Games Learning from Film

As time has gone by, a lot of games have gotten more and more impressive, as you no doubt at least got a glimpse from my last post. Something that has been driving this, has been the use of many film techniques in games.

I was getting lunch with one of my friends just the other day who works in the game industry. One of the things we talked about was the ambitions of game designers to try and take a scene from a movie that was intense and was one of the favorite parts of a particular film, and try to apply it and recreate it in a game. As he pointed out, it actually became very clear that you can't just take an idea from a film, copy, paste, and play it and it turn out as suspenseful and glorious as it was in the movie. Why is that?

There are a couple of reasons, and these are things that the game industry really needs to learn, myself included in how to avert the problem. One reason it might not capture the spirit of that moment someone is trying to recreate in the game is simply because of narration. No, I don't mean having a voice narrate the game or movie for you. What I mean by that is things like camera use and such.

In film, the director has ultimate control what the viewer is seeing. He can elude to something, letting the viewer see the problem or danger, yet the character not knowing about it just yet. This builds up tension for the viewer. You can do this in a game, but most of the time it just isn't the same. I think in large part of this is because of control. The player is in control of the actions of the character and the player is also in control of the camera pretty much at all times. In fact, much of the time, the player seems to take on the identity of the character in the game, making it to where once something is eluded to the player, he or she can pretty much instantly respond to that situation, already knowing that there is a problem or something creepy around the corner. Whereas in film, the viewer sees whatever it is to see that isn't revealed to the character, and the viewer can't influence the actions of the character in the film. They are left to see how it will unfold as time progresses, requiring time, patience and such. This time between when the viewer is shown the creature (or what have you), and when the character finally encounters it is often very crucial to building up the tension in film. It builds anticipation.

You can achieve lot of tension in games by using and manipulating sound of course, and that certainly is a good way to go about it if you are trying to scare the player or something, but outside of horror or thriller type scenarios, I would say it can't be used as effectively.

So what's the point in all this? I don't know. This is just something that is on my mind. Something I want to do when I create a game is to really create a game that marries the best of game and film techniques together. If that is done, if the balance is just right then the results could be awesome! The reason for such importance in the balance is because it is a game after all. You don't want to make a game that is so directed, where it is almost like the game designer is in control of the camera and the characters most of the time. If that is the case, then the game designer almost may as well become a film director or something and go make a film, because games are very interactive in nature and they would pretty much defeat the purpose of the player "playing" and game.

There have been numerous instances where I'll be playing a game, and I'll be like, "What exactly am I supposed to be doing again?" Or I will just get a little lost in the story, why certain characters are performing certain things in the game. Often times I will be like, "Well they could have developed that whole part a bit more, done this, this, and this." And it would have been communicated so much better. The player would have a deeper understanding of what is going on, or might have a deeper understanding of the motivations behind the character and things like that.

So there is a balance to be found. Some games dance the line a little too close to becoming film, and other games hardly even try to incorporate techniques of film and such into it even if it would have benefited it a lot. Of course, there are those good ol' game that don't need to focus on that stuff, that are just a lot of fun to play, and story might just not be the focus of the game.

This is all just really interesting to me. I'm trying to think about how I could really communicate emotion effectively through games. I just know that mastering some of this could be key for me later on, so... yes.

Anyhoo, that's all! Phew... that was a lot.

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