Michael Steffen

Interactive Animation Final Project

Here are some preview images from my interactive animation final project, entitled "The Room of Understanding." It's basically an interactive walkthrough of a dream I had, implemented on DVD with a Myst-style interface.

The Much-Celebrated Game Industry

"But you can't undermine what you don't understand."
from the song What's That You Say? , by Sprung Monkey

Ah the game industry! What was once a garage movement where anyone with a computer & a little bit of talent could create a game has become a great corporate behemoth where millions of dollars are spent on a single title. For years, I have desired to make a game, and at one point I was just like everyone else who was calculating how much of their souls to sell to attract the attention of game industry execs. But the more I learn about "the industry," the more aversion I find I have to it.

First, let me acknowledge that there are a great many good things about the game industry. For one, digital gamemaking is now a serious business which will no doubt have a place in our culture for all time to come. The high profile that the industry now enjoys means that better and better talent is being recruited (artistically, technologically, design-wise).So what's not to like about the game industry? Plenty. First off is the pidgeon-holing that comes when any industry becomes large. Enough people have asked me "well, do you want to be an artist or a programmer?" To which I've responded, "I want to be a storyteller." Though since this drive toward specialization is prevalent in any large industry, I really can't blame the industry for this. But in this day and age, when large publishers like EA and Ubisoft are eating up the smaller developers, the industry bears a striking similarity to the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s & 40s. Games=money, so they must be produced in mass quantities and must appeal to proven demographics. As with the studio system, much of this is related to technology. Having state-of-the-art game engine code is expensive, and 3D art is no less cheap. In order for independant developers to re-emerge as a force, as independent filmmakers did beginning in the 50s & 60s, we need to usher in the "home-video era" of gamemaking, where top-notch game technology is affordable to all. Now this already exists to an extent in the modding community, however mods are closely tied to their original games, and the game developers tend to reserve all rights to the mods.

But I digress. The other factor is the decline of the adventure game genre--the very genre that got me into games in the first place. These include games such as Myst, The Journeyman Project, and The Longest Journey. Now this decline is understandable for many reasons, and again I can't blame the game industry for it--it all comes down to numbers. Financial success for games in this genre has diminished since their heyday in the early 90s. But I'm really put off by the (perceived) arrogance of industry people like John Carmack, who seem
to think that story & character have little place in interactive entertainment.

Which brings me back to the quote at the top of this entry. Ultimately I'd like to revive the adventure game genre, or create a new genre entirely--one that caters to a larger & less-tapped market of people: the casual gamer & the non-gamer. So yes, I'd like to undermine the game industry's confidence in the status quo. But as I start to delve deeper and deeper into my research on this genre & the game industry as a whole, I am realizing more and more that I can only accomplish my goals through a thorough understanding of why things are the way they are now. Ultimately, I wouldn't mind working for a game company if they shared my views, but I am no longer shooting for a job in "the industry," where I am asked to change my tactics to become more attractive to them.

Telltale Space: Desk and Chair

Finally got started on the modeling for this project (see previous entry for a rundown--only now I'm doing it for Peggy's class!) Here's a rendering: