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news
news
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US AND THE GAME INDUSTRY, the documentary, prepares for release.
JOURNEY, by thatgamecompany, scooped five major awards at the BAFTAS on the evening of March 5th, 2013 in London.
The awards were for: Innovation, Artistic Achievement, Best Design, and Best Online-multiplayer game, with Austin Wintory for Original music and Steve Johnson, Austin Wintory, Keith Leary Audio Achievement.
This game is a breakthrough example of design for networked play for two. Enjoyment is made possible due to concept and design and the item’s extensive development prior to publication. The goal for the thirteen-person team was to bring up emotion as a principle experience outcome. The game design clears out to a wide open landscape of sand to do so.
Jenova Chen, creative director, considered that it was possible and necessary to foster networked play inside a cooperative model. This design call was a challenge and the delivery an accomplished achievement. The rigor with which the team applied game theory to build is inspirational. Game development moments are discussed in the film. Much of the rationale for custom-made tooling is shared in this documentary too. The thatgamecompany worked until they had a wholly compelling play world. The build process extended to three years. The game delivered first to the PSN in March 2012. Through ways with listening and communicating, the poetics of setting, the theme and structure and the scale of art design matched with original musical score and soundscape, the game became a critical and popular success.
A number of developers carry us along with ideas in this film. Jason Rohrer, Alexander Bruce, Douglas Wilson and Zach Gage speak to their own games and contribute to development dialogues on games and wider contexts.
The film is due for release in May 2013. It runs 100 minutes. It shall be available on DVD, Blu-Ray, download and theatrically.
Documentary unit pre-orders are available now. Please fill out the form supplied.A preview screening is arranged in San Francisco during the GDC timeframe. Interested parties may get in touch concerning a seat.
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the film
the film
- To new histories of games, the film is a salute piece. The developers in this film have built games deliverable to Network, PC Windows, MacOS X and IOS. Each developer works his/her own fit. In a lifetime some will stay working solo or in small teams. Others may work in large teams.
Jason Rohrer, an active thinker about genres of game design has been a programmer and sole developer of short games for more than four years. He is to reveal his next game, THE CASTLE DOCTRINE in the film.
thatgamecompany’s latest completed product, JOURNEY, was an adventure game held to the form of a mono myth. It became the largest PS3 game download of all time. It was the first multi-layer game from a company now making further progressions with on-line material. Then producer, Robin Hunicke, Austin Wintory, composer for JOURNEY, creative director, Jenova Chen and engineers of the JOURNEY feature significantly during the film in process discussions over 2009-2011.
Douglas Wilson (Die Gute Fabrik), describes himself as embracing ‘big tent’ philosophies about games developments. He is producing a swamp opera this year titled MUTAZIONE.
Zach Gage (SpellTower) is a concept artist and a relative newcomer to games design. SpellTower is an award winning IOS game. Gage is known for minimal, systemic beauty in games design.
Alexander Bruce (Demruth) worked five years on one adventure experience for the mind, Antichamber. It uses non- ecludiean geometry. Bruce describes it as a psychological game to “mess with your head”. It gained regular press and was test played hundreds of times during it’s evolution in it’s commercial build from 2010 to before it’s late 2012 release.
The film is due in 2013.
- To new histories of games, the film is a salute piece. The developers in this film have built games deliverable to Network, PC Windows, MacOS X and IOS. Each developer works his/her own fit. In a lifetime some will stay working solo or in small teams. Others may work in large teams.
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the developers
the developers
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the filmmakers
the filmmakers
Stephanie Beth
In 2009 Stephanie founded Common Dreams LTC. Over some decades of involvement with documentary production and teaching with and about media, she has sustained an ethnographic interest in the human condition in the modern and then contemporary world.
Filmography
I Want to be Joan (1977)
The film was born as a commissioned work out of a United Womens' Convention. "The organizing committee asked me to make something of the conference, take free reign to "find a topic and choose an approach." 1977 was a catalytic, informative and energetic time for debate and experience for women in public spaces. 1977 was an ideological time for feminist thought."
IN JOY (1980)
A film on patterns of play, improvisation and performance devised as a workshop for women who had experienced domestic violence. It screened at NFT, London and at Universities in New Zealand and the USA and was exhibited at the 27th Oberhausen Documentary Film Festival.
HULOO (2008) (co-producer)
Robin Greenberg's film about a T'ai Chi master from China who was employed in the New Zealand fisheries from 1967, and who was part of a crew who sailed an old Chinese junk from Taiwan to San Francisco in 1955 without sailing experience. Greenberg's sequel film is called "The Free China Junk" (2010).Clay Westervelt
After receiving both the Bush and Kodak Awards for Excellence in Cinematography, Clay graduated with a MFA from USC's School of Cinema-Television, immediately filming pilots for every major network. He established the look of series such as Life of Luxury with Robin Leach (ABC) and Gene Simmons: Family Jewels (A&E).
Clay branched into directing with Thursday afternoon, winning additional writing and directing awards while playing on PBS, The Sundance Channel, and in film festivals internationally.
He established Martini Crew Booking as a gear and service provider for television and film productions in 2000. While at Martini, Clay filmed the Emmy-winning documentary The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
In 2003, Clay formed Imaginaut Entertainment, Inc, producing the award-winning series Storyline Online, featuring such talents as Elijah Wood, Betty White, James Earl Jones, and Al Gore.
Imaginaut releases its first feature documentary, Popatopolis, this spring, and is in post on a heartwarming doc about a pageant for young disabled girls.
Clay resides in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles with his wife and daughter, and is now in development on multiple documentaries and pilots while writing two feature screenplays.
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press
press
- Sebastian Moss, Playstationlifesyle, spoke with Stephanie Beth (Director) last month. Though we have since passed into kickstarter nirvana, there is a bit of chat here you may still enjoy that gives some of the film's back history. Cheers.
Read the first part of the interview here: PlayStation LifeStyle, 16 March 2012
Click here to read the second part. - "We chat to Stephanie Beth, the filmmaker behind Us and The Game Industry, a new feature-length documentary profiling indie talent."
Read the full article here: GameSpot.com, 20 March 2012 - "Set for release this winter, the documentary film Us and the Game Industry promises to explore the motivations of indie developers like thatgamecompany. Filmmaker Stephanie Beth tells us what she learned from a new era of rebellious entertainment."
Read the full article here: The Guardian, 12 March 2012
Read the Spanish Translation here
Kickstarting a Journey: "Us and the Game Industry", An Indie Film About Indie Development
Us and The Game Industry: A New Indie Game Film
Us and the Game Industry – how indie games are the new counter-culture
- Sebastian Moss, Playstationlifesyle, spoke with Stephanie Beth (Director) last month. Though we have since passed into kickstarter nirvana, there is a bit of chat here you may still enjoy that gives some of the film's back history. Cheers.
