Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 131)

Trigger Happy
133
Interestingly, some of the first technical demonstrations
of Sony’s PlayStation2 console in Tokyo concentrated
on animating the muscles of a highly detailed human
face in exactly the same way. In this purely cosmetic
respect, it is true that videogames are converging with
films.
The commercial praxis of the two industries is also
looking more and more similar. The relative simplicity
of computer and videogame systems in the 1970s and
1980s meant that a game was often written by just one
person over a period of a few months. The graphics
design, gameplay design and programming were all
done by the same red-eyed multitasker, and some of
them—Matthew Smith, Andrew Braybrook, Geoff
Crammond, David Braben—became wealthy stars.
Videogames had a relatively long period in which the
auteur theory was actually true.
But now all that has changed. Just as a film is a
collaborative effort between many different
specialists—director, cinematographer, actors,
composer, set designer, costumier, dolly grip, best boy
and so forth—so videogame “studios” today employ
concept designers, animators, 3D artists, tool
developers, programmers, composers, writers, character
designers and a host of other experts in