-----#1 Formal Art Game Project |
Renaissance perspective in historical art is an analogue to optimal experiential flow in today's mainstream games. Perspectival space (the illusion that paintings are virtual windows unto staged scenes) guides and controls the viewer in traditional painting. The rise of avant-garde painting, such as Impressionism and cubism, opened alternate ways of looking at and making paintings, and called into question how painting was defined as a medium. Formal painting forces viewers to figure out how to engage the image.
In mainstream games, entrenched formulas guide and control players by rewarding and regulating behavioral patterns toward certain actions, goals, and expectations. Perspective is mobilized not only in time, but also in function. This is encapsulated by the term “flow,” the optimal psychological states and balanced experiences (intro to flow / designing for flow). Formal art games challenge established conventions in mainstream games. They do this by calling "flow" into question and making it unusually problematic or strange for players to get into the flow. This doesn't mean that these games are not "fun," it means that these games ask more of their players and force them to be creative and flexible in how they play the game.
- You have 2 weeks to develop a formal art game.
- The game must foreground how “flow” is constructed in some way.
- The game must provide 20 seconds of gameplay.
- Read Chapter 1 handout from the textbook. This will give you a solid understanding of what a "formal" art game is. It will also establish a foundational understanding of what flow is and how it both affords and constrains the evolution of games as an artistic medium.
- Read Chapter 2 handout from the textbook. This will give you a deeper and broader base of understanding to develop your formal games.
- Choose to develop the game by yourself or form a group of 2-5 other students.
-
Play as many formal games as you can (many are listed in the reading). For example,
- Untitled Game (videos: 1, 2) by Jodi foregrounds flow by
- instead of trying to "win" the game, the challenge is to figure out how to even "play" the game. This may redefine what a "hardcore game" might even mean.
- using non-Euclidean space and changing how space is simulated on each level.
- decoupling the visual representation of a wall with the physical representation of the wall (the collision plane)
- abstracting the familiar Quake enemies into colorful cubes.
- displaying the code that is controlling the game in real-time.
- Mondo Agency (video) by Cactus
- plays with flow through it's use of existential horror. The abstracted 2D enemies in a 3D world that changing it's rules is terrifying. It's like the game was not quite made for a human being (or better yet, how the concept of the human is itself unsure and unstable) - sort of like David Lynch's films.
- Randy Balma Municipal Abortionist by Messof
- Sexy Hiking
(video) by jazzuo
- the game mechanic is functional but ill-suited for the environment, making movement extremely awkward
- GIRP and QWOP by Bennett Foddy are some better known examples.
- Rom Check Fail
- scroll down (video) is a formal meta-game because :
- it mashes many gaming conventions and mechanics together into a single work but does so without resolving the dissonant logics of characters, environments and enemies. For example the Spy Hunter car can shoot ghosts in the Pac-Man level which makes it super easy, however other levels prove impossible.
- it is a game that summarizes the medium of games
- Standard Bits
(video)
- each room redefines the relationship of the player to the space in which she's trying to navigate
- Standard Bits is available to play on the Indie City Games Arcade Cabinet at the Emporium Barcade on N Milwaukee: http://emporiumchicago.com/
- Brainstorm 10 game ideas (each student must do this, even if you are in a group).
- Post to the blog at least 2 sentences describing each idea.
- Each idea should have a descriptive, clever title.
- Prototype (digitally or on paper) your most promising idea.
- Playtest it with at least 3 players.
- Summarize in another blog post what you would change or develop in your game.
- Based on Tuesday's in-class playtests, make at least 5 changes to the game. Post on the blog what those changes are.
- Choose the final title of your game.
- Post a link to the downloadable executable of the game, or embed the game in a web page (both Unity and Processing have functions to do this).
- Post 2 screenshots of the game to the blog.
- Post a video screencapture of the game to the blog.
- List what each team member's role was on the game, e.g., programmer, artist, etc.
-----#2 Political Art Game Project |
The political avant-garde recalls what the magic circle meant and did historically. It recovers something that what we have collectively lost, radical play. The magic circle is a means of collectively risking the stability of the world, and our understanding of it. Radical play mixes categories together that are usually kept separate, such as public and private or sacred and profane. For example, radical play mixes logical and magical thinking in spontaneous and potentially dangerous ways. To play in unexpected ways in our shared social spaces (virtual or physical) challenges social conventions and allows alternate power structures to move, organize, and emerge.
- DO NOT BREAK CITY, STATE, or FEDERAL LAWS!
- You have 2 weeks to develop a game or an event.
You have a lot of choice with this project. You can develop:
A game like:
Dys4ia
Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
Unmanned
September 12th
Cow Clicker
These are political games because they challenge what games are for and what they can do in popular culture.
and run an Alternate Reality Game (ARGs) such as:
The Beast
World Without Oil
ARGs are political without always explicitly trying to be so. This is because they open up the relationship between people or the relationships between people and the systems / spaces in which we live, work, sleep, shop, commute, etc. They reframe some ritual aspect of everyday life as something that's transformable and fungible. Playing in public is itself a political act because society exerts incredible pressure to minimize disruption to the flow of our collective movement, ideas, and capital. Doing public games or events will require you to do some dry runs and might draw public ire, so they are not for the feint of heart!
and run a Reality Game like:
Seed Bombing
BorderXing
Camover
Reality Games are different from ARGs because they shed the premise of an "alternate" reality altogether and often openly break laws, whether it's trespassing, littering, or destroying property. DO NOT BREAK ANY LAWS with this project, however.
and stage a griefer art event:
in a MMO virtual world, such as events by Gazira Babeli.
in online multiplayer games, such as Velvet Strike or Dead in Iraq.
Events like these surprise, disrupt, delight and/or empower players of an existing game or virtual world in a way that they don't ask for or expect.
hack a game, such as the SimCopter hack by one of the Yes Men. The hack must redistribute power in the game or politicize the game or the medium of games in some way.
mod an existing game in a political way, like the early transgender texture packs for Quake (female textures on male characters made them look like transvestites).
Read Chapter 3 of the textbook. This will give you a understanding of what "political" art games and events are. It also establishes a foundational understanding of what the magic circle really is and how it both affords and constrains the advancement of games as an artistic medium.
The reading will provide examples for you to riff on if necessary.
Choose to work by yourself or form a group of 2-5 other students for this project.
Brainstorm 10 Political art game or event ideas (each student must do this, even if you are working in a group). Post your ideas to the blog. Write at least 3 sentences per idea. Each idea should have a descriptive, clever name. A name for an event might be, "Walmart Go Kart!" or, if you're doing an event in an online multiplayer game, perhaps "Liberating The Black Pops in Black Ops."
If you are making a game:
Prototype your most promising idea digitally, with your bodies, or on paper.
Playtest the game with at least 3 players or larger groups if
your game requires it.
Post to the blog at least 5 changes you'll make to the game based on the playtests.
If you are doing an event:
If you're doing a game:
- Develop the prototype into a short game that offers 20 seconds of politically provocative gameplay.
- Choose the final title of your game.
- Post a link to the downloadable executable of the game, or embed the game in a web page (both Unity and Processing have functions to do this).
- Post 2 screenshots of the game to the blog.
- Post a video screencapture of the game to the blog.
- List what each team member's role was on the game, e.g., programmer, artist, etc.
If you're doing an event:
- Do a final run of the event.
- Document it with photos and video.
- Choose the final title of your event.
- Prepare a 10 minute postmortem summarizing what you were trying to do and what went right and what went wrong.
- Prepare a presentation with images and videos.
- Post images, video, and postmortem to the blog.
-----#3 Collabojam Art Game |
If you think you've cracked open the creative juices on your previous projects, boy are you wrong. This project is all about letting a work SPEAK to you and building a RELATIONSHIP with a work to build another work. Make sense? You will select one reference piece: a film, a police photograph, a perfume, an animal bone, a music video, a spanish dancer, or whatever. As Amy Walker advises with regard about learning accents, be FASCINATED by your inspirational reference. Make a game that inspired by from that fascination. Here are some examples of references. You can pick one of these or anything else you like.
Here are the loops you should use as inspiration for this project:
Zip download link to all the videos
or
Here's a webpage linking to each video
- You have 2 weeks to develop your collaborative art game.
- Your game should channel the spirit of the reference piece. It should capture the spirit of the piece in some way and make it somehow accessible to players.
- The title of the game must reference the title or name of the reference piece in some way.
- The game must provide 20 seconds of gameplay.
- You must collaborate with someone from our art games class who you have NEVER worked with before for this project.
- Once you have your team, collectively pick the piece that your team RESPONDS to the most emotionally. DO NOT PICK A REFERENCE PIECE BASED ON A GAME IDEA YOU HAVE FOR IT. That defeats the whole purpose. Pick the reference that your team responds to the strongest emotionally. Which one just feels good? Which one really speaks to you?
- You must use the reference piece as INSPIRATION. This means you must let the piece speak to you. Watch the piece dozens of times and don't be too rational as you watch. Just soak it in. Feel the movement of the piece. Feel the loop as something you can depend on. Watch it until you can predict every little change, turn, flip and flutter. Try to capture the mood and feel of the piece by being INSPIRED by it rather than by rationally trying to capture the mood and feel.
- You must use at least one LOGICAL element from the reference piece. If your reference is an animation, this could be the pattern of movement an object takes across the screen. If your reference is photographic evidence of a murder, this could be the nexus of connections between the image, the victim, the murderer, and the photographer. If your reference is a song, this could be how it structures time, connecting different segments with a repeating chorus for example.
- Each student links to their reference piece on a blog post and lists 10 game ideas based of that piece.
- Each team creates a design prototype that captures their core idea for the game.
- Post the title of the game to the blog. It should richly refer to the inspirational reference. Don't be intellectually lazy.
- Post the description of the game.
- Post 2 screenshots.
- Post a downloadable executable.
- Post the students who worked on it and their roles.
- No video needed at this point.
- Each team must do a playtest with at least 5 players. Part of the playtest is to SHOW THE PLAYERS the reference piece (after they have played the game). You must ask the players if you are capturing the mood, feel, and logic of the piece.
- Post on the blog 5 changes you'll make to the game.
- Each team must be prepared to do a playtest in class on Tuesday. You need to be making consistent PROGRESS on your game! It should be much more fleshed out than it was Thursday.
- Part of the playtest on Tuesday March 3 is to SHOW THE PLAYERS the reference piece. You must ask the players if you are capturing the mood, feel, and logic of the piece.
- After the test post on the blog 5 changes you'll make to the game.
- Post the title of the game to the blog and link to the inspirational reference piece.
- Post the description of the game.
- Post 2 screenshots.
- Post a downloadable executable.
- Post a video screencapture of the game.
- Post the students who worked on it and their roles.
Remember all the great in-class discussions we've had over the quarter. Remember your readings. Go back and play some of the example games linked to above for previous projects. Now this is your chance to really spectacularly FAIL in your life. Make an art game that does something absolutely weird and challenging. If you are not super uncomfortable making the game, you are on the wrong track.
You have three choices for this project:
- Develop another formal game
- Develop another political game or event
- Develop another inspirational or collaborative work with anyone you wish. Here is one option: Somali Street Art and Culture
- Brainstorm 10 game ideas (each student must do this, even if you are in a group).
- Post to the blog at least 2 sentences describing each idea.
- Each idea should have a descriptive, clever title.
- Post the title of the game to the blog.
- Post the link to any inspirational materials you're using.
- Post the description of the game.
- Post the instructions to the game.
- Post 2 screenshots.
- Post a downloadable executable.
- Post a video screencapture of the game.
- Post the students who worked on it and their roles.
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