Art Games

Have video games attained the status of art yet? Does it really matter when we consider their power for innovation?

Last class we discussed whether or not video games had reached the level of 'fine art', and whether or not they would go further towards this potentiality in the future. An interesting point that came up was that the video game medium itself may not have matured enough yet to be able to be self-reflexive. During their inception and initial maturation, mediums such as film and photo may have not produced truly self-concious art pieces until the medium itself reached a certain technological plateau. Once a medium has plateaued, art within it starts to conceptually deconstruct the medium itself, showing us how the medium itself has already affected and changed our perception. When painting had truly reached its limit, a truly brilliant painter named Marcel Duchamp produced a ready-made urinal (The Fountain) and labelled it as art to show the meaninglessness he saw for himself and other artists to try to innovate in the area of paintings at this point in history.

Rather than acting as a detached deconstructionist of the medium, art produced during the initial evolution of said medium functions as a creator of inovation. Because art produced at this time is less about conceptualism and more about just trying new things, it a less intellectual but more dynamic, original and probably exciting place to be. This is the phase in a medium's development when pure innovation is still happening. The medium itself is trying to attain its maximum potential for realistically representing the so-called "real world", and during this time people will keep finding new and immaginative ways to do this visually, interactively, and emotionally.

To add this discourse, I've decided to post a few of my favourite flash-based art games. Because the medium of flash games, for the moment, has somewhat plateaued, it gives artists certain design constraints to work creatively within. These artworks are innovative in the way they work within these constraints, as well as highly conceptual because of the current constraints of the technology. Submitted for your approval, some conceptual art flash games:


But That Was [Yesterday]...


This is probably the most emotionally affecting game I've ever played... and it was made in the flash! In addition to featuring a purely image and sound conveyed narrative, the gameplay mechanics are also extremely conceptual with regard to the game's central theme and message. The emotion conveyed by the interplay of narrative, incredibly music, and art makes this one of the most beautiful things I've ever experience through a computer screen. A sublime soundtrack completes the package and can downloaded at the designer's website. Made by a game designer known only as Bean.


Everyday the Same Dream


An interesting exploration of modern, work-a-day melancholia. If you play it, you will probably get the concept pretty fast. However there are further layers of mystery added by small details in the game. The multiple, divergent ways one can finish a 'day' are also interesting. Apparently there is a way to actually finish the game, but I haven't found it yet. Made by the prominent, popular, and political flash game group, Molleindustria.


Love

Whereas the last two games rely heavily on image, music, and somewhat traditional narrative elements to create a sense of the central theme and game story, this game uses purely mechanics. The game designer has obviously thought to death about a mechanic that would systematically represent the vaugaries, triumphs, and pitfalls of this most central and confounding aspect of the human condition. And he or she seems to have found something close. By Contrebasse.