Game Art

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Trying to Catch the Wind: An Interview with Jenova Chen, Part 1

January 25, 2010 in Artful Games, Game Art, Game Psychology, Interviews | 4 comments

Flower (PS3)

“We should find ourselves indulging in similar daydreams if we started musing under the cone-shaped roof of a wind-mill. We should sense its terrestrial nature, and imagine it to be a primitive hut stuck together with mud, firmly set on the ground in order to resist the wind. Then, in an immense synthesis, we should dream at the same time of a winged house that whines at the slightest breeze and refines the energies of the wind. Millers, who are the wind thieves, make good flour from storms.” – Gason Bachelard, The Poetics of Space.

At the 2009 GDC, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jenova Chen, a designer and developer who needs no introduction. Over 10 months later, Jamie Love of GameSugar.net persuaded me to publish the interview in the form of a podcast. Many hours of editing later (thanks Jamie!) the first part of a two-part interview is now available online.

You can listen to the interview in a flash player here, or download the mp3 directly. (Warning to the bandwidth-challenged: the file is 75mb)

I hope you enjoy listening to Jenova’s thoughts on the relation between art and games – it’s a rare opportunity to sit down with such a generous and articulate soul. Part 2 of the interview is forthcoming, and like this one will be posted on GameSugar.net.

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Body Armour and the Problem of “Avataritis”

October 16, 2009 in Game Art, Game Psychology, Irritating Rants | 15 comments

masterchiefToday, Martyn Zachary of The Slow Down posted a very lucid reconsideration of the industry’s current obsession with what he calls “avataritis”: the phenomenon of adding character customization to every game and in doing so attempting to fully cater to the player’s conscious desires. Martyn (successfully, I think) argues that character customization (ie. create-your-own-avatar) in games is a feature at odds with itself. He writes,

Customization may seem to offer developers and players alike a chance to mask, to separate an avatar from its perfunctory position and move it closer to the player, bridging the gap between various players of different origins, but due to the avatar’s function as a literary element, a character never does become perfectly liberated from its original environs and place of creation.

After wading through so many awful, pretentious and intellectualistic blog posts over the years, Martyn’s post seized me right away. It is thoughtful, smart, and honest. And important to anyone who thinks in terms of the idea of a gamer community, it leaves the door open for re-articulation and consideration; not just opinion launching. But before, before you read my response, read Martyn’s excellent article for yourself.

In this article I want to very quickly sketch out my re-take of Avataritis, and try to contextualize the problem in terms of a psychology of defense, and show that gamers fall prey to some of the same problems that my students do. I may just fall into a pit of crocodiles on this one, so read generously ;)

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Games You Haven’t Played Yet: The Last Express

October 8, 2009 in Artful Games, Game Art, Retro Gaming | 7 comments

tle2After hearing another writer complain that there haven’t been any new games out there that caught his eye, I realized that many of us are staring in the wrong direction. Why do we spend months (or years!) looking for upcoming releases, when we should be looking in a gigantic library of quality games already at the tips of our fingers? So, in the spirit of offering something new to the current generation of gamers, I’m beginning a series of recommendations for games that bring something new to the gamer’s repertoire… yet were released years ago. And in that spirit, I could imagine no game more appropriate than Jordan Mechner’s masterpiece: The Last Express. Although stylistically different from Planescape: Torment, Day of the Tentacle, or Final Fantasy VII, I consider it one of the finest games ever made. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Re-make Renaissance: The Art of Eriq Chang

January 17, 2009 in Artful Games, Game Art, Game History | 6 comments

 Eriq Chang, ArtistWay back in August I had the opportunity to order a copy of Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine. As a bonus, Himalaya Studios included a promotional Quest for Glory II poster drawn by the wonderful print and digital artist Eriq Chang. After a few notes back and forth, Eriq agreed to have some of his work profiled by yours truly.

In this article I’d like to introduce some of Eriq’s wonderful work done for notable game developers such as AGDInteractive/Himalaya Studios, Infamous Adventures, and Telltale Games, among others. Eriq’s work demonstrates the kinds of deep, expressive, worlds possible when artists with a rich background in gaming transform their imaginations into ink and paint strokes.

Eriq has graciously contributed two previously unseen production illustrations from a cancelled King’s Quest IV remake, and concept art for the upcoming game PartWorld.
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