In my humble observation, the working environment of a game studio is very much like a software company, which seems logical, because in the end it is software that are being developed. So we have game studios, where people are sitting with well defined jobs, hired on contract for a longer period of time. Roughly, you can say that the producers / directors are the ones with the main ideas / tone of game play / outward company profile for the games that are being developed, and certain studios are well know for certain types of games; Nintendo EAD for Mario Brothers, United Game Artists (leading profile: Tetsuya Mizuguchi) for games that are revolving around ingenious interaction with music, Valve for Half Life etc.

Now, these people, working at the studios are a coherent work force, just like any other software company. They are collectively responsible for new and exciting games. Every time a new game has to be incubated and hatched, the same people are working together for this common goal. But if you stop and take a broad glance at it, this would be almost the same as if Adobe’s Photoshop team had to create a whole new ingenious piece of software every other year or so, or, if we turn our attention to movies, the same as if a movie crew always consisted of the same people.

Now. From my humble point of view, this does not add up. The game industry admit that new ideas indeed are welcome: Studios are making the same rally game every time, the same first person shooter, the same RPG, etc. Of course there are exceptions, but it seems like games are just trying to look nicer without thinking in other directions regarding game play. This is slightly overstated I know, but just follow me here.

A full movie crew only come together when a project is up and running, the funding in place and the logistics worked out, they work together and disperse afterwards towards other projects. Movie making is a very collaborative process and a studio might have the same director and producer working closely together, and often, job functions such as the camera man are ‘re-used’ because good chemistry between the camera man and the director is imperative for a well made movie. But this often goes for the editor and other functions as well and even though some of the same people are working on consecutive movies, people are used to work here and there, trying out new things in between jobs for, say, the same studio or director. This gives the work force new insights and fresh ideas gained from diverse experiences.

What if, game development were like movie development? What if all the directors, the producers and the work force - which have highly specialised job functions, just like in the movies, were free agents, coming together for the game at hand and moving apart afterwards? Just think about it for a while. You wouldn’t get ’stuck in the same rut’, i.e. working at the same development company, doing (almost) the same games over and over again, or at least depending upon the top brass to deliver new, exciting ideas. People from different backgrounds and nations could come together and extensively work towards a certain goal, not defined by obligation to their daytime job, but from a curiosity and excitement for the game idea itself.

I know that the whole logistic system behind creating, funding and distributing games would have to change, but - in my limited knowledge - probably not that gravely. And perhaps this in turn could generate new and fresh ideas. You might even in the future see specialised companies in the movie business doing some work for games and vice versa. Now, I know that the two worlds can’t be completely united - we’re dealing with two different media - but they might inspire each other. A lot of theories exist in regard to what games really are (according to my girlfriend who are studying games), but I see the storytelling (as in movies: ‘Scene 54: We see the protagonist shoot the monster…’) or the story in the making (as in games: “Look ma! I just shot that monster!”) and some of the development aspects as a common denominator and therefore they might be able to use bits and pieces from each other here and there and then come up with something greater that the ‘usual suspects’.

No matter what, I believe that free agents, as in the case with the movie industry, could give a much needed creative injection in the world of game creation. I might be wrong, but it could be fun to try out.

On this day...

... in 2003: Art & Beauty