Developers speak in Critical Path, an archive of interviews

Critical Path is a collection of interviews with respected game developers, such as David Cage, Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, and many others.

The documentary series, which lets professionals speak freely about different topics in the industry, will soon expand beyond the web.

"We have a few goals," filmmaker David Grabias told Joystiq. "We want to provide a documentary-based venue for critical discussion about the art of making video games. We hope to provide developers with a place where they can come for nuggets of inspiration. We also want to provide players with insight into their game experience, and hopefully make them aware of the great minds behind the great games. Finally, we feel we are in a fascinating era in game development. We want to document it for future generations."

The archive is growing, but contains about 121 interviews, each 30-120 seconds in length.

Critical Path will evolve into a feature-length television documentary as well as a mobile app that will launch "hopefully sooner rather than later."

The name refers to the term developers use when planning a game. The project began in 2009, and has officially been in production for two years.

"I think this kind of introspective project is useful, both for the industry to get a sample of how a lot of different developers think, and if it gets turned into something understandable by normal humans, it might show we have more going on than just orc and space marines," said Chris Hecker, one of the developers featured in the archive. "The more people talking seriously about games as an art form, the better."

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