Where are the computer games for comedy classics?

Computer games are huge business, and the demand for them is getting ever bigger. A recent report suggested that the UK video games market is now worth a record £4.33 billion. With so much money swirling around, some titles in development now have budgets that are comparable to Hollywood films.

When it comes to video games, inspiration needs to be derived from somewhere. Over the years it has been common place for video games to be created on the back of the most popular and successful TV shows, movies and books. However, despite their popularity on TV, British comedies are rarely used.

It's a very different story for American comedy characters. A number of US sitcoms have made successful jumps into the gaming arena. You can play versions of The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy and other such shows, all in multiple game formats.

The Simpsons for example made its first foray into the gaming world way back in 1991 and has since seen a further 26 releases on various platforms, including Tapped Out on mobile, which was a huge hit and still widely played to this day. South Park meanwhile has seen 7 releases, with the first dating as far back as 1998 and the latest one, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, released recently.

Is it just that developers aren't aware of British characters? We don't think so. Looking around online, we can see various familiar Brits in games. For example, sites such as mFortune's online casino offer a slot gambling game themed around Sherlock.

Furthermore, a lot of the world's computer games developers are actually based in the UK. Guildford is particular hub, with mammoth companies like Electronic Arts based there, ensuring a direct insight into British culture.

Only Fools And Horses (pictured) has been seen by more than half the population of Britain, but - to our knowledge - there still isn't a computer game where you can climb inside a virtual recreation of Del's Reliant Regal and drive around Peckham doing dodgy deals. Perhaps the humour would be lost in pixelated version of the characters. Those American games we mentioned earlier are all based around animated shows rather than live-filmed productions, and animated comedy isn't something we make much of in the UK.

However, as much as we love British sitcom, it's true that American shows simply enjoy a bigger global audience and thus more potential players. It can cost an eye-watering amount to make a game so all developers want their titles to appeal to the widest possible number of people. Everyone visiting BCG may know the residents of Nelson Mandela House well, but people in many countries even close on the continent will have never heard the name Derek Trotter.

There are two British shows that have broken through to international markets with huge success however. And - sure enough - both these characters have games. Shaun The Sheep's global audience love playing in the fluffy character's world. Looking at shaunthesheep.com, in amongst the web games, we can count at least 9 separate gaming apps that have been built around the cheeky farm animals.

Mr Bean meanwhile is one of the most recognisable characters on the planet. As a demonstration: 76 million people 'like' the bumbling fool on his Facebook page. That's more than the entire population of the United Kingdom.

We know that the arcade-themed Mr Bean game Around The World does rather well for rights owners Tiger Aspect; and Flying Teddy still has players all over the world too.

Notably, both these comedy formats have travelled round the globe in part due to the fact they're largely dialogue free so easy for all cultures to enjoy. So, perhaps to get more British comedy games out there, we need writers to start working on new dialogue-free animated original programmes?

It's a tricky task though - the most recent attempt, Pompidou, didn't exactly take off, and wasn't a hugely expensive animation either. Let's hope the industry keeps trying though as, get it right, and not only will people be laughing at the creation on TV, but there's a world of riches for the creators in the form of licencing their characters for computer games too.