PowerhoofIt took over 20 years for Hollywood to get the formula right, but we’re finally in an era of consistent video game adaptations hitting the big screen. Instead of churning out films like 2007’s Hitman or 2016’s Assassin’s Creed, films that don’t appeal to the existing audience of fans or general audiences, studios have unlocked the key to massive financial successes like The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie or A Minecraft Movie.And now that the sharks have gotten a taste for blood, there’s no reason for them to stop. Already there are adaptations in the works for The Legend of Zelda, Gears of War, Call of Duty, God of War, and countless more — some of the most recognizable games ever made. But there are also adaptations coming based on lesser known indie games. This year’s Iron Lung showed the world that films based on games other than triple A releases can also score big at the box office. And it’s a lesson that Hollywood seems to have internalized, as Sony is already starting the development process for a film based on a game released last year, that has made major waves in the indie scene.On September 2, Deadline announced that Sony Pictures and Story Kitchen (the production company behind the Sonic the Hedgehog films) have both acquired the live-action feature film rights to The Drifter, a 2D pixel art point-and-click adventure made by the incredibly small development and publishing team at Powerhoof. The game is a genre-bending mystery where players inhabit the character of Mick Carter, a wandering vagrant who abandoned his wife Sarah five years earlier after being unable to cope with the impending death of their son. Mick returns to his hometown to attend his mother’s funeral, and ends up caught in a complex conspiracy revolving around mysterious kidnappers, a sinister medical research company, and time travel.When the game released last July it became a sleeper hit in the indie gaming community, with particular praise aimed at its high-concept plotting and the voice acting. It even earned an Outstanding Achievement in Story nomination at the 29th D.I.C.E. Awards and won several Australian Game Developer awards, which explains the outsized attention on a small game made by four people (with Dave Lloyd himself writing, directing, producing, and designing). While Hollywood is naturally trying to bring the biggest titles in gaming to the big screen, The Drifter is an example of a game that might be smaller in scale than The Last of Us or Street Fighter. But an indie game like this still packs a remarkable narrative and emotional punch that’s perfectly suited for a high-concept cinematic adaptation.