Are developers "star-struck"?

The love affair between Hollywood and games might be a bit odd at times, and Ken Levine from Irrational Games seems to agree. In an interview with Develop, he expresses reservations about how game executives view the big names from the movie world and that the games industry should stop being "star-struck".

"I was offered the chance to make a game with a film director. A very talented film director. [The Hollywood execs said] they really liked what I was doing and wanted to share it - that this project with creative leads from both game and film - was going to be amazing. My feeling is, why? Why would any game designer want to do that?"

Levine mentions Guillermo del Toro who has made a games deal with THQ, and that while he thinks del Toro is an amazing film director "I'm thinking... he's never made a videogame. Maybe he's got a genius for it. But games are really, really hard to make well. In our industry there's too many people star-struck of the movie world, jumping into deals with some big movie director just because they're big film directors."

Check out the full interview with Levine right here, which include more of his musings on films and games and about the time he himself was offered to make a game with a famous director.