In an world where digital and physical media increasingly intersect, few creators have shaped interactive storytelling as profoundly as Dan Houser. As the creative visionary behind such billion dollar video game franchises as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, Houser built his reputation crafting sprawling virtual worlds in which players could lose themselves for hundreds of hours. Now, the Rockstar Games cofounder is venturing into traditional publishing with his debut novel—and a new imprint that promises to blur the boundaries between gaming and literature.
His first novel, A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, is based on his top-rated podcast, A Better Paradise, and set for release through his entertainment company Absurd Ventures’ new publishing imprint. Houser is bringing his narrative expertise to the page while maintaining his commitment to building immersive story worlds across multiple platforms. PW spoke with Houser about his transition from games to publishing, the challenges of adapting audio storytelling for print, and his vision for a media-agnostic approach to creative development.
As the creative force behind iconic game franchises, what inspired you to adapt A Better Paradise as a novel rather than developing it first as a game?
We are already developing a game right now that is set within the universe of A Better Paradise, but the game will be in development for several more years. This first A Better Paradise story (Volume One: An Aftermath), which launched initially as an audio fiction series last year and is now being novelized, is meant to really set the stage for the entire universe and introduce you to some of the key characters and the origin story behind the creation of the fateful experimental video game project that is at the center of the story. We had a lot of fun creating the audio fiction series, but while I was writing it, it began to feel to me that there was a novel at the heart of it as well, and by the time we were done, that felt very much the case. As a lifelong lover of books, telling this first story from the universe in the classical way as a novel feels very appropriate—and a bit humbling.
A Better Paradise explores themes of AI and virtual reality—subjects gaming has tackled extensively. Do you find books offer different opportunities to explore these technological concepts?
Definitely. It’s funny because, when I started writing this story several years ago, it was just ahead of the current AI boom—or craze, depending on how you look at it. I started out writing it during the peak of “metaverses” and crypto and web3 and that whole Silicon Valley gold rush to strike it rich as a digital prospector, but the A Better Paradise world really came about as a response to lockdown. AI specifically wasn’t as top of mind in popular culture as it is now, and since then there have been many stories released in every medium about it. Our story is indeed about an artificial super intelligence and posits a dystopian future, but really the story is just as much a mythology about video game development in particular and tech development in general. I have always used some novelistic touches in how I have tried to write games, but books will always allow multiple points of view, multiple timelines, and the inner workings of someone’s mind in a way other media can only aspire to, which is why the novel will never die.
Your career at Rockstar Games demonstrated a strong narrative approach to game design. How has your storytelling process evolved when creating content specifically for audio and now print formats?
I love writing for games, and while I’ve done some over the years for more “linear” mediums like animation, radio, and comics, I am really enjoying getting the chance to properly delve into the world of novels and audio fiction for the first time. With games you are developing characters, building a world, and leading players through a narrative journey like in any other form of storytelling. But particularly for action adventure–oriented games, you also need to ensure that the story is complementing, enhancing, and properly balanced with gameplay. Of course, with noninteractive formats, there is no such concern, and so you are a bit more free to experiment with form, structure, etc. But all stories need to build tension, and release it.
Your new publishing imprint is part of a larger trans-media strategy that includes the Absurdaverse and American Caper universes. How do you determine which medium best serves each story world?
It’s really not as much a strategy per se as much as it’s just what feels right to both the genre and the particular tone of the universe. A Better Paradise is a fairly serious science fiction story—although with plenty of bursts of what I’d characterize as dark humor—and so tonally, it feels right for it to be told as a novel, an audio fiction series, a TV series, a video game. The Absurdaverse by contrast is a comedy satire universe that is rooted in animation. So that world makes sense to exist at least initially as an animated series, with a video game also in development.
That said, I don’t at all consider those medium associations to be finite or fixed. There’s boundless diversity within any given medium. So certainly, a serious sci fi odyssey could just as easily entail a comic book or an animated series, and a satirical and more light-hearted world that originated as an animated series entail a podcast, a book, etc. Our crime fiction universe, American Caper, is beginning as a comic book and then a trade paperback, as we felt its tone suited that world best. But it may become something else later.
How do you approach building fan communities across different media formats, especially when readers and gamers might have different expectations?
With everything we’re doing at Absurd Ventures, we treat each project with absolute reverence to its respective medium. We try to make the best things we can. It’s not like the novel is in service to a video game release as a marketing beat, because there isn’t a video game coming out on the near horizon. Some of our universes, like American Caper, don’t have a video game in development at all. We’re well aware that, generally, the Venn diagram between a video game consumer and an audio fiction listener and a novel reader, etc., may be marginal. So we’re not necessarily expecting everyone to follow every single thing, but we are building worlds and filling them with stories told in whatever medium we think makes sense and where we think we can do an interesting job.
When writing the novel, it’s with the hope that science fiction readers, first and foremost, will appreciate it. And when writing the audio fiction series, it’s with the fiction podcasts listener in mind. Ultimately, we want to ensure every storytelling project is done with utmost integrity, to be able to spin our worlds in as many interesting and hopefully exciting ways as possible.
Dan Houser will be on the Main Stage of the London Book Fair today, Wednesday, March 12, at 10:15 – 10:45.
