The Art of Games

Beating the big boysof Hollywood

2010-02-25T02:03:00.000-08:00

Video games are no longer 'just games.' Moving into a new era of storytelling and concreting their position as an art form they are beating the big boys of Hollywood at their own game. Combining innovations in video graphics, skilled authors, brilliant musical composition, and the talents of teams of artists. Games are beginning to accomplish the goal behind all art mediums, to entice emotion.

Next to beating the worldwide record for the largest reported five-day opening box office gross figures *shacknews, Modern Warfare 2 by Infinity Ward also turned heads for it's controversial first person depiction of terrorist violence. Reviews ranged from gut wrenching tension to reports of physical sickness, but the question remains. Why?

"People have really strong reactions to the airport scene and it's been fascinating because we all wanted to make it something that would be upsetting."

The gang at gamepro.com interviewed Jesse Stern writer for Modern Warfare 2 about the choices made and reasoning behind such a controversial scene. If you've ~~played~~ experienced the airport scene or are interested in the art-of-games it is definitely worth reading the full interview over at gamepro.com

Marc Laidlaw:Quick Question

2009-10-02T02:59:00.000-07:00

Marc Laidlaw, science fiction author and the writer responsible for Half-life answers a quick question:

Q: Something I've always personally enjoyed about the Half-life franchise is the subtle story telling (narrative visual detail), how much of that is intentional and how much is due to technical limitations?

A: We try to be aware of our technical limitations and intentionally work within them--limitations can usually be used to one's advantage. In this case, the limitations shape the kind of storytelling we do. You call it subtle. Some call it nonexistent! But it's quite intentional.

Head over to Marc's blog for more of his works and news, big thanks to Marc for answering my question.

What makes a good level?

2009-09-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

The answer to that question can both fill volumes, and be answered in a single line: A good level is a fun level. Victor Hugo wrote "If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away." That is to say, don't design just for the simple sake of designing a level. Rather, design a level to be used. Give the level purpose, motion, and character, and it will be a good level. All aspects of design will contribute to that, and must be balanced against each other. In the end, people are going to judge the level on whether or not they liked playing it.

Purpose
A level with purpose draws the player in. It both gives the player a goal, and creates the sense that something is being accomplished above and beyond what the player is doing in that moment.

Motion
Give motion and momentum to your level in both a physical and temporal sense. I'm referring less to doors, trains and buttons, and more to the motion of consequences. By looking at a level, you should be able to guess what has happened before you arrived, and at least have an inkling of what will happen in the immediate future. Give the player a sense that he is running through a living area, where things happen.

Character
This can be used to describe the lighting, the structure, the relative ambiance of a level. The character of a level can determine, and is partly determined by, its purpose and motion.

Know thy enemy
The one thing holding you back from making "the perfect level" is the limitation placed upon you by both the engine and by current technology. While designing levels, always be sure to keep track of your levels performance data, and stay within the range you set at the start of your project.

"A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose. A man doesn't borrow pieces of his body. A building doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul, and every wall, window and stairway to express it." - (Roark) Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

The Infamous Wild Western

2009-05-31T01:58:00.000-07:00

Infamous in the gaming industry, the Wild Western is known to be seemingly impossible to make successfully. The romantic lure of breath taking environments, coupled with gun-play and violence makes for an ideal game premise. But with the genre comes inhrent difficulties such as epic wildreness, life like livestock, and pace.

Experienced in free-roaming enviroments, violence, swearing, and controversy, who better then to take on the challenge, than the makers of Grand Theft Auto. In this interview with IGN Dan Houser, creative vice president and co-founder of Rockstar, discusses the challenges they are facing with the making of Red Dead Redemption and includes an intresting discussion about the genre specific problem of depicting historically accurate racism without offending a modern audience.

Read the full interview over at IGN:
Part 1: http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/981/981354p1.html
Part 2: http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/981/981816p1.html

Mario Maestro

2009-05-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

On the topic of game music/score, two titles seem to come to mind before all others, Mario and Zelda, and the mastermind behind both orchestral art works is Koji Kondo.

Originaly limited to only four "instruments" Koji Kondo created some of the most iconic tunes in gaming history, in the following interview at 1up Kondo talks about the proccess and history behind the mario theme.

"I've always incorporated interactive ideas, even since the first Super Mario Bros. game. In that game, when your time limit would get under 100, the music would speed up. Or in Super Mario World, when you got on Yoshi, the percussion was added to the music. Interactivity with music is something I've always enjoyed doing, and it's something I want to do a lot more of in the future!"

Read the full interview at 1up:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3163588

"Super Mario" by the Boston Pops Orchestra

Valve Share Experience

2009-05-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Well renowned in the gaming industry for exceptionally polished work such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, and more recently Left 4 Dead, Valve Software have always made an effort to provide the public with information on their processes.

If you are interested in the art of games it's worth while keeping an eye on Valve's publication page. The team often upload slides from talks they have given at conferences which include topics such as, art-direction, programming of shaders, and more recently playtesting, just to name a few.

The following video outlines the methods Valved used in Team Fortress 2 to achieve an illustrated aesthetic, its definitely worthwhile viewing.

Jason Mitchell, Moby Francke and Dhabih Eng, "Illustrative Rendering in Team Fortress 2," International Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering, 2007

More information can be found at:
http://valvesoftware.com/publications.html

A Conversation with Tim Schafer

2009-05-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

Tim Schafer, writer of clasic games such as Monkey Island, Day of the tentacle, and Full Throttle, disscusses the challenges of writing for games and the complications of interactive dialog.

View the orginal article at gamestudies.org:
http://gamestudies.org/0301/pearce/