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Comment by king_llama | Hacker News Reader

Yes it could, but then again, LEGO is on a completely different scale than angry birds.

With LEGO there was no story, no plot, no purpose, no motivation. Any story with LEGO was imagined by the kid playing with it.

Can the same be said about angry birds? Probably not. There is a vague story (Pigs steal eggs, Birds are angry) but there isn't much room for imagination.

On top of that, LEGO is a cultural phenomenon that has stood the test of time. The same can't be said with Angry Birds (see the article above).

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There are a few games that had only a basic plot that was expanded upon in more detail by later games or movies. Doom for example.

But are there any where this process turned out well?

Ultima. Yeah, it flamed out in the end, but from Akalabeth/Ultima 1 to Ultima 7 was an amazing journey of elaboration on a theme. Some other RPGs could be named here. Final Fantasy has certainly seen a lot of elaboration over the years. The recent Wasteland 2 is receiving a decent reception and it is based on a game from the Commodore 64 era that, in terms of bytes, probably fits comfortably into the first couple of frames of the intro movie for Wasteland 2.

It can be done. But all the examples I can name are in genres where narrative is a focus. I've got nothing like Angry Birds I can name.

> But are there any where this process turned out well?

If by "turned out well" you mean "turned a profit", probably quite a few.

If by "turned out well" you mean "created a film that was critically well-received or generally regarded as a timeless classic", probably not.

I understand that many of these movies didn't even create a profit in the sense that it's usually understood; rather they took advantage of German tax law to enable their creators to save more in taxes than the movies cost to make.

Mortal Kombat? Uwe Boll's Postal is also surprisingly good.

Mario?

zelda & metroid series are fairly well regarded.

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