The Future of Machinima

Taking game animation and using it to completely different ends has become increasingly popular. Now developers are finding financial benefits from including the tools of creation within their products

by Edge

It all started with John Romero's severed head—or rather, a gory block of 40 polygons representing it. The film in which it appeared, detailing the digital demise of id Software's (then) hairy head honcho, though somewhat unsophisticated, was in fact the inauspicious beginning of a genre of entertainment that now claims thousands upon thousands of shows as its own.

As the genre has swollen, it's also become increasingly difficult to define, variously intersecting with film, animation and puppetry. Its connection with videogames, however, has been fairly consistent during the 11 or so years since its inception. Back in 1996, a group of Quake players known as the United Rangers put together a short film, using the game's environment as a virtual sound-stage. This was no demo-reel or speed-run; the Rangers had a script to follow, and, acting as a cameraman, one player followed the action with movements and angles lifted from the conventions of cinema.

The drama, such as it was, didn't unfold in a manner greatly distant from events that might normally take place in a deathmatch: a team scouting out the level is decimated by a player camping on the other side of a teleport. Eventually, a well-placed rocket puts an end to their enemy's cowardly tactics, and the Rangers gather round the remaining gibs. "Yeah, it's John Romero," says one, delivering the line via text chat. "Figures," says another.

This film, entitled Diary of a Camper, is widely credited with being one of the very first examples of machinima. It is not alone in contention for that title. A group calling itself the ILL Clan, made up of film and television students, recognised the potential of their nightly deathmatches as a means of recording short films in an inexpensive way. From these Quake Movies, as they were called, the ILL Clan has moved on to become a production studio whose machinima creations have been commissioned by the likes of MTV and SpikeTV, and have recently been bought up by the Electronic Sheep Company in order to bring its popular Tra5h Ta1k show to Second Life.

The ILL clan aren't the only ones wringing financial success from machinima, and the fact that companies are willing to throw money at the community (albeit to exploit its potential for promotion) testifies to the increasing popularity of the genre.

"I think every machinima has an intrinsic marketing value," says Burnie Burns of prolific machinima studio Rooster Teeth Productions. "Any time a game ends up in front of an audience, it just shows off the technology. Even if you don't connect with the piece on a narrative level, you may still be impressed by the game used to create it."

There's a clear incentive for game developers to include tools for machinima creation within their games, and encourage their use. But, as Burns explains, the genre's success is a two-way street; using the game engines in this kind of creative way is inherently attractive to gamers: "People want to mould and shape their experience and tailor it to their own tastes. Machinima extends that interactivity beyond the set of rules the developers have given us. It introduces a new level of user contribution that will continue to draw new fans."

Of course, one other obvious reason for its success among would-be creatives is the low barrier for entry. "Machinima democratised the ability for anyone to make animation," says Philip DeBevoise, who runs the video aggregator and community site Machinima.com. "It's similar to how digital video cameras enabled a new generation of filmmakers and was the foundation for the user-generated content revolution."

It's possible for one person to be the cast, crew, director and editor of an entire movie and all it costs is the price of an old game and some dedication. With the source code for Quake III now released, and the free availability of editing resources, augmented and perfected in the years since the game's release, the barrier gets ever lower.