GC 2008: Games are not Movies

Earlier today, in one of the smaller rooms being used for GCDC sessions, Alex Laurant gave a presentation titled Media Migration: The Transition from Film to Games. Honestly, I went in there expecting a discussion on the pros and cons of developing movie-licensed games, but what Laurant really wanted to talk about was how it's possible to take skills from one industry and apply them to the other, amongst other things.

Laurant currently works as an art director at LucasArts, where he has no doubt had a hand in the development of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Laurant spent a good deal of time working in movies for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to LucasArts via a stint at EA, though, and early in his presentation attendees had an opportunity to check out a mixture of work-in-progress and final cuts from movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan, and Minority Report.

One of the first points that Laurant made was simply that "games are not movies" and that anyone working in either medium needs to respect the differences. To illustrate this point, a slide depicting the linear storyline of a movie was shown, and then contrasted with a far more complex diagram showing a branching storyline that could have been taken from any number of games in recent memory. "Games are more complex than movies", stated Laurant, who went on to say that that's true regardless of whether you're a consumer or a developer.

It's clear that, in his time, Laurant has attempted to apply his movie-making expertise to game development with varying degrees of success. While at EA, for example, he worked on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was intended to replicate the experience of watching the movie quite closely. The game was far from perfect for a number of reasons, though, one of which was the camera, which according to Laurant was especially disappointing in co-op games where it was forced to pull back in order to keep multiple players in view simultaneously.

Cameras, it seems, can be one of the most dangerous pitfalls for a game designer with a background in movies. Techniques that work well in movies, such as "organic camera tracking" that mimicks the less-than-perfect movements of a cameraman as he pans to follow a fast-moving character, for example, don't always work well in games. After citing another example or two, Laurant wrapped up that part of his presentation with two statements that, if taken to heart by developers the world over, could conceivably (at least in my mind) make problematic cameras a thing of the past.

Statement 1: "Watch what you're doing, look where you're going."

Statement 2: "Don't disorient the player."

It sounds incredibly simple, but you know as well as I do that plenty of games still get this stuff wrong.

On a similar note, Laurant touched on a pet peeve of mine; invisible walls that impede your progress. He didn't waste much time on the subject, but every developer in the room was left in doubt that they should "use only visible barriers in environments". Again, it sounds obvious.

Before wrapping up the session with a showing of a Force Unleashed trailer, Laurant explained that while game makers can definitely still learn from their counterparts in the movie industry, they need to be selective about the ideas and conventions that they import. He also encouraged game developers to work with experts in other fields when necessary, whether it be an architect, a psychologist, a dancer, or a skydiver. Developers can't be expected to be experts at everything after all.

And then I headed to the press room which, seemingly, is a smoke-free zone for the first time. Result.