Computer Game "From Dust" God, the player

Computer Game "From Dust" God, the player
"Games are art": With "Another World" revolutionized the legendary developer Eric Chahi the world of computer games. Now, reports the Frenchman back with "From Dust" furious - in the scenery of the player acts as God, can shape the entire landscape.
On the screen to deform landscapes, as if by magic sucks on a giant ball of sand and spread it over the world. Water paves its way off, flooding the newly heaped Wall. Lava ignite a forest, destroyed entire villages. Laboriously carve their residents a way back to build their new homes until the next natural disaster strikes. They are exposed to the ravages of nature, just like the player: he can in "From Dust" while acting like a god, but must then find that the forces of nature are often stronger.
"From Dust" is the new play by Eric Chahi. The Frenchman is a man who has long as one of the most creative minds of the games industry celebrated was but was withdrawn more than ten years of boredom, a Industry who always wanted the same, the little New Ideas included. That was not the industry wanted to work in the Chahi. Now he does it yet again and has convinced the French game maker Ubisoft to his idea of ​​"From Dust". Now he sits in the Ubisoft studio in Montpellier, where he enjoys spending his time in the shady courtyard.
His previous best-known play is "Another World". In 1991, he has published it and given it an outlook on future games, highlighted ways that were inconceivable at that time. As one of the first one he put in an effective medium of cinema, game, stayed on perspectives, trying to tell a story through cutscenes, and thus became the model for many other game designers. Fumito Ueda is called as "Another World" as an important influence on his groundbreaking title "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus". "Metal Gear Solid" creator Hideo Kojima's masterpiece Chahis one of the five most important games of all time. Chahi delighted with this praise, it means something to him to be recognized by people who have done great things in the industry.
Belief in a Higher Power
It is not only the graphic style of "Another World" makes it special. It is the feeling of isolation, loneliness that overcomes the player in the world. No wonder, says Chahi, so he had felt then, as the game he programmed more than a year away by themselves. "Another World", and even that was new in an industry that sees itself as an entertainment provider, the work of an artist, because as one sees in such Chahi.
"Games are art," he says without hesitation. Or better, you can be art. Because he is his French counterpart Michel Ancel very close. Ancel also works in Montpellier and has "Rayman" and "Beyond Good & Evil" also created a very personal game. Both deal with their own expression, an attempt to tell the players something to share them.
This must be no deep messages, although in "From Dust" sometimes works. Because there holds the player's hand are a primitive tribe, whose clothing, masks and music is a mix of many primitive peoples, as Chahi says. The task is similar to God to change the landscape and to enable people to survive. Finding a balance in the levels to create a circle of life. It resonates with something religious in the game, in which the faith is seen in a higher power as a unifying element. The higher power that is in "From Dust" the players.
Chahi for nature is a higher power, places such as volcanoes and deserts. He has traveled to such places, after he had completed 1998's "Heart of Darkness," his second well-known game. It's about the anxieties of a little boy and how you can defeat them. Not a commercial issue, accordingly, has poorly it sells. For him, the temporary closing point in the industry. He began to paint, programmed music software and traveled around the world. As he stood on a volcano in Vanuatu and stared into the fire, listening to the rumblings from the deep, two things became clear to him. First, that he must make a new game, on the other hand, that this game will have the forces of nature on the subject. From this idea is "From Dust" originated.
The nature of the rival
But first we had to Chahi back into the world of game developers had to find a studio that could help him implement his idea. Because the market had changed radically in the meantime, the companies have become huge, even bigger budgets. Luckily for him, has in recent years established a market that even smaller projects can help to a large audience: the download market. Whether it's Xbox Live Arcade, the Playstation Store, the download channel to the Wii or PC download stores such as steam - they all give small developers access to the players, without requiring them to distribute their games on expensive shops.
His past made it Chahi easier to find a manufacturer, for "Another World" has not forgotten his Maker someone to whom one listens. Ubisoft learned from the project and financed it could fall back on Chahi developers of the company. However, it took almost five years from concept to completion.
Now, he says, has made it. "From Dust" is available as a download, the players are excited. For "From Dust" not only looks great, it makes a lot of fun. As in a sandbox one tries to pile up mountains, digging troughs in which water can drain away like the sand box and you also tries to protect itself from its rival. The nature here is, and can not even impress the god-like players, but only influence.
"From Dust" by Ubisoft, the download for Xbox 360, PC (. From 17.8) and Playstation 3 (from autumn) USK: 6 years