What Game Designers can learn from “Avatar”

Posted by Brice on January 21, 2010

Avatar recently became the second highest grossing film of all time, bested only by James Cameron’s previous blockbuster, Titanic.  I was skeptical at first when I saw the trailer, but the box office numbers pushed me over the edge and finally got me in the theater seats, and I was certainly not disappointed.

A film this successful accomplishes so much; whether you are a western anti-mainstream individualist or not, you must appreciate how difficult it is to make a single film that can touch the hearts of so many millions of viewers around the world.  The special effects and artistry put into the world were of course breathtaking and the story…well, we’ll get to that in a minute.

Avatar offers some great lessons to game designers who are looking to reach a broad audience through an magnificent work of art.  While there is much to learn from Cameron’s masterpiece, there are two main aspects that struck me as particularly timely to today’s game development landscape.  Indie developers are especially encouraged to read on.

[Note that this post is full of spoilers.  Proceed at your own risk if you haven't seen the film.]

You Don’t Have to Always Be Original

When I was younger and more foolish, I used to think that in order to create something great, to design a great game, to tell a great story, it had to be original.  It had to be made up of things that no one had done before, all my own ideas.  If everyone else was making first person shooters, I would make a 2D puzzle-adventure mash up.  If the industry was telling stories about love, I would tell a story about existentialism.  Go against the grain, as they say. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »