Alien: Isolation creative Alistair Hope joins LFF Connects line-up

Alistair Hope

The 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express is delighted to announced that internationally renowned games designer Alistair Hope, whose work on the chilling survival horror game Alien: Isolation has made him one of the most respected names in the gaming world, will be the special guest for LFF Connects: Games, within the brand new series of thought-provoking talks exploring how film is engaging with other creative industries.

LFF Connects: Games with Alistair Hope will be at Picturehouse Central on Wednesday 14 October 16:00-17:00.

London’s first major Virtual Reality exhibition, Virtual Stories, free to all visitors will also take place during the Festival at BFI Imax, produced and curated by Festival partner, Power to the Pixel.

As the Creative Lead at Creative Assembly, Alistair Hope’s cinematic vision illustrates why games designers are being lauded as auteurs in their own right and games celebrated as an art form. Alien: Isolation collected three awards at the 2015 Develop Awards this summer and topped the best game lists of 2014 for PC Gamer, New Statesman and the Daily Telegraph. It has been praised for its retro-futuristic style, immersive scares and innovative use of AI to create the ultimate ‘Haunted House in Space’ experience, taking players back to the terrifyingly claustrophobic roots of Ridley Scott’s 1979 original.

Creative Assembly has also just hosted live on-stage developer sessions for Total War: WARHAMMER and Total War: ARENA at the EGX games convention at the NEC in Birmingham and sponsored a festival for disabled people using digital media.

Clare Stewart, Festival Director, BFI London Film Festival, says:

“Film and games are two of the UK’s booming creative sectors, capturing the imagination of audiences globally and influencing international industry peers. Alistair Hope is a trailblazer who brings a very cinematic imagination to game design and we are delighted to welcome him to our LFF Connects series of high-impact talks exploring the intersection of film with other creative forms.”

Alistair Hope studied fine art and sculpture before following his first love, creating game experiences. As an art director and games designer, he worked on titles for Activision, Electronic Arts and Sega in a variety of genres from sports, strategy games, action adventure and survival horror. He joined Sussex-based Creative Assembly in 1996.

Virtual Stories will feature projects by some of the world’s leading immersive storytellers including experiencing the dawn of life on Earth in First Life narrated by David Attenborough; falling down the rabbit hole and entering the psychedelic world of Alice in Wonderland in fabulous wonder.land; comingface to face with a living dinosaur in Jurassic World: Apatosauru; the sensory-shocking horror of Catatonic an immersive journey from inside an asylum; stepping onto the stage with Cirque du Soleil’s Inside the Box of Kurios; and seeing life in a Syrian refugee camp from the eyes of a 12-year-old girl in Clouds over Sidra.

The BFI is exploring the creative culture of games within its BFI Southbank programme, providing a platform for leading UK and international game developers to talk about their work throughout the year. The BFI’s Certification Unit also manages the qualification process for games accessing the new Video Games Tax Relief introduced by the UK Government as part of the Creative Sector Tax Reliefs.