History Main / InGameNovel

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Players can write their own novels in books in-game, as they can be as long as 50 pages full of text; in the Java edition, it's even more pronounced, as the max number of pages is doubled to 100.

* An educational game example. The original ''VideoGame/JumpStart1stGrade'' contained a modest bookshelf of in-game stories to teach young children reading. The books typically contained short stories that the game would read aloud with limited animated illustrations. Combined, there were 52 unique stories on the shelf, subjects of those stories ranging from counting, telling time, animals, caricatures of world cultures, silly poems, and entertaining short fiction, and at the end of each story the game would give a simple comprehension question at the end before proceeding to the next. Each story was an average of 3-4 pages each, the shortest stories were the Mother Goose rhymes at one page each, and the longest story was a whopping 10 in-game pages, seven at a close second. This meant the game featured a cumulative number of over 200 pages of fiction. For an educational game for first graders made in 1995, that does seem rather impressive.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' includes a humorous short story tying into the events of the first game, a book review on a novel written by one of the support characters in the first game on its events from her POV and the book itself as extras.

* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'' has The Hall of Records, a 30-something-screen-long hall along the length of which almost the game's entire backstory is written. Yes, seriously. [[spoiler: And there's a PlotCoupon with more backstory that requires traversing the entire hall to pick up.]]

* An educational game example. The original ''[[VideoGame/JumpStart Jump Start 1st Grade]]'' contained a modest bookshelf of in-game stories to teach young children reading. The books typically contained short stories that the game would read aloud with limited animated illustrations. Combined, there were 52 unique stories on the shelf, subjects of those stories ranging from counting, telling time, animals, caricatures of world cultures, silly poems, and entertaining short fiction, and at the end of each story the game would give a simple comprehension question at the end before proceeding to the next. Each story was an average of 3-4 pages each, the shortest stories were the Mother Goose rhymes at one page each, and the longest story was a whopping 10 in-game pages, seven at a close second. This meant the game featured a cumulative number of over 200 pages of fiction. For an educational game for first graders made in 1995, that does seem rather impressive.

* ''VideoGame/{{Armikrog}}'' also has one of these, befitting how it is a SpiritualSuccessor to ''The Neverhood'', which also had one of these. It details the names of P's adoptive parents, how the heart of the mountain works, the in-universe origin of the word "Armikrog" and how the titular fortress came to be.

* ''VideoGame/{{Armikrog}}'' also has one of these, befitting how it is a SpiritualSuccessor to ''The Neverhood'', which also had one of these. It details the names of P's [[spoiler:adoptive]] mother and father, how the heart of the mountain works, the in-universe origin of the word "Armikrog" and how the titular fortress came to be.

* Every game in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' has at least one. Most also have an unofficial sidequest where if you find every volume (which are generally collected by talking to people at the right time - [[GuideDangIt who are often in places that there is no logical reason to go to during the narrow time window when they will give you the book]]) of one of them, you get either an InfinityPlusOneSword or the raw materials needed to make one. Several of the books are serial-numbers filed off stories about real in-universe people who turn up later in the series.

* Every game in the ''VideoGame/KisekiSeries'' has at least one. Most also have an unofficial sidequest where if you find every volume (which are generally collected by talking to people at the right time - [[GuideDangIt who are often in places that there is no logical reason to go to during the narrow time window when they will give you the book]]) of one of them, you get either an InfinityPlusOneSword or the raw materials needed to make one. Several of the books are serial-numbers filed off stories about real in-universe people who turn up later in the series.

* ''VideoGame/LastWindow'' provides an novelization of the game that expands as you complete more chapters, providing more insight and information about the characters. If you can beat the game without using the novel's enclosed hints, it unlocks an expanded epilogue that ties up the last few ends of the story that we don't see in the game.

* ''VideoGame/LastWindow'' provides an novelization of the game that expands as you complete more chapters, providing more insight and information about the characters. If you can beat the game without using the novel's inclosed hints, it unlocks an expanded epilogue that ties up the last few ends of the story that we don't see in the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' has a large amount of books that can be found during quests or by defeating bosses. A full list can be found [[https://runescape.wiki/w/List_of_books here]].

* Completing a mission in ''Outpost 2'' unlocks another chapter of the game's pair of novellas, uncovering a tale of survival for your chosen colony of Plymouth or Eden. The novels tell much the same story, but from the perspectives of two Elders (the original colonists from Earth); one of whom stayed with Eden, and the other left to found Plymouth. The only difference, [[spoiler:in the end, is who comes out on top.]] Also, three quarters of the structures have short stories associated with them, too, such as a father showing his son the newly built light towers - and receiving a complaint about not being able to see the stars now, to combat stories around manually piloting the robotic vehicles. More than a few of them tie directly into the novellas, and all take place in the same continuity. In all cases, the quality of the writing is remarkably high, for being written to go with a relatively old RTS game.

* One of the books in ''The Riddle of the Sphinx'' is the entirety of the third book of the Old Testament.
* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'' has The Hall of Records, a 30-something-screen-long hall along the length of which almost the game's entire backstory is written. Yes, seriously. [[spoiler: And there's a PlotCoupon with more backstory that requires traversing the entire hall to pick up.]]
* As books are a major theme of the ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' series, naturally there are several readable books in the games. Most of them give you backstory to the various worlds and characters, also occasionally giving puzzle clues.
* in the third part of the Dracula trilogy ''Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon'' you can read differenct documents you collect while playing the game. Beside others the complete [[Literature/TheBible bible (in Latin, but translated when read)]] and the original novel ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomsOfAmalurReckoning'' has plenty. They tend not to stretch for more than 5 pages at most, and include a variety of descriptive texts about the world, in-game fiction, and personal diaries. These last probably tell you more about the characters in Amalur than anything else you might do, but can largely only be acquired through theft.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has books scattered all over the game world containing pieces of the lore of the game. The first expansion dropped this habit for the most part, though they began making a comeback in later expansions.
* VideoGame/UltimaOnline not only had books that were readable (though none as long as a full novel), you could also buy blank books and ''write'' your own story, for the public to read. Some of these could be quite epic in length.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series is known for having a robust background in books and scrolls. These books tend to range wildly in size from 2 pages to over 30 pages, and range from personal journals to ballads to historical texts to short stories, to outright novels. Some of the longest are ''[[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/real-barenziah-complete The Real Barenziah]]'', ''[[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/king-edward King Edward]]'', ''[[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/2920-last-year-first-era 2920: The Last Year of the First Era]]'', and ''[[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/36-lessons-vivec The 36 Lessons of Vivec]]''. The books are so extensive as to have [[Literature/TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks their own work page]].

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has the Circle of Zerthimon, a history of the Gith people; reading through it and discovering what the lessons are leads to some awesome stat upgrades and spells for both the Nameless One and Dak'kon.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' has around 70 different books. All are of a reasonable length alone and provide mostly non-game related information about the setting. Some are linked series, including fairly substantive histories of Shadowdale and Waterdeep.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', you can read a book full of backstory. It's pretty long for an in-game book, and even then, Ramza admits that he ''can't even read most of the text'' due to it being written in an ancient language; he's just reading a different character's notes and translations written in the margin.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' has five books, dubbed as the Sun Saga series, that retells the events of the last two Golden Sun games. You have to find said books and some of them are {{Permanently Missable|Content}} if you go beyond one of many [[PointOfNoReturn Points Of No Return]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Opoona}}'' has the Catalogue d'Arts, which is, essentially, a small art history textbook on the various art movements that have arisen on the planet of Landroll. You have to find the art pieces in the overworld to add them to the book, but the book gives each piece substantial backstory, and even expounds on the history of the artists who made it (such as [[TheGhost Caval]]).
* ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'' is chock full of those, there is at least one long series about the adventures of an ork pirate, others are about summoning demons and spells, yet others are either short stories or about the in-game world, teaching about plants, animals and monsters, or history.
* ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'' has the "Thousand Years of Dreams", readable excerpts from the lives of the Immortals (mostly Kaim), unlocked after certain things trigger them in the game.
* Every game in the ''VideoGame/KisekiSeries'' has at least one. Most also have an unofficial sidequest where if you find every volume (which are generally collected by talking to people at the right time - [[GuideDangIt who are often in places that there is no logical reason to go to during the narrow time window when they will give you the book]]) of one of them, you get either an InfinityPlusOneSword or the raw materials needed to make one. Several of the books are serial-numbers filed off stories about real in-universe people who turn up later in the series.