-Introduction: Behind The Game-
Art has a lot to do with gaming these days, art can help create worlds and inspire new and innovative things in games. Let's think about a few examples here. Characters from the latest Farcry, some of which are wild, ruthless, uninhibited criminals. What gives them that sadistic look? The shading around the eyes? The odd thing about their smile? The answer is a lot more than that. The entire design encompasses that sadistic feeling, that wild, kind of merciless feeling. How'd that sadistic character come into existence? Oh, well somebody thought him up and then they or someone else put it on paper, then they continued designing and redesigning the character until said character was comprised of everything that they desired to see. Sometimes it's not even done on paper, it might be completely digitally done, who knows? Everyone does it differently.
The point I'm getting at here is that so much art and creative development goes into these games, and some gamers probably never even think of or could fathom what went into designing some of these amazing games. Games like Halo, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Sonic The Hedgehog, and Mario are some of the biggest franchises in gaming in my opinion. I can't even imagine the amount of art integration and design that goes into those games in this day and age. Think about how expansive Halo 4 was, those levels, the enemies, how do you think the Promethean Knight came into existence? Probably on paper. So, let's talk a little bit more in depth about this.
-Appeal: Imagination Origination-
Imagination has to do with everything, all these games had to start somewhere. What were the creators thinking when they came up with it all? Who knows. That's where imagination comes in. Ask yourself when you turn on a game, does it return the favor? Do you get enjoyment out of it? How and why do you get enjoyment out of it? In truth, that can be traced back to when the game was first conceived as a thought. Appeal originates in multiple places, its invention, its design, any number of places for that matter. So, once it comes down to design, that's when you start getting into concepts and such. I'd imagine concepts are continuously made until the concept mirrors the vision as close as it can. I'm not going to pretend like I know everything about the design industry and its facet in gaming, this is all subjective.
I'm an artist of 15 years as a hobby, majoring in business and visual arts, primarily graphic design. My area in graphic design that I know most about would be the more advertising oriented facet of it. Fonts, color coding, textures, shapes, and appeal. That's what I can talk to you about, so I will. When you look at a character, let's say, Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII. When you see him, what is attractive about his character? That jagged and wild blonde hairdo straight out of Japan? Those endless pools of blue he has for eyes? Or is it the big ass blade he happens to carry around? Well, I'd have to say a little bit of everything. Despite his stature, his build and his features give off a very solemn, cold vibe. Thus making him come off as more of a silent hero archetype. His basic VII outfit is also pretty unique, gauntlets, boots, shoulder pad. None of which are colored brightly, once again providing a more calm, rigid, less noisy appeal, whilst still holding your attention with contrast from earth tones like brown. It all depends on the one playing too, some may like his design and find him to be a truly tragic and beautiful character, while others may just think he's gay. It's all perspective.
-Conclusion: A Profound Connection-
In the end, art and gaming will always be intertwined in at least one way or another. Even if we never use paper or pencil again to do it, there are increasingly common digital art mediums such as tablets that would still provide a similar connection to art. Plus, wouldn't you consider the entire creation of a game to be art? Or at least AN art? There's so much that goes into games. Scripts, graphics, cutscenes, voice overs, music, models, demos, concepts, summaries, sketches, character creation, world creation, those are just the ones that I could think of and I'm not even in the business. Here's a thought, we're playing art. All these games and things are someone else's creation. It's just like holding a painting in your hand, but instead you hold a controller and play their amazing creation. I know, I probably just blew your mind and that's how I'm going to end this volume of Profound Gaming. Thanks for reading folks! Stay up, stay on.
Thanks for reading my first volume of Profound Gaming everyone. This is something I hope to continue doing in the future, I'll focus on any number of things game related, this just happened to focus on art. Later volumes may be about gaming in general, specific game discussions, topics, whatever, all from my point of view. Thanks again folks, feedback is appreciated.