MAKE

When the team at SUMMONER brought us on to create game-like footage for Discord's latest marketing campaign, the ask sounded pretty straightforward. But making these games actually feel authentic ended up being the biggest challenge of the project.

As we dug into it, we realized pretty quickly (being the game lovers that we are) that what makes gameplay feel real comes down to a lot of imperfect subtleties that are hard to fake. Camera movement. Player input. Physics. Timing. All these imperfections add up to make gameplay actually feel like gameplay.

So instead of animating a handful of shots, we opted to build playable game prototypes.

This gave us that authentic gameplay from the start, but it also solved another problem. Instead of being limited to a few directed camera angles, we could capture as much footage as we wanted from anywhere in the game.

Sometimes the most efficient way to fake something is to build the real thing.

Now that you've seen them, which game would you actually play?

Meet our 1st-place 2026 MAKE Thesis Grant winners, Le Hang Whalen and Avery Stratton!

Stone Lions Don't Roar is set in a fantastical 16th-century Vietnam where emotions manifest as living creatures, following two sisters as they navigate grief, responsibility, and the burdens they carry.

What stood out to us in selecting Stone Lions Don't Roar as our 1st-place winner wasn't just its incredible visual ambition or craftsmanship, but the deeply personal story at its core. Inspired by Le Hang's own experiences growing up as an older sister and caretaker.

We were also drawn to the team's vision for how they wanted to use the grant, from supporting authentic Vietnamese voice performances to bringing on the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.

That's what the MAKE Thesis Grant is all about: helping talented student filmmakers push their films further, from a student project to collaborating with professionals and taking it that much further... truly bringing the most ambitious stories to life. Stone Lions Don't Roar felt like a perfect example of that.

We can't wait for the film's release. Congratulations again to Le Hang and Avery!

The season may be over, but there's still one more thing lurking in the diner... Go behind the scenes of Sunny Side Down and meet the artists, writers, directors, and questionable decision-makers responsible for a diner at the edge of a supermassive black hole.

Watch the MAKING of Sunny Side Down NOW. Exclusively on the MAKE Originals YouTube channel.