I found a link to et tu Gamer? in the comments to a Gamasutra article about game preservation. Right away I saw that this was without a doubt a site worth bookmarking. The homepage features galleries for a select few games but the gallery section contains a comprehensive archive.
Apparently the creator is attempting to archive as much video game art as he can get ahold of. The I’ve seen so far is incredible quality and definitely worth a gander.
Check it out!
If all I knew about games were what I had read, I would believe them to be the revolutionary, new zenith of human culture; a marriage of man’s greatest accomplishments in art and science. The problem is I’ve played them too.
Most recently I played Jason Rohrer’s new Inside a Star-Filled Sky. Rohrer’s been a key figure in the ‘games as art’ discussion since it first gained momentum and I’ve admired his aims. I enjoyed Inside a Star-Filled Sky too. I have my complaints, but that’s no shocker. What should come as a surprise is how few criticisms target the pseudo-intellectual banter that surrounds Rohrer’s work and projects like his.
The games industry, including and especially the so-called indie game movement, appears to be suffering from what I call ‘premature congratulation.’ Games without the depth of a poorly written soap opera are regularly applauded for their artistry while patronizing speeches are given by industry moguls patting themselves on the back for the snail’s pace of the art form’s maturation. Universities had no trouble constructing game academia overnight by cutting it down to meaningless abstractions and inventing predictions on the future of gaming despite their disconnection from actual game development. In this market, talk is real cheap.
It’s easy to find documentaries or interviews with Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed) talking about film with absolute honesty and passion. I just watched an episode of American Masters about Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden). The show was hosted by Scorsese and I was reminded of how much I love listening to him, but it almost hurts sometimes.
Roger Ebert recently published an article reiterating his claim that games are not art. This was in response to a TED talk given by USC student Kellee Santiago.
I’d have liked to see Santiago take Ebert down a notch with a strong argument, but she came off as many of the ‘game school generation’ do: all talk and born to sell out (e.g. using marketability as evidence of artistry). I assume this is because graduates would rather not alienate the industry or general populace with their ideas, but the need to maintain a friendly facade dilutes the message too much for my taste. For that reason, I’d also have liked to see Ebert take Santiago down a notch, until he stopped making sense.
One of Ebert’s key failings is that his actual views on art remain a mystery and for that reason, I hope to convey my perspective through my discussion of Santiago and Ebert. I welcome attack.
So the Tomb Raider hype machine is pumping away about the new player tailoring features of the latest addition to the franchise, Tomb Raider: Underworld. Tomb Raider games involve action elements and puzzle elements. But what if I don’t like action elements? Now they can be turned down so you don’t fight much. And if it’s puzzles you don’t like, you can turn those down too. If you don’t like something, you turn it down like volume on a TV. Great, right?
In the options menu of a game, you expect to find options. What is optional is, by definition, not necessary. So what does it mean when what is otherwise considered an essential part of a game, like it’s action or puzzle elements, is made optional? Developer Crystal Dynamics says that the different types of gameplay are nice as “punctuation,” which is why the player was not offered the power to completely remove them. So if you don’t want to solve a puzzle, just ask Lara and she’ll solve it for you. Unfortunately, turning down one half of the game will not reduce its price to $25.
Looking through my old artwork, I found these files…
I made these a little over 5 years ago. These are based on a drawing I made — and more like it . The Flash movie was a demo of how I could execute a game cinematic. The Papervision stuff I’m doing right now is looking awfully similar. I started developing a game based on these concepts but I went in a very different direction. It’s one of the projects I’m going to get back to one of the days.
Back then I was still in art school. Basically my free time was spent drawing and working on Thugjacker. I lurked Pixelation all the time. It’s a forum for pixel artists, if you haven’t heard of it. Lots of inspiring work there, a great place to get critiques. Pixel Joint is another good pixel spot.
It has come to my attention that when I put up these forwarded posts, people come look at them! So here’s another one.
I’ve a compilation of opinions this time. A dominoed trail of disagreement leading through the mouths of Roger Ebert, Jim Preston and E. Daniel Arey. Each of course followed by my charming additions <3. And finally, I end our tour d’text with a look at Arey’s comparison between Ico and Citizen Kane.
Ebert
Critiquing the film adaptation of the popular video game Hitman, Ebert states:
. . . video games will never become an art form — never, at least, until they morph into something else or more.
Like what, I wonder. Maybe until they morph into movies or become something like a swiss army knife. Nothing smears your misteps like a good old contradiction, friend: never and until being the operative words. In a stroke of literary genius, Ebert contrasts the wanting state of games against his own mastery of propaganda; the delicate power to write a word while only conveying the vaguest semblance of an idea (and without a shred of evidence!).
Needless to say, the review caught some attention among the gamed (gÄm·Äd) and it was time for Jim Preston to say his piece.
Sokay is a Los Angeles native game development crew.
The say it never rains in Southern California.
At Sokay, we make it rain.
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