Games for Reel: Pixeljunk Eden
My gaming lifestyle has taught me one thing that I still hold above any other gaming knowledge I possess. Video games are, in all reality, a toy, and should be treated as such. In all respects, a toy is designed to be fun. Yes toys aren’t always bright colorful happy playful things. Just take a look at the Silent Hill action figures you can buy. They are by no means bright and colorful, but they are still toys, technically. So, just because a video game is a toy does not mean that all the games should be a decorative coloring book. On the other hand, labeling something a toy does tend to pull that very coloring book image from the back of your head. Either way, it should be fun. So if you get your kicks from vacuuming up little creatures with your favorite pink puff ball, or you like blowing the heads off Nazi’s in your spare time, enjoy either way.
That being said, I would like to take a look at the portion of the film industry that often times is not taken seriously, and shouldn’t be. Cartoons, in the same respect as video games, are a form of entertainment and possess the same spectrum of fun as video games. In the same respect, any movie is created for two purposes; the creator to spread their idea with the world, and for the world to enjoy it.
There are a lot of games out in the world today that have been made into movies. Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Resident Evil, even Mario Brothers is on the list. What I see far too rare is the colorful hero’s and heroin’s re-created on the silver screen in their own environment. The Mario Brothers movie, by no stretch of the imagination, held true to the Mario Brothers themes. However, the strait-to-video cartoon Mario films, though also poorly developed, held true to Mario’s name, and was entertaining. Why not give another Nintendo icon a shot at the big screen? I wouldn’t mind being entertained by watching a Kirby movie or a Yoshi movie from time to time.
So let’s take life a little less serious for a moment and look on the bright side of the video game industry, literally. On July 31st, PSN released a wonderful downloadable game called PixelJunk Eden. In Eden, you and up to 2 other players control a “Grimp” whose object is to collect pollen, bloom seeds, and help a psychedelic garden grow in order to reach the 5 “Spectra”; all while bobbing your head to a hypnotic beat by Baiyon. The game is very simple yet beautiful.
Converting this simplistic game into a film would be an interesting challenge. The game lacks a storyline, but that is where the film could improve. Keeping with the games simplicity, the film doesn’t need a complicated deep storyline. Something simple will compliment film. An easy story could be; the gimps live in their garden, but it begins to wither, so they need to find spectra around their garden in order to bring it back to life. Simple and innocient.
Te focus on the film, however, would not be the story. The focus would be the same as the game, the beautiful unique environment. Fortunately modern technology has provided us with the tools to create colorful fantasy worlds like those in Pixeljunk Eden with the use of computers. The CG would show neon, stretching plots of land with arching branches and leafs that resemble delicate graceful strokes of a paint brush. With the neon glow of the plants, the world of Eden will be brought to life. The uniformly bright world would greatly use shadows to show how each plant in the garden bends and twirls around each other. One way to show the importance of cetin objects in the world of Eden is to make them glow. In the game, when you got close to a Spectra, the corner of your screen began to glow. Using this effect in the film, Spectra’s will glow brilliantly like the sun when the Grimps approach them. Visually, this movie should be nothing short of a unique masterpiece.
This film will be beautiful in all respects. Mimicking the game, composers will use synthesizers and computer generated audio only. The techno style music fits into the bright, mind-bending world smoothly. The music in this film will symbolically dictate the action. For example, if one of the gimps leaps high into the air in order to grasp a Spectra, the use of an electronic crescendo would intensify the moment and draw on the suspense of the audience. Adding a unique flair to the film, there should be no voice actors in this film. The Grimps are not human, and with a voice actor, it would make them seem human and that could make the story too deep.The Grimps will communicate through their actions and expressions, the same way animals do. This will establish a better sence of innocence and keeping the innocence and beauty of this neo-nature is important.
Recreating the simplicity of Pixeljunk Eden in a film would be an interesting and unique concept. The film will rely heavily on visual and audio beauty in order to transform a simple concept into a piece of art.
- Edited by Rusty
#1 – m0rGi on March 17th, 2009 11:10 pm
pixel junks its very specific game it’s realy oryginal and artystic…hard but realy if you play with 2-3 frends on 1 tv you realy can see how much fun can give that game !