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Art Games as Genre An introduction by Kristine Ploug
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 The classic Pong game used in Natalie Bookchin's art game The Intruder. The first computer game,
Spacewar, was born at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1961. Then an era of Pong and subsequently more advanced
arcade games occurred. Then came the consoles – both
for use at home and the handheld ones, the latest arrival
being the PlayStation Portable, the PSP. We now live in a
time of increasingly advanced 3D games for different
platforms. The computer game industry
is thriving. It is making more money than the movie
industry, and games are showing up in more and more
contexts. A lot of box office hits are accompanied by games
(Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring …) and with the new
movie King Kong the game is even launched before the movie.
Games are virtually
everywhere. Politicians have games on their websites as part
of their election campaigns. Kids are increasingly learning
through games. Games are everywhere and it is believed that
they will move into even more places in the
future. But enough about games as
such. As a small subcategory of computer games you find
Art Games. They are made by artists as pieces of
art. Some have ulterior motives, mainly political, others
are merely a playful piece of interaction with the user.
What makes them art and not
just games? For some, the fact that they were made as art,
for others the fact that they are exhibited as art - it can
all be boiled down to the intention behind them,
originating from either the curator or the artist. An
example of an art game is Samorost, which was made as a
quirky design project, rather than art, but has been seen by
several curators as art. In the right context,
commercial games can be perceived as art as well. There is
no doubt that a lot of talent, skill and will goes into
producing the commercial games. And although they are not
produced as art, but merely as entertainment, we see a lot
of examples of things that were not meant as art being
exhibited in an art context. Benjamin Fry's Valence is an
example of a tool with a concrete purpose that has been
exhibited as art and thus becomes art. And what commercial
computer games are lacking in artistic thought, they
undoubtedly possess in craft and an impressive use of the
technology. Another discussion is, whether it is good art or
bad and I must admit that I find most commercial games
inferior as art. And not least: I find the discussion
boring. So, back to art games. Art Games: A Few
Characteristics It seems that there are a
few defining characteristics to art games. Tiffany Holmes
gives a definition of art games in her article Arcade
Classics Spawn Art? Current Trends in the Art Game Genre
(2003). Her definition goes: " … art games contain two
of the following: a defined way to win or experience success
in a mental challenge, passage through a series of levels
(that may or may not be hierarchical), or a central
character or icon which represents the player." I can add that in most cases
the art games are neither addictive nor meant to be played
over and over, but merely shorter comments. Most art games
are playable online, they are usually made for a PC and
usually meant for a single player. The games always have
interaction, but this interaction doesn't always have an
effect on what goes on in the game. In Natalie Bookchin's
game The Intruder, the many different games played by the
user are merely a way to keep the user busy, while listening
to a story by Jorge Luis Borges. Art games can roughly be
divided into two groups: political games and aesthetic
games. A clear political game is Gonzalo Frasca's September
12. Another division can be made between the
made-from-scratch games and the art mods –
modifications of existing games. A lot of the big games
allow modding, where you can create your own
version of the game. A category related to the art mods is
Machinima (a short form of mechanical
animation ), pre-recorded and often edited movies made
in a game by many users coordinating their characters. At
this year's Ars Electronica, they showed several
Machinimas. Several art games don't
quite fit the categories, but are using elements from the
game format in the artwork. Computer based art has the
advantage of using a media that is truly contemporary and
integrated in our everyday life – at Artificial, we
believe that it is the natural art of our times. Reacting to
– and using the language of – computer games is an
obvious development. In a recent interview with
Artificial, the creator behind Samorost, Jakub Dvorsky, said
when asked what the game genre has to offer: "It's obvious -
games are so popular because when you are playing games you
are not only a viewer but also a player - you can influence
what is happening in the game. So the artist creating an
'artistic game' can count on it and involve some new ideas
in it, which couldn't work in movies, literature or in
paintings. In my opinion, the game genre brings a whole new
universe of possibilities for artists." With games being the art
form of the future, it is quite funny, though, that a lot of
artist s use the retro-aesthetics of the 70's and 80's
games. The pixelated spaceship of Space Invaders is seen
several places and so is Pac Man and Super Mario. It is
quite rare to see an art game looking like a slick 3D photo
- like Hitman. There might be several reasons for this. The
nostalgic, iconic, retro-aesthetics might be what the
artists are after, but it might also be because the 3D
environment is simply not feasible. The computer industry
spends years and lots of money on their production and
resembling that on a artist budget might not be
possible. For theoretical
readings about art games: 'This
articles is published in a collaboration between
dichtung-digital.org and artificial.dk. |
