Running head: GAME ENGINES AND MACHINIMA 1 THE IMPACT OF UTILIZING DIFFERENT VIDEO GAME ENGINES IN MACHINIMA PRODUCTION A CREATIVE PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS BY MICHAEL ROBB CHRISTOPHER FLOOK – ADVISOR BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA JULY 2020 Running head: GAME ENGINES AND MACHINIMA 2 Chapter 1- Introduction Video games are a large part of the current media landscape. What began as a niche hobby has since turned into a primary form of digital entertainment. Today, compelling stories are now being told within video games and have become increasingly cinematic. But narratives in video games are not only being told by the developers, but by the people playing the games as well. The use of video games in the creation of digital stories is called machinima. According to Lowood (2006), machinima is defined as “making animated movies in real-time with the software that is used to develop and play computer games” (p. 26). Machinima is unique within the realm of digital storytelling in that it does not utilize traditional production techniques to tell a typical film or television narrative. It also differs both when compared with live action production and animated production, since machinima relies on the ‘puppeteering’ of preexisting video game character models. This project aims to explore how much the video game itself impacts the narrative of a machinima through limitations in production and in visual style. In a broader sense, the project will aim to determine how the tools at a creator’s disposal influence the final product. This topic is significant within the discipline of telecommunications in that all productions are limited by the tools that a creator has access to. An amateur filmmaker only has access to so many resources and should rely on cheaper equipment and must solve production problems in creative ways that do not involve a drastic increase of their budget. An undergraduate student here at Ball State University does not have the budget to create a special effects heavy narrative such as Star Wars, for example (Lucas, 1977). Therefore, they are limited by the available tools, which in turn impacts the aesthetic of the story and overall visual components. Running head: GAME ENGINES AND MACHINIMA 3 With the advent of machinima, video games became a tool that can be utilized to create new narrative possibilities for low-budget creators. Video games allow for the usage of assets that would otherwise be unavailable to amateur creators in a real-world setting. Car chases, explosive action scenes, the use of firearms, aliens, and freefalling from a skyscraper of your own design are scenarios only possible with a large budget, but with video games you have access to these in a virtual form for a much lower cost. However, machinima creators are limited in other ways by the rules of the video game they are filming in. For example, in the video game Halo: Reach (Bungie, 2010), the playable characters are outfitted in advanced suits of military armor. As a result, creating narratives that utilize unarmored characters is impossible within that game engine. These kinds of limitations that exist within machinima are part of what was explored over the course of this project. For the purposes of this project, two narrative sequences were selected. One is an action- oriented sequence and the other is a narrative with a heavier emphasis on dialogue. Three short films were then created for each sequence, and each of these three films were created in a separate video game. These video games are Halo: Reach (Bungie, 2010), Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar, 2013), and Minecraft (Mojang, 2011). Each short film lasts between one and three minutes in length. Six short films have been created in total. These machinima productions will be compared to form a better understanding of how the visual aspects and limitations of using a video game impact the narrative of the machinima being created. Mise-en-scéne will be utilized as a lens through which I will examine the differences present within each machinima. Running head: GAME ENGINES AND MACHINIMA 4 Chapter 2- Literature Review Research that has been done on the machinima genre is not as extensive as other traditional narrative categories, but there still is a significant amount of literature to pull from to help give context to this creative project. As is the case in most academic analysis of media, existing machinima productions are used as a lens through which to explore underlying ideas associated with the genre. For example, Irene Chien (2007) explores how two machinima productions, Deviation and Red vs. Blue, are prime examples that demonstrate new possibilities and potential disadvantages that come with the machinima genre. Machinima allows for the creation of digital content to be created remotely and easily while still having the potential to be visually impressive. However, the digital creator is limited by what is possible within the video game, leading to unique challenges that do not exist within traditional film environments. The author also examines how these two productions satirize and dramatize the lives of video game characters. Further exploring the narrative opportunities present in machinima, Elijah Horwatt (2008) views the creation of machinima as a means in which to tell stories outside the restrictions that exist in the mainstream media environment, and how the genre fits into the realm of avant- garde media. The author examines examples of machinima documentaries, political machinima, and experimental machinima. He talks at length about how machinima is a tool that is often used within the realm of new media resistance. Additionally, researcher Mike Jones (2005) highlights how the rise in easily accessible digital storytelling tools such as cheaper editing software has helped contribute to the rise in machinima filmmaking. Additionally, the use of video games allowed for the average person to create complex and visually impressive narratives without having to have access to a large Running head: GAME ENGINES AND MACHINIMA 5 budget. Furthermore, he explores how the use of game engines allows for the creation of shots and sequences that simply are impossible outside the virtual world. He contends that machinima has its own unique visual style, and that the genre will continue to improve alongside the video game industry. For further context, a journal article written by Henry Lowood (2006) explores the history of the machinima genre, beginning at its inception within games such as Quake and DOOM. Once the use of video games to create independent stories began, it rapidly spread online and gave birth to a brand-new form of digital storytelling. Lowood describes the creation of machinima as a form of ‘high performance play’ due to its nature of being created within a game environment. He goes on to explain how machinima has affected game development and raises questions about machinima as an art form. Assistant professor Jaroslav Svelch (2014) conducted research on how interactions between a video game player and the game itself can give rise to physical humor. The author examines the machinima subgenre he defines as ‘gameplay mischief video’ and how the slapstick humor found within this digital content, which is generated spontaneously, has helped create a new form of digital comedy entertainment. The capacity for a game to provide entertainment to a player and a viewer outside of the game developer’s intentions is a central idea explored here. This piece of research is another example of how individuals can create a piece of digital entertainment within the confines of a virtual world. Ludonarrative dissonance, a phrase that combines the terms ludology and narrative, is a concept coined by game designer Clint Hocking (2007). Within his analysis, he states that the video game Bioshock “seems to suffer from a powerful dissonance between what it is about as a game, and what it is about as a story” (para. 4). In other words, what the video game tells you Running head: GAME ENGINES AND MACHINIMA 6 through gameplay is at odds with the message it is sending through its narrative. While not directly related to machinima, the idea of ludonarrative dissonance could be applied and used as a lens through which to further analyze video games as they relate to narratives told through machinima production. Previous creative projects that utilize machinima as a genre are usually products of the video games they themselves are based in, as is the case of Red vs. Blue and Diary of a Camper. Created by Burnie Burns, the co-founder of Rooster Teeth Productions, Red vs. Blue (Burns, 2003) follows two groups of incompetent soldiers who begin the series engaged in a pointless civil war. Red vs. Blue is filmed entirely within the Halo video game franchise. It started out as a series of funny video game clips that Burns edited together in his spare time. Burns soon realized, in the words of New York Times writer Clive Thompson (2005), that “…he was using the game to function like a personal Pixar studio” (para. 4). Eventually, Red vs. Blue evolved into a full-blown scripted production. The show relies heavily on comedic dialogue in lieu of over the top, sci-fi action, in part because of the restrictions of producing a series within a video game. On the other hand, Diary of a Camper (Sickler, 1996) was a smaller, one off production that is widely considered to be the first machinima ever created. This short film was made within the video game Quake. The narrative follows players engaged in a Quake multiplayer death match, with one lone player, the camper, hiding out waiting to ambush a team of enemy players.