We have some exciting news to share! For the past two months, I’ve been traveling around the country (plus one trip to Germany) visiting video game studios for a new project. Today we can announce it — in partnership with the Creators Project, Vice, and Intel, we’ve launched a five-video series that looks at the intersection of games, art and technology.

The first episode dives into the world of Crysis 3 and how the Frankfurt-based studio is peering into the abyss of the uncanny valley, looking for a way to cross it. We spent a few days with the Crysis team and their director of creative development, Rasmus Hojengaard, discussing the team’s hot-rodding approach to game development. Big games like Crysis have the resources for extraordinary levels of polish (such as pupil dilation on AI characters) and each minute change pushes games like this a bit further towards a brand new digital reality. You may be wondering why these details matter and this video explains why.

Hojengaard grew up watching films as a child at his local theatre in Copenhagen and his cinematic passion bled over into his desire to make games. While there are plenty of indies that are pushing games in different directions, big studios like Crytek take their cues from big budget films and as a result, are able to create some amazing new environments.

This is the first of five videos with future episodes on Gears of War: Judgement, Dance Central 3, Far Cry 3, and Forza Horizon. We’re really happy to show some of the minds behind games. They don’t get enough credit and respect. Stay tuned.