The director of the PlayStation 3 psychological thriller, Heavy Rain has used his game's Bafta awards success last week to launch a scathing attack on video game industry creativity. David Cage, who is also the co-founder of Quantic Dream, the French studio responsible for the two-million selling title, has told The Guardian, "games always explore the same things. They're about being powerful, being the good guys against the bad guys – that's a very tiny part of what can be done. There are so many other stories to tell, so many other emotions to trigger – this is a fantastic new medium, we can do much more than we currently do with it."

When asked if he thought the leftfield design of Heavy Rain reflected France's tradition of more artsy visual entertainment, he concurred, but said he knew of American developers becoming frustrated with well-worn themes and genres.

"In Europe, we are not as easy to satisfy; being given a gun to hold is not necessarily enough in a game. But it's not just in Europe, I hear many developers in the US saying the same thing – 'look, I'm 40, I'm fed up of writing games where you shoot at everyone. It was fun when I was twenty but now I want to do something else. I don't watch the same movies as I did when I was 20, I don't listen to the same music, but I'm still making the same games!' Developers are fed up – they want to talk about their families, politics, whatever – why not in a game? Why not?! There is no reason."



Cage went on to say that winning three Baftas had been "totally unexpected" and that the Story award was particularly appreciated. "It is the one I was dreaming of. I worked so hard on the story, and it's the first I ever wrote that was based on something personal. It was not about space marines fighting aliens, it was about my relationship with my first son and how he changed my life – and also about how loving someone without expecting anything in return was something totally new."

"There should be more people trying this," he continued. "Don't write about being a rookie soldier in WWII, because you don't have a clue what that's like. Talk about yourself, your life, your emotions, the people around you, what you like, what you hate – this is how the industry will make a huge step forwards. I'm fed up with space marines."

Heavy Rain, which took Baftas for Story, Original Music and Technical Innovation, features desperate father Ethan Mars attempting to save his son from a serial killer. But the story starts with the accidental death of Ethan's other son, and the father's grief forms a huge part of the narrative. The action takes place through a series of choreographed set-pieces and players must also control mundane elements of the characters' lives including making food and at one point changing a baby's nappy.

"When we worked on Heavy Rain, it was a very strange situation," says Cage. "Apart from Sony, no one believed it. 'What? a story about emotions?! No cars, no platforms to jump on? What are you going to do in it? Is it going to be Dragon's Lair – an interactive movie?' We heard that for two years!

"We struggled, we tried to stay calm, we went to all the shows – we went to E3, GDC, Gamescom – and we explained what we believed in and tried to show it. We said this is real, this is what we're doing. It has sometimes been depressing, but it has been stimulating. To receive three awards means a lot, it means we were right to make all these difficult choices, we felt like aliens in our own industry."

Cage is now hopeful that, as his company starts work on its next project (reportedly very different to Heavy Rain), more developers will begin to experiment with new themes and dramatic story-telling methods:

"I hope this will inspire people – it should! I want competition in this field. I don't want to be alone on my flagship shouting, 'Hey! Emotional storytelling!' There should be more games trying this. But very few developers have the luxury of having a great publisher trusting them. We did an indie game with the financial support of a Triple A title. "

However, he is also dismissive of the game's achievement in selling over two million copies. "I don't feel pressure from that," he argues. "We have a lot to prove. I don't see Heavy Rain as an achievement, I see it as a first step. I know we can do much better, we can go further. I know there are many people out there to convince. I mean, look at how many people played Heavy Rain in comparison to Call of Duty – we want as many players as that. And even that is nothing – look at how many people watched Avatar. That is where we want to go.

"I don't feel pressure having sold two million copies. This is just the beginning."