David Cage: Game auteurs are vital
"No good stories are written by 50 people."
Video game auteurs who take sole responsibility for shaping all aspects of a title are vital to the continued growth of the industry, so says Heavy Rain creator David Cage.
The Quantic Dream boss - who wrote, directed and acted as lead designer on its recent multi-BAFTA winning PlayStation 3 crime epic - told the PlayStation Blog that encouraging individual super-creatives to take the tiller was crucial for evolving the art form and reaching out to a more mature audience.
"If this industry wants to mature and evolve then we need to talk about emotions and work on stories that appeal to all people, not just hardcore gamers between the ages of 15 and 17. We have a much wider market out there just waiting to interact if we can go to them with the right ideas.
"I know no good stories written by 50 people," he continued. "A story is something emotional; something personal that you want to share and it is strongly linked to your own life and experiences.
"We need auteurs and the biggest problem in this industry is that we don't trust them – we trust programmers instead. Auteurs are scary because they come back with ideas, but that is exactly what this industry should be about."
Heavy Rain, which launched to glowing reviews last year, picked up gongs for story, technical innovation and original music at the annual BAFTA ceremony in London earlier this week.