Fan-made Another World short film Project 23 recreates game's stylish intro

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Back in 1991, a fellow by the name of Eric Chahi created a game called Another World —or Out Of This World, as it was known in North America—and it was spectacular. Its 2D side-scrolling action wasn't remarkable in and of itself, but it was intensely, almost startlingly cinematic; in other words, the sort of thing that lends itself perfectly to the big screen.

Project 23 was originally envisioned as a film for Pixel Heaven 2014 , a "retro entertainment" event taking place from May 31 to June 1 in Warsaw, Poland. But as work progressed, the team realized that it had the potential to be something much bigger. With Chahi's support, plus "800 hours of work, months of preparation, five shooting days, weeks of post-production [and] countless hours spent on building movie props and set pieces," they created a four-minute-long video based on the game's famous introduction. As a big fan of the game, I'm happy to say that they absolutely nailed it.

It's a little cheesy around the edges and the music is far more blockbuster-bombastic than Jean-Francois Freitas' moody original score, but I can forgive that because virtually everything about it is so wonderfully faithful to the game. Popping the soda can, picking up the alien pistol, even the lead character's bright orange hair—those little touches and more are all here. This is clearly the work of a true fan.

And isn't necessarily the end of the project, either. "We have a lot of concept designs for most recognizable parts of 'Another World'," the filmmakers wrote at anotherworld-themovie.com . "They are our foundation for the next step of our world—15+ minutes short film in the 'Another World' universe." A Kickstarter is being considered, and in the meantime supporters are encouraged to "share our short film all over the world."

And if you have no idea what I've been talking about, you can dare to compare the Project 23 film with the Amiga version of the original .

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.