The anthologyLove, Death & Robotsmight have had a rocky start critically, but it shot for the moon with its third volume and showed what an adult animated anthology can accomplish.Secret Leveltakes the lessons learned fromLove, Death, & Robotsthat takes aim less at the bots and more on video games, telling stories from 15 notable titles players may be familiar with. Varying in length yet keeping a core story in mind,Secret Levelaims to showcase what makes these games special in wholly new adaptations. No matter how players receive these stories, executive producers Tim Miller and Dave Wilson hope they leave the audience feeling something at the end.
The creator of the anthology, Tim Miller, has a history of working on video games that began with Sega’sShadow the Hedgehogand went full circle with Miller serving as an executive producer on all three currentSonic the Hedgehogfilms. The same can be said about supervisor director Dave Wilson, a creative director at Blur Studiowho has worked onDestiny 2,Hellgate: London, andBioShock Infinite. To promoteSecret Level’s release, Game Rant got to chat with Tim Miller and Dave Wilson about how they tackled the creation of the anthology with the vast shared and separate video game and film directing between them.This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How the Idea of Secret Level’s Episodes Came to Be
Q: How did the creation process differ between episodes? Was it different depending on which game an episode was dealing with or was it roughly the same across all 15?
Miller:I think the process was the same, but the ingredients are different; just like cooking in the kitchen, but what you’re making is different. Most of it came from the type of game it was. We tried to cast authors and writers who had an affinity for that game. We built a big creative guide and found writers to do pitches because we really wanted a broad series of points of view instead of just Dave and I sitting in a room coming up with the same tired ideas over and over.
Wilson:That is as exciting as it sounds, by the way.
Miller:[Laughs]. We really wanted a broad spectrum, so we brought in all the authors we worked with, plus more,fromLove, Death & Robotsand we asked them to take a look at the materials and give us some interesting ideas. They did, and then they wrote prose versions that then got adapted to screenplays.
Q: What was it like working with such a large variety of game developers on this project?
Wilson:It was awesome. It’s not a process we’re unfamiliar with; Blur Studio’s been around thirty years, and we’ve worked tangentially with the gaming community for almost all of those years, so some of them are our friends. TheExodusdevelopersat Archetype, they’re theOld Republicfolks that we did all theStar Warstrailers with. We’re very familiar with them and, in some cases, we’re given a lot of freedom. James Ohlen, who runs Archetype, gave us…
Miller:Too much freedom. [Laughs].
Wilson:Yes, in that it’s almost unnerving in that it’s only ours to mess up. In some cases, you know, there’s a lot of lore to adhere to, but I think… in general, we have a high degree of trust both with Amazon and with the IP holders.
Miller:It’s because we have a high degree of respect for the IP, why people have liked them, and why people have invested so much time and love in them. you’re able to’t just say, “Okay, well, now we’re going to do our version of it.” You have to honor the franchise, you know?
Wilson:You know, they’re all different. The games, that is. Derek Yu is one developer who solely createdSpelunky, so it’s just one person we’re talking to. Obviously,franchises as big asWarhammerandDungeons & Dragonshave more people to consider when we’re having those conversations, but even then, I would say that as vast asWarhammeris, there are a handful of folks that we talked to that absolutely love their IP and all the people who work on it on their side. [They] always feel like massive, massive IPs, but when you distill it down, there are very small communities of essentially fans who all want to do the same thing, which is make a great episode and a great series.
Miller:If we put our finger on the scale, it’s to make it accessible to people who haven’t played the game, that’s where we try and push it out there.
Secret Level Wishes to Make Viewers Feel Something With Its Tales
Q: How much freedom with the source material did you have with these stories?
Wilson:We had more of that with established IPs, as I’m sureif you’ve seenPac-Man, you might say to yourself, “Yes, there’s a lot of freedom here.” With games that are sort of finding their feet, likeExodus, which hasn’t even come out yet, we’re definitely trying to be a little more faithful to the tone and tenets of the IP, so that it has a cohesive sort of voice coming out of the gate.
Miller:As Dave said, a lot of these people were people we had worked with before, and they trusted us.
Wilson:Lots. No more than Amazon, which was…
Miller:A lot. But you’re going to run the gambit from people who are particular about controlling the IP down to every comma, to people who are like, “We trust you guys, just make something cool.” It’s what we do in our regular business, so we understand [the ideas behind] that, and we can take on either direction.
Wilson:You can earn that trust every step of the way, right? It’s worth mentioning that when we meet with the developers at the outset, we build these creative guides that distill their whole franchise down so that we can share it with authors and anyone on our creative team who’s working on the series. In some cases, those creative guides are so tonally accurate and detailed that the developers use those to onboard their own employees at their own studios now.
We’ve earned that trust even with folks we haven’t worked that exclusively with before. You can earn that trust every single day along the way, and by the end of it, I think they’re happy to let us run with their franchise.
Q: Are there any episodes in particular you hope leave a strong impact on viewers when the credits roll?
Wilson:All of them.
Miller:Yeah.
Wilson:[Laughs]. For very different reasons, I remember when we were trying to figure out the line-up, I wanted to start withPac-Manbecause I think one way or the other, that episode is going to make you feel something, but Tim was like, “No one will stay and watch the show if we start with that one.” I think it was like, “We’re dumping people into a hundred-degree water; I think they’re going to jump straight out.”
I think, at the end of the day, with any story you’re telling or with any franchise, you just want your audience to feel something. I think the worst reaction to get [from the audience] is just a kind of apathetic, hollow experience. So, whether it’s a visceral reaction, or a humorous one, whatever it might be, I think you just want to leave people feeling something.
Miller:I havehigh hopes forExodusbecause it’s based on one of my favorite short stories from Jack London,An Odyssey of the North, which I always loved. It’s a great father-daughter version of that story, which was originally a love story.
Wilson:Personally, for me, as much as I’m sort of joking aboutPac-Man—Warhammer. I’m a huge fan of that franchise… the story, if you sort of claw away all the lore and detail, is essentially about a question: “Can we control what our children become?” Why it’s very meaningful to me is that I was on a call with the writersat Games Workshopwhen I got a call from my family that my father had passed away. So, I really do hope that underneath all that are some meaningful and heartfelt stories.
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