Legalities

Hi Barky,

You didn't specify what you hoped to do with the game. If you meant you wanted to self-publish it, try to get some other company to buy it, or what. What do you mean by "proceed"?

If it's based upon the writings or work of another person which is under copyright (most everything is), yes, of course you need permission to do pretty much anything with it, and, no, you're not at all likely to be able to get permission.

If the popular book series you are talking about is one which is old and out of copyright -- for example, the original Oz series of books or original Sherlock Holmes stories (not newer ones or films) -- then no permission is needed to do most anything with it, because the copyright is expired.

Without more details of the book series and what you want to do, it's hard to give more detailed advice. It is safe to say, however, that 99% of anything you could be talking about would be impossible to proceed in any way with without changing the game so all explicit references to the book series are taken out.