As part of the Industry program, professor Stéphane Natkin held a masterclass titled How are video games different…?

At the lecture, Natkin presented some of the differences which occur during the production of video games and linear audiovisual works. Although film and video games strive to immerse the viewer, i.e. player into their story, the path to that goal differs. In video games, Natkin points out, it is necessary to create a challenging and imaginative world with at least one strong character which is the player, and the process of production itself includes creating prototypes and various iterations up until the final product, as well as validating those phases. Natkin also stressed that video games are becoming more and more a service, and not a product, and also touched upon the new marketing practice of online distribution of games and new players on the market, such as Netflix and Facebook.

Along with Natkin, Thierry Baujard, co-founder of SpielFabrique accelerator, gave a short lecture and presented current possibilities for financing videogames.

After the masterclass, we held a panel From Films to Games: The Future of Creative Media, dedicated to the development of education in the field of video games and the bringing together of filmmakers and gamemakers. The participants of the panel were Stéphane Natkin, Thierry Baujard, Mario Čelan (SIMORA, Pismo Incubator), Christopher P. Marcich (Croatian Audiovisual Centre), and Davor Švaić (Academy of Dramatic Art).

The Masterclass and the panel were held within the DigiTelling project, the first regional mentorship program organized by Goethe-Institute Kroatien and the French Institute in Croatia, supported by Franco-German cultural fund and in cooperation with the Edu4Games initiative.

Stéphane Natkin’s masterclass is available on this link: