How do you feel about FMV?

[fov]

Obviously FMV was a lot more popular when you made Bad Mojo than it is now. Games like Phantasmagoria (big deal when it came out!) and Gabriel Knight 2 were proclaimed "the wave of the future" and then FMV swiftly went away again. Some of us really like it and wish it were still around. Others think it was one of the darkest eras in gaming history. What do you think? Dated technology? Does it still have potential in today's industry?

-emily

[MojoAlex]

I think some of it is because people don't know how to integrate the game play with the FMV. With Mojo, we needed it to communicate clues that we didn't have any other mechanism for.

[serpentbox]

Obviously FMV was a lot more popular when you made Bad Mojo than it is now. Games like Phantasmagoria (big deal when it came out!) and Gabriel Knight 2 were proclaimed "the wave of the future" and then FMV swiftly went away again. Some of us really like it and wish it were still around. Others think it was one of the darkest eras in gaming history. What do you think? Dated technology? Does it still have potential in today's industry?

-emily

FMV, when incorporated inteliigently into a game, is very effective and certainly does have potential in future games.

It was tainted by a bunch of HORRIBLE games, however. Those Rocket Science games, OH MY GOD. And those games from Any River. HOLY SH*T! I won't even mention Mechadeus because I love those guys as people.

It's never about technology, it's how you use it.

[fov]

Have either of you played Missing / In Memoriam? What did you think of the use of FMV in that game? (Come to think of it, it kind of has an insect fetish too...)

[serpentbox]

Have either of you played Missing / In Memoriam? What did you think of the use of FMV in that game? (Come to think of it, it kind of has an insect fetish too...)

never played it...but I do remember the name of that awful Rocket Science game: Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodeen, starring Ned Beatty. Thanks Al. ;) What a mess.

[LauraMac]

And don't forget NightTraps and Flash Traffic and.... :eek:

[fov]

Funny, I've never heard of most of these games. And I call myself an FMV junkie. :rolleyes:

Which makes me wonder, though... you guys must have thought there was something cool about it or you wouldn't have chosen to use it... were there any FMV games you did like, that influenced your decision to use it in Bad Mojo? Or was Bad Mojo one of the first games to include FMV?

-emily

[serpentbox]

Funny, I've never heard of most of these games. And I call myself an FMV junkie. :rolleyes:

Which makes me wonder, though... you guys must have thought there was something cool about it or you wouldn't have chosen to use it... were there any FMV games you did like, that influenced your decision to use it in Bad Mojo? Or was Bad Mojo one of the first games to include FMV?

-emily


No, you are an FMV connisseur...you only played the good ones.

It was always our goal to use whatever technology was available in order to convey relevant plot points and/or gameplay elements. And we loved video. Phil and I have been doing video together for 25 years. We went to High School together and took TV Production classes. We'd hang out in there all day and make shows. We loved SCTV and made skits and comedy sketches. We were good at guerilla style production (aka cheap production) methods. And we had great chemistry as a writing team. So I think we wanted to do more of that. Like the living photos. That's right up our alley. VC