Welcome to Mythos Productions – Gaming
That quote, flippantly stated on the Expo floor of the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, fueled an already ignited fire, set by the day-long master class in visual storytelling that we had just helped present. Our esteemed colleague, Mark Travis, was the lead presenter, deftly demonstrating the power and impact something as simple as the placement and staging of characters in a scene can have on the player and the overall game experience. In the days following the presentation, we were literally accosted by scores of designers, writers, programmers, and studio heads, telling us profoundly our presentation had changed their outlook, their world-view, and their approach to storytelling. We began traversing the Expo floor, meeting with the studio and publisher representatives, explaining to them that we were spearheading an effort to bring tools and techniques for more engaging, compelling storytelling to the gaming world.
That response, and our experience of the entire conference prompted us to write a white paper detailing our perceptions of the holes in the gaming industry’s approach to telling stories, our methodology and techniques, and how they could bridge the gap allowing the gaming industry to realize its place as a mainstream form of entertainment comparable to that of movies.
Synthesizing Nirvana has undergone several revisions, but the core ideas remain unchanged, and are even more applicable now than they were at the beginning of 2008.
Mythos Productions, as Tina Cardinale and Christopher Burns are collectively known, is responsible for five films (a sixth is currently in production), over 25 theatrical productions and music videos, and a wide array of other creative endeavors in visual entertainment. We have won awards as writers, directors, filmmakers, and sound-designers. Additionally, we have served as creative consultants for massive-scale projects for several of the largest names in interactive and event entertainment.
Our current efforts are taking us into the world of game design, where we are teaching at universities and consulting for game studios bringing our unique approach to storytelling and directing into a world that is rapidly becoming the next mainstream form of entertainment.
