I had originally had a different interviewee lined up for my second interview this week, but they backed out at last minute. Thankfully, my brother studies game design like I do, as well as art. In addition, he has served as a playtester before.
In Regards to Games and Aesthetics
Andrew J. Wells: Wells: Salutations! I am Andrew J. Wells,
and I've been writing about various aspects of game design for my blog. Could
you tell us your name and what you do?
Lucas W. Wells: Greetings, I am Lucas Wells, an amateur
artist and game deisgner with a heavy interest in studying game mechanics
within the industry.
Andrew J. Wells: I apologize for requesting an interview at
such short notice, by the way. My other candidate backed out on me at the last
minute. Now, as someone who is fairly aesthetically minded, how do you think
art assets can affect a player's experience while playing a game?
Lucas W. Wells: I feel like art assests are a major part of
building immersion within a game, and immersion is one of the most important
things a game designer can accomplish. I've always been fascinated by works of
art that can draw me into their own little world and make me care about
exploring and interacting within it. One aspect a lot of more modern games
incorporate is incredibly realistic graphics, which do help with increasing
immersion because that's what we see in reality, but quality only goes so far.
You can build a world the player gets involved in without photorealism. This
takes in a lot of factors, but solely based on art and design, the world has to
mean something to the user. It has to involve them in someway, by enticing them
to investigate, inspire wonder, set a mood, etc.
Andrew J. Wells: I see! In regards to your previous
response, what is your opinion on the possible advantages more stylized
graphics have over more realistic ones?
Lucas W. Wells: In a sense, I think it forces innovation.
Much in the way that photography inspired a lot of painters to break away from
photorealistic renderings, as photorealism pushes more and more towards the
norm in game art, other devlopers will strain to create more stylized and
unique graphics once the realistic ones become boring. A more unique art style
might inspire new mechanics, characters, any number of things within games. By
breaking one stereotypical design process, developers might become interested
in breaking even more conventions, despite the risks.
Andrew J. Wells: Would you say that bizzare or
unconventional mechanics or themes would be better represented in stylization
then?
Lucas W. Wells: Not necessarily. Realistic graphics can
support more unconventional systems and mechanics, the combination of the two
would actually be beautifully striking if pulled off well. I was just stating
that an unconventional creative start can also breed more creative ideas down
the road.
Andrew J. Wells: Fair enough, though I can see a lot of
people out there debating that point, it is something of a controversial topic.
However, speaking of controversial topics, there are some games out there whose
main draw are art and story, with gameplay taking a 3rd or farther chair. What
are your thoughts on those sorts of games?
Lucas W. Wells: Can you give me an example of such titles?
Andrew J. Wells: Well, Heavy Rain would probably be one of
the more prominent examples, though Space Funeral and a large number of
adventure games, such as To the Moon, have faced similar criticism.
Lucas W. Wells: I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing
for games to focus on story and art vs. player interaction. Especially
nowadays, where big house titles seem devoid of any plot players actually care
about, it's good to see a couple independent and lesser known studios bringing
a focus back to storytelling. While gameplay is a massive factor in videogames,
defining what exactly counts as a videogame in this day and age is an
increasingly problematic challenge. Sometimes it's more of an interactive story
than a classic "videogame", but I don't think that's a huge issue, as
long as you know what you're getting into before laying your money down.
Andrew J. Wells: I suppose the evolution of video games as an industry is bound to create some outliers, but they do have an important place, I agree with you. Anyway, that's all the questions I have at the moment, thank you very much for your time!
Lucas W. Wells: Certainly! Thank you for choosing me to interview with!
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