Thuyen Nguyen modestly describes himself as a “short film hobbyist”. He has directed a handful of short films, animations, and works with the cinematic aspects of game design. Hence, he appears to be most experienced in the skills pertinent to Machinima production.
Unlike the ‘live action’ Machinima style, such as is employed by Leo Berkeley, Nguyen prefers to treat his Machinima as he would any other cinematic project:
“I approach it exactly like a normal live-action film. I write the script, with reference to what I think I can do with the Sims. I’ve never written a script and then have to go back and change things because I realised I couldn’t do it. So I’ve always written a Machinima script, not a short film script then applied it to Machinima. I record the voices first, so I can get the timing right, and as soon as I get that stuff ready, I get straight into it… [The advantage of this is that] its a lot more immediate. As soon as I get an idea, I can pretty much work on it straight away. Even before writing a script or voice overs I can build characters, build sets, work out my framing and all the shots and stuff like that straight away without having to rely on anyone else. And it means I can get a lot down before I have to bring anyone else in, which I like because I like working by myself. So it’s the immediacy with I like.” (Nguyen, 2006)
Thuyen Nguyen’s Machinima works include An Unfair War (2006) and Bookstore (Parts Two & Three) (2005).