“Christ! This is like Zelda meets There Will Be Blood!”
– Ben Croshaw, Minecraft review
I was reviewing strategy guides for a popular video game when I saw it. In the “Recommended Items” bar stood a guide. It’s title, Minecraft building Ideas For You. Being a Minecraft fan, I was compelled to look. Ten minutes later I realized that I had inadvertently stumbled onto a genius idea. The author had made a whole line of Minecraft related eBooks. Some contained blueprints for houses, others contained tactics for surviving, and a few others were about miscellaneous things like how to build traps or gadgets.
All of these books cost around three dollars and some of them were even best sellers.
I personally thought that this was an outstanding idea for a book series. Minecraft is diverse enough that writing an entire book series about it is actually possible. Also, unlike most games, it’s completely non-linear. The player can do whatever they can imagine.
Off the top of my head I can’t think of another game nearly as open ended as Minecraft, but I’m sure there are a couple that exist. It wouldn’t be a horrible idea for someone who spends a lot of time gaming to whip up a little eBook on whatever game they’re really good at.