Secondary Research

I conducted research into the the ways in which documentaries incorporate a video game theme. One of the most prominent stories was a documentary called King of Kong. King of Kong is story of Steve Wiebe and how he trumped Billy Mitchell to achieve the Donkey Kong world record. A game theme has to be used to good effect within a film otherwise the audience will lose interest with the story. To make a game related story more interesting, it is key to have characters of which the audience find interesting and are able to engage with. The most effective thing of which King of Kong uses is a clear protagonist and antagonist. Through this the audience is able to easily identify which character is good and bad.

Antagonist: Billy Mitchell Protagonist: Steve Wiebe

Another way in which a video game theme is used is through the use of films. An example of this is a comedy film called Pixels. Although the film wasn't very highly rated its use of visual effects helps to blur the line between game and reality helping the audience to become more part of the action. This kind of technique can be used in the form of sound by carefully placing specific gaming sound effects to make the characters seem as if they are part of the game.

There is another documentary called Indie Game: The Movie which details the struggles of indie game developers of expressing themselves through art form. The documentary details the low-budget life style of two indie game developers that are viewed as the "underdogs" of the gaming industry. From this documentary I can learn that in order to make a story more engaging the personal struggles of individual characters can be used to help the audience feel more attached to the story.