Trends: Player as Director
We have seen some impressive leaps in innovation such as the Nemesis System and the release of UE5 which are all important for us to understand in order to craft strategies for this fast-changing industry. We have also seen disruption within the movie industry and now many analysts are predicting that the streaming wars will eventually push companies to look into subscription-based gaming models to find growth. But when does a movie become a game and a game become a movie?
But the idea of interactive stories and movies is not a new one. The idea has been around for decades. but as apps such as Netflix become more sophisticated the line between what’s interactive and what is a viewing experience becomes blurred. But instead of pausing and rewinding a movie, what if could change the actors, or direct them to play a different way.
Game Engines in movies
Game Engines like Unreal Engine 5 is become stable of the film and TV industry because of their low cost and real-time capabilities. This also opens up new possibilities as we have seen with Star Wars using the likeness of actors from when they were younger or even actors who have passed away. This further blends the space between games and movies. The same game engines that help create movies also have the capability to allow players to interact within that movie like a game.
Movie mods
This could also open up a space for modes. In the same way game can be modded for unique experiences. Maybe movies within game engines could lead to something similar.
Imagine being able to choose which actor you wanted to star in your favourite movie. Or choose customers like in video games or dialogue like in games. Or even having lightsabers instead of swords.
Combining this with voice commands with Siri on Apple TV or Alexa would be an awesome experience. Imagine saying to your Apple TV “Hey Siri, play John Wick, with Lightsabers starring Tom Cruise this time” and it’s updated in real-time with some alternative endings and branching stories.
You could then think of a movie as a raw file that could be remixed live. I am sure this would lead to new forms of content creators who could create and sell their versions of movies. Similar to how there is Zack Snyder's Justice League director's cut. You could have your own cut.
This kinda idea is now as far away as you might think.
AI Lipsync
A London tech startup, called ‘Flawless’, has built an AI that can seamlessly superimpose an actor’s lip movements and facial muscles to go in sync with translations.
https://nerdist.com/article/ai-syncs-lips-dubbed-films/
The Quarry’s Director Mode
If there is one game developer who knows the popularity of well-told terrifying tales, it would be Supermassive Games. If you are one of the million big fans of the company, you have probably played the Dark Pictures and Until Dawn to the point that you have to shout your way through them.
This new video game was developed to provide players with unique gameplay options more so than your typical narrative game with branching paths. You can watch The Quarry like a movie or play it as a game. Director Mode gives you the ability to control the actors with some advanced instructions on how they would react to the various situations they might be in. As if that was not enough they even incorporated a deep multiplayer mode into this experience.
To blur the lines even more there is an actual movie called The Quarry (2022). The Quarry movie was inspired by its game version. And as you would guess, the game version is very similar to other games developed by Supermassive Games, including The Dark Pictures, Until Dawn, Quantic Dream, and Telltale games.
And since the company wanted to let their fans enjoy The Quarry, they created a feature in which you can disable some features that seem threatening or uninteresting to you. For example, if you don't want to see QTEs but want to enjoy the entire game, you can simply disable them.
Director Mode: Options
Aside from QTEs and dialogue options, Supermassive Games also includes a vital gameplay mechanism in The Quarry that will let you turn on and off every game feature. From dialogue interactions to evidence and clues collection to actual combat, you can enable or disable them or design them to be automatic or interactive which works helps make the games approachability and accessible. The Quarry blurs the lines, between game, movie, and interactive multiplier story generator.
Conclusion
The Supermassive Games have shown that you can move beyond dialogue by using AI and dynamic options that put players into not just the character’s POV but the director as well. As technologies converge I have no doubts that we will see some innovative game design and storytelling.