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“You tell people what you do for a living, and they’re like, ‘Oh, you play video games for a living.’ No, I play a game that’s not as fun as it should be, that’s broken, until it’s no longer broken. Then I give it to other people to have fun with.â€
–Cliff Bleszinski (who, for once, i agree with on something.)
Tags: testers
— Clive Barker
More than anything else we’ve ever worked on, we’ve looked to film as a source of inspiration for our work on The Path. Not so much because the game will be anything like a movie but more for some kind of contextualization. We were asking ourselves constantly: “what is horror?”, “what makes something scary” and while we have our own ideas about that it seemed a good idea (and fun also) to plunge into the long history of horror genre productions in movies. So, we’ve been watching lots of movies!
At the same time we’ve been reading up on our fairy tales, we are considering our interpretation of this story we have chosen, Little Red Ridinghood. Ultimately, fairy tales are told to teach us something. They are lessons wrapped in beautiful metaphor. In our case we hope the “telling” is something which is acted out by each player via interacting with the characters in the game. And somehow it seemed inevitable that we would tell this story through anxiousness, surreality, surprise. What is it about the horror genre that makes it particularly suitable for the telling of these kinds of tales?
A series of podcasts by Mike Dawson for his Left Field Cinema blog ties all of these considerations up nicely. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or find the mp3s at his site where there are also transcripts of each episode.
He analyses films like The Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, Friday the 13th, and Se7en to determine if they are in fact modern day fairy tales and if so in what way are they in that tradition. His conclusions are most interesting:
Morality tales can be seen as using a cowardly method of making a point; science fiction and fantasy use the method because they can make commentary on current events and climates and avoid criticism for their views by claiming that one has nothing to do with the other.
oh really? Fascinating, as we try, in our way, to make a Video Game as modern day morality tale. 😉
this has nothing to do with The Path really, i just like it. and so does our next Red Girl 😉
In case you haven’t:
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Good horror movie, a classic.
Lycanthrophy as metaphor for female adolescence.
Written by Karen Walton.
Recommended.
The Butcher’s Boy by Half Asleep
Another lovely contemporary rendition of an american (Appalachian in this case) folk song.
Another tragedy for a young girl in the lyrics…
She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying, “Daughter, oh daughter, what troubles you?â€
“Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell
That butcher’s boy I love so well
He courted me my life away
And now at home he will not stayâ€
“There is a place in London town
Where that butcher’s boy goes and sits down
He takes that strange girl on his knee
And tells to her what he won’t tell meâ€
Her father he came up from work
Saying, “Where is my daughter, she seems so hurtâ€
He went upstairs to give her hope
And found her hanging from a rope
He took his knife and cut her down
And in her bosom these words were found
“Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place a marble slab at my head and feet
And over my coffin, place a snow white dove
To warn the world that I died of love
This character, I believe, is Baba Yaga.
I just read on his blog that James Jean is going to stop making the cover artwork for the comic book series, Fables. I must say I have only paid attention to Fables because of his work. I looked forward to seeing what he would do next. The man can draw like a house on fire.
He will continue to make paintings and sell them as Art. Cant help but feel its too bad for us who cannot get access to his work. Hopefully he will keep posting .jpgs I can collect with abandon.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
Wonder how he would have felt about fairy tale video games ?
We took a short vacation but now we’re back. Putting the final touches on the first sister we will be unveiling from the game quite soon! 😮
While working, I’ve been listening a lot to Mothertounge by contemporary composer Nico Muhly. There are three versions of a folk song on the album with lyrics I feel earn the label of “horror song”. Thus very inspiring for what I’m doing right now:
There were two sisters walking down by a stream
Oh the wind and the rain
The older one pushed the younger one in
Oh the dreadful wind and rainPushed her in the river to drown
Oh the wind and the rain
Watched her as she floated on down
Oh the dreadful wind and rainFloated on down to the old mill pond
Oh the wind and the rain
She floated on down to the old mill pond
Oh the dreadful wind and rainThe miller fished her out with his long long hook
Oh the wind and the rain
And he brought this maid in from the brook
Oh the dreadful wind and rainMade a fiddle bow from her long yellow hair
Oh the wind and the rain
He made a fiddle bow from her long yellow hair
Oh the dreadful wind and rainMade fiddle picks from her long finger bones
Oh the wind and the rain
He made fiddle picks from her long finger bones
Oh the dreadful wind and rainMade a fiddle bridge from her own nose bridge
Oh the wind and the rain
Made a fiddle bridge from her own nose bridge
Cried oh the dreadful wind and rainAnd he made a fiddle from her own breast bone
Oh the wind and the rain
The sound could melt a heart of stone
Oh the dreadful wind and rainThe only tune that fddle would play
Oh the wind and the rain
The only tune that fiddle would play
oh the dreadful wind and rainAnd the only tune that fiddle could play
Oh the wind and the rain
The only tune that fiddle would play
Was Oh the dreadful wind and rain.
heres what it sounds like:
[audio:theonlytune.mp3]
creepy but catchy, eh 😉
Read around online and found that this macabre song is traditionally meant to be sung to children. I got curious about the lyrics and, as with most folk songs, there are a million versions of it. Each with a slightly different title, with variations on the theme. But this is what is so fascinating about them! Just passing it on. If you like it i’d suggest giving the entire album a listen. Its very good stuff.