I listen to a decent amount of audiobooks and I’ll occasionally miss a one-off description of something important. I was wondering if there are projects to add a visual component to audiobooks? Official or fan-made it doesn’t matter. If it does exist what would I search for to find something like this?
Maybe a video with AI generated images and the listener is required to supply their own audiobook or something like that.
I feel like I have seen this done with the Bible several times.
Edit: It seems like the answer is no.
People have suggested movies, VNs, and point and click games but that’s more than what I am after. All I really want is something that accompanies the audio that can occasionally act as a quick reference. If you are still have trouble imagining what I am talking about think of an audio-only podcast that is uploaded to Youtube. They might add a photo in post to accompany what they are talking about but you can still enjoy it without the visual aspect.
I thought there might be a group of people on Youtube doing this with AI images or an audiobook publisher commissioning art to do this.
You’ve basically described a simple visual novel. Much more of a thing for Japanese media, but the idea has recently started to catch on for Western media.
For example, Pillars of the Earth was adapted as a point and click game/visual novel. These are very rare though.
Pretty much. I was going to mention VNs but I feel like even the traditional Ren’Py layout with characters laid on top of a static background is beyond what I am looking for and I am also not looking for any kind of player choice.
I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream for example is a short story but was also adapted into a video game. I could play the game but I am looking to enjoy a more passive experience. That said I would be happy with a video that contained just imagines from the game if they matched the book.
Quick note for those interested ScummVM is a fantastic way to play these kind of point and click adventure games. It’s available on pretty much every platform you can think of from the Windows 95 to Android.
Maybe you’d be interested in “kinetic novels”? They’re basically VNs without choices.
More passive media formats include drama CDs (again mostly for Japanese media) and radio plays (fallen out of favour). Both of these usually come with extra promotional material such as a booklet with the script and some images.
Some audio books and podcasts with higher production values also have extra companion guides/supplementary content. Though, these are mainly for non fiction texts to display diagrams etc.
If you are into non fiction, Ken Burns documentaries are basically audio books that happen to have visual content. A less traditional format are museum audio guides, such as the British Museum and Louvre apps.