14 DAY TRIAL // Ken Levine, the creative director working at Irrational Games and the creator of Bioshock and System Shock 2, has declared that the video game industry needs to limit the level of its infatuation with the Hollywood system and with movie directors coming in to work on games.
Talking to the Develop magazine he stated, “I was offered the chance to make a game with a film director. A very talented film director. They really liked what I was doing and wanted to share it - that this project with creative leads from both game and film - was going to be amazing. My feeling is, why?”
He added, “Why would any game designer want to do that? What's the point of having two creative leads together, and why would I want a film director to help me make a game, any more than they would want me to help out with their films?”
The marriage between video games and movies has largely been an unsuccessful one, with most films based on intellectual property coming from developer bombing at the box office and titles created with movie directors in the lead failing to capture the minds of gamers.
It seems that Levine's reaction is linked with his efforts, earlier in his life, to become a script writer in Hollywood and to his perception that game industry people seem to feel a bit inferior to those who work in the movie industry.
Recently Guillermo del Toro, the director of Pan's Labyrinth and the man putting together the new Hobbit movies, has announced that he is working with THQ on a new title, based on Lovecraft horror.
The movie director could not offer any clear details on the genre of the game project or on when it is expected to come out but he said that the publisher would be offering an official announcement in the coming days, which has not happened.