Make someone happy, make someone smile

Videogames, with very few exceptions, are collaborative works – and are ultimately a reflection of the people that make them. Yet increasingly they’re also about a collision of industries, where different professions combine to push interactive entertainment in unexplored directions. This month we visit Rebellion, one of the longest-running game developers in the UK, to discuss its latest endeavour: a move into TV and film production, including the acquisition of a $100m movie studio.

Games and films have been bedfellows for some time, but rarely has the connection felt so close. This issue we check in on John Wick Hex, which redefines our expectations of the licensed movie tie-in. Mike Bithell and crew weren’t just given a script and some concept art; they were brought into the shoot, the editing room and the stunt department to gain a proper understanding of what makes Wick tick. And in further evidence of the growing relationship between games and films – and the headaches that result from it – we also bring you word of WIST, a new scriptwriting tool made by a group of game developers for use in interactive fiction.

It’s not all about film and TV, however. In Knowledge, for instance, we report on an unlikely collaboration between the streaming platform Twitch and language-learning app maker Duolingo. And in Studio Profile we learn about how The Chinese Room turned, almost accidentally, from a university research group into a globally respected videogame developer.

It comes in many flavours, but our opening point stands: games are defined by the people that make them. It’s ably proven by this month’s cover game. Despite the triple-A talent on Disintegration’s development team – and in particular Marcus Lehto, co-creator of Halo and the man who designed Master Chief – the game is equally defined by the younger members of the team, many of whom Lehto hired right out of university. The result is a game that calls back to the classics, then drags them in a thrilling new direction. The story begins on p56.