What's in a game?

Over the past decade – and in direct proportion to the rise of internet use – the video game industry has emerged as a prime mover and shaker in the field of popular culture , easily toppling at times even established titans such as film (not to mention books).

But while first-person-shooter Gears of War 3 was released last week to staggering financial success (the military-themed game franchise is said to have grossed $1 billion so far), video game expert Gordon Calleja believes that the real innovation comes from the underground, and that we would be fools not to listen.

“When it comes to changes in the gaming landscape we see a shocking lack of variety in the gameplay offered by big budget console game titles. The established genres and franchises keep pumping out clones that differentiate themselves from their competition by minor tweaks. It’s a risk-aversive market that’s encountering challenges to its long-term survival”. 

The real innovation, according to Calleja, is coming from independent developers. “The last decade has seen the return of the garage developer: small teams or at times even individual game developers making games that challenge established design forms and push innovation in gameplay and aesthetics to new limits.”

Examples of these grassroots success stories include Markus ‘Notch’ Persson’s Minecraft – a ‘sandbox building’ game in which players are allowed to construct baroque structures within the gaming interface. There is no set objective for the game, and instead players are encouraged to indulge their creativity – although the various terrains presented to the user do contain their fair share of hostile creatures… some of which can in fact be harvested to aid the players’ constructions.

Another example is Jonathan Blow’s Braid, which at the surface appears to be traditional platform/adventure game of the Super Mario Bros. ilk, but that departs from that model in key ways: instead of playing across a liner narrative, players are given the options to ‘reverse’ their actions. Critics have described this as a ‘deconstruction’ of certain gaming conventions, which also helps players re-asses the way they experience the gaming world.

Blow’s ambition, in fact, was to critique certain gaming trends, and coupled with his DIY approach – in another off-the-beaten-track move, he commissioned web comic artist Dave Hellman to do the game’s visuals – the self-funded effort eventually resulted in the game being made available on all mainstream platforms, as well as an ‘Innovation in Game Design’ award at the 2006 edition of the Independent Games Festival.

Both Minecraft and Braid recall a more ‘primitive’ gaming experience, with either blocky – albeit 3D-enhanced – graphics (in the case of the former) or a 2D, cartoony interface reminiscent of 90s platform games such as the Mario series and Donkey Kong… a sharp contrast to the sleek, bandwidth-hungry blockbusters that snatch all the press. This puts paid to the oft-trotted idea that money is secondary to creativity.
All this points to a classic dictum relating to any creative activity: money and resources should not be a priority, nor a solution.

“Game making is all about creativity. It’s all about making the imagined manifest in simulation. You need artists and coders led by a game designer.” For this reason, Calleja is surprised that Malta has “no significant game industry to speak of”. “There are three start-ups [Rocksolid Games, AV Technologies and Mighty Box] with definite promise but no established companies making a steady income”.

Calleja, however, remains adamantly against subscribing to the view of Malta as some sort of cultural ghetto that is not creating games purely due to a lack of resources and funds.

“We’re talking brains collaborating, which Malta has as much access to as any other European country. Iceland has one company, CCP, keeping up an Massively Multiplayer Online Game called EVE online that makes over €50 million a year. It’s stunning to me that a country whose main resource is human brain-power has not yet tapped into this lucrative and socially relevant medium.” However, Calleja remains optimistic about the future.

“There is significant interest from government and educational institutions to develop the sector, and resources are currently being invested in consulting with international experts in the area to formulate a way forward in establishing the industry locally.

“Aside from this, the interest in developing the game industry in Malta is related to the larger initiative being developed for the Culture and Creative Industries, which is promising to give Malta a much needed makeover in the creative arts”.

But after the bread-and-butter hurdles related to economy and resources have been surmounted, what can we expect Maltese video games to actually look – and indeed feel – like? Calleja believes it’s too soon to say – and that given the milieu of gaming in general, banking on a ‘local hook’ might not be such a good idea after all, stating that “the games market is most definitely an international one”.

“Countries, like Italy, that have catered mostly for their own, national, markets have not developed financially or creatively. “A national game industry of any but the largest markets like the US, China or Korea cannot afford to produce games not meant for international, or at least regional, consumption.

“So it might well be that initial games from local start-ups could focus on Maltese culture in their early projects, but ultimately, if they want to survive, they’ll have to look out for what sells internationally. If a Maltese setting or a Maltese flavour to the game is appealing internationally than peppering the game with these elements can be profitable, but it is not something that is restricted to Maltese companies.

“Any game developer can take advantage of a Maltese setting, as some companies like Ubisoft have done already…” Calleja said, in reference to the fact that in 2009, Malta was chosen as the setting for Splinter Cell: Conviction – an instalment of Tom Clancy’s hugely popular stealth game series.