Train2Game students, especially those who read our recent interview with Deus Ex: Human Revolution writer James Swallow, will be aware of how powerful narrative in video games can be.
Now, it isn’t only games industry veterans espousing the potential of games as a storytelling medium, but well respected film director Guillermo del Toro.
“Video games are no doubt the bridge to the future of genre narrative,” he said on the latest Irrational Games interview podcast.
“You’re not going to see the narratives of, let’s say, a [Pedro] Almodovar or an indie film maker wane; they’re going to stay, but big, genre, artistically-challenging, brilliantly-done storytelling. Holy shit, there’s a lot you can do in games that you’d never even dream of doing in movies, or TV, or comics.”
“Films are fantastic. They are one of the peaks of human narrative. Now, and I’m sorry to break the news to the movie industry, but so is the video game.” del Toro added.
And the Pan’s Labyrinth director believes video games will improve massively within the next decade.
“The video game – not all of them right now – but the video games we’ll be playing in 2020 will be f***ing masterpieces,” said del Toro. “Many masterpieces.”
He also discussed the differences between directing a film and directing a video game, arguing it’s only possible to produce the latter if you have a true passion for medium, a passion that all Train2Game students no doubt have!
“It’s not a medium where you are going to wander if you’re just an interested observer,” said Del Tero “You have to be a gamer to completely absorb the possibility of narrative in games with their own f***ing set of rules. The mistake you have many times is you have a filmmaker who says ‘oh there’s money in video games, I’m going to go make a video game’. No.”
“You need to truly have a passion, and even a layman understanding of the medium or you will be completely pummeled by the process,” he added
The Irrational Games podcast featuring Bioshock Creative Director Ken Levine speaking to Guillermo del Toro will be of huge interest to Train2Game students and can be listened to here.
As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, del Tero is currently working with THQ on a three part video game series, Insane, due for release in 2013.
So Train2Game, what do you make of del Tero’s comments? Does it offer any encouragement to you as a Train2Game student?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: Industry Gamers]
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