Prime Video has made a remarkable start with its adaptation of video games through Fallout. Now, Secret Level is set to build on this success. Unlike current TV adaptations, Blur Studios' upcoming series is an anthology that gives individual episodes to past, present, and future games, offering audiences a brief glimpse into their worlds.

Uniting Past, Present, and Future Games in a Single Anthology

Blur Studios' Experience in Adapting Multiple Games

Blur Studios already has some experience in adapting multiple games. Its animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots has been a hit on Netflix for three seasons. The studio has spent decades creating cinematic trailers for big video games like Dark Souls II and Warframe. When pitching Secret Level to game studios, Blur's resume and relationships spoke for themselves. As creator Tim Miller said, "We've established a level of trust with most of these people, and they trust that we won't fuck their IP up." Miller continued, "We've worked in video games for almost 30 years...we've done tons and tons of trailers. They know we're gonna be careful with it and represent it to be the way it should be."

io9 recently spoke with Miller and Secret Level's supervising producer Dave Wilson about the show. They consider their past work as the reason for this series. Miller may have come up with the initial idea, but they both gave credit to the old CG trailers Blur worked on, which often played at major game events. These trailers led to the creation of Netflix's Love, Death, & Robots, and once it received a "warm reception" from critics and audiences, Miller and Wilson pointed to it to get studios (and Prime Video) interested in their compilation of video game stories.

Each Secret Level episode tries to capture the essence of its source material. According to Wilson, Blur would meet with each studio and create a guide of about 50-100 pages of lore decks that became the "creative kickoff" for each episode. These guides were the "first step" in earning developers' trust. All studios are protective of how their games are conveyed, especially those not yet released. For example, one episode focuses on Exodus, a sci-fi RPG announced a year ago at the 2023 Game Awards and yet to release. For already released games, these decks did the job well. The one for Obsidian's sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds was a "faithful representation of what makes their IP great," and the studio has used it to onboard new hires working on the upcoming sequel.

Bringing in Multiple Authors and Writers

Blur is filled with people who play games, and several authors and writers were brought in to pitch ideas. Many of them also worked on Love, Death, & Robots. The tales in Secret Level range from stories set at any point in the game's world to providing a cinematic version of playing the game or directly showing events in its universe. One episode that breaks the convention is the Pac-Man one. A recent teaser shows a confused, cloaked figure traversing an alien world, which is unexpected. Bandai Namco challenged Blur to do something different with Pac-Man. The character has been adapted to TV many times, but this show offers something different. Miller thinks it will be a 50/50 split between love and hate, and he can't wait to see online reactions. Wilson thinks the ratio will be lower. But in Miller's words, getting to make something so strange is the "beauty of this creative process."

The Secret Level series premieres Tuesday, December 10 on Prime Video. Expect our review soon.

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