Tigon's Ian Stevens: For Hollywood, 'making video games has been the same thing as making action figures'
Running Tigon Studios is a bit of a strange job to have. Ian Stevens, the man in charge, is responsible for not just organizing development talent to make games like this year's Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, but also working with Hollywood. And, unsurprisingly, he says it's a bit of an uphill battle, telling GamesIndustry.biz, "It's really hard to take something that's native to a certain medium and just draw a line, which is what people are usually trying to do [with games based on movies.]"
He equates the attention Hollywood has been giving to game versions of its films with "action figures, pictures on cereal boxes, and [themed] pajamas," saying it's just part of the "licensing and merchandising" of a property, rather than creating something unique and well-crafted from the start. Furthermore, Stevens says that the development studios who are working with nothing (think Ben 10) and making something -- anything -- out of it, are the real talent in the industry. "If you gave that team in Newcastle [Midway Newcastle] - through all that they've struggled with, technology, corporate business, all these different things - the kind of opportunity that someone like Valve has," he says, leaving us to postulate on the ending there. We'll let you guys fill that in all by yourselves.
He equates the attention Hollywood has been giving to game versions of its films with "action figures, pictures on cereal boxes, and [themed] pajamas," saying it's just part of the "licensing and merchandising" of a property, rather than creating something unique and well-crafted from the start. Furthermore, Stevens says that the development studios who are working with nothing (think Ben 10) and making something -- anything -- out of it, are the real talent in the industry. "If you gave that team in Newcastle [Midway Newcastle] - through all that they've struggled with, technology, corporate business, all these different things - the kind of opportunity that someone like Valve has," he says, leaving us to postulate on the ending there. We'll let you guys fill that in all by yourselves.












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Grimcicle @ Jun 30th 2009 2:21PM
The real question is... Does Vin Diesel WANT to be an action figure?
Of course he does!
Neuromancer @ Jun 30th 2009 2:21PM
Berserker!
Shmil @ Jun 30th 2009 2:27PM
My love for you is like a truck!
Neuromancer @ Jun 30th 2009 2:55PM
Olaf: Would you like some making fuck, BERSERKER!
Girl: Did he just say "making fuck?"
jam @ Jun 30th 2009 2:21PM
hohoho! the picture!
Kenneth @ Jun 30th 2009 5:58PM
BOOOOO. bad photo shopping on the picture. there's still a white background between the arm and torso that didn't get removed
mr nimblewick @ Jun 30th 2009 2:27PM
I'm still waiting for my video game adaptation of The Bucket List.
WREturns @ Jun 30th 2009 2:37PM
It already came out, they just changed the scenario, characters, events and title. Now it's called Killzone 2.
The Dark Wayne @ Jun 30th 2009 2:53PM
wat
Neuromancer @ Jun 30th 2009 2:58PM
What?!
Sly @ Jun 30th 2009 4:22PM
it's called a joke.
Ashitaka @ Jun 30th 2009 9:07PM
and a bad one.
Storm Eagle @ Jun 30th 2009 2:31PM
Was there ever any doubt? Video games are the new Power Rangers!
bears @ Jun 30th 2009 2:37PM
I got my start in the industry making these sorts of licensed games, and he is dead on about how the studios treat you as the game developer.
In dealing with nearly every studio, we'd be locked out of production stills, script information... pretty much anything that would give us the tools to make a decent experience. Pile on a producer who is managing you alongside licensed tshirts, a 10 month schedule and multiple SKUs, and that's pretty much the crap-hole you're thrown in. Forget about making a fun game.... all of your time is eaten up just getting the thing out the door in time, and chasing the whims of some producer who you've never met.
There's a lot of very talented developers working on these horrible licensed games, and they should get a lot more credit than they do.
Grimcicle @ Jun 30th 2009 2:50PM
Granted, I knew movie game syndrome was the result of tight schedules. But you just really put it into perspective for me, there.
Ben Gilbert @ Jun 30th 2009 3:25PM
I think you're absolutely right and I've heard as such from a few different folks now on this exact subject. Place making licensed-game after game after game without respite and, in those conditions, how can you expect to make something worthwhile?
Shiaoran @ Jun 30th 2009 2:44PM
I completely agree with Ian Stevens, but not with Ben Gilbert.
I like Ben 10 and I think it could make an awesome Kameo-like game if done right. :P
bongoes @ Jun 30th 2009 2:54PM
Yeah I was really hoping the Ben 10 game would be good. At least my brother liked it.
Richard 2.5 @ Jun 30th 2009 2:55PM
Oh, c'mon. A character who has the ability transform into 10 different forms all with differing abilities--how could any studio possibly create a game based on something like that....?
Ridgecity @ Jun 30th 2009 3:03PM
Video games are still seen and more marketing stuff you can sell licenses to. Look for example at The Beatles Rockband, I bet you they can't tell the difference between a video game and making some vinyl toys, just when they saw they asked for their master recordings and saw the buckets of cash, they got interested, even showed up for E3 for an undisclosed amount of money from Microsoft. You can bet your ass they don't even show up for the music promotions for their cds.
Funny how at this moment Michael Jackson died and he seems to be one of the few guys in Hollywood that actually understood this business. He only other hollywood megastar that understands what video games are and how they are not the same as movies seems to be Peter Jackson, of course, he has to make a game first to see if he really does understand.
Steven Spielberg doesn't. Boom Blox sucked considering who he is in movies, it could have been released by a cellphone game company and and it seems his other 2 projects are cancelled.
Madster @ Jun 30th 2009 6:49PM
So spielberg doesn't understand videogames because he made Bloom Blox?
Should he have done a movie-like game instead? like... trying to fit a movie into a game mold? would that be BETTER?
I don't think so.
He got into videogames just for what they are. We were just expecting his first jab to be spectacular, which is kind of silly.
I think he did it just right. He gets it.
Ghen @ Jun 30th 2009 3:11PM
So Mortal Kombat vs. Ben 10 confirmed?
Joe @ Jun 30th 2009 3:13PM
From the pic,I thought this had something to do with Halo. I guess not.
Ibere @ Jun 30th 2009 3:24PM
"the kind of opportunity that someone like Valve has"?! Well, Valve just have the opportunities they have because they make quality games and always have the customer in mind. So it's the contrary: make a quality game and you'll probably have the opportunity to do a next one.
Vidikron @ Jun 30th 2009 3:43PM
I think you completely missed the point. Valve makes good games, yes, but they also get to spend years on each project and make they game they want. I bet if you forced them to make a movie tie-in game on mulitple platforms (including the PS3) with no help from the movie studio and only a year to finish that even the mighty Valve would produce a turd. They can't even get an "episode" out in a reasonable amount of time. You should read "bears" post above for a clearer picture of the situation being discussed here.
The Dark Wayne @ Jun 30th 2009 3:43PM
the problem is they cant make a quality game, because like they said they not only have to make it really fast but with a bunch of assholes telling them what to do. Valve is lucky that their first games were such great successes because that's what has allowed them to take 5+years in making games. Not every developer has the kinda cash or investments to go that long without making something