Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro Loves Games, Feels They Are Art, Will Announce Game in a Couple Weeks

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Last week around the same time MTV's Multiplayer blog broke news that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) has big game-making plans in the works, he also conducted a book reading in Portland. Del Toro answered a number of questions, the last of which dealt with videogames.

When asked what he wanted to accomplish in the field of videogames and if he had any favorites, del Toro immediately perked up, enthusiastically replying, "that's a kick-ass question." He went on to explain his excitement for the question, saying, "Videogames are the comic books of our time. It's a medium that gains no respect among the intellegensia. They say "oh, videogames." And most people that complain about videogames have never f---ing played them."

How will that energy potentially translate to a game? Toward the end of the answer--which runs about nine minutes--del Toro notes that like anything in life he goes into this project wanting it to be the best ever. He describes the project as "a really big, revolutionary, very difficult game that I've been trying to do for the last three or four years now." And he certainly takes it as seriously as any other project he's worked on. About games he said, "They are an art form and anyone saying differently is a little out of touch because they are a narrative art form."

Not much to go on, but he did offer some insight into a handful of his favorite games. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus came up first, both of which he described as masterpieces. He also pointed to Marathon and professed to be "an absolutely devoted fan" of Halo. But that love apparently only extends to the campaign. Del Toro says he never goes online because the one time he did the other players there were so insulting. Instead, he chews through singleplayer games with a voracious appetite. " A Call of Duty game I play the same day. I go beginning to end in 10 hours. I kill everyone; I end up and I go, "I'm done,'" he said.

Del Toro said that he hopes to announce the partnership for the new games in about two weeks. In the meantime, for more from his book reading, The Portland Mercury blogtown covered some of the highlights and YouTube user brittyn also uploaded videos of his answers.

From The Chatty
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    October 5, 2010 6:12 PM

    I hate when dudes who are new to video game development toss around words like revolutionary when discussing their project. He seems to know a thing or two about a thing or two though.

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      October 5, 2010 6:22 PM

      Agreed. Just because he's a good director doesn't mean anything when it comes to gameplay. I expect anyone going into this to have their project bomb. The question is if he will learn his lesson and try again, or give up defeated.

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        October 5, 2010 6:32 PM

        I'm a little less pessimistic about the whole thing. Boom Blox was fun and Steven Spielberg was involved with that as his first game. Hopefully it's good.

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          October 5, 2010 6:36 PM

          How much of Boom Blox was from Steven Spielberg other than his name bolted on the box?

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            October 5, 2010 6:46 PM

            I haven't played it, but regardless of how good it was, I doubt it lived up to his promises either. You know, the ones about making games that people will connect with people emotionally and cause them to cry.

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          October 6, 2010 1:30 AM

          Actually, Boom Blox was not Spielberg's first venture into video games. Long time ago, LucasArts was approached by Spielberg with the concept that would become the adventure game "The Dig".

          I would say Spielberg put a lot more effort into "The Dig" than Boom Blox.

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      October 5, 2010 9:58 PM

      wasn't james cameron going on about how glorious the Avatar game was going to be? yeah.

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      October 6, 2010 1:51 AM

      I think del Toro would be better off as the art director for the game, instead of the head director or producer.

      He's played many games with good gameplay, but that doesn't mean he knows how to make a game with good gameply.

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