At the Blender: Film & Games conference, Ivan Murat from Nanobit, one of Croatia's leading mobile game studios, spoke about the success of adapting the Netflix reality show Too Hot to Handle into video games. In a panel titled Crossmedia and Transmedia: from film to video games and from video games to film, Murat shared his experiences and the challenges the team faced during game development, as well as their success on the global stage.
Accessing the adaptation of the reality show into a video game
Nanobit has adapted Too Hot to Handle into three mobile games, which was an extremely challenging project considering that the reality show format traditionally does not offer obvious interactivity. Murat admits that he was not familiar with the original show before they started negotiations with Netflix, but he was surprised by the large number of viewers of the show, which gave the studio confidence that the game has enormous potential.
One of the main challenges was to translate the passive experience of watching television into an interactive experience where the player takes the lead role. “Watching a series is simple entertainment – you lie in front of the TV, your brain is turned off. However, in the game, users must be active participants and feel like they are part of that perfect world,” says Murat.
Character Personalization
One of the key elements that contributed to the success of the game was the deep level of character personalization. Nanobit allowed players to customize their characters in an incredibly detailed way, including various physical traits, tattoos, prosthetics, and other options to enable players to create a character that best reflects their personality or fantasy. This approach, which supports inclusivity, received a great response. Murat mentions the example of a player with diabetes who was thrilled by the possibility of their character wearing a glucose monitor.
In addition to personalization, the game allowed players to create their virtual dogs, which further enhanced the sense of connection to the game. “The goal was to enable users to feel like they could be part of the world they see on the screen,” explains Murat.
The role of Netflix and content oversight
As the owner of the IP, Netflix had strict guidelines that Nanobit had to follow during the game's development. Visuals, narration, and dialogues underwent detailed review by Netflix's editors, ensuring that the game remained true to the spirit of the series. “Every choice in the game, every dialogue, went through careful scrutiny to ensure that everything met Netflix's standards,” said Murat.
Interestingly, the three games together had about 1.7 million words of dialogue, surpassing the scope of literary series such as Harry Potter or A Song of Ice and Fire. This vast narrative content was non-linear, allowing players to make important decisions that affected the course of the game.
Nevjerojatan uspjeh na tržištu
The nanobit adaptation of Too Hot to Handle has achieved remarkable success in the global market. The first game in the trilogy was the most downloaded on the Netflix platform in the first two months after its release, while the third game in the series exceeded expectations with 90,000 downloads in the first five minutes after launch.
Murat highlights that Too Hot to Handle 3 had a better start even than some well-known titles like GTA Trilogy and Hades, indicating a strong fan connection to the series. “On Reddit, within the first few minutes after the game launched, hundreds of posts were made where players shared screenshots of their characters and fashion combinations,” Murat recalls.
According to Murat, Netflix plans to integrate the game with the TV show in a way that players can see their characters in the actual show on screen, creating a unique interactive experience that merges watching and playing.
“They own the IP, which means that no one else can continue the game. I can say that they want to add content for Too Hot to Handle 2 and give it to another studio. We are collecting all the data for them and can analyze it, but we cannot use it except to improve the game and in agreement with them. One of the data points we are allowed to use is that Too Hot to Handle 2 is the most played game on the platform. 45% of players have played the game more than once, which is an extremely high percentage,” concluded Murat.
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