Roblox, the all-ages sandbox game that encourages players to create their own worlds, is reportedly getting two loose TV adaptations. As revealed by Deadline, Roblox games Creatures of Sonaria and Twilight Daycare Series are in the process of being adapted for TV, with production company Wind Sun Sky (Invincible) working alongside Productivity Media to bring these stories to life in episodic, scripted fashion.
Creatures of Sonaria, developed in Roblox by Sonar Studios, is a ‘Work In Progress’ survival game that allows players to embody a variety of magical creatures, including dragons and sea beasts, to explore an idyllic world.
‘I am very excited to work with Catherine [Winder, WSS], Jay [Bennett, WSS] and the innovative team of storytellers at Wind Sun Sky to add narrative depth to our characters and in turn further engage and delight our fans in a whole new way,’ Samuel Garcia of game publisher Twin Atlas said of the project.
It appears video game adaptations are now hot property in Hollywood – although it’s the ‘metaverse’ mechanics of Roblox that appear to have caught the attention of executives at Wind Sun Sky.
‘As the partnership of PMI and WSS expands, we will continue to look for rich universes with cross platform, immersive potential, like Creatures of Sonaria, to partner up with and extend into the kind of gamified storyworlds that global audiences and fans are looking for in the metaverse,’ Catherine Winder of Wind Sun Sky and William Santor of Productivity Media said in a joint statement.
Given the enthusiasm of the metaverse is already winding down, the decision seems like a strange one – but given the popularity around Roblox and its many worlds, an adaptation may find ground with the game’s younger audience.
Read: Roblox accused of creating exploitative, unsafe environment for kids
Much attention in Deadline‘s report is focussed on the narrative potential of Creatures of Sonaria, which is essentially another twist on the monster-raising formula popularised by Spore – but little is known about the other newly-revealed project, Twilight Daycare Series.
This role-playing adventure game developed by Nighty Studio is also built in Roblox, and allows players to look after kids, or become a caretaker. The narrative here seems lighter on the ground, so its optioning for TV is a bigger mystery.
While these games are very unlikely candidates for adaptation, that isn’t stopping the gears of the entertainment industry, as it seeks out new video game properties to adapt – titles like HBO’s The Last of Us are breaking viewership records for the network, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie is preparing to make a splash in the months to come. We’ll likely learn more about these projects in the coming months.
