French writer and game designer David cage: biography, projects, achievements

David de Gruttola, known to the General public under the pseudonym David cage, – a man for our time wonderful. His life is unusual in that it – a professional musician who a couple of years under thirty has decided to become a designer and literally revolutionized the world of computer games.

If a person is talented, he is talented in everything. Game David cage, the list of which is not so great, enjoy great popularity all over the world. What caused this success? We will now discuss.

David cage: the biography. The beginning of the path

David was Born in 1969 in Mulhouse, in the North-East of France. He was five years old was playing the piano, then studied at the Philharmonic and from 14 years moonlighting as a musician. At eighteen he moved to Paris and began working in a recording company, and in 1993 founded his own project-Studio Totem Interactive. In it David was doing, of course, music, but of a special kind: he created soundtracks for television, advertising, film and computer games. The last genre he especially loved, so his name came up in the titles of well-known in the 90-ies of the apps: Super Dany, Cheese Catastrophe starring, Timecop, and Hardline.

Games in those years was largely different from today's, were primitive by today's standards the schedule, usually two-dimensional, and the gameplay is simple, but confidently moved ahead. In particular, the sound design was created by professional musicians, one of whom was David de Gruttola.

Quantic Dream

David and he loved to play games, including those, which put his musical hand. He studied the process of game development, followed by development projects and at some point decided to try to create the application yourself. In 1997, when the musician was 28 years old, he created his own game Studio called Quantic Dream. This is the age at which many young people think that it is time to finish “playbook” (in all senses of the word) and the need to take on the mind. And here is our hero at this age, you can say, “play” for real. By the way, at the same time, he took the pseudonym David cage – just to English-speaking partners, it was easier to refer to it.

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First design

The First project, called Omikron: The Nomad Soul, David cage is carried out as a real newbie. He wanted to create the game of your dreams. The ambition was huge: the project combines several genres-fighting, quest, RPG, action and so on, there was a big city, living their lives, compelling story, the ability to drive, fight… With all these ambitions of the cage almost no experience making games, and his Studio was not yet so famous that the collaboration was interested investors. Therefore, to fully David and his team (six developers) to implement the project failed.

However, complete failure did not happen: an interesting story and the mix of genres – it all looked very innovative, and therefore the cage failed to find a publisher (Eidos Interactive), which allocated money for the project and implemented the game (it came out in 1999). The innovative approach of the author to the draft was the reason that he was received by critics quite favorably. From "OMICRON" of course, found their weak points, but not especially large. So David cage (David Cage) got his first fame as a game designer.

What you need for a good game?

Inspired by the success, but also figuring the shortcomings of the first project, the French writer David cage started to create new games. At that time he already realized that his “mission”. He said that over 25 years the gaming industry it has not changed; technology has moved forward, but the concept remained the same. As a result, said cage, the world was exhausted playing monotonous crafts, new technologies have not been fully used. To do something new, I decided cage.

Among the disadvantages of the then of games he described as an abundance of violence and lack of “movies”. Games should invest a little bit of art, he said, and to bring them closer with the cinema.

Prophet of the Great games

At the dawn of his fascination with game design David cage expressed a kind of prophecy. In the mid-90s, his Studio created a prototype game for the PlayStation. The project has brought to the publishing house, but there the cage was advised to create this game for PC because “PlayStation”, according to them, dies. Cage listened to – apparently with reluctance. It was later revealed that this publisher went bankrupt, and PlayStation is not only not dead, but has become wildly popular.

Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit – the second game David cage, released in 2005. The world's first “interactive drama”, in which the cinematography was the predominant element. The game has a detailed plot of the film, in which everyday, albeit strange (the hero in the toilet of the eatery kills the casual visitor, being in a strange trance) develops into a fantastic story about struggle of supernatural forces.

Control of the character was completely non-standard, further contributing to the realism. “Movie-game” has been painting for adults – this was reflected both in the story and in the game world, and the abundance of intimate scenes, which in some versions had to be cut.

Heavy Rain

The Resulting interactive movie was such a new phenomenon that cage could not find a publisher for its next game-Heavy Rain. In the end the project became interested in Sony. In this game, which tells about the mysterious killer of children, cage took into account past mistakes and realized his dream to the fullest. The game has achieved high ratings and praise from critics. It is also an interactive movie with an unusual game. It uses the analog capabilities of the controller. For example, a weak push of a button provides a slow movement of your character, stronger – accelerated. The controller must in the right places to tilt or shake. As the game progresses the symbols appear, indicating the need to click a particular button or sequence.

Interactive movie

As we have realized interactive cinema – a totally new genre in the gaming industry, although prototypes have existed since the 80-ies. Simply put, it is a computer film, in which the player takes some part. Participation is, shall we say, fickle: despite the non-traditional management and the abundance of key and combinations, the player must intervene in the process only in certain places.

Technology is Often used Quick time events: at some point, you need to quickly press a certain key combination, so the story went on. The actions of the characters affect what is happening around you, and depending on how the player behaves, “movie” will be shown in different ways.

Ahead of time

The failure of David cage in the promotion of games the majority of experts explain the fact that his projects were too early – the public was not yet ready for such solutions. Every time he was the first, and every time publishers and critics were at first puzzled and then – interest.

The cage himself talks about this. As he recalls, in the late 90s, he on every street corner screaming about what games should be like movies, but nobody understood. And when he did the same thing began to speak after the release of Fahrenheit, it has started to listen.

But that's David cage, the projects which we consider in the article. He did not want to go on the beaten track, because he believed that the creation of the game – is an art, and art is primarily a creation of something new, making discoveries, and then we can try and earn money and fame.

Beyond: Two Souls

What else did David cage? New game of game, called Beyond: Two Souls, became seemingly even more ambitious project. Because it was “shots” was invited to the famous Hollywood actors – Eric winter, Ellen page, Willem Dafoe. Of course, cage in this game have invested in full. The story is about a girl who gained supernatural abilities and learned to speak with the spirits, and shows for 16 years of her life. However, Beyond: Two Souls was a disappointment. Developers are overly fascinated by the technical side of the game and completely forgot about the story, or rather about what makes it memorable. The cage came out “fancy” but simply uninteresting movie.

It is Curious that the cage in the failure of the project (although complete failure did not) accuses journalists and critics are not agreeing to recognize their own mistakes. Not good to do so Maestro with considerable experience.

Who wrote the music for the games?

Fascinated by the stories of innovative games David cage, we have forgotten that education and the first profession he is a musician. Now, music to their games, he writes, do other project participants. So, the music for “f” wrote Angelo Badalamenti – an American composer famous for the soundtracks to the films of David Lynch, a fan of which is the cage. However, by choosing musicians for their games, game seriously, going through and trying different options.

Some songs in ‘Fahrenheit" belong to other authors. They can separately access and listen to. Game David cage is unusual and creative. They deserve the attention of gamers. Let's wish this man success and more creative ideas!