- Game experience, interactive and complex, may be understood and evaluated from a framework of game aesthetics. Historically, aesthetics referred to studies of sensory values. More concretely, Wikipedia states that “Aesthetics studies new ways of seeing and of perceiving the world.”[1] ,Seif El-Nasr, et al. noted that there are two current clusters of meaning for game aesthetics, one being the in game sensory phenomena, and two being the in game experience of pleasure or emotion. This concept is elusive, nebulous, and subjective. Nevertheless, game experience is a critical factor for gaming, and an aesthetics framework will help us to understand that experience.
- Seif El-Nasr, et al. studied the aesthetics of dynamic lighting for tension in games. Drawing from film and theatre, they determined that certain lighting state changes either increased tension or decreased tension. Patterns that increased tension were low contrast images, followed by high contrast images and low color saturation followed by high color saturation. Patterns that decreased tension were the opposite state change as those that increased tension. A static pattern that increases tension is one that increases a state of player vulnerability by the means of visual obscurity, for example, darkness, atmospheric phenomena, or occlusion.
- Some of these dynamic lighting state changes can be seen in the following video:
- When Seif El-Nasr et al. studied the responses of gamers to a prototype game that used dynamic lighting changes to signal danger, they found two separate viewpoints. Some long term gamers thought that the changes made the game too easy and others were disturbed by more information. In contrast, many players new to the first person shooter genre, liked the dynamic lighting. The important thing about these reactions was not that they were different, but that there were specific reactions to the dynamic lighting changes that impacted the game experience.
- Although, games are not generally considered as art, the fact remains that there is an aesthetic experience as games are played. Whether it is positive or negative is secondary to that fact. As such game aesthetics should also be part of game analysis and critique.
- I wanted to share some examples of games that incorporate aesthetics into their design. To start, Passage, a game by Jason Rohrer, shows fine attention to aesthetics from a minimalist viewpoint:
- And Rohrer recently released Primrose, an iPhone game. Again a minimalist application, but elegant.
- Finally, The Game Developer Choice Awards awarded Braid in the categories of writing, design, debut, innovation, and downloadable. Jonathan Blow, designer, and David Hellman, artist, worked on the game art to remove art elements that would be seen as aesthetic and yet keeping aesthetic elements that would be generalized by the player as non-functional parts of the level. http://store.steampowered.com/app/900816/
- In summary, I believe that the aesthetic experience can enhance game experience. I believe that in game aesthetics are more than style or preference, and actually refer to how the gamer experiences the game and how the gamer plays the game.
References:
Aesthetics (2009).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics
Braid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(computer_game)
2009 Game Developers Choice Awards
http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/winners/index.htm#nom
Rohrer, J. (2007) Passage. Videogame.
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/index.html
Rohrer, J. (2009) Primrose. Videogame.
http://primrose.sourceforge.net/.
Seif El-Nasr, M., Neidenthal, S., Knez, I., Almeida, P., and Zupko, J. (2007). Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games. Game Studies:The International Journal of Computer Game Research.
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elnasr_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko
Posts
It was really interesting to see your blog on people's reaction to aesthetics in games. Considering such games such as F.E.A.R, Fatal Frame, and Siren use certain colors (black, whites, greys, and red) and flashing contrasts in color in order to scare and shock players in order to succeed in their genre concept. I also believe that aesthetics are a big part of a game especially when they are used as a tactic to emit certain emotions from players, which then become part of the gameplay intended by the game designers.
ReplyDeletePretty cool, like the designs. And great writing. Your postings are getting to be better and better. Pretty straight to the heart of the matter as well as giving both sides on opnions.
ReplyDeleteI like that you critique the notion of subjective game play as a universalizable item. That IS problematic, isn't it? So what do designers do when they are needing to meet every single person in the universe's needs?
ReplyDeleteAgain, you provide EXCELLENT context for your use of the sources, even including video that SHOWS what the articles are writing about.
I want to know more about your examples. I can make the connections to them, but I want to see you do that. They make sense, but make sure you expand the explanation (ie minimalist, since a lot of people might not have a handle on what that means).
Most research (reference: any 101 statistics course) supports the notion that human reponse generally responds over some kind of a range, most commonly a bell curve, sometimes a double spiked bell curve, sometimes right sloped curve, sometimes a left. A game developer should research responses to the presentations and if there is one than one response, or more than one preference, a menu of options for customization should be available.
ReplyDeleteAs for my examples, I apologize for just throwing them in there with no explanation. I will certainly revisit my week 4 post and correct that problem.
As for minimalism, it is a philosophy in which something is "spare" or "stripped down to its essentials" according to Wikipedia. My viewpoint on minimalism is that when you ascribe to it in your communications, you will have more attendance to your message. For example, I have noticed in emails that many people do not actually take the time to scroll and read past the first screen.
The danger in minimalism is that if the author is not careful, the message will be too truncated and the meaning will be lost (as I did by not providing adequate introducion to my game examples).
As for the Rohrer games, it is evident that Rohrer designed his games to be only and exactly related to the game play by presenting a simple pixellated version of a man's life in Passage. The second game, Primrose, is supposed to be based on retro computer. I don't know anymore about the game myself. But I loved the way the colors moved around in Passage. It was a fascinating little moving abstraction with a little pixel man in the middle. And I loved the glowing button display of Primrose. I don't even know why for sure. I think it was masterful, because it keeps rearranging the tiles, but whatever arrangement comes up it is pleasing.
As for Braid, alas, I loved the advertisement so much, that I purchased the game and spent hours and hours trying to play it. I loved its visual presentation too. So pretty, all the time. But I can't do "platformers" as well as others (read: hardly at all). And the puzzles were too difficult. Braid was also minimalist in its instructions. I found it to be elistist and snobby because it relied on prior experience in other "platformers" to succeed is spite of its aesthetics.
ARRRG,
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard to proof a comment. I missed in the last sentence. My last sentence ended up being a hash of two ideas.
Delete "is spite of its aesthetics.
Add new sentence: "Braid did not succeed in spite of its aesthetics."