There will soon come a day when creating a video game will be not much different than filming a movie. Two games currently in development illustrate the fine line that divides the two processes -- and the actors who were cast for the games, rehearsed for them, and then acted in their "filming" can surely attest to their similarities.
Brand new technologies contributed to the creation of both games: Sony's "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" -- expected to be released on Nov. 20 for the PlayStation 3 -- utilizes a state-of-the-art motion-capture process to give the illusion of life-like animated characters, while the martial arts fighters in Creative Edge Studios' "Warriors of Elysia" don't just seem real, they are real. For possibly the first time, live actors were filmed and their nonanimated images placed in 3-D environments and made available for gamers to manipulate in real-time with whatever punches and kicks they choose. "Warriors" for the PC had been scheduled for year-end release but may be postponed until early 2008.
Sony and Creative Edge both claim that they are creating better games that benefit from being more lifelike because they capture human emotion. It remains to be seen whether gamers will agree when they vote with their pocketbooks.
Sony's Santa Monica, Calif.-based Naughty Dog studio is known primarily for more stylized, cartoon-like games like "Crash Bandicoot" and the Jak and Daxter series. But Amy Hennig says that the launch of her new franchise, which is based on the classic pulp action-adventure serials of the '30s, demands a more realistic look.
Hennig's role would be that of "producer" at another game studio but, at Naughty Dog, her title is "game director," since, as she explains, her company has moved slowly toward more of a film model. It is a nod toward how game-making is become increasingly like movie-making, she agrees.
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