The Art of Games (a brief summary)

by Dr_Worm on May 26th, 2013

I hold a very strong belief that video games can be considered art. I also hold a strong belief that a game should be first and foremost about the gameplay. You may think these mindsets conflict with each other, but in fact, they do quite the opposite. I think you can find art in just about any game if you look at it the right way, and to me, the most artistic games are the ones that can “bind” a player to the game.

This is directly a response to PiyozR’s article on art games, from which I want to specifically bring up the seventh paragraph (third from last). Interactivity is a very important thing when it comes to games as an art form, but it can’t necessarily be the only thing. A game doesn’t have to directly involve the player for it to be artistic. I believe story should never, ever come before gameplay, and that a designer should never risk compromising gameplay to provide a better story. Think of it like a weighing scale. If you put too much weight on the story, you get a crappy game – at that point it might as well be a movie or a book. Put too much weight on the game, however, and you’ll still be left with great gameplay.

I personally don’t think of games that way, anyway. To me, in order to make the best, most artistic game possible, the story should be the link between the player and the gameplay, not the other way around. Perhaps the best example of a game I consider a high work of art is one you may not expect to be the first one anyone thinks of as an art game: Psychonauts (possible spoilers ahead, by the way). Psychonauts is a 3D platformer where the levels are based on a certain character’s mind; their thoughts, their memories, their dreams and their fears. This in itself is already artistic, but it’s the way it relates to the player that I find extraordinary. The more sick and twisted a character’s mind is, the more sick and twisted the level that the player must traverse. It’s even more artistic when you throw in backstory, found in every level, representing what a character went through that shaped their minds into these worlds – worlds that you, the player, have to beat.

The best moment of Psychonauts is the final level, the Meat Circus, which is actually the product of two strong psychic minds in embarrassingly close proximity. One of those minds belongs to the protagonist, and the other the villain. In this level, you learn about what turned the villain so evil – a traumatic experience from his childhood. People complain about this level being so tough, but it’s like that because this is the real deal. This is what you have to go through if you want to be a full-fledged psychonaut, Raz has to tackle his own mind and his adversary’s simultaneously. You see where I’m getting at? Psychonauts is such a good “art game” because of how it ties its lore to the gameplay and how that affects the player’s experience. Hell, there’s even a reason you can’t go in water – it’s one of Raz’s fears.

Another good example off the top of my head is Portal 2. It does a lot of things better than Portal 1, first and foremost being new mechanics, half of which are introduced to you through “old Aperture”, where you learn about the rise and fall of Cave Johnson, as well as learning more about Aperture itself. All the while, despite regularly interacting with AI characters, you’re still the only living human throughout the entire game. This all gives the player a sense of isolation, the nagging fear that you’re all alone lingering in the back of your mind as you try to solve the game’s otherwise obsequious puzzles.

Isolation is an element that can form a bond between the player and the game, but so are direct concepts like multiplayer. Unlike interacting with characters within the game, you interact with other players, whether they act as characters in the game or are simply themselves acting as an opponent. Whether they’re trying to kill you in Quake or trying to revive you in Borderlands, there is always a feeling of player-to-player interaction that is simply impossible to achieve with single player games and is entirely exclusive to the medium.

I could go on, but art is a pretty deep subject, and I feel a good way to go into more detail is to open up conversation. Let’s take this over to the forums and see if we can’t get some good discussion going.

Categories: Features