French screenwriter and game designer David Cage: biography, projects, achievements

David de Gruttol, the general public known under the pseudonym David Cage, is a man of our time remarkable. His life path is unusual in that he is a professional musician who for thirty years decided to become a game designer and literally revolutionized the world of computer games.

If a person is talented, then he is talented in everything. The games of David Cage, whose list is not so great, are very popular all over the world. What is the reason for this success? Today we will talk about this.

David Cage: Biography. The beginning of the way

David was born in 1969 in the city of Mulhouse, in the north-east of France. He played the piano at the age of five, then studied at the Philharmonic and from the age of 14 earned money as a musician. At eighteen he moved to Paris and began working in a record company, and in 1993 he founded his own project - the studio Totem Interactive. In it, David was engaged, of course, music, but a special kind: he created soundtracks for television, advertising, cinema and computer games. He was especially fond of the latter genre, and his name was lighted in the credits of the well-known in the 90s applications: Super Dany, Cheese Cat-Astrophe starring, Timecop, Hardline.

The games of those years in many respects differed from modern ones, had a primitive by today's standards, graphics, usually two-dimensional, and simple gameplay, but confidently moved forward. In particular, the sound design was created by professional musicians, one of which was David de Gruttol.

Quantic Dream

David himself liked to play games, including those, to the creation of which he put his musical hand. He studied the development of games, followed the development of 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 in which many young people think that it's time to finish "playing toys" (in all senses of the word) and we need to take on the mind. But our hero at this age, we can say, only began to "play" for real. By the way, at the same time he took a pseudonym David Cage - just for English-speaking partners it was more convenient to contact him.

First development

The first project, called Omikron: The Nomad Soul, was performed by David Cage as a real beginner. He wanted to immediately create the game of his dreams. Ambitions were huge: in the project several genres were combining at the same time - fighting game, quest, role-playing game, action movie, etc., there was a big city, living its own life, a fascinating plot, the opportunity to drive a car, fights ... With all these ambitions, Cage had almost no experience Creating games, and his studio was not so well known that investors were interested in cooperation. Therefore, in full measure, David and his team (six developers) failed to implement the project.

However, there was no complete failure: an interesting plot and the aforementioned combination of genres - all this looked very innovative, so Cage managed to find a publisher (Eidos Interactive), who allocated money for the project and implemented the game (it was released in 1999). The author's innovative approach to the project was the reason that he was accepted by the critics rather favorably. Omicron, of course, also found weaknesses, but not particularly large. So David Cage (David Cage) got the first fame as a game designer.

What do you need for a good game?

Inspired by success, but also sorted out with the shortcomings of the first draft, the French screenwriter David Cage proceeded to create a new game. At that time, he already clearly understood his "mission." He said that in the 25 years of the gaming industry's existence, it has not changed much; Technology moved forward, but the concepts remained the same. As a result, Cage said, the world was filled with monotonous game artifacts, and the possibilities of new technologies are not fully used. We must do something new, Cage decided.

Among the shortcomings of the then games, he also called the abundance of violence and the lack of "cinematic". In the game should be put at least a little art, he said, and bring them closer to the cinema.

The Great Game Prophet

Even at the dawn of his passion for game design David Cage expressed a kind of prophecy. In the mid-90's, his studio created a prototype game for the PlayStation. The project was brought to the publishing house, but there Cage was advised to create this game for the PC, since "Playstation", in their opinion, is dying. Cage listened, apparently with reluctance. Subsequently it turned out that this publishing house went bankrupt, and PlayStation not only did not die, but it also gained frenzied popularity.

Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit - the second game of David Cage, was released in 2005. This is the first "interactive drama" in the world, in which cinematography became the predominant element. In the game there is an unfolded plot-film in which the everyday, albeit strange case (the hero in the toilet of a diner kills an occasional visitor, being in an incomprehensible trance) develops into a fantastic story about the struggle of supernatural forces.

Management of the character became completely non-standard, which further strengthened the realism. "The film-game" turned out to be a picture for adults - it was expressed both in the plot, and in the game world, and in the abundance of intimate scenes, which in some versions had to be cut.

Heavy Rain

The resulting interactive cinema was so new that Cage could not find a publisher for his next game - Heavy Rain. Eventually Sony became interested in the project. In this game, which tells of 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. This is also an interactive film with an unusual game process. It uses the analog capabilities of the controller. For example, a weak button press provides slow movement of the character, strong - accelerated. The controller must be tilted or shaken in the right places. In the course of the game, symbols indicating the need to press a particular button or their sequence are displayed.

Interactive Cinema

As we have already understood, interactive cinema is a completely new genre in the gaming industry, although its prototypes have existed since the 80s. Simply put, this is a computer film in which the player takes some part. Participation is, let's say, inconstant: in spite of unconventional management and an abundance of keys and combinations, the player must intervene in the process only in certain places.

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

Ahead of Time

The failures of David Cage in the promotion of games most experts explain by the fact that his projects appeared too early - the public was not yet ready for such decisions. Every time he was the first, and every time publishers and critics first expressed bewilderment and only then - interest.

Cage himself talks about this. As he recalls, in the late 90's, he shouted at all crossroads that games should look like films, but nobody understood him at all. And when he began to speak the same thing after the release of Fahrenheit, they began to listen to him.

But this is David Cage, whose projects we are considering in the article. He did not want to follow the beaten track, because he believed that creating a game is an art, and art is primarily the creation of something new, the commission of discovery, and only then you can try to earn money and fame on this.

Beyond: Two Souls

What else did David Cage do? A new game of game designer, called Beyond: Two Souls, became, it would seem, an even more ambitious project. After all, for her "filming" was invited to famous Hollywood actors - Eric Winter, Ellen Page, Willem Defoe. Naturally, Cage in this game has invested in full. The story tells of a girl who gained supernatural abilities and learned to talk with spirits, and shows the whole 16 years of her life. However, Beyond: Two Souls turned into disappointment. The developers were overly excited about the technical side of the game and completely forgot the story, or rather, what makes it memorable. Cage had a "heaped up", but simply uninteresting movie.

Curiously, Kage himself in the failure of the project (although there was no complete failure) accuses journalists and critics, not agreeing to admit their own mistakes. It is not good for a maestro who has considerable experience to do this.

Who writes music to games?

Fascinated by stories about the innovative games of David Cage, we forgot that by education and first profession he is a musician. So, he does not write music for his games, other project participants do it. So, the music for "Fahrenheit" was written by Angelo Badalamenti - an American composer who became famous for soundtracks for the films of David Lynch, whose admirer is Cage. However, to the choice of musicians for their games, the game designer is serious, trying out and trying out different options.

Some compositions in "Fahrenheit" belong to other authors. They can be separately opened and audited. The games of David Cage are unusual, creative. They deserve the attention of gamers. We wish this man success and more creative ideas!