作者：Kris Graft

电视兼电影导演J.J. Abrams打算深入电子游戏领域，但这与创造好莱坞式游戏完全不同。Valve Software也参与了这一项目。

在今早的拉斯维加斯DICE峰会上，Abrams与Valve创始人Gabe Newell一同登台，宣布Bad Robot Productions与Valve正筹划拍摄《传送门》与《半条命》电影。并且打算联手制作游戏。

Portal(from toggle)

Gamasutra有幸就此次合作事宜，以及电视、电影与电子游戏的故事情节设置与Abrams展开交谈。Abrams敬重电子游戏及其潜能，同时他也基本了解了交互性娱乐形式。由此可见，这必然是一次硕果累累的合作。

也就是说关于Valve与Bad Robot合作尚处探索初期？

没错，我们仍在探讨有关《传送门》与《半条命》电影制作的事宜，同时还谈及了联手开发游戏的想法。

此次合作的背后动机是什么？为何你们会产生进军游戏领域的念头，并从拍摄影片着手？

显然，Valve是我所见过最具创意思想的游戏制作商。他们的作品富有幽默感与激情，游戏中的角色总是会令你捧腹大笑，发人深思。

我已经参观过他们的办公环境。我喜爱他们的文化以及思考方式。这与我们在Bad Robot的工作模式非常相似。同时，我们已进行多次会面，充分探讨多方面合作事宜。如Gabe所言，是时候采取行动，不再只是停留于口头讨论。

《传送门》与《半条命》等游戏更多的是突出Valve所创造的角色，不是吗？

没错。只要观察他们制作的所有项目，你会发现他们所做的一切都达到了一定的水平，足以获得人们的尊敬——不只角色与世界，甚至连他们的玩家也能证明这一点。

在此，我并非意指射击游戏有何不妥，Valve也擅长此类题材制作。但激发我们的创作欲望，并最终决定与他们合作的原因还是他们制作游戏的方式，那确实鼓舞人心。

你认为互动娱乐领域潜在哪些机遇？

坦白讲，我喜爱电影、电视与音乐行业，同时我也是摄影、绘画、雕塑、印刷等爱好者。我涉略其中。但并不认为自己擅长哪一方面。只是我享受制作不同事物的经历。作为玩家的我已钟爱游戏多个年头。因此我决定加入此行业，向Valve虚心求教。

其实，Bad Robot已经涉足了互动领域（游戏邦注：推出iPhone应用《Action Movie FX》）。但我认为该应用只是带领我们迈出第一步，现在我们已准备好深入探索。Bad Robot Interactive运营官Dave Baronoff引导着我们朝这一方向而发展。而且我们十分高兴有机会在此一展抱负。

在考虑进入电子游戏行业后的目标与理想成就时，你的头脑中是否形成某些战略支柱？

当然了，这与我们处理其它事物的方式一样，但它注重“你想要有何体验？”而不是“迎合他人喜好”。因此在试图想出游戏或电影理念时，应考虑到“这是个怎样的世界？这里有何推动力？需要经历怎样的风险？时间是如何发展？我应该支持什么？我希望发生什么？我害怕发生什么？”这便是最根本且最显而易见的内容。

为此，我们应解决如下基本问题——“其中缺失哪些内容？”，“还应补充哪些元素？”我不相信你能不断提出创意，不相信你能“在缺少某些内容时立刻填补”。此外，我也不清楚作家或游戏设计师是否愿意创造一些当前所存在的内容。

人类的总是想去触及任何可能的技术或可行体验的底线。

目前电子游戏领域纷争四起。不少游戏制作者认为讲故事与互动模式无法匹配。你对此有何看法？

幸好，游戏行业中存在许多警示故事——整体效果非常老派，总会突然将你带进过场动画中，感受机制的运作模式，迫使你静静地看完全程。

我认为游戏成功的关键取决于格式，是否利用了可行元素。此处并非指代我们制作的游戏以及我们所采取的行动能够便可解决该问题。

但其实我们所探讨的游戏不一定存在你所描述的这些问题——我们十分清楚哪些事情不该做，并吸取了过去的一些糟糕经历的教训。

是哪些作品让你对游戏制作产生了兴趣？

我便很喜爱Infocom的文本冒险游戏。其作品制作精良，虽然只是一个简单的解析器，但它们却具有强大的沉浸感与趣味性。我是他们游戏的铁杆粉丝。

而真正让我着迷的第一款游戏则是《Tribes》，我很喜欢它的游戏理念，玩家可以飞到各个地方，并夺取旗帜。

该作已经推出了更新版本。

我知道。而且相当出色。此外我还偏爱《古墓丽影》，并沉迷其中。多年来，我体验过的大量出色作品也是我儿子所喜欢的。

我还一直深受《Journey》的启发。这是一款充满丰富情感，并拥有华丽画面的游戏。能够带给玩家真正的游戏体验。同时，我还喜爱《Limbo》所营造的氛围。我认为它是款精品。它涵盖所有横版卷轴游戏的优势，且将情绪与氛围发挥到极限。无论是音乐，音效还是画面都让我很难脱离其中。

虽然我们也很难忽视《使命召唤》与《死亡空间》中的图像制作，但是我认为游戏的视觉效果总是在不断完善着。我们不能茫然地推断其发展趋势，也许哪一天就会出现极端逼真的效果。但这却并不重要。

也就是说，我并非着眼于图像方面。反正它必然会继续发展着。我认为游戏玩法以及玩家与角色的情感链接才是真正重要的元素。。

你所喜欢的游戏也给我带来了一定的启发。《Limbo》与《Journey》这类游戏便是利用了电子游戏的互动与情感连接优势，而不是以电影为模版去制作游戏。

没错，我常常在电影与电视节目上见到这种情况，就像人们总是会认为某一内容最好采用电影模式，而不是电视节目形式，反之亦然。但是不少电影或电视节目便是因为一开始未能采取正确的格式。

有些人认为采用歌曲形式更为明智。有些则认为诗歌或讨论模式较为恰当，。我们都看过电视、小品、电影，并且会产生“没错，我可以看到房间中的讨论场面，想必相当精彩。但画面应定格在此刻”这样的想法。

吸引我与Valve合作的其中一个元素便是其出色的审美观，我们也有能力与他们合作，并且不会将自己的想法强加在他们头上。我们并不是打算在游戏领域制作电影。我们只希望尽自己所能（游戏邦注：利用角色、构造世界、创建情感连接感）打造出优秀作品，而后尝试着在游戏领域进行探索，这与制作电影或电视全然不同。

游戏行业似乎仍在探索其身份。在我看来，电子游戏领域潜能无限，有望继续进展。

我认为，遵循着达尔文的进化论，游戏产业将逐渐发展成最理想的状态（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Q&A: Director J.J. Abrams might have what it takes to make it in video games

by Kris Graft

TV and film director J.J. Abrams wants to take the dive into video games — but this isn’t quite the same as other Hollywood-to-games forays. This time, Valve Software is involved.

At the DICE Summit in Las Vegas this morning, Abrams took the stage with Valve boss Gabe Newell, announcing (almost nonchalantly) that his company Bad Robot Productions and Newell’s Valve were in talks to create movies based on Portal and Half-Life. And the two companies are also in talks to create games together.

Gamasutra had the opportunity to talk to Abrams more about the partnership, as well as storytelling in TV, movies and video games. Abrams has a respect for video games and their potential, but he also exhibits an underlying understanding of interactive entertainment. This is a collaboration that has real potential to be fruitful.

So the announcement about Valve and Bad Robot — are you in the initial discovery phase with that?

Yes, we are talking about doing Portal and Half-Life movies, and we’re talking to Valve about doing games together.

What’s driving the interest behind that? Why do you want to get into game making and have this exchange?

Valve is obviously one of the greatest minds and producers of games that I’ve experienced. Their games have awesome humor, inspiring scope and characters that make you laugh and think.

I’ve been up to their offices. I like their culture, the way they think. It feels very much in line with how we work at Bad Robot. We’ve met enough times and have had enough discussions about various collaborations. As Gabe said, it was time to start making the stuff, and stop talking about it.

In games like Half-Life and Portal — it is more about the characters with Valve, isn’t it?

Yeah. If you look at almost everything they do, there is a level of sophistication and respect, not just for the characters and the worlds they create, but also for the audience, the game players, to put pieces together to figure things out.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with shoot-’em-up games where that’s all it is — Valve is good at [shooters] too. But the idea that we want to do, and what excites me about working with them, the way they make games inspires me. The way they make their games, that’s something to aspire to.

What are the opportunities that you see in interactive entertainment?

Frankly, I’m someone who loves being able to work in film and television. I love working in music, I’m a fan of photography and painting and sculpting and letterpress, and all different forms of expression. I dabble. I don’t think I’m particularly good at anything. I just enjoy the experience of making various things. And games are something as a player, I’ve loved and appreciated for years. So the idea of being able to get involved and learn from a group like Valve.

Bad Robot has already been in the interactive world with the Action Movie FX app for iPhone. The idea of going deeper… I think we already took the first step into the pool with the app, and we’re ready now to dive into interactive. Dave Baronoff, who runs Bad Robot Interactive, is leading the charge in that regard. And we’re excited about the opportunities there.

When you’re thinking about goals or what you want to achieve with this foray into video games, are there any pillars to your strategy that come to mind?

Obviously, and this is not unlike the way you approach anything, but it’s “What do you want to experience?” Not “What do they like,” but “What would you like to experience.” So it’s about trying to figure out a game or a movie, you think about “What is the world? What is the drive? What are the stakes? What is the ticking clock? What am I rooting for? What do I hope happens? What am I afraid would happen?” The most fundamental, obvious things.

In line with that, there’s the fundamental question of “What’s not out there?” and “What isn’t being made?” I don’t think you can necessarily be creative deductively. I don’t think that you can say “What doesn’t exist? Let’s try to fill that space.” But still, I don’t know a writer or a game designer who wants make something that exists in the moment.

It’s human nature to want to try to push the boundaries of what is possible technologically or what is available experientially.

There is a debate in video games right now. There are people who make games who feel that storytelling and interactivity just don’t really jibe. If you’re entering that debate, what’s your argument to say “This can work”?

Well, the good news is, there are a lot of cautionary tales — games that feel very old school, where suddenly and clunkily, you get taken into a cut scene and you suddenly feel the mechanics of what’s happening, and now you’re forced to sit there and listen.

I think the key to any game is whether or not is it true to its format. Is it taking advantage of what’s available. I’m not saying the game that we produce — and there are a lot of different things that we are talking about in regards to gaming at Bad Robot — I’m not saying what we’re doing would solve that problem.

In fact, the game that we’re talking about — while we’re smart enough to be aware of things that we definitely don’t want to do, and mistakes that we’ve experienced as players that we don’t want to repeat — part of what we’re talking about doesn’t necessarily have the issue that you’re describing…

What are the specific titles have helped spark your interest in games?

Back in the day, one of the games that first really got me, and this was hundreds of years ago now, I loved the Infocom text adventures. They were brilliantly done, it was a simple parser, but they were wildly immersive and really fun. I was a huge, huge fan of what those guys did in Cambridge.

One of the first games that I really fell in love with was Tribes. I just love the idea of flying all over the place, and play capture the flag.

There’s a new one out too.

Yeah I know. Mind-blowingly cool. Then I fell in love with Tomb Raider and I played that non-stop. Over the years, a lot of things that I’ve been experiencing game-wise are games that my son plays.

But I’ve been inspired by some games like Journey, which was incredible. It was just crazy emotional, wildly beautiful. A true experience. I love that game. I love Limbo, the mood of it. I just thought it was genius. It took the whole side-scrolling thing and took the level of moodiness and tone in a way that it all worked as a whole. Everything from the music to the sound effects, the whole visual desaturated look of it. I loved it.

It’s hard not to look at what people are doing with the graphics of stuff like Call of Duty or Dead Space. You can’t help but be blown away by what’s possible. But to me, as much as the visuals will continue to improve … the sense of being in a place. It’s insane what’s possible if we all just extrapolate where it’s going. In no time, it’s going to be photorealistic to the point of preposterousness. At that point, it’s irrelevant.

So I’m not looking at the graphical stuff. That’s going to happen anyway. What I think is critical is gameplay and the emotional connection to the characters.

The games you say you like, that’s encouraging to me. The games like Limbo and Journey are the kinds of games that leverage the strengths of video games — of interactivity, of connectivity, instead of a video game trying to be a movie, which we’re all familiar with.

Yeah, but I’ve seen this often with movies and TV shows, where there is an idea sometimes that is really just better off being a movie rather than a TV show, and vice versa. A lot of movies or shows that don’t ever come to fruition don’t, because they should never have been those things to begin with.

There are some ideas that would just be better off if they were songs. There are some ideas that would be much better of if they were a poem or just a discussion, where there is nothing necessarily produced or experienced by others. We’ve all seen shows, skits or movies where we think “Yeah, I can see how that discussion went in the room, how they thought this would be cool… but they really should’ve stopped there.”

One of the things that’s really appealing about working with Valve is that they’ve got great taste, and that we will have the ability to work with people and not impose what we do on them. We’re not looking to make movies in the game space. We’re looking to make great games that take the strengths of what we know — characters, world-building, creating a sense of emotional connection — and trying ways to try to exploit that in the gaming space, which is a very different animal that movies and TV.

The game industry feels like it’s still trying to find its own identity. There are nuggets here and there where we see video games’ potential going forward.

I think that as the gaming industry evolves, it will become whatever it becomes, because the stuff that works, in a Darwinian way, will prove itself. (source:gamasutra)