This is a real-life interactive game that uses many advanced shooting techniques and technologies.
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In 1993, the sci-fi movie “Jurassic Park” adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Clayton and directed by Steven Spielberg caused a huge sensation. That movie brought together many well-known actors, such as Samuel Jackson, Laura Dunn and Richard Attenborough, among which the most impressive character was Jeff Goldblum Ian Malcolm played.
Malcolm in the film is a tall and handsome mathematician who looks like a rock star
In “Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World” released in 1997, Goblen continued to play Malcolm, but Little-known is that he also participated in another Spielberg project. It is not a movie, and has nothing to do with the islands where dinosaurs are infested. It is a video game adapted from the best-selling novel “Goosebumps” by R·L. Stein-Goosebumps plays the role of Dracula the vampire in the game. .
This article is about the story of this little-known game today.
The game in the intense “filming”
Larry Gutman is the creative director of the game “Goosebumps: Escape From Horrorland”. Before developing that game, Gutman just showed that he was studying filmmaking at the University of Southern California Master’s graduation work.
“An executive from DreamWorks Interactive saw the work and recommended the production director to see it.” Gutman said, “After a while, he finally gave the work to Steven. Spielberg. At the beginning of 1996, I received a call and the other party told me Steven liked it, “I think I have a good vision,” and wanted to meet me and talk.”
Gutman was ecstatic. He admires Spielberg very much, and for him, joining the newly established DreamWorks studio is like a dream come true. After meeting with the production team, Gutman got the job, and then began busy filming for 25 consecutive days-“Goosebumps: Escape from Horror Paradise” is a point-and-click adventure game that incorporates a large number of live action scenes. This was a popular type of adventure game in that era, so the game development process was largely based on filming.
According to the art department assistant Paul Epston recalled, during the last two days of the project, the team shot 20 hours a day, rotated by two hands…Digital artist Craig Clark recalled, The project cycle is very tight, everyone has to work 6 days a week, and the shooting is completed within one month.
“The shooting at the time was complicated even when compared to real movies.” Gutman explained. According to him, the project team needed to combine model motion control with real-life performance scenes. An actor even “wore a huge werewolf suit controlled by a robot.” They spent a lot of time researching a process called “non-motion control CGI—background matching”, which was unheard of at the time. “I remember once, Spielberg came to see the shots we took and expressed his appreciation for our attitude to challenge the limit.”
Huge werewolf costume that needs manual control
“Goosebumps: Escape from Horror Paradise” was a great success after its release. It was selected as the best children’s game of the year by “Time” magazine, and its sales are quite good. At that time, the CEO of DreamWorks moved to the Pentagon, and the new CEO said that the company was satisfied with the performance of the work.
“We have a great team.” Gutman said, “My colleagues and I get along well. Although the entire shooting process is complicated, it goes smoothly. We combine real-life performances with games, and we feel like we are exploring the unknown. Field, and this is very exciting.”
A shooting scene full of accidents
Epston is also familiar with this new approach of combining live performances with games. One day in Los Angeles, Epston ran into an art director who helped him load the truck. The art director asked him what he wanted to do. He said “art director”, and then the other party asked him to leave his phone number… About a week later, Epston received a call and was invited to work on a new project. Personal assistant to the director. It didn’t take long before he discovered that the project was “Goosebumps: Escape from Horror Paradise”.
Epston’s main responsibility on the stage is to arrange props, but at the same time, he also drives a truck to deliver furniture to the scene. He often visits Image Q Studios, where the mini-models in the science fiction TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” were shot. Inspired by this, when choosing clothes for a character in a children’s game, Epston came up with some very interesting ideas.
Game shooting scene
“Sometimes I get a big brain and come up with a coup to solve the problem out of thin air.” Epston said, “For example, in the game, the werewolf has a mummy’s hand on the neck. You should try to grab it. My boss told me that the scene was made by CG and he only needed a model. But on the day of shooting, the director wanted to put props on the werewolf’s neck. The problem was that it was used If you are reading this paragraph, then I’m sorry.” Epston said, “I tried to make up for it with some suitable food, but I think today, 24 years later, they are a bit…too sticky.”
Caring from Spielberg and Bill Gates
Digital artist Craig Clark has worked with the management team of Goosebumps: Escape from Horror Paradise. As a member of Amblimation under Spielberg Amblin Entertainment, he has produced 3D previews for “Jurassic Park 2”. “This is a big project.” Clark explained, “Following the movie “Peacemaker”, “Goosebumps: Escape from Horror Paradise” is the second and first game released by DreamWorks Studio. The major TV stations and the E3 show attracted a lot of attention.”
Epston added that Spielberg and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg are both excited about the project.
Gutman, who worked directly with Spielberg, pointed out that Spielberg’s involvement in the production of “Goosebumps: Escape from Horror Paradise” far exceeded his expectations. “Spielberg likes video games. He came to visit the class when we were casting for the game character Lizzy. One of the girls looked more like the character, but the other had better acting skills. Spielberg was silent. After a while, I chose the girl who performed better. This explains the problem.”
Lizzy, the heroine in the game
Epston revealed that he had only met Spielberg once on stage, the time Gutman mentioned.
“The ins and outs of things are particularly interesting. One day when I arrived at the shooting site, I found that the person sitting in the director’s chair was not Larry (Gutman). So I went forward and planned to change his seat. When I When I approached, I could see more clearly, so I asked someone standing next to him: “Is that Spielberg?” Yes, the guy who approached the monitor was Jeffrey, the CEO and founder of DreamWorks Animation. Katzenberg.’Spielberg wants to see how the project is going.”
“I regret it, it would be more fun if I went up to talk to him without even looking at him. You can writeclass=”project-link” data-id=”56473″ data-name=” Interactive Push” data-logo=”https://img.36krcdn.com/20200929/v2_18f0d09dcfd3406886f6ef650cea4c87_img_000″ data-refer-type=”2″ href=”https://36kr.com/projectDetails/56473″ target=”_blank”>Interactive Twitter released the game “Jurassic Park: The Lost World” of the same name as the movie. At the same time, Katzenberg also began to pay more attention to the studio’s game department.
Ending
DreamWorks Interactive was disbanded in 2000, acquired by the EA Los Angeles team, and renamed Danger Close Games in 2010. Three years later, its remaining developers were transferred to the DICE Los Angeles studio (now part of Rebirth Entertainment), and recently a “Medal of Honor” VR game is being developed.
If you think about it carefully, you will find that the future of “Medal of Honor” has a lot to do with Jeff Goblen, who played Count Dracula in a game…this is all fate, right?
This article is compiled from: https://www.thegamer.com/spielberg-goldblum-goosebumps-game/
Original title: “Spielberg, Goldblum, And Goosebumps: The Story Of Dreamworks’ First Video Game”
author: Cian Maher