Video Games

Video games have not only become the most powerful entertainment industry. Their undeniable impact on the contemporary culture and their capacity to generate paradigms that later on are reproduced and recycled by other digital creation areas have consolidated this form of expression with a thirty-year history as a legitimate artistic medium in the commercial space. Art Futura acknowledges the huge impact of the art and industry of video games on contemporary creation increasing its role within the festival program from now on. Sessions devoted to Naughty Dog, The Sims and Machinima will offer a journey through the most innovative projects on development nowadays related to electronic leisure and the Net. But, above all, they will make the audience know directly the ideas and thoughts of some people hidden behind this phenomenon.

JASON RUBIN - Naughty Dog

Despite his youth, Jason Rubin has been working for fifteen years in the world of video games. At the early age of 16, he began to develop games for systems already legendary such as the Apple II, Amiga or Atari ST, and their first forays into PC produce landmarks as "Dream Zone", the first video game using the graphics standard VGA. In 1989, Jason founded Naughty Dog along with Andrew Gabin. Six years later, Rubin and his partner would create the character who has awarded him a place of honour in the history of electronic entertainment: Crash Bandicoot. Protagonist of a saga that has revolutionized the platforms genre, Crash is one of the most recognizable icons in the recent history of video games, as identifiable with PlayStation as Mario or Sonic are with Nintendo or Sega. "Crash Bandicoot" gestation was a difficult process which required, in Jason's words, "two years of 18-hour day's work". The programmers' team includes the presence of experts such as Dave Bagget, a specialist in Artificial Intelligence who studied with Gabin at the mythical Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Clearly, it's worth this effort. The four Crash Bandicoot adventures have become the most popular series of action and adventure video games in the history of Playstation, having sold more than twenty million units all over the world. Jason Rubin will present in ART FUTURA his new project: "Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy", the eagerly awaited first video game developed by his company for the Playstation 2 console. This new title promises a huge epic fantasy which combines elements form many different genres: platforms, adventure, strategy, races,... a whole anticipation of the future in electronic entertainment.

LOS SIMS - JAMIE DOORNBOS

The Sims is the best selling game in 2000. Its extension is the second in the top-selling list. This game, that some people have defined as "a spreadsheet for lifestyles", is a work of a singular creator, Will Wright, and his company Maxis. For five years, Jamie Doornbos worked closely with the already legendary Will Wright in the development of the first video game that tries to reproduce faithfully how our society works: the Sims. The whole video game is not Will Wright's and his team's doing. Just like Sim City caused a big exchange of cities between their players through the Net, The Sims is a game modifiable by their users, who have thrown themselves to carry out all types of additions to the original game. Jamie Doornbos, The Sims' lead programmer, will be the protagonist of a session where he will unravel the creation process of a project which has marked a turning point in the history of the discipline. Moreover, Electronic Arts will present The Sims Online, the new version of the program which will allow players of the game to live together simultaneously in virtual cities.

MACHINIMA

Machinima, or animation cinema carried out in real time inside the video games engines, is a cult art that is beginning to receive the acknowledgement outside the experts' circles. An exploration of this surprising discipline born from the unexpected application of the video games technology to the traditional narration.