Why watching movies is a necessity for games

You mean if watching movies is necessary to enter movie industry? If yes, then of course it is.

Or do you mean if watching movies is necessary to enter game industry? Well, then it depends. If you're going to make cinematic trailer of the game or work on some cutscenes, then it can be useful.

It's important if you work on the creative side of games. Games are increasingly replicating cinematic experiences as the technical limitations disappear.

When you say that your friends watch movies, are you implying that you don't ?

I don't see a Game Design question here. Moving to the Lounge.

I'd ask your friends about their claims. They're your friends, and they're the only ones who are sure to know what it is that they meant.

If you are making certain types of games, in particular if you are a game designer who is designing features for a high-end game, then you need to be aware of what is going on within the industry. Since they're making the movie comparison, imagine being a life-long film maker in the black and white industry and then suddenly discovering that people had used color film for decades. Or imagine that your sales of silent movies had dropped to zero, only to look around and discover that everyone else had moved to talkies.

For all the workers this is less critical. If you are a programmer you don't need to know about all the little design tweaks other games have been making, your designers should tell you what you are supposed to implement and should provide references if they want to say "Just like they did in games X and Y or during that scene in Z".

Also it depends quite a lot on the game. If you're making a networked chess game you don't need to be aware of all the pop culture references. If you're a writer for an upcoming AAA blockbuster, you better be comfortable with many cultures and each of their current trends.

My opinion if you want to develop thought provoking cinematic and original content. Avoid the silver screen and head to your local book store. Literature is the source. Instead of replicating or tweaking the scenes in your favorite movies read the classics and find your own original vision. The inspiration you are likely to get while watching "Saving Private Ryan" is likely to result in a similar vision to other viewers. However, when reading Homers "The Odyssey" you are likely to see a unique vision and have an idiosyncratic inspiration.

I recently read Mary Shelly's Frankenstein the game idea it inspired for me would not be recognized by other readers of the text. The themes are relatable but I had a unique vision to explore the theme. This isn't impossible with film just less likely. Your brain works harder when you read. It has to create the audio and visuals...does this process sound familiar?

I think I've noticed the influence of film in some recent game releases, the long cinema style titles in Horizon Zero Dawn (Lead programmer this, sound designer that..) and the very long 30-40min cinematic intro to Mass effect Andromeda which I ended up skipping through on youtube. Do the cutscenes add a lot to the game? Atmosphere, etc..? Hmm... well maybe.

My opinion if you want to develop thought provoking cinematic and original content. Avoid the silver screen and head to your local book store. Literature is the source. Instead of replicating or tweaking the scenes in your favorite movies read the classics and find your own original vision. The inspiration you are likely to get while watching "Saving Private Ryan" is likely to result in a similar vision to other viewers. However, when reading Homers "The Odyssey" you are likely to see a unique vision and have an idiosyncratic inspiration.

I recently read Mary Shelly's Frankenstein the game idea it inspired for me would not be recognized by other readers of the text. The themes are relatable but I had a unique vision to explore the theme. This isn't impossible with film just less likely. Your brain works harder when you read. It has to create the audio and visuals...does this process sound familiar?

That's an interesting thought. I've never had that idea cross my mind before. Now I feel an urge to go read some books! I don't read as many books as I'd like...

If I may also give my opinion I think it might depend on what you take from the movies that you watch. Like may others have said before my post with games having cinematic cutscenes then sometimes movies could help influence or give inspiration to those. Especially when it comes to technique or style. I've even read how motion caption has been shared between the movie industry and the game industry as well.

Besides that, I personally watch movies because they help inspire me on what type of stories I think would be great transition into a video game style. This is from a game writer perspective since I am working towards becoming a game writer for video games. Sometimes when looking for inspiration I will find myself watching animated movies or even tv shows to find inspiration on what types of stories I would want to create for video games.

I guess because a lot of games are becoming like movies now with life is strange and telltale and many other more story heavy games it's become a whole new form of entertainment.

For a game like God of War III, the devs must have looked for movies with a huge sense of scale. Just in the open sequence there are so many set pieces sewn together and it really is awe-inspiring. It's not really a game that's more of a movie, just that the presentation borrows concepts of grandeur from film.

If you want to turn your games into movies, then sure. But other than to serve as source of inspiration, no, watching movies is not important to making games.

Because you need to now story and details

It's not required. Movies, games, comics, novels, et. al. require you to read books, know the makeup of stories (beginning, middle, end, climax, build up, etc.), and be good at writing if you are on the story side of it. Graphically, you can pay homage or nod to a movie by making a scene similar, but again it's not required as it can, potentially, limit your imagination by focusing on what you saw in a movie. Programming doesn't require it at all, but I do see programmers say to play a lot of games and think of them in a programming stance as to how they might have achieved the feature or effect in the game. Sound effects and music are also more about creativity based on knowing basics of music so I would say it is less about watching movies and more about listening to scores from movies and sound effects from movies then trying to emulate pieces you like before trying to modify it to your preference or preferred style.

I'm just going to plain disagree that the source of all inspiration has to be books. Especially if you're claiming that everything story-related derives from classic stories. Yeh, reading is a good source for inspiration or reference, but they aren't superior to anything else. It's just one of a whole bunch of ways to get a story across. In that same vein, there's no need to say that movies HAVE to be the source for game visuals. If it's your goal to simulate the cinematic experience, then sure, use movies as your reference - but games are not movies, nor do they have to be similar to them.

I keep seeing threads pop up along the lines of "if you make games you MUST also do this! You must read books! You must watch movies! You must study 'the classics' of everything!" No, you don't have to. I instead propose that basing every new piece of media on "the classics" of everything just runs us around in circles. We don't need to tell the same stories in the same way over and over again. Do something else. It's fine to be original - draw inspiration from something entirely outside of media if you want to. Sure, maybe it means you'll end up reinventing the wheel - but maybe you'll do something nobody would have thought of at all had they constrained themselves to emulating other media. Study those things if you really want to - and yeah, there's benefits to it, things to be learned - but it's not a requirement by any stretch.

Lets take a look at two very successful games...you might have heard of them...

Resident Evil. Some one at Capcom loved the old Zombie movies of George Romero, and so you had the basic theme of the game; Zombies, classic b-movie monsters such as giant spiders and snakes thrown in for good measure. The lack of music in some sections adds an errie atmosphere to the game - even with hilariously diabolical dialogue. But all that is only second to the game itself - an improved Alone In The Dark. I can only assume someone had played AITD and loved the basic gist of it, but wanted to make a few adjustments.

Tetris. Inspired by a physical, classic children's block game? I don't think it has anything to do with a film in the slightest, but in some versions theres images of really hip mushroom buildings you'll find in Russia. Dunno if those were in the original version of the game, though. The point is, the gentleman who made the game, looked to something in the real world - not the silver screen. Possibly more successful than Resident Evil...

So, no, an interest in film is not required to make a game. By playing other games you get a feel for what games you enjoy playing and those you enjoy developing. You also get experience of what you absolutely hate about playing games - no matter how they are dressed up. That said, theres certainly no harm in looking to a film to make your game cooler...

Top Gun. After Burner. Nuff said!

The answers here are a bit of a knee jerk reaction. Inspiration lies everywhere. Watching films can help you, but knowing more about cinema as opposed to less about cinema will help you more. If you know about as much as the average IMDB user, then you're not going to have a leg up on your competition. As an example, The Shawshank Redemption is not the greatest film ever made among those who know cinema, although IMDB might have you believe The Shawshank Redemption is the greatest film ever made. The reason The Shawshank Redemption ranks as number one on IMDB is because it polls the cinematically illiterate as well as the literate.

If you step outside the boundaries of the cinema you're familiar with, and really start to explore cinema, a discovery process begins. And learning begins. When learning occurs, ideas are generated. Never shrug off opportunities to let ideas form that wouldn't have formed otherwise.

In short, watching great cinema can give you a leg up over your competitors. Choose as you will.

There’s a wonderful quote from Terry Pratchett about being a good writer.

“So, instead, I give tips on how to be a professional boxer. A good diet is essential, of course, as is a daily regime of exercise. Pay attention to your footwork, it will often get you into trouble. Go down to the gym every day – every day of your life that finds you waking up capable of standing. Take every opportunity to watch a good professional fight. In fact watch as many bouts as you can, because you can even learn something from the fighters who get it wrong. Don’t listen to what they say, watch what they do. And don’t forget the diet and the exercise and the roadwork.

Got it? Well, becoming a writer is basically exactly the same thing, except that it isn’t about boxing”

And being an artist/programmer/level designer/whatever is exactly the same thing except it isn’t about writing.

If you want to create something, look at what others have created before you. Good, bad, you can still learn from it. Don’t be restricted by genre or even medium.

So yeah, watch movies (and tv shows too). Read books (and comics!). Listen to all kinds of music. Play games (board games too); if you can study the source code, even better

Unless you are spending more time watching than creating, immersing your self in art can only help you.

One thing I would say is that if you can get influences from any medium (games, movies, books, music, etc.) but I wouldn't say it was mandatory.

I do believe that looking at other creative mediums broadens your mindset about how you approach games.

Maybe you are interested in instilling a deep sense of doom and dread into your game. Maybe you love the idea of scaring gamers. So the natural course of action would be to just play games that fit that mold (Amnesia, Silent Hill, etc) but why not expand to other mediums like movies for inspiration. You never know what a movie like "The Conjuring" could teach you about building suspense and how to use jump scares in a new a different way.

All of a sudden your games have a different depth and feel even fullerl and maybe can even reach more audiences who may be looking for something "different".

There is so much to learn from every field. I would say don't burden yourself by feeling you have to watch a 100 movies just to feel like an adequate game designer. I would just encourage you to be a student of all things. Watch what makes people happy, what makes people sad, what makes them laugh, and what makes what people feel.

Distill that into your games and love what you do!

I would have to say yes for a few reasons, as now the game industry has surpassed the movie industry in profits (not sure now in today time ) and are given big budgets (sometimes) to make the game epic, everything from sound to graphics, and if the game is going to mimic a movie the yes it would be beneficial to watch to get reference material and possibly cut scenes from the movie. But if not then I would have to say no, the format of your game could be completely different from any movie.