Atari is going to attempt what Microsoft is doing with Halo with their new game Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. It’s a game based in the future of graffitti artists in the street…that would be Jet Set Radio…Couple of worrying points here…
1. The idea has been done in a real cool way, JSR.
2. A game of graffitti artists in the future compared to the two game, plot rich, worldwide bought games of Halo.
3. Game company Atari compared to the cross business marketing giant of Microsoft.
Mmm…I’m not so sure it’s such a good move for Atari, especially with this game idea. From Moviehole:
“The trick here is to wrap our heads around the fact that games are more like novels than films, and in this case, a graphic novel,” says [Marc] Ecko, who is a producer of the movie.
No Ecko, sorry that’s not the trick. The trick is to develop a good movie from a game idea, that’s what you’re doing, making a movie. The audience aren’t going to care a bum about wrapping their head around the game idea, and you shouldn’t either – you’re making a movie!
Here’s what to do.
1. Take the plot of the game and write it down, including any nice story twists.
2. Take that away to a very good script writer and ask them to write a script based around that plot, highlighting any non-changeable items – those would be items that will make the connection to the game for SOME of the audience, i.e. Titles of places, names of characters, perhaps a few SMALL parts of the plot, that’s it.
3. When reviewing the written script DO NOT compare it to the videogame, see if it works AS A MOVIE!
4. Pass it to a creative team of movie making people and ask them to make it AS A MOVIE with the videogame people as consultants, not as overseers with the final word on development. (Saying that I believe this will work with Halo as MS are business people first before gamers and are a huge marketing machine, they know how to sell to people)
5. DO NOT engineer sections of the movie specifically to allow the minority of audience members who have played the game some emotional connection with that game. Appeal to the mass of your audience, cinemagoers who like good movies.
6. DO NOT market the movie based on the videogame.
There…I have to calm down now, the pills are wearing off…
