HEXUS.gaming talks to Velvetelvis Studios
The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival sees key games industry figures gather together to share ideas, do some networking and generally have a good gossip about how to further expand the boundaries of this thing we call ‘gaming’. HEXUS.gaming is once again providing providing coverage of the festival which, just like last year, gives us the chance to talk to key players behind the scenes.
One of the most hotly anticipated conferences is ‘When Alice Met Elvis’ a talk by Velevtelvis Studios on the fusion between games and other media, be they books, the web or films. The 'When Alice Met Elvis' session will include a talk from Kate Pullinger, who will unveil the World Premiere of her Inanimate Alice series as detailed in this EIEF 2006 Press Release.
If proof were ever needed of HEXUS.gaming’s commitment to bringing you the key info, we hooked up with Velvetelvis Studios, no mean feat given they’re in California and we’re in sunny England. So, given the time difference, it was really late for us and pretty early for them when we had a chat with Rosanna Sun and John ‘DJ’ DesJardin to talk about what Velvetelvis does, has done and will be doing…[advert]
HEXUS.gaming: So Rosanna, DJ, give all us ignorant gamers an insight into what it is Velvetelvis actually does…
Rosanna: I guess that the easiest way to put it is that we make the gaps between different media smaller. On many of our projects, we liaise with all the people involved in a project, coordinating all of their individual efforts into a creative final product.
DJ: Yeah, by acting as a creative hub, we ensure that the integrity of the content doesn't get diluted between different mediums.
HEXUS.gaming: So you just take the information and pass it on?
DJ: No, it’s a lot more than that. We use our relationships from our film experience -- visual effects groups, previs artists, physical production people -- along with our growing relationships in the game industry -- developers, publishers, unique interactive R&D groups -- to put together more cohesive entertainment.
HEXUS.gaming: So it’s a two way street thing?
Rosanna: Absolutely. Everyone at Velvetelvis has been involved in entertainment media for a while and we’ve found, from our own personal experience that what some guys have as an idea just won’t work within the constraints of another medium, so our job is to make what they want to happen into a reality within the framework of the medium.
HEXUS.gaming: Looking at your bios on the website, I see that Rosanna was involved in the Enter the Matrix game. I have to be honest and say that there were things about that game I really liked but there was a lot that, well, shall we say it was er, a bit poor…
Rosanna: Fair enough, I guess...
HEXUS.gaming: But anyway, Rosanna, you were involved in the Enter The Matrix game, which focused on events between the first and second Matrix films, yeah?
Rosanna: Yes, that right. The game itself had a mini-storyline, based on what was going on at the start of the second film and on events the characters mention in the film. The idea was to do a game that served the same function as the Animatrix cartoons, to flesh out the Matrix back-story and universe.
HEXUS.gaming: Well that was what I actually liked about the game. It was the fact the plotline was tied in with what was going on in the films and, to get a complete Matrix experience, you played the game.
Rosanna: That’s right. So when a character goes off to do something in the film, you take on that role and play that part of the game. This actually gave us a lot on freedom in what we could do without us having to work too hard on plot devices to expand the gameplay. We could go off and do an action driving sequence and then touch back on the film for a reference point before taking the gamer off on another action sequence.
HEXUS.gaming: Yep, that worked very well, with the missions based around sequences in the film rather than based onwhole sections of the film. The thing is, and I’m sorry to say this, but the actual game executionwas what let it all down… Despite how cool the idea was to have the game play almost like a Matrix/Matrix Reloaded sub-story, the game played like a bit of a pig, really… sorry.
Rosanna: Well, let’s just say that we learnt a lot making Enter The Matrix. Sure, we had some issues which can be put down to time constraints and various other factors, but I think overall we produced something pretty unique and at the same time we started to open up the whole concept of how different media can be linked together to create something bigger than the individual parts.