Recently, Netflix's original Korean drama "Squid Game" has spread around the world and has been widely discussed on social media at home and abroad. "Squid Game" is directed and written by Hwang Dong-hyuk, starring Lee Jeong-jae, Park Hae-so, Wei Huajun, Kong Liu, Lee Byung-hyun, Jeong Ho-juan, Lee Yu-mi and so on. The 9-episode series tells the story of a group of desperate people in desperate need of money who receive a mysterious invitation to participate in 6 life-and-death battle royale games for a prize of 45.6 billion won. So far, "Squid Games" has won the first place in the popularity of Netflix single-day episodes in india, Ukraine and South Africa, especially in North America, and it has topped the list for a week.
Episodes themed around survival games are not uncommon, but they don't succeed too much. The global popularity of "Squid Games" has made everyone see the global attributes of the game and some commonalities among humans. Under the influence of the show, it is believed that the game-themed series will become the next wave of production.
Games and episodes don't have much to do with each other, and to some extent, games are unscripted and episodes are scripted; however, today, the two have begun to merge, and the boundaries are not so clear. The popular "script killing" is the product of the fusion of games and episodes, although there is still controversy in all walks of life, but in any case, their emergence makes us see a new direction of development.
Foreign researchers have found that almost everyone under the age of 50 is at a critical stage in the development of the video game industry. Indeed, almost everyone under the age of 50 has been exposed to video game consoles, arcades, or other forms of games as children. Therefore, it is not surprising that games have an impact on the film and drama market. For example, small games such as "Angry Birds" have a deep impact on the elderly in Europe and the United States, and have been adapted into cartoons, dramas and other scripted content. In today's era of universal smartphones, the relationship between games and dramas is becoming more and more inseparable. It is reported that the world's popular drama series "Squid Game", its derivative game was developed and released by Roblox, the world's leading multiplayer online creative sandbox game platform.
Among the episodic production companies, there have also been companies like Canada's BINGE, which focus on the development of game attribute episodes. Many drama production companies began to consider its game attributes at the beginning of the establishment of the project, thinking about how to make the content of the episode into an interactive game project, and the linkage between movies and games became more and more normalized. When I started my social TV business, in the process of promoting the second-screen business, I often encountered the promotion of linkage games that were broadcasting episodes on mobile phones. In this regard, the American drama "The Walking Dead" has done a great job, and this project is often used as a classic case by the industry to illustrate the close connection between the game and the series.
The development of interactive dramas, allowing the audience to participate in the setting and direction of the plot, was once pushed by the broadcast platform. Although these attempts have not been significantly successful, it is believed that they are future trends, and may simply be that the current creativity and production cannot meet the real needs of the audience.
Some experts believe that the interactive game as an extension of the series is only the first step in development, and it will end with an ultra-high-end experience that seamlessly integrates virtual reality, speech recognition and artificial intelligence storytelling capabilities. In today's move towards artificial intelligence, many predict that screenwriters will be replaced by robots, and the best way to replace artificial screenwriters is, of course, to let games dominate the development of linear plots. These developments may be unexpected, but they must be justified. Therefore, when artificial intelligence already has a massive storyline library and logical screenwriting skills, it can completely promote the development of the plot through games, thus replacing the current "screenwriter storytelling" model.
The industry often says to respect the audience, but the series are often led by the producer, and the audience can only watch or comment. The game allows the audience to directly participate in the development of the plot, and even participate in the cultivation of characters. In today's CGI (Universal Gateway Interface) is very developed, combined with VR (virtual reality) technology, it is very easy to make episodes into games, or let games become episodes. The line between the two is blurring, and the payment habits that the game has already cultivated will also greatly improve the profitability of the series. In the future, viewers may pay to unlock certain episodes, or they may invest in their favorite characters. Buying equipment in the game may evolve into the characters in the center of the drama to buy clothes and props. It is believed that the audience that has grown up in these game eras will effectively promote the commercial development of the series.