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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

Compared with the starry film and television industry, the cross-border people in the game industry are much more low-key.

More than 100 years ago, when the film industry was just born, everyone was versatile. Actors were not only directors, but also writers, producers, and even photographers, just like an independent game developer. Later, the film became more and more complex, and the Hollywood industrial assembly line led to a more sophisticated division of production, so, to a large extent, the actor was the actor and the director was the director.

Of course, there are many actors who are not content to be stars on screen but also want to make movies themselves. Charlie Chaplin is an example, followed by Buster Keaton, Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, the third Man), Clint Eastwood (Clint Eastwood). The masterpiece "darter" trilogy, "unforgivable", and so on.

Is there an example of this in the game industry? Today, the revenue scale of the global game industry is larger than that of the film and music industries combined, and the narrative means of games are becoming more and more complex. do any of the actors who are well-known in the game world want to make their own games and tell their own stories?

There is. Dutch actress Stephanie Joosten (Stefanie Joosten), who plays the female sniper Quiet in Alloy equipment 5: phantom pain, plays a role and animates the game in the action game Wanted: Dead. Abubakar Salim, the voice actress of Bayek, the protagonist of the Assassin's Creed: the Origin, founded the independent studio Silver Rain Games, and an unreleased game will be released by EA. Cece Jones, who plays Delilah in the walking simulation game Fire Man, won the best actor award at the 2017 BAFTA Game Awards, and later co-founded the production company Temporary Legend with friends and plans to dabble in game development.

As actors cross the border into the gaming industry, things are quietly changing.

Joosten is famous for his role as Quiet. In addition to dubbing game characters, he is also involved in making games for TV skits. Unlike his peers, Japanese-American actor Masi Oka has accumulated a wealth of experience in the gaming industry. Okayama, a 50-year-old veteran actor, won Golden Globes and Emmy nominations for best supporting actor in 2007 for his role in the TV series Super Heroes. But before that, he worked for Industrial Light and Magic, a visual effects company, and worked behind the scenes for the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

In a sense, given his technical background and knowledge of Japanese culture, it is not surprising to enter the game industry. In 2013, Okashi founded an independent studio, Mobius Digital. By far, the studio's most famous work is Outer Wilds, a science fiction adventure game with a time cycle theme. Mr. Oka said he decided to enter the gaming industry because of a setback in Hollywood. He had planned to produce live-action films based on IP in Japan, but he never got the chance.

Oka Zhengwei co-produced the Netflix film death Note. "it sometimes takes two years to make a TV series, and some films have a production cycle of five to 10 years." "at that time, people were keen to develop mobile games, and the speed was very fast," Gang Zhengwei explained. "I think that's the fun of developing games. Many projects can be completed quickly, not as time-consuming, laborious or even stagnant as in Hollywood."

As it turns out, the game development cycle can also be quite long. Although Mobius Digital initially focused on creating mobile games that can be released quickly, Okayashi admitted that all the products produced by the studio had failed. " We don't understand marketing, and we don't know how to bring games to market. We hope that players will recommend these games to their friends, or that my personal influence can help, but this is far from enough. In addition, my designers are more inclined to make stand-alone games and have little interest in hand games. "

During an open day at the University of Southern California, Okayama saw the Star Frontier, when it was a thesis project for Alex Beecham, an interactive media major, and several collaborators. Although it is still in its infancy, Okaoka Zhengwei believes that "Star Pioneer" has commercial potential, so he brought the entire team of the project to the studio. With the help of its publishers, Star Pioneer was officially released about four years later. "after being honed patiently by the team, the quality of the game has risen to a level that no one expected."

Although Mr. Oka has a technical background, he made it clear that he has never been involved in specific development work such as programming. During the development of "Star Pioneer," he has been busy filming the TV series "Hawaii Five-O" (also known as "Hawaiian Secret Service"). "I was filming in Hawaii and had no time to calm down. I provide money and personnel for game development, and my main job is to create a safe working environment and to make important decisions to move the project forward if necessary."

Betting on "Star Frontier" is probably one of the right things Mobius Digital has ever done. British actor Abubakar Salim, 30, is the voice of Bayek, the protagonist of "Assassin's Creed: the Origin" and the founder and CEO of independent studio Silver Rain. Salim knows almost nothing about programming, and he always adheres to the principle of letting professionals do professional things.

"at Silver Rain, I am mainly responsible for business." "although I have no business background, I have learned a lot, read a lot of books and like to ask questions," Salim said. I also have an in-depth understanding of the work of other colleagues to bring together professionals from different fields and encourage them to communicate with each other. "

Salim is a game enthusiast. From Heart of the Kingdom to World of Warcraft, video games make Salim fall in love with storytelling. Since he was a child with dyslexia, reading is a laborious task for him, and he is reluctant to communicate with white actors in TV dramas. But even with these difficulties, as a teenager, Salim successfully passed the audition and entered the National Youth Theater to study acting. For a long time, he didn't realize that he could make a living by making games. "acting is a clearer career path, and compared with the game industry, I know better how to enter the film and TV industry."

After the 2017 "Assassin's Creed: Origin," Salim also dubbed games such as World of Warcraft: the Battle of Azeroth, Diablo: immortal, and Excalibur 3, but fate was so dramatic that Salim soon got the chance to play a role in Assassin's Creed: Origin, opening the door to the gaming industry. " I started asking developers, 'what's it like to make games?' The answers I get from everyone are completely different, but I can still sum up some experiences that I can use for myself. "

"when I was working for Ubisoft in Montreal, once there was no filming or dubbing work, I would wander around the studio to find out what the developers were doing. I even did some QA work! for me, these things can help me understand game development."

Let your voice be heard, of course, not all actors, like Salim, have the opportunity to go into the game studio and talk to developers. In many cases, dubbing actors don't even know which game they are singing for, and recording is often done by outsourced companies.

From this point of view, Dutch actress Stephanie Joosten is very lucky. "when I was living in Japan, I joined a drama company and spent six months involved in a big production. After that, I also participated in several other projects, learned a lot from it, and was happy to work behind the scenes in game development."

During her three years as the female sniper Quiet for Alloy equipment 5: phantom pain, Joosten was able to communicate directly with Hideo Oshima with fluent Japanese, thus gaining a deeper understanding of Quiet's background, relationship with other characters, and behavioral motivation-insights and experiences that were invaluable when she became interested in making games herself.

Joosten is doing facial capture for Quiet. Joosten said 110Industries, the publisher of the action game Wanted: Dead, is willing to take risks and do something unconventional. She joined the project as an actress and was later appointed as an animation director. "in the gaming industry, I have been engaged in motion capture and dubbing for many years. These experiences have given me confidence that I have the ability to make a greater contribution to game production, so we naturally turned to another level of cooperation."

In Wanted: Dead, Joosten is free to portray her role-Vivienne, the gunsmith who is close to the protagonist. But she also admits that the distance between actors and developers may make it difficult for many peers to get such opportunities. " Most actors may find the game industry a little strange and often puzzling. During filming, actors often spend time with the staff, so it is easier to get in touch with each other. By contrast, the scale of the game project is very large, the workplace is often very scattered, and actors do not have easy access to developers. "

Joosten can't talk about her next project, a mecha game called Vengeance is Mine. However, she obviously has a lot of in-depth understanding of the game industry. "in the game industry, people do not require the specific background of developers. In fact, the background of game developers is often very diverse. Many times, people decide to get together to make games because they are passionate about the cause."

Joosten dubbed Vivian in Wanted: Dead, and the game was released earlier this year. Salim pointed out that actors do not usually enter the game industry in pursuit of personal fame. " Some people participate in it in order to gain the worship of more fans. But I think this idea will lead to the fact that the content they produce is not good enough. At Silver Rain, I prefer the team to make a game that I want to play but have never seen before. It's also a team-building process, and we're creating games together, right? Although Silver Rain is my company, as a team, our goal is to make something that everyone is interested in, not just because I like it. "

Meanwhile, actress Cece Jones and game producer Carmen Askenis co-founded Temporary Legend to tell her story, rather than waiting for her to be invited to a performance project. "We all want to be the masters of our own destiny." She said.

Call of the Sea, the game starring Jones, currently publishes weekly interview videos on social media, but the production company has other plans. Jones says starting a business provides her with a sense of stability that odd jobs can't get. "when I joined the industry 10 years ago, I probably took an average of 150 auditions to get a chance to sign a contract. So I spent most of my time in an isolation room, talking to the wall alone, hoping that someone would be willing to sign me." She is no doubt more satisfied with her present state. "if the partner offers me a good salary so that I can repay the loan, so much the better."

Compared with the starry film and television industry, the cross-boundary people in the game industry keep a much lower profile. Most of them are marginal figures in the film and television industry, dubbing game characters and participating in motion capture. They are not as star-studded as screen actors, but they are also curious and enterprising.

This article is compiled from: https://whynowgaming.com/heroes-to-outer-wilds-when-actors-become-game-developers/

Original title: "Heroes to Outer Wilds: when actors become game developers"

Original author: Alan Wen

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