Games Are Art,

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GamesAre Art,

• and what to do about it
• Randy Smith

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My personal thoughts about

• How video games are art
• How better artistry can benefit games
• Finding and developing the aesthetic center of a
  game

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CLOSUREis the space between the panels
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INTERACTIVITY
How user input is translated into activity on
screen
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Distinct Qualities of Cinema Editing, Cuts,
Camera movement, etc.
TONS!!
Hardly any
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Distinct Quality of Video Games Interactivity
TONS!!
Hardly any
Magnitude of Interactivity How much the game
listens to and appliesthe players input
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More Interactive
Discrete
Analog
Stepwise
Continuous
Isolated
Connected
Designer-Authored
Player-Authored
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Kickflip Roastbeef Revert
A
B
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Interactivity Is Technical
for now
!
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?
The Language of Cinema
Media Literacy
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TONS!!
Hardly any
!
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Magnitude Of Interactivity
?
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A Functional Definition of Art
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Consistent trends in stories from disconnected
cultures
Certainty of Death
Need for Connection
Fundamental Isolation
Stories as Functional
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Relevance
and
Honesty
How Should I Live My Life?
What Is Life Like For You?
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Q
A
Teaches you about life
Gets stuck in your head
Makes you feel less alone
Gets through the thick wall
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Great Product Contains Great Art
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Top 10 Best Selling Movies

• Titanic
• Return of the King
• Dead Mans Chest
• The Dark Knight
• Philosophers Stone
• At Worlds End
• Order of the Phoenix
• The Two Towers
• The Phantom Menace
• Shrek 2

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The story could not have been written
better...The juxtaposition of rich and poor, the
gender roles played out unto death (women first),
the stoicism and nobility of a bygone age, the
magnificence of the great ship matched in scale
only by the folly of the men who drove her
hell-bent through the darkness. And above all the
lesson that life is uncertain, the future
unknowable...the unthinkable possible.
James Cameron
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MALE
?AGE?
FEMALE
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MALE
?AGE?
FEMALE
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MALE
?AGE?
FEMALE
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11 mil
16 mil
33 mil
40 mil
90 mil
106 mil
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11 mil
16 mil
33 mil
40 mil
70-140 mil
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Why Think About Games As Art

• You could reach more people
• You could make more money

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How it works
Aesthetics
How it feels
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I could put my arms around every boy I see,
but theyd only remind me of you.
All the flowers you planted in the backyard
All died when you went away.
I know that living with you was sometimes hard
But Im willing to give it another try
Because nothing compares 2 U
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Message comes from

• The topics of the artistic piece
• How the piece represents how they work, how they
  feel

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How it works
How it feels
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How it works
How it feels
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?
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Dynamics
Mechanics
Aesthetics
artist
player
Players often attempt to knock out the leader as
quickly as possible
When the leader is knocked out, the rest of the
pack scatters
I feel like a calculating hunter trying to
identify and take out the leader in a quick
surgical strike
Leader is identical to the others
Players cant identify leader until he gets
knocked out
I feel like I flail in desperation, then suddenly
the pack scatters, and I feel a flood of relief
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Possibility Space
What is possible in the game world?
An understood, designer-authored range of
possible experiences
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Discovery Through Play
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?
?
Dynamics
Mechanics
Aesthetics
artist
player
Players often attempt to knock out the leader as
quickly as possible
When the leader is knocked out, the rest of the
pack scatters
I feel like a calculating hunter trying to
identify and take out the leader in a quick
surgical strike
Which is the rightaesthetic for your message?
Leader is identical to the others
Players cant identify leader until he gets
knocked out
I feel like I flail in desperation, then suddenly
the pack scatters, and I feel a flood of relief
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The dogma of
FUN!
Fairness
Goals
Clarity
!
Balance
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Topics
Aesthetics, Messages
Mechanics
Licensed IPYour own ideaTeam project
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Topics
Aesthetics, Messages
What excites you aboutthese topics?Get deeper
by asking why? repeatedly
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Topics
Aesthetics, Messages
Mechanics
What mechanicsand tuning willproduce
thoseaesthetics?
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Post-Apocalyptic MMO
Human struggle, neediness
? starvation economy
Tenuous alliances
? individuals vulnerable, groups hard to kill
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Post-Apocalyptic MMO
Why?
Human struggle, neediness
? starvation economy
Why?
Why?
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Topics
Aesthetics, Messages
Mechanics
Why?
Mechanics
Why?
Mechanics
Why?
Mechanics
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RTS meets FPS
The loneliness of leadership
? jump jets, LOD renderer
? audio and visual touches
Responsibility of war commanders
? giving RTS orders from FP
? soldier reactions to being sent into battle
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Topics
Aesthetics, Messages
Mechanics
Tuning
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Summary

• Video games are a maturing art form, but still
  lots of people to reach
• Interactivity is our distinct quality
• Game mechanics carry your aesthetics and messages
  to the player
• The overall interactive work is a possibility
  space

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!

But are we going to be the ones to mature the
art form?

• Limited range of topics
• Dogmas of what games are supposed to be
• Interactivity is technical, but the barrier to
  entry will drop some day

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Thanks!

• Q A
• Randy Smithwrite for slides geminiradio_at_gmail.c
  om