When Steven Spielberg announced he was going to try his hand at game design, many people were intrigued -- cautious, but curious. When it was announced the game was going to be a block puzzler, many people were left confused. Wouldn’t Spielberg want to make something a little more... I don’t know... creative? It’s funny then that Boom Blox is receiving such high accolades. Perhaps he’s blazing a trail for other directors who are curious to try their hands at this new medium.
In 1up’s review of the game, Nick Suttner says that "it’s definitely the best use of the Wii yet." Now, there have been a lot of good Wii games. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Super Mario Galaxy among those at the top of the list, so this statement is bold when put into perspective. Suttner is flat out saying that Spielberg has out done any application Nintendo has come up with for their own technology. What gives?
Apparently, Spielberg’s involvement ran deep, and the team actually credits him with the game’s accessibility. "We’d be focus-testing the game to find out, say, what an 8-to 12-year-old would think about X," Associate Producer Amir Rahimi said in an interview with EGM (April 2008). "He would predict to the tee what the 8- to 12-year-old would perceive when they saw the game. We would be skeptical and think, ’Well... maybe.’ Then we’d do the focus test, and he would be spot-on. He really knows his audience and understands what’s compelling at the core of everything."
Could this understanding apply to all directors? It’s definitely too early to tell, but it’s possible that many could make a successful crossover. Directors are able to communicate the visions of a screenwriter to film, and good directors’ movies do well. It appears that Spielberg was able to successfully transfer an idea of fun into a video game, so the stage is set. Peter Jackson is supposed to be making a Halo game for Microsoft with his new development company, Wingnut Interactive. Millions of people worldwide enjoyed his work on both King Kong and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so it’s entirely possible he could apply his knowledge of audience enjoyment to games.
Of course, Jackson could fail, as well as any other director attempting to make the jump. Spielberg could be an anomaly, the Highlander: "There can be only one!" Spielberg’s success is casting a positive light on future directors, but it’s also setting the bar at a higher level. It’s unfortunately a wait-and-see situation.
The success of Boom Blox has, if anything, proved that directors can make the jump. Spielberg is blazing a new trail, proving that understanding your audience is the key to good game design, and other directors (and hopefully game designers) are sure to follow suit.
