David Cage, founder of the groundbreaking studio behind BAFTA-winning Heavy Rain, has asked an audience if games can be art.

The question came as Cage spoke at this year’s BAFTA Annual Games Lecture event on Tuesday, 3 September. The Quantic Dream founder, who has directed influential and innovative games like Fahrenheit and the forthcoming Beyond: Two Souls, was speaking about his passion for interactive storytelling at the time.

He said: “This is the most exciting evolution in storytelling since films were invented,” he said.

Cage also spoke about the power of modern performance capture, saying that before characters “could all look like dead fish” – but now it was possible to show actors subtle expressions.  

Innovative and immersive games

Cage started his career as a professional musician for film, television and games. He founded Quantic Dream in 1997, with the aim of using interactivity to create emotive, innovative and immersive storytelling.

Along the way he’s collaborated with world-renowned artists such as David Bowie, composer Angelo Badalamenti and screenwriter Hampton Fancher.

Cage said that capturing content for interactive games could be complex. He explained that directing Beyond: Two Souls was “like shooting different parts of a puzzle each day throughout an entire year.”

More stories to tell

Throughout the lecture, Cage emphasised how important it is to create “games that have something to say” which communicated meaning and emotion.

He celebrated the role of young designers in pushing the industry forward – urging the next generation to be creative and find fresh ways to tell exciting and meaningful stories.

“Games always explore the same things,” he said.

“They’re about being powerful, being the good guys against the bad guys – that’s a very tiny part of what can be done. There are so many other stories to tell, so many other emotions to trigger – this is a fantastic new medium, we can do much more than we currently do with it.”

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