Art Games & Their Place in the Industry

Weekly Blog Entry Research & Project Updates (3)

This week I took a step back from the project and decided to focus instead on this semester’s final paper. Despite some talk of it last semester, when it actually came time to do it… well, it threw me for a loop and essentially came out of left field. Therefore, in an attempt to not be caught flat footed this time, I decided to simply get ahead of the whole thing and solidify my outline now, at my earliest possible convenience.

Last semester, I did a dive into what makes an art game (subgenre of serious games) an art game, essentially, what elements were needed to make a game that is considered art first, a game second. You can check out that paper here, I think it came out pretty good but considering the thesis I am building towards is in itself an art game, I feel I can go deeper. That’s why my topic again will be art games. However, this time, I don’t want to observe this genre in a vacuum. I want to dive deep on the art game’s place in the industry, I also want to see if it is possible… or even sensible to try and get more people exposed to art games.

My thesis statement: “Art games currently exist as their own niche within the larger video game industry, limited in exposure in their current form due to the difficulties present in advertising and selling for this genre; targeting traditional game consumers is possible through the continued overlap with the Indie Game movement, blending alternative goals and design with traditional gaming conventions. To be marketable towards larger audiences, Art Games have to concede to change impacting design philosophy, however, this proposed change is not currently necessary.”

My Outline is linked here. I will working on the rough draft of the paper at the end of Phase II of the project. Next week I begin modeling the Vaccination Wing space ( I give myself 2 weeks, perhaps it may only take one.. we’ll see).

Tentative Project Schedule

PHASE II

· Week 4 – Week 5: Model Vaccination Wing

· Week 6 – Week 8: Model Pieces on Display Within Wing & Write Rough Draft of Semester Paper

PHASE III

· Week 9 – Week 10: Texturing Vaccination Wing & Display Pieces

PHASE IV

· Week 11 – Week 14: Putting Everything Together – Place assets in game engine (Unity); appropriate scaling, duplicating, lighting work, sound work. I give myself 4 weeks – but can easily be pushed to less time if I am behind in the previous steps outlined in the schedule above. Turn in Semester Paper Final Copy. Write updated Artist Statement. Prepare Final Presentation!