Oz gamers step out with animated film

Independent Australian game producers Krome Studios have hit the global stage with a `movie game' interwoven with a major new animated film to premiere in Australia on Friday.

The Brisbane-based game house won the job to make Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, a game based on the new movie of the same name directed by Hollywood's Zack Snyder.

The American director, who made the ancient Greece blockbuster 300, is a self-confessed gamer and worked closely with Krome Studios during the production.

The film is based on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole books by American author Kathryn Lasky whose main characters are owls.

This posed some unique challenges for the game designers. Never before has there has never been a video game where the main character flies as an owl, lead designer Cameron Davis said.

"We had to find a whole new animation system to find out how owls behave in flight, how they dive, how they pull up, how they roll around and how they fight," he told AAP.

The movie and game narratives are interwoven, so to get the full story viewers should watch the movie and play the game, which is rated G. Davis said.

"The scriptwriter of the movie is the scriptwriter of the game.".

Many elements of the game were tricky, especially the design work around the owls' feathers and flight, as well as the environments depicted.

Of the five environments used, several are based on landscapes in Tasmania and northern Australia.

Legend of the Guardians was made by Oscar-winning Sydney animation house, Animal Logic and produced by Australia's Village Roadshow.

It features a who's who of Australian actors who give voices to the owls, including Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, David Wenham, Richard Roxburgh, Sam Neill, Abbie Cornish, Leigh Whannell and Joel Edgerton.

The movie had its world premiere last weekend and will hit the big screens around Australia on September 30 - the day after the game hits the shelves.

The game will be available on all major platforms.

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