There's no business like show business, and the game industry is no exception.

As much as I hate to plug Spike TV, it turns out that the much rumored Guillermo Del Toro game will be announced during the upcoming Video Game Awards, as reported by the folks at Joystiq. So far, we know that the game is being developed with THQ, that it will embody a horror narrative (yet not fall into the survival horror genre), and that it is “Lovecraftian” in nature. With Del Toro having directed chilling and beautifully twisted films like Hellboy, The Orphanage, and Pan’s Labyrinth, developing a horror game seems like a perfect fit for him.

When I first read about Del Toro’s ambitions in the game industry, I was skeptical. Particularly because of what may have been a misquote stating that the only games he considered art were Team Ico’s titular creation Ico, and its conceptual follow up Shadow of the Collosus. I would later learn that this was false, as the director seems to hold many games in high regard, including a vast library of shooters and several recent action games. After watching and reading a few interviews, including one at a panel that took place in my very own Portland, Oregon, I feel like Guillermo Del Toro has what it takes to make the directorial transition into game development. However, this won’t happen without the challenges inherent of the transition itself.

To a point, I agree with Del Toro when he stated that “video games are the comic books of our times.” Socially, they fit the paradigm perfectly. They have mass appeal among adolescents and for this reason they are chastised for purportedly influencing sociopathic behaviors. Hell, interest groups are hedging California courts with the same kind of decisions that brought the failed ACMP (Association of Comics Magazine Publishers) stumbling onto the scene in the late 1940’s. However, unlike comics -- and more importantly, movies -- video games are not married to linear mechanisms for navigating narratives. Whereas a movie or a comic conveys its narrative by linear means (progressing a sequence of frames or turning a page, respectively), the narrative and the process by which the game conveys that narrative can change depending on how the player plays the game.

We’ve seen a few honest attempts at stamping out a game with Hollywood’s tried, hot irons. Enter The Matrix and Stranglehold are two such games. Both are supposed to have been wrought under the influence of experienced film makers, and both are characterized in reviews as being painfully linear. In Enter The Matrix, the mechanics alone made the game feel like it was driving itself -- in short, a traditional cinematic experience. This just doesn’t work with today’s gamers who demand interesting gameplay in lieu of cinematics. To be fair, there’s also danger in wading out too far in attempt to make waves, only to drown in miscalculated expectations of the industry and its limitations. Anyone looking to develop a game with a narrative needs to know the difference between cinematic and kinesthetic experiences, and how to balance the two.

Guillermo Del Toro sounds like he’s up to the task. He has a deep appreciation for the visually stunning, the emotionally alluring and the conceptually surprising -- not to mention experience working with all three. It also helps that Mr. Del Toro is an avid gamer. I’ve always believed that good things are made by people who love good things. If his intuition for what makes a good game is anything like his intuition for what makes a good flick, horror and gaming fans alike have something to look forward to.

Now if only we can dodge the inevitable wave of spectacle-laden 3D games until then..