4 those who see(k) the art in games
Archive for February, 2008
Indie – games’ punk rock movement?
04 years ago
by Void
in Entertaining
The 1UP Show: Episode 02/22/08: GDC 08, BC: Rearmed, Fez, & Indie Games
Honestly? … nothing exciting for me. Scary actually: all these guys so excited about the little games, all 3 platforms inviting them, I’m afraid the studios are going to get it into their heads that they can make more money like this and stop producing feature rich artwork full stuff. An interesting statement posed was that studios should be ashamed of having 15 people produce games which are less cool than 1-2 men projects: I think they’re forgetting two major things: a) these 1-2 people are passion filled people, so much so that they work for free. Hiring them & finding them would cost a lot, if not in money at least in taking care of them and pampering them (I mean it in a good way: "geniuses" need special attention… ) b) it’s a completelly different thing when you’re 1) at the beginning of your career and 2) working for your own benefit as opposed to some faceless corporation
Something I did like though was the likening of this time to the punk-rock startup days when big studios would end up fighting for signing on the little guys, guys who haven’t gone through years of classical training but might just be the next big hit.
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Mova Contour
0Another awesome technology headed to games. The cool thing about this one is that it captures face animation without a kazillion markers and reconstructs the surface using multiple viewpoint cameras. For a better intuition of it they have a flash presentation page, … unfortunatelly not embeddable.
Movie games & preconceptions
0
Quite often I hear people complaining against movie games. I never really saw a good reasoning for it in principle. Sure, I’ve seen a lot of badly done movie games, BUT I don’t see why in theory they couldn’t work! I can easily imagine a startup studio with low budgets, a studio with great people, great ideas, but no money. Sure, they’d like to create a new original IP infused with all their vision, but they can’t. But maybe if they get the funding for a movie game they can start up, and in the meanwhile us gamers get a taste of their genius.
One pleasant surprise recently has been King Kong, the official movie game. I never went to see the movie (i just had too good an idea of it’s subject matter to be itnerested), but I was quite excited by the game. I think in the future, as both technology and interest in gaming develops, I (and possibly many others) might end up doing this more often: I’d much rather ‘live’ through a story than see it.
I loved how the story was the game driver, and there were a lot of scripted events, a lot of talk between characters, and generally stuff moving along. Visually it was an awesome surprise with great visual design and things that often look a lot like concept art. Also in terms of gameplay many a times I found myself thinking this is half-life 2 with awesome dinosaurs: I loved the concept of using fire to clear paths, the scene on the river, the flying creature’s nest, and thought the start was brilliant too.
Bill Plympton
04 years ago
by Void
in Visual Arts
A friend recently blogged about an animation by Don Hertzfeldt which reminded me of one of my big short animation heroes: Bill Plympton. I wholeheartedly enjoyed many of his creations, foremost of which probably would be his "Dirty Shorts" and the incredibly moving 2005 piece: "The fan and the flower". This is not game related, but one can only hope his genius will turn towards games.
PS: almost forgot to mention a must-watch: "25 Ways To Quit Smoking" !
PS2: did yo uknow it was him who made that witty & strage windows 95 animation?
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Yahtzee Goes to GDC
04 years ago
by Void
in Entertaining
I are happy when he piles on more content as oposed to just more colorful swearing.
flOw
04 years ago
by Void
in Visual Arts
Just something I’ve been meaning to post since back in december: just in case you too knew of the ps3 & maybe psp version, but didn’t know you could actually give it a spin right now online.
Emotional attachment
04 years ago
by Void
in Game Design
How is it that so many people have experienced so strongly the attachment to this object? It’s totally passive and yet (wikipedia):
Jeep Barnett, a programmer for Portal, noted that players have told Valve that they had found it more emotional to incinerate the Weighted Companion Cube than to harm one of the "Little Sisters" from BioShock.
Is it the solitude, the sympathy with the secret prisoner, or maybe it’s only when they have a productive colaboration prior to the departure that people feel this kind of attachment? Well, maybe it’s just a joke… but not only is this video moving enough that I thought I had to post it but also it’s a good excuse to underline the importance of emotion, attachment in games. And here’s me getting back to my usual tune: please make this interaction and attachment a real one, one made with one’s own choices and decision. I can’t and will not feel personal attachment to a character that I’m only interacting with through cinematic moments. That’s as passive as a movie, not as powerful as a personal experience. Here’s to hoping more emotional attachment moments will surface in games!!!
PS: for those who’ve played Portal: this is trully an image that makes me laugh & warms my heart & makes me think at the same time.
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The 1UP Show: Episode 02/15/08
04 years ago
by Void
in Entertaining
In this show: Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Sega, Level-5.
The hidden gem of the show for me is Condemned. First let’s get what I don’t like out of the way: the focus on fighting, the simple mentioning of "combo" and "3x" totally takes me out of the experience, as I suspect will the even worse news that I will probably experience death, which will destroy my inner mind story… HOWEVER there is something I like about it very much: it seems to me like it may have a certain frightening mood. What’s delightful about it is that it’s not a horror movie/game mood… those feel obviously created for the specific purpose and directed as that, while this gives me a chilly real-like feeling: thee feeling I get when I’m taking a walk alone at night through a more abandoned area. It’s a more human, real feeling, it’s less being frightened and more cold sweat, a feeling of not being supposed to be there, of "maybe I should leave, I may be endangering myself by simply being here. Who else is here? I see that matress under those pipes… the poor person, I wish I could help… but also scared…". The downside of this is that it may give me a too real feeling of discomfort leading to it’s not being played. A educated shot in the dark on my part though suspects that the game may skip on something that it would have really benefited from: a lot of story, a lot of non-mechanics based mood. A fighting engine + a detective engine do not for me equal a desirable artistic experience, on the contrary they signal bad things. It’s only if these things were only a small means of expression in a bigger picture meant to tell a story, to convery and experience…
What’s wrong with the games industry?
04 years ago
by Void
in Entertaining
Exciting stuffs! It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a Bonus Round episode so much (do I miss Pachter?). I still hate it that they split up what obviously seem like one session interviews into two weeks, but hey, they can do whatever they want: they’re giving such great shows for free. I like how the guys are so relaxed and friendly, I like how they’re happy for the spread of the industry, I like how they seem quite openminded…