Just a silly little daydream I had today, while cleaning my hard drive of junk.
What if I were some a game producer and I could get various people to make a game with me.
Well, it’s never as simple as picking your favourite people from various diciplines. TBB, the PR guy working with Leon Brinkmann once told me that you shouldn’t get “the best people, but the right people” and it’s a great quote, although you could agrue with the semantics, the point is clear.
Making a team work as a whole is not just a case of putting people together. They must compliment each other in various ways.
Anyway, putting the logistics and reality aside, I though i would tell you who I would like to work with me to make a game.
My first choice would probably be Alastair Reynolds, partly because I have read every novel he has written and I love them all and partly because Diamond Dogs could make a stunning game or mod. In fact, I asked him about it last year and he said “The truth is, I just don’t have any interest in gaming.”, which is a shame. Of course, if he were approached by a well-known game developer he may be convinced.
Anyway, who would you choose to write a story for a game? DO NOT choose a story that you would like MADE into a game.
We all tend to like a variety of music, but some music is just not suitable for games. For me, anything with words is OUT straight away. I think I would find it hard to lsiten to punk or country and western while playing, but if it fits the mood of the game, they let’s try it!
I am a fan of Trip Hop and feel it would make a neat transition into game music. I would love to have Vangelis and Massive Attack collaborate on the music and sound design. Haunting melodies from Vangelis would slip nicely between the action and be perfect for exploring etc with deep base and drum sections for the actions – perfect.
I really love Bailey’s work for Valve and actually listen to it in the car. I hope he has finished work of HL3 before he left!
don’t you agree that music is under-appreciated in mods? More modders should find the time to get composers involved to create something new and fresh.
Who would you choose to create the music?
This is a tough one. Mostly because I want completely unknown voice actors as I feel that knowing a “voice” spoils the mod. Yes, I see the irony, since I have a very well-known voice in the HL2 community, but that’s just my preference.
If I had to pick some know voice actors, I may try and get Patrick Stewart to work on a deeper and more serious character. I am disappointed he worked on American Dad, because that “weakens” his persona in my humble opinion.
I couldn’t even begin to think of female voices. Can you?
WOW, if voice actors was hard, this is impossible. I did have somebody in mid, but I can’t find his work or name again, so that’s a tease. Giger has been “done”, so he is out.
There are some incredible artists out there and a quick search on the Internet brings up some amazing work. I do like Daniel Dociu and Stephan Martiniere but I am sure there are potentially hundreds of artists that would be suitable.
Or maybe I would just have a really good look through Deviant Art because that site has some incredible artists of all fields.
Thumbnail image courtesy of Alex Tooth. It’s called SS-Gaea
Do you have a favourite concept artists?
(On a side note, while searching for images, I found this great site called ConceptShips, which, if you are into spaceships, will float your boat.
There are plenty of others involved in making a game, but the above departments are the more visible or obvious for selecting people.
If you feel I have missed a department, please mention it in a comment, along with your selected personnel.
In all honesty, and not to be conceited or self-centered, I’d write the story for a game if given the choice of who to choose. Largely because I enjoy writing and consider myself fairly good at it. It’d be fascinating to write something as interactive as a game: not only do you have to write the main scripted parts, but also the lines that NPCs say when you interact with them. As seen in Half-Life 2, there’s a lot of fun to be had there.
My favourite band is Radiohead, and if I could assemble an ensemble of musicians to produce the ultimate game soundtrack, it would definitely include them, along with others. Their ambient stuff is very moving. Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), Burial, The xx, Aphex Twin; the list goes on. I think that a lot of the electronic musicians I like would be awesome.
With concept art, it’s really hard to pick out any particular artists. Partly because I enjoy abstract and non-realistic art, which doesn’t work so well at portraying a world in a copiable form.
Voice acting is one of those things where you find the right person without knowing much about them before hand. Take Richard Lord, who acted Wheatley before Stephen Merchant (I think). No one knew he’d be a hit.
What about the engine? John Carmack or Tim Sweeney? 🙂
I considered the engine but decided that the decision would be too far removed from the actual person and since this piece was about people, I didn’t list it.
I’ll disregard your comment of saying which story should be made into a mod and shout out how I’d wish to have Dark Side of the Moon be made into one! :3
The album by Pink Floyd? Tell me more.
The Wizard of Oz: Source
(Apparently the album “Dark Side of the Moon” syncs up very well with the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. Have not tried it yet but would love to.)
I think the point of Patrick Stewart’s character in American Dad is to portray a parody of himself, if not a direct nega-Patrick. But he would be the most epic voice actor for a HL2 mod, EVER. Gordon Freeman’s first words in-game: “ENGAGE.” Or the replacement for Dr. Breen’s voice actor…Breen as Advisor: “You will be assimilated into our Combine. RESISTANCE…IS…FUTILE!!!”
Either him or Robin Williams, who has confessed to being a huge fan of the Half-Life series. I picture him playing as a mad scientist who tried to re-animate headcrab zombies when he learned that the human hosts were still semi-sentient.
I see what you are saying about Stewart, but whatever the reason, I still feel the way I do.
Yes, RW might make a crazy scientist.
Patrick Stewart has a pleasant and strong voice and I believe he has done games before. Though his voice is very recognizable.
As for Robin Williams; he’s done a lot of whacky, but he does have a lot more range than the joking he is know for.
One Hour Photo, anybody????
Stewart’s apperance in American Dad is a lot like Adam West’s appearance in Family Guy. It’s a self-parody. I think anyone who has played an iconic TV or movie character faces the same problems of being typecast and one way around it is to accept roles that deliberately send-up these famous parts.
Not that Stewart has anything to be ashamed of. That opening monologue at the start of TNG still sends chills down my spine.
Phillip, I challenge you to make a moe 3D game if westerners are even capable of making one. 😀 It would be interesting to see some moe-source games to play. :3
I am afraid I must refuse your challenge. I am more interested in making a Black Mesa themed HL1 mod. For those interested, here is the definition of Moe on Wikipedia.
A game called “Neptunia: Hyper Dimension” for the PS3 kinda hit my mind and I got the idea if developers will ever make Source/GoldScr mods based on Anime/Manga.
I know I know, I mentioned how this “Neptunia” game was over sexualized (a month ago if I recall), but I now change my mind. What really maters is the story, and besides, all that over sexualized thing is pretty normal in the anime/manga industry.
Mainstream game reviewers like Gamespot rated that game bad (3/10 D:). Well, I guess that’s what you expect from westerners who’s gotten used to American based games as apposed to sexy-loli-manga-based JRPG games. I may sound rascist, but its as if those game reviewers never played JRPG games in the past, and that that game was their first JRPG game that they ever played.
The point is, I just felt like if there was a well made mod that was based on anime/manga as apposed to the Half-life universe, it could change the way developers make games/mods on the Source/GoldScr engine. You know what I mean? It’s an interesting concept. 🙂
Perhaps you could make a contest and see who can make a good anime/manga based mod. 🙂 That would be an interesting twist. Besides, Half-life is quite popular in Japan. Heck, they even made a Half-life arcade machine (shortened version of HL2).
I have to admit that I haven’t really done any day dreaming about “working with David Lynch” or anything, and if I would HAVE TO pick really famous people I wouldn’t know who to pick. That’s not to say I don’t day dream about working with certain gaming companies.
The people I would like to work with the most are just other people from the modding community and internet communities. There’s a lot of good video makers out there, for example, with fantastic voice acting and or writing, and if I felt the project I was working could be something they could be interested on, I would try to contact them.
From the Source modding community there’s people like Robert Yang that I hope I could get interested to join our team. And even though Matt Bortolino did some work on Water, he hasn’t been around nearly as much as I would have hoped. Henri (aka Leon_Kilean) is fantastic to work with, and always cracks me up, so even though I can probably say good bye to the idea of making a “serious mod” I hope that I will be working with him more.
There’s some other bigger mod teams out there, too, that I admire and that have such a great quality, but they are usually already set to do their own thing.
David Cage or Erik Wolpaw would be the writer I want, I suck at writing stories.
People I would like to work with in the modding community would probably be Leon_kilean and the_Simian. They are both great guys and a lot of fun to do stuff with. And Robert Yang is just awesome, but I don’t think he will ever want to work in a team.