Montreal studio gets exclusive rights to Charlie Chaplin for upcoming video game

No violence. No sexism. No racism. Genuine storytelling.

Those were the conditions Charlie Chaplin's family gave a Montreal-based video game company before giving them the exclusive rights to the character.

Those conditions were "much more important than the money," said Yves Durand, a museographer and an expert on Charlie Chaplin.

Durand helped establish the Chaplin's World museum in Switzerland with Chaplin's children, and pitched the idea of a video game to the family with Robert Young, co-founder of B Df'rent Games.

As of this year, they received the worldwide licence to develop video games based on the images, films, music and archival materials of the filmmaker Charlie Chaplin — one of the film world's very first superstars.

On the silent screen, Chaplin became a star with his character, the Tramp.

Large baggy pants, an ill-fitting tight black coat, clown-esque shoes and his unmistakable moustache defined the actor and comedian, who made his debut on the silver screen in 1914.

"One of the fascinating things about Chaplin is you show a Chaplin film to a group of young people [between] 10-15 years old [is] you start seeing people laugh, even today," said Young.

"What he did, how he did it, how he expressed himself, how he moved still makes people laugh today. They still get a kick out of it … It just lends itself to a game so well."

Young describes Chaplin as a humanitarian, pacifist, and someone who "exposed universal values." He says they hope to showcase these principles in "social impact" video games with the help of Indie Asylum, a gaming co-operative in Montreal which is working on this project.

"It's been a five-year process of talking with the family ... And it was much more about aligning our values with the Chaplin family than negotiating royalties," said Young, adding that he thinks this game will be well-received among young people.

"What's interesting and perhaps a misconception is that people think of Chaplin from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and [assume people interested in his films] might be an older

demographic but in fact … over 200 million people a year are watching Chaplin films on YouTube and the age is somewhere around 15-35."

No one has ever done a video game with this intellectual property, says Christopher Chancey co-founder of Indie Asylum. He notes that this alternative type video game — one that strays from transitional themes centred around violence — can be successful.