To make it a truly interactive movie

I disagree. If we look at current movies then the viewer cannot change what happens. My idea doesn’t change this. I’m not looking at changing the ending in any way, shape of form.

What fun is participating if you know your actions won’t make a difference?

But that’s exactly what happens with most games. You play and all you do is furfull the design of the game developer. IS that less fun because you have two endingds: To complete the mission and becomne the hero/heroine or you fail, for whatever reason.

All I am suggesting is interacting with the predefined plot.

Multiple ending are a completely separate
subject.

I do, however, feel that it is possible to interact with the movie, without changing its outcome.

There’s a HL2 mod, I forget the name at the moment, that does something like this, where you have to kill Breen and Alyx; if you miss one or the other, or both, you end up dead and the story ends with some sort of text-announcement of your demise and the results of said demise. I think DOOM3 has a similar choice built into the game, but it doesn’t change things much.
Sort of what he’s thinking, but not quite.

To make it a truly interactive movie, one needs to create multiple branch points, where a choice by the player changes everything at the end of the game, and the path taken to said end. And to make it even more interesting, making the “net” of choice/paths such that a set of choices could lead you to the SAME ending, evne though your play was totally different from the original path/ending. The limitation of this would be how many endings one could make; the in-game choices are already mind-bogglingly huge.

I say it can be done. It will depend on the amount of work and programming that can be put into the concept, to make it work.

Full Motion Video Games.
Full Motion Video on Wikipedia.

The last point I want to make is that I wasn’t trying to suggest using movies as cut scenes but allow the player complete control over what they saw and what they watched.

You can’t change the ending of a book but that doesn’t stop you enjoying it.

That’s surely because as the reader of a book you are an observer, watching events unfold as a result of the actions of others.

When you play a game you are a participant (usually the most influential participant at that). What fun is participating if you know your actions won’t make a difference?

Personally I’m not bothered either way. I’d rather see a well written compulsory ending than half-arsed multiple endings, but that’s not to say I prefer games with only 1 ending. The Silent Hill series pulls off multiple endings excellently.

But anyway, I’ve just deviated quite a lot here. Sorry.

I think for the amount of effort and the costs involved the payoff would be far too small.

Maybe, would be nice to find out though.

but also with the feel of a movie.

I’m not trying to get a game to feel like a movie. I want to simply switch between the two. I am quite happy with how games play at the moment (Of course I always want more, but you know what I mean).

If you really want to merge real footage and game play, well that’s just basically extended FMV but with real people surely?

I don’t. I think people have missed the part about the movie being CGI. In fact I think the concept is entirely possible (Although probably would be crap!) in Half-Life 1, I am sure Half-Life 2 would be better.

I just cant see it becoming mainstream at this point because it would require everyone to have 9800 gfx

You might be right about it not becoming mainstream but again I think you’ve missed the point about the type of movie.

The Matrix example probably was bad because it set the tone regarding the type of movie.

The merging or footage and game play has been done before… Live-action gameplay, I believe it is called. I believe that every game made reached the lowest score point on every review show and magazine in existance.

If however (and I’ve discussed this before with my mod partner) you created a game in the premise of a film, with non stop action literally pushing the player forward. You can have a fulfilling gaming experience but also with the feel of a movie. This is achieved because the game insists the player is constantly pushed.

The player doesn’t feel as though he is being forcibly rushed as the action is dictating that he should be progressing as quickly as possible. For example, a nuclear bomb has gone off and the player is attempting to out run it with every means possible. This means the player may start on foot, running from a building which explodes behind him, he jumps in a car, the nuke inside the building gathers momentum. Then the player has to get to the airport, jump in a jet and fly low through canyons avoiding radar or whatever whilst still attempting to outrun the nuke.

Anyway, I think this kind of approach is about as close as you’re going to get to involving the player in an action movie type scenario.

If you really want to merge real footage and game play, well that’s just basically extended FMV but with real people surely?

It does need to be fun and interesting to generate a community…

Not everything needs a community.

It doesn’t have to be a full length movie. Could produce a CGI movie for 30 minutes as a proof of concept.

To pull this off successfully, you need to have teams whom are both game engineers and movie engineers. You need to purchase the various equipment for both teams. One is going to have to make a full-length movie, the other is going to make a full-length game. The cost is going to go through the roof, so you’d better ensure that it’s worth the money.

What are we talking about? Merging movie and game right ?

Read the damn post. My idea, whilst not new (Or so it seems) means that a player or viewer can play the whole game from start to finish or just watch it, start to finish. Or any combination in between.

Play Fahrenheit.

Downloading the demo now.

I can’t see how this would be any more fun or interesting then the usual games being made.

Sometimes things don’t need to be more fun or interesting just different.

swat 1 is the best thing your gonna get to a game movie.

Why?

So you can watch Fahrenheit as a whole movie, with no gameplay?

What are we talking about? Merging movie and
game right ? Play Fahrenheit.

BTW: Valve uses another more modern approach,which is quite successful executed in HL2 EP1.

I can’t see how this would be any more fun or interesting then the usual games being made.

“Life After the Video Game Crash”

[link]http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/crash.html [/link]