At gamescom’s Opening Night Live in August, Tim Miller, co-founder of CG animation powerhouse Blur Studio, shocked and excited gamers all over the world with the announcement of Secret Level: an adult animation anthology series featuring 15 original short stories set within the worlds of some of the most beloved video games.
Blur is a revered and legendary studio in the video game space, responsible for some of the most remarkable and cherished CGI cinematics and trailers for games, such as Halo Wars, Dark Souls II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and the Batman: Arkham series. Of course, Blur’s output extends beyond video games alone, with the studio also responsible for the acclaimed Netflix series Love Death + Robots, and with visual effects contributions to films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Sonic the Hedgehog, and many more.
Exclusively on Prime Video and premiering Tuesday, December 10, in over 240 countries and territories worldwide, Secret Level tells all-new short stories in the worlds of such franchises as Mega Man, Unreal Tournament, Armored Core, and even PAC-MAN. New World: Aeternum from Amazon Games — releasing tomorrow on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S—will also feature as part of the Secret Level series alongside several iconic gaming properties.
“One of our goals for Secret Level is to feature games from as wide a spectrum of genres as possible,” said Miller. “The New World: Aeternum feature is our only episode based on an online RPG, and our team was excited to have some fun with parts of the online RPG experience: the feeling of being overmatched, of dying over and over, going on quests, collecting items, leveling up, even crafting.
“For us, the multiplayer part is important too,” Miller continued. “These games are about playing with other people. Our New World: Aeternum story is about a vain, self-centered hero who maybe doesn’t see the value of the other people in Aeternum with him. We’ve all encountered players like that. Sometimes we are players like that.”
A Blur Studio and Amazon Games Co-Op Adventure
Secret Level is an entirely collaborative affair, with each of the participating game studios deeply embedded with Blur as each episode comes to life. Blur has earned the implicit trust of its partners to do right by their properties, but the studio is under no illusions as to the importance of ensuring those closest to these games are brought along throughout the entire process.
“One thing that’s unique about Secret Level is that we’re not licensing these IPs,” Miller explained. “We don’t show up with a bag of money and a pitch, acquire the rights, and then disappear and show up five years later with an episode. This show is a partnership between us, the game companies, and Amazon MGM Studios. We’ll never understand these games as well as the people who created them, so we enlist them at every step of the process to understand what makes it great and unique, what kind of stories, moments, and visuals feel true to it, and where they see potential for telling a good story or even including a subtle nod to something players love.”
Amazon Games was, of course, delighted to partner with a studio of Blur’s caliber and placed its trust in the team to authentically honor the New World IP with this story. However, while the lore and expertise of Amazon Games is a critical ingredient, according to New World: Aeternum Narrative Director Rob Chestney, equally as important is the unique perspective and flavor that Blur brought to the table.
“It’s also important to push it a little bit, to stretch it a little bit farther than you saw before so you’re not just seeing a rehash of what’s in the game: you’re actually experiencing some new elements of the IP that you haven’t seen anywhere else,” Chestney expanded. “I’ve worked with Blur before, and the secret is to give them the idea, give them the world, give them the concept of what the game is and then let them go and come up with something awesome and creative. They’re probably going to come up with something that’s so ambitious and mad that they could hardly even pull it off. But that’s what makes them awesome: that they then stretch themselves to create something that just blows everybody away. We got this pitch and it was a slam dunk.”
Love Death + Respawning
Each game property participating in Secret Level brings something unique to the anthology series. In the case of New World: Aeternum—an online action RPG set on an island where death is not permanent—the concept of eternal life via respawn being fundamental to the game proved fertile ground on which to tell a different kind of story.
“During our first meeting, the Amazon Games team said they felt like there was room for more humor in the game, and we felt like there was more room for humor in our series,” explained Miller. “And the fact that New World takes a part of gaming that’s so basic we barely think about it—the idea that when you die, you come back to life and start again—and integrates this into its mythology; this struck the team as an opportunity for comedy. We give Amazon Games a lot of credit for wanting to explore a direction that’s not obvious based on the game. A lot of our best stories came from taking risks.”
Chestney and his team were struck by the creative and somewhat unexpected approach that Blur adopted for the New World: Aeternum episode. “They came up with this fantastic story that really looks at twisting the world a little bit and seeing it from a different perspective. The idea of living and dying and living and dying over and over again and having that be a story about second chances.”
“I love the idea that it plays on a core concept of so many games’” added Miller. “I’m also just kind of a sucker for emotional stories. I love the fact that it’s not just a typical hero’s journey, but it’s really an emotional journey and a story about friendship. If we can hit on all of those things where you get a little action, you get a little humor and you get a lot of heart, I think that’s the magic trick of a good story.”
New World: Aeternum launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on Tuesday, October 15, and come December 10, be sure to check out the New World: Aeternum episode of Secret Level, exclusively on Prime Video.
