Montreal studio gets exclusive rights to Charlie Chaplin for upcoming video game

No violence. No sexism. No racism. Genuine storytelling.

Those were the conditions Charlie Chaplin's family gave a Montreal-based video game company before giving them the exclusive rights to the character.

Those conditions were "much more important than the money," said Yves Durand, a museographer and an expert on Charlie Chaplin.

Durand helped establish the Chaplin's World museum in Switzerland with Chaplin's children, and pitched the idea of a video game to the family with Robert Young, co-founder of B Df'rent Games.

As of this year, they received the worldwide licence to develop video games based on the images, films, music and archival materials of the filmmaker Charlie Chaplin — one of the film world's very first superstars.

Chaplin's character 'lends itself to a game'

On the silent screen, Chaplin became a star with his character, the Tramp.

Large baggy pants, an ill-fitting tight black coat, clown-esque shoes and his unmistakable moustache defined the actor and comedian, who made his debut on the silver screen in 1914.

"One of the fascinating things about Chaplin is you show a Chaplin film to a group of young people [between] 10-15 years old [is] you start seeing people laugh, even today," said Young.

"What he did, how he did it, how he expressed himself, how he moved still makes people laugh today. They still get a kick out of it … It just lends itself to a game so well."

Young describes Chaplin as a humanitarian, pacifist, and someone who "exposed universal values." He says they hope to showcase these principles in "social impact" video games with the help of Indie Asylum, a gaming co-operative in Montreal which is working on this project.

"It's been a five-year process of talking with the family ... And it was much more about aligning our values with the Chaplin family than negotiating royalties," said Young, adding that he thinks this game will be well-received among young people.

"What's interesting and perhaps a misconception is that people think of Chaplin from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and [assume people interested in his films] might be an older

demographic but in fact … over 200 million people a year are watching Chaplin films on YouTube and the age is somewhere around 15-35."

Will a non-violent game interest gamers?

No one has ever done a video game with this intellectual property, says Christopher Chancey co-founder of Indie Asylum. He notes that this alternative type video game — one that strays from transitional themes centred around violence — can be successful.

"This isn't our first foray into these types of projects," said Chancey.

"I think there's more and more of an appetite … [We're seeing] great success cases across the planet right now with video games that don't have violence… I think the pandemic also helped in that sense."

"Life was so stressful for a while that continuing playing dark video games or video games with mature themes was more like a downer," Chancey said.

Chancey points to Nintendo's latest games, Animal Crossing, which broke records in 2020, as an example.

Video game in development

Although the concept of the Chaplin video game is still in development, the themes around the game could centre on the challenges between the poor and rich, says Chancey.

He says it's exciting to be able to design a game with a character as iconic as Chaplin.

"Working on an intellectual property that has been known for over 100 years and in all of the countries in the world … It's definitely a challenge and one that we feel comfortable rising up to," said Chancey.

People could see this game in store as early as 2023, says Young, but the team will be paying careful attention to detail, just as Chaplin did — as a comedian, actor and director.

"Chaplin was particularly meticulous. He was famous for going through rolls and rolls and rolls of film and saying 'no, it's no good, we're going to shoot it again.' And it's reflected also in his attention to detail when he played the Tramp, the way he walked up the stairs, his movements are extremely precise and extremely well-executed," said Young.

"That is going to be a challenge to portray that and to mimic that in a gaming environment."

Young notes they are launching a crowdfunding campaign in the new year and will start to work on the design with their team.