In the early 1900s, movies were springing up all over the world. France had the Lumiere brothers and we had Edison. Many of these films were very simple in both style and structure: A static shot of a train barreling towards the audience! There were reports of screams in terror for fear of being crushed by the train. The exhilaration! Moving photographs! The excitement levels must have been somewhere close to moving a tiny white paddle you found inside you television.
Very quickly, these short films found themselves simple stories like the robbing of a train. Style remained an artistic element yet to be discovered; but, there was a definitive style in the clothing and camera angle choice. Much like video games after pong, there was a certain style about that ape throwing barrels at the little plumber.
Only a few years later, before films had grown out of their toddling years, more money was rushed into these projects and an ex magician by the name of George Melies created an excellent short about a trip to the moon. The first real use of special effects and editing were displayed for audiences around the globe. This project would have bankrupted Melies if it hadn’t received such a wonderful response. Much like Melies, the Japanese company Nintendo risked their own fair share of money on creating the Nintendo entertainment system. Players who were used to things like Pac Man and Pong now had the opportunity to explore the world of the Mario Brothers. The screen moved with them! There was more than a single screen; there was a whole world in that cartridge! Breathtaking!
As time went on, movies matured, added sound, color, more editing, more effects, and much more money. Video games have followed this same trend and have very much found their craft. Developers understand that players want to play and have the story unfold in their hands rather than in cut scenes (arguable, but that’s another article). Films understood that what can be shown should be shown instead of said. Radio is for dialogue, film is for action, and video games are to be played. When any art has realized its craft, product quality increases at a relative rate to costs. Movies are costing hundreds of millions of dollars to create and video games have reached in to the double digits pocket of millions. Without these costs, there is no way that something as gorgeous as Assassin’s Creed II could ever look the way it does or play as smooth as it is.
Block buster video games and movies push their spending limits and usually produce some great pieces of entertainment. However, a trend in both mediums gives consumers the opportunity to have more than just the mainstream. Independent films can range anywhere from two thousand to half a million dollars in their budgets and provide alternative and sometimes artful films. Independent games take considerably less time to develop and anywhere between 3K and 30K to produce. These cheaper, sometimes free games can give gamers a fresh of breath air from graphically intense epics with the simplicity of defending a castle from stick figures.
The rising cost of video games was a natural occurrence that only meant good things for gamers: higher quality games and more independent games. With the current financial slump, the independent route has become some what more difficult to climb, but also much more profitable. High quality in one hand absolutely means competition from the other. All good news for hardcore and casual gamers alike.
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Video games and movies will soon merge into one awesome experience. The mini-movie of Assassin’s Creed II is just the beginning.
Sadly this is also the reason Duke Nukem Forever was eventually shut down!
It’s insane how talented artists who work on video games must be. I mean, imagine the difference between envisioning Pacman versus Mass Effect or any other current title.