click on something to examine it and hear the 8th Doctor's internal monologue musing on it. If making a Doctor Who game, it needs to be made without concern for keeping up with the show. Pick a Doctor, make the game, and promote it as starring that particular Doctor. There are more than a dozen Doctors to choose from, and a majority of the actors who played them are still around to hire for the voice recording if you're making something with voice acting in it. EDIT: Realised something when responding to another commenter that I thought should go up here: Doctor Who is essentially a TV Series adaptation of an Adventure Game, except it pre-dates the gaming genre. The Doctor is basically an Adventure Game protagonist. All his adventures involve solving puzzles as the plot and many of them having him jury-rigging solutions out of whatever's lying around. Just like you do in an Adventure Game. Which is probably why the Matt Smith ones worked so well.

[@joshuab3918]

With two doctors, you could have a collaborative puzzle game like It Takes Two or something. And honestly there are plenty of action games where the player character doesn't need to be violent

[@acanimations1223]

Hi Harbo, at 3:10 you use a clip from mazes of time, one in my quest to find the game again I haven’t found on KZbin. Could you let me know where you found;d it, because if I can never play it again the next best thing would be a full playthrough. Thanks.

[@ab-mc2nq]

just let me abseil down the timelash, collect gold ammo to use against cybermen, get zapped back to the middle ages by a weeping angel, uncover a secret cult, hijack a spaceship and fly it to clom, etc etc

[@TheatreJosh24601]

After the Time Lord Victorious _Daleks!_ webseries, I wonder if a Dalek game could work, where the Doctor is the ultimate antagonist in the game. You get some interplay between different high-ranking Daleks with individual agendas and personalities (like the Strategist and the Emperor), and are trying to conquer a particular region of space, or save the Daleks from some great threat. Maybe the Doctor isn’t an antagonist at all, and part of the game involves the Daleks asking for his help to defeat a greater threat. But the Daleks can still be offensive and have some kind of combat, while still being a big part of the franchise.

[@kylenetherwood8734]

Get the people who made Firewatch to make a game where you are one of the side characters in an RTD1 era two-parter style story (eg. Impossible Planet, SIlence in the Library, Under the Lake). Then contrive a reason why the doctor has to guide you through solving the problem by phone. Could be a good horror adventure game. Since the doctor would mostly be there by voice, it should be Tom Baker or Peter Capaldi (RIP John Hurt).

[@Nibbles69]

Avalanche, Rockstar North or Ubisoft should make a AAA RPG open galaxy game, also get Big Finish involved for all the actors.

[@mathieuleader8601]

a video game where you get to play a solider in the Kaled or Thal army on Skaro during the 1000 year war would be great.

[@Mister_W.T.F]

I've thought about this a lot. I think the central issue is- what makes a "Doctor Who" *thing*, a "Doctor Who" thing? Then compare that wer with what a game normally is And then look at what games have begun to evolve into as both designers and players grow tired of even morally repulsed by the form of competitive and gratuitously violent gaming that has dominated for so long. Typically in a Doctor Who story the Tardis lands in a situation where things have gone badly awry, he is almost always treated suspiciously, with one of his first tasks being to win the trust from the beleaguered and frightened characters caught up in the encroaching peril, while finding out what is going on... Then the true nature of the threat becomes revealed, and USUALLY the Doctor's unique knowledge base is what provides an *informed* solution to what was rapidly becoming an insurmountable and often life threatening problem. Sometimes there might be neat little moral dilemmas such as human settlers are under threat but it is an indigenous population that is simply trying to defend its territory, and so on, asking the audience to evaluate a wider moral question that simply side with humanity, and with the Doctor in toe, a graceful solution is usually proferred. There definitely exceptions to this, but it's more often than not the shape of most DW Stories. The question then becomes not just how do you make this a game (cut scenes and dialogue interaction definitely allow for a NARRATIVE based on this to happen - like filmic "Last of Us" stories) but how do you erect a workable "Game Loop" to sustain whatever narrative concepts you want to pursue- that IS the game itself? To clarify using the infamously story heavy character driven "The Last Us" as an example- imagine removing ALL the cut scenes from the game- every last one. And what you have is a 3rd person stealth & combat shooter in a variety of scenarios, the dramatic context for which was provided by the cut scenes I know. Its horrible to dissect such a masterfully conceived and executed piece of work like this, and I'm leaving out the extraordainary achievements of bringing Ellie to life and various in game "downtime" interactive character scenes But at the end of the day- there's a Mechanical Game loop where the majority of the programmers work is going to focus And however you want to "cut it"- THAT'S your game You could put cutscene between levels of "Space Invaders", "Pacman" or "Donkey Kong"... but the game - is the game And what could a DOCTOR WHO gane loop- bearing in mind that Combat is pretty much out- look like? THIS is the big question Luckily- developers have been trying to explore many new possibilities that deviate from combat as the "only fruit" more than ever. In the last few years we have had the Cargo delivery altruistic sci-fi of "Death Stranding", psychedelic The Prisoner/1984 lite adventure game "We Happy Few" and a number of Sherlock Games- though only "Death Stranding" could be described as "AAA" and- or does oddly re-incorporate elements of combat when initially avoiding it seemed to be the whole point. We've also if course had the Resident Evil 2 remake- where you are dodging eldritch horrors created by man's scientific hubris. Although it IS of course a 3rd person shooter- toy often find yourself low on Ammo, scared, and Avoiding the lurking or predatory horror that pursues you- (like the relentless Mr. X) creating an atmosphere not ENTIRELY like Doctor Who at its scariest... substitute the guns for alternative solutions, like ingenious escape mechanics, or pacifying agents (imagine a DW/RES EVIL style game where with skill you administer a CURE to infected hostile zombies) and we're starting to faltering build a possible first concept. (A resident Evil style game retelling of "Robots of Death?) The problems we would hit are- the Doctor's massive knowledge base is what makes doctor who DOCTOR WHO. And the player doesn't HAVE it. We could have the Doctor suffer from amnesia- but then it wouldn't feel like- or BE "Doctor Who". Maybe if the game benefitted from a fans large knowledge of Doctor Who lore- like knowing that Cybermen are allergic to Gold and so on- but rely on that too heavily and you've narrowed the player base exponentially. No the problem IS- *HOW*- do you make what is the VERY *nature* of Doctor Who- a KEY, active game mechanic - in a game I would say look at the things the Doctor does best Invention Puzzle Solving Deduction Application of (arcane as well as) scientific (and fictional scientific) knowledge Ability to apply morally satisfactorily solutions (😮) SOME stealth, tactical and action dynamics And- an ABILTY TO LEARN THINGS ABOUT A SITUATION through his advantage of being able to TRAVEL THROUGH- Or HAVING Travelled through - TIME. This last one isnt used that often in the show... but- it could be a fantastic and probably unique game mechanic. Especially if there were limits to how often or the number of times, or a hefty COOLDOWN time to its repeated use. I PERSONALLY always saw MY Doctor Who game as being a game world like the one in Legacy Of Kane, with 70's weetabix DW stand up figure art and a 3rd person scarf flapping Tom Baker running from objective to objective in a "Silence of rge Library" type story, using a barely functioning Tardis able to travel through time but not space to try to uncover what had happened, while various enemies had to be navigated in different iterations of the map according to timezone But THAT'S just ME 😂❤

[@timlemmens1087]

A full on Doctor Who Lego game would be cool, especially because Lego loves to go meta with their jokes. Like imagine that two of the big boss fights include Mary Whitehouse and Michael Grade.

[@thekingofcookies4877]

Lego Dimensions 12 attacks with a spoon btw.

[@timlemmens1087]

@thekingofcookies4877 And Lego 7 plays the spoons.

[@JoeNayDoh]

Personally I think the episodic Adventure games with a higher budget is the right way to go. Just small little but size games that feel like interactive episodes of the show and being episodic you don't just have to make them all focus on the current Doctor. Sure you could gave the first episode be about the 15th, but maybe the next one is a 7th Doctor story and then the next could be a 10th Doctor one. Let's you not have to worry about getting your Doctor Who game out during a current Doctor's run

[@Roxor128]

Yes! If you are making a Doctor Who game, don't bother trying to keep up with the show. Hell, it's probably better to pick a past Doctor for your game and promote it as that.

[@GarbaggioGoblino]

haven't finished the video yet but honestly they need to make a game where you play as your own custom rogue time lord, with minimal appearances from the doctor themselves. maybe one hidden cameo from each max

[@DanielDiaz-um1xd]

With so many creatures, use them. Be a sontaran where you can't turn around & go back (as they never turn their back on the enemy)

[@sbi168]

I quite enjoyed the vr one. The bit with the weeping angels was great and to be honest when I first stepped foot in the 13th docs TARDIS I actually gasped! It was beautiful. Flawed game but enjoyable with more polish

[@AndyAndy-wi7gs]

I feel like (expanding on the Telltale I guess?) you could do FMV Games, like the games from Wales Interactive, heck they're in Wales... HQ Literally right by Cardiff.. could be a partnership that'd be amazing, grows both entities and gets Doctor Who back in the gaming world slowly that could lead to bigger games and more opportunities of different genre games, like an open world rpg, horror, leading into the lego game really kicking it off into other big types of games out there

[@greghawkins59]

To get around the doctor getting out of date, have Skyrim level character customisation and TARDIS customisation. The doctor is one of those characters that it makes sense people would just tell stuff to and would be inexplicably better at everything than anyone else.

[@DigitalVanquish]

Lego Dimensions works both with The Doctor as a protagonist, and others as the protagonists (Batman, Wyldstyle, and Gandalf). He pops in and out of their adventure, and they ultimately win because of him. And then he just keeps popping up in the background afterwards, like in the Mission: Impossible level. He meanwhile has his own levels, and within other levels, he can use the Tardis to travel to other locations and worlds. And because of the suspension of disbelief with Lego games, The Doctor fighting doesn't feel out of place - with suspension of disbelief allowing Lego Batman 2 to be the best Superman game. A Lego Doctor Who game could absolutely succeed, but would likely have to be in the vain of Dimensions to be more widely successful: using The Doctor as a means to combine different Lego properties. Were Dimensions made now, Star Wars and Marvel would likely be involved too. Have The Doctor assemble a team, and if done right, you could have the Justice League and Avengers in the same game - along with everyone else. We can do without the expensive of toys-to-life though, as fun as the idea is.

[@BunnyJester03]

My idea was a sea of thieves like game where you create your own time lord (preferably far from when they all got wiped out) and you can invite your friends to your tardis to be your companions as you travel planet to planet and tine period to time period

[@hastyswept5486]

the real and only answer is TORCHWOOD. A horror game set in a dystopian fractal universe where you act as the final living member of torchwood, one who has been woken up from death or cryogenic freezer, as a final precaution if all goes tits up. You start in the base, watching videos and getting data on what is going on. Jacks space hopper is left for you. He has wired it to some object that will guide you to fractal nexus points (or however you want to say it) where aliens are breaking through. You are trying to sneak around, gather intel and escape capture NOT combat them (not initially). And so forth. I just think that has so much potential

[@NeoMurray]

An open world Doctor who game where you make youre own incarnation and havr multiple afventures would be amazing why has this not been looked into, fans deserve a chance to be the Doctor.

[@TrakeniteAdventuress]

I saw someone in DW Lost in Time with the username Harbo Wholmes the other day. Admit it Harbo, you love the game and just dont want to appear uncool in front of us.

[@HarboWholmes]

Nah I hate it and think it's a pay 2 win game, but I refuse to spend money on it lol and also numbers go brr

[@TrakeniteAdventuress]

@@HarboWholmes I'm in the same boat honestly

[@HedeccaTamer]

RPG set at the academy on Gallifrey. Do a Fire Emblem/Fire Emblem Warriors thing with it Only obstacle I can see is how regeneration fits into a game.

[@VuddyProductions]

This will never happen, but I want some star wars battlefront type game, based on wars from the show. the less balanced ones like the cyber-wars would be singleplayer/co-op because nobody would want to play as the humans in that scenario, whereas the doomsday war or the time war (if its scale could even be captured) could be in it as an online gamemode. There's a game on roblox where you go around in a tardis to different planets from the show, but once you've visited those planets there's not much to do. i've always thought that a doctor who game where you play as the doctor wouldn't work, but also the edge of reality/time is not a good way to do that because you're just a regular person.

[@selectedchain5444]

In Minecraft, there are also great mods like Tardis Refined and Adventures in Time. Also, in the Video, the old Dalek Mod was shown, there is a newer, better one.

[@impax2634]

OuterWilds-like Doctor Who game? I refuse to believe that humanity can bring any idea better than this.

[@SherbertLomon]

Wouldn’t it be cool if they made a game where you’re a time lord, steal a tardis-like time machine, travel the universe and pick your own companion. Also, up to you if you want to be a good guy or not. The Doctor could be a character in the universe who you might make an enemy of if you become too evil lol

[@sofiyums]

A comparatively low-budget potential Dr Who game that I think could be pretty successful is something akin to Stellaris or Sins of a Solar Empire. For a long long time I've always wanted to take control of the Sontarans and have an all-out galactic war against the Daleks and I know there must be loads of other people out there with similar wishes. Also, being a long-time Paradox gamer I know that there are also just in general a lot of people always looking for the next exciting grand strategy game no matter the IP. And they could even attempt to add Dr Who-centric late game mechanics like time travel to spice it up and give it a unique selling point.

[@wachyfanning]

The Doctor works best as a Lego character. Puzzle solving instead of combat. I'm imagining it now. A single Earth map featuring a scaled-down version of every landmass in the world. Then, you can travel time. Go to anywhere on Earth, all the way from the destruction of the Earth to its creation. Then, of course, have other times/places which The Doctor visits. Just without as much depth.

[@lucando13]

Since i see no one else saying it: The "Stark"-Pun was gold :D

[@2ndAttemptPOG]

15:33 it is a mobile game. It's called "Don't blink!" Well closest thing that comes to mind...

[@davewaring73]

There is a mobile game based around the angels. Has Osgood in it too. Lonely Assassins.

[@HimboVegan]

I could see a Telltale style game set in the Whoniverse being AMAZING if done right.

[@Adonk]

A 2d Metroidvania set in the tardis would be cool.

[@derpius3]

top trumps and lego dimensions are peak doctor who content

[@MuchWhittering]

Making a AAA Doctor Who game would be hard. Like, what do you base it on? The current Doctor? Well AAA games often take 5 years+ to make. How likely is it that really ANY of the current elements of the show will still be around then?

[@danielgertler5976]

Zelda-like or a first person puzzle game akin to Portal would be the best option I feel. Something where the focus is on puzzle solving rather than anything else.

[@paniniboy]

Open world is perfect for doctor who the combat can be handled by using the sonic in a more defensive way. Arena could also a part of the game playing in a more violent action shooter with daleks, cybermen, sontarans.

[@xroo7922]

Time war faction type game similar to star wars battlefront would be sick. Like people could have different playthroughs as a timelord soldier using a battle tardis to being a dalek using dalek aircraft and machinery also weapons and dalek types too.

[@Lia-zw1ls7tz7o]

We just have to wait until the 24th century where the crews of the Enterprise or Voyager will play a really good Doctor Who holonovel on the Holodeck. ☺️😉

[@generalj216]

Imagine a doctor who game in the same vain as alien isolation. It’d be perfect

[@KAmos94]

I was just about to write the same thing. The Whoniverse would fit perfectly in a Alien Isolation-esque game

[@WinsomeJarl4342]

The Ood would fit really well as an enemy type like the androids in Isolation.

[@generalj216]

@@WinsomeJarl4342cybermen also

[@jcrossan1351]

The adventure games were perfect for their time and I adored the flash games as a kid I just wish we’d get a Doctor Who game with a good story and good gameplay for once

[@adamstewart9052]

I would love it if in Lost in Time each version of the Doctor has their TARDIS exterior instead of just using the latest one for them all.

[@razzaman9]

A telltale style game for Dr Who could be absolutely fantastic

[@benstevens44]

I wonder if you'd be able to get away with an investigative adventure sort of game with a few action setpieces, where the gimmick is like The Girl Who Waited or Flatline - the Doctor's out of the picture, but still watching through the companion's (in this case, the playable character's) eyes and commenting on events and working to unravel the plot based on the clues you find and situations you get into. You still wouldn't be able to do a lot of combat though, because, well, companions tend not to be soldiers and you'd earn one nasty scolding from the Doctor for it (though an interlude with River Song popping in to fill the Doctor role with less pacifism might work?)

[@hunterdoyle3581]

Hear me out, dalek sim?

[@hunterdoyle3581]

Or a river song adventure?

[@cguy4131]

​@@hunterdoyle3581River Song Tomb Raider style as she is an archaeologist

[@adamstewart9052]

13:56 Except the "Morbius" incarnations but you wouldn't be able to play as them anyway.