PROCESS: VIDEO GAME DESIGN

FOR OUR SECOND EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA PROJECT

We were asked to form a design team for a 2D Platform video game. The team composed of two students from a computer science class and two students from Professor Friebele's experimental media class. The process began with the computer science students forming proposal for their project. The proposals entailed a basic narrative, a style of game play defined by individual group skills and abilities, and a rough list of assets that they needed. The students presented the proposals to our class and we were asked to choose the games that we were interested in, based on our own preferences and skills in graphic arts. For most of the students, this was a brand new realm of digital media and my experience was made even more unknown: I was not in class when proposals were presented. I initally was disappointed in that, but as the project progressed I felt that the unknown is what made the execise worth while.Our group was assigned SezQuest, a 2D sword fighting game where the main character, Sez wakes up in a land far from home. He is forced to battle enemies through four different levels on his journey home. In the end, he wakes up at home and realizes that it was all a dream.

Once the professor assigned groups, I met with my design partner to brainstorm and discuss possiblities. We browsed the web and found aspects of game design that were most fascinating to us, collecting a body of source material that would explore the creative possibilities for the project. We found a ton of ideas involving more complex gaming platforms which challenged us to tackle the same creative issues on a smaller scale. Our ideas ranged from narrative choices to pixel/ quality choices concerning style and aspects of gameplay. Within the game convention, it is surprisingly difficult to add creative elements without changing how the game would be received.

Initially, we had very little constraint and ideas exloded in many directions. We understood that these abstract ideas may get shot down eventually, but in terms of working with a multidimensional group, it was our responsibility to push these ideas and contiunue to make them evolve. This responsiblity came from the fact that our game design students might be less aesthically sensitive and would be satisfied with function. As artists working within a new group, we had push ourselve to remain creative and enthusiastic throughout the project.

Working in group with many varied ideas was a major excercise of this assignment, forcing us to find ways of translating ideas and communicating between two separate worlds. Sharing information with others who may not use the same words to decsribe their ideas posed as a huge obstacle but also stengthened our collaboration skills. The excercise was simliar to how a team might work together in a professional setting, where you are cast into the unknown and the project may not be entirely what you had expected. All things aside, you must be assertive and self driven if you want to be successful.

Once my partner and I got a sense of how the project was going to play out, we felt that we should make the assignment more concrete. We thought about the body of art assets that we were to make and divided them between environments and characters, the two largest elements. We focused individually on our assets, meeting with the computer science students mostly separately to discuss the game's progress, depending on the many complications of scheduling. In a way this fostered spontanaeity and experimentation. However, our game may have become more resolved if we had arrange more face-to-face time.

The most important aspect that pushed ideas forward was source material. By collecting source material, we were able to sample many different styles of game design, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. This collection of images formed a bridge between our team and the program team, creating a visual language for feedback, where the program students could manifest their likes and dislikes without much prior common knowledge of the style choices. We collected a vast range of images from more realistic, to entirely conceptual and discussed what ideas would be most succesfully communicated.

As the game came together, it was meaningful and worthwhile to see the programers slowly become more enthusiastic about the project, as their ideas came to life in clean visual form. I felt a great feeling of independence and maturiy having been viewed as professsional and master of my craft. The programmers respected my opinion and were excited to listen to my ideas. It was also meaningful to see how my abstract ideas could evolve into a product which was far larger than anything I could have created alone. In addition, I got to see my own work evolve in ways that I would never have considered myself.

After many formating issues (and some late exchanges between team members about tweaks and alterations), we had completed the full range of motions for characters and large level backgrounds which could be manipulated by the programmers as they desired. Despite initial anxiety, our project came together nicely and I was, to an extent, satisfied with the final product.

As you can see in my last post, research is key to making a creative and successful video game. Unfortunately, I did not get to do as much research during the process as I would have liked. There were some tentative deadlines to meet and some constraints of game design which prevented more complex and creative elements from emerging.

It is my beleif that I was least successful in this aspect of the process. Having already completed my video game design and looking back, I would have liked to make my game more representative of the concepts discussed in my last post. In most senses, my game conforms to an existing convention, with a linear, goal-oriented narrative that the player commits himself or herself to. I found often that when doing research, I was looking for games that I knew of, rather than looking for new experimental ideas.

After doing further research I would have liked to suggest more manipulation of the platform to break the typical style of gameplay. I would have liked to break the concepts down further and related my game artists who have established themselves in the world of game design. I also would have liked to contextualize the game to say something about culture. In a sense, video games are a product of our culture and it is important to me that we are conscious consumers of this form of media.

Although this was primarily because of my novice game design skills, it was also due to my lack of knowledge about video game history. In any case, it is apparent how important research is to manifesting your ideas in a work of art, even when many obstacles may stand in your way.

New Artist (Game Design)

An artist that I found particularly interesting in the field of game design is Arcangel Constantini. He, like David O'Reilly is an experimental artist who is interested in error aesthetics. His works are typically related to the dynamics of sound and visuals, low tech and performance installations, and and hardware hacking. Although he does not actually make games, he does use video games as a source for some of his work and his work with flash video is very game like in style. He is, in essence, looking at the game as an art object, which is conveniently the subject of his latest project.

a t a r i - n o i s e :
"Atari 2600 "VideoComputerSystem"
the icon of media culture
hacked as an audiovisual noise pattern generator keyboard,
a game info-deconstruction.

His latest work is an installation that uses the game platform from Atari 2600, one of the first video game systems to be highly successful and widely produced, selling 20 million units. It was also one of the first games to include multiple games on cartridges. Its low tech graphics and sound are an icon of the birth of video games and have influenced many contemporary artists. In Atari 2600 "VideoComputerSystem," the Atari game system is hacked and modified to produced random chaotic patterns of sound and graphics from the original programming when the user pushes the buttons. He considers the work to be a "deconstruction of raw material" and about as relevant to the original system as Jimi Hendrix's distorted guitar solos are to the guitar string itself.

I find this to be super interesting because, it just goes to show the expanse of the game world. I believe that it speaks for the expanding possibilities that lie ahead for our generation. As we continue to manipulate our computer creations, we are not only creating new things, we also look to the past for the "throwback." This a great hybridization of old and new technology that I find analogous the types of experimentation that we have been covering.

I also find it interesting that this work is compared to Jimi Hendrix, who I have long considered to be one of the more prolific experimental artists of the near past. Many of the other experimental works I have researched seem to identify their path in some way to that of Hendrix. Underneath, I have a chip on my shoulder about how our generation is viewed: our music/art is often viewed my adults as naive, mimetic and unoriginal and I am excited to find artists who still push the boundaries in way which critics can find analogous to a "true" artist of the past. I am often frustrated when adults and older folks, even the most creative ones, cannot contextualize the artwork of our generation: it is my beleif that they seem too focused on personal preference, a quality which, in my experience, serves to prevent novel and creative discoveries

When discussed in the same light as David O'Reilly, this artwork would support and present the concept of a new evolving art form; a contemporary language formed through the evolution of media and technology. With the expanding possibilities that emerge from the innovation of computer science, we are surrounded by media, unconsciously consuming its messages. On this path through technological evolution, we are put through systems and forced to follow rules to move forward. For example, when you play a conventional video game, you are commited to its system. You are forced to follow its directions, you pour energy into it to "beat it" but in reality, the game is just holding you as a mental prisoner, captive in a non-physical space, until it decides to release you in the game's resolution. When looking at the game as an art work, you understand how the consumers final expectations of satisfaction drive the consumer's motive to purchase a game and play it. Expectations drive response.Even the visual choices of larger and bolder text you read on this blog control what you take from it, cueing your focus to what I find most important, rather than allowing you to find your own truth in the words.

Another example of this is what I have dubbed the "app phenomenon." When purchasing a new smart phone, you are given a tool to access any type of media, and this is an empowering feeling. Smart phone consumers, although feeling empowered, are thrown into the complicated world of application or "app" sales. They have an expectation of being enlightened by their new decision to buy the phone and internally manifest that feeling by buying programs or systems that allow them to feel "current to the times" and "up to pace" with the evolution of society. In this way, they are once again unconsciously consuming media, deriving meaning from the visual experience of new technology, while once again being forced to submit to it's rules, conventions and constraints.

This artwork by Arcangel Constantini is a great example of this concept, because it demonstrates how someone might alter media and bend media to his or her will, taking solely the parts that they want from it rather than merely excepting what it gives; utilizing it's full resources without needing to worship or submit to its "magical ways."

Similarly, Hannah Piper Burnes a St. Mary's College graduate and professional artist who recently visited the school, mentioned this concept discussing her work involving approriation of new media. She stated that for us, as consumers of this new media, it is important that we be consious of its meaning; furthermore that we ought to have a right to possess it, control it, and manipulate it to our liking, in the same way that it controls us; the same way that it is inherently forced upon us as consumers.

All of these artists, in my opinion discuss an emerging trend of art consumption that is evolving as rapidly as our world and I find to be closely tied to our capitalistic economy. In all cases, it will be meaningfull and exciting to experience the blending of new and old as we travel further along, following the path of our creations.

Having already completed my video game design and looking back, I would have liked to make my game more representative of these concepts. In most senses, my game conforms to an existing convention, with a linear goal oriented narrative that the player commits himself or herself to. I found often that when researching games, I was looking for games that I knew of, rather than looking for new experimental ideas. Although this was primarily because of my novice game design skills, it was also due to my lack of knowledge about video game history. In any case, it is apparent how important research is to manifesting your ideas in a work of art, even when many obstacles may stand in your way.

Because of the dynamics of game design production and distribution, consumers demand new games all the time and designers are constantly reworking their ideas to meet these demands. Game designers exist in a world where games evolve in response and in competition to other games. Needless to say, games have come a tremendous way in the last twenty years, and it is often difficult to trace lines of influence in its short and furious history.

Although game design is rapidly branching out and hybridizing itself with influences from film, literature and graphic novels, it seemingly remained a field of special interest in its early stages. With this in mind, it is often hard to decode terminology and to fully conceptualize this field of art: a field that is quickly evolving AND contantly responding to itself as a genre. Having never researched video game works, I found it difficult to creatively alter my game.

Unfortunately, working with a team on a project means finding common ground, meeting deadlines, and working within your abilities, and I forced to compromise in my enthusiasm for some aspects of game design.