ARTG 10 - AESTHETIC DESIGNS
Module 8 - Bonus Level - Course Wrap-Up
Painting by Gustav Klimt ~1907 - 1912
Images from Transistor game, by Supergiant - per the studio, this game was heavily inspired by the visual works of Gustav Klimt
8.1 Concluding Visual Aesthetics + Games
I wanted to close out the course by very briefly wrapping up the lecture module content a bit, but don't worry, none of this is required viewing. If you don't have time to go through this now, it will be available over break and into next quarter, as will the rest of these lecture pages.
Over the past 10 weeks, these lectures have covered several critical visual design fundamentals and principles, and explored how these principles work towards a visual aesthetic. Each module also presents a variety of artworks, designs, and other visual media, that are either strongly driven by - or in direct conversation with - the corresponding principle.
All of this material {hopefully} works towards describing and defining the visual design components that inform a game's visual aesthetic. The numerous "non-game" examples presented in each module provide historical insights, different perspectives, and a range of intentional creative expression. They are also included to demonstrate that many many many games utilize a visual aesthetic that is inspired by, driven by, informed by, and/or heavily references, artworks, designs, and media that are not games.
None of this is to say that games are not or cannot be art. This is just to say that most forms of {contemporary} art + design, and current visual culture, and pop culture / main stream media, are informed by something else outside of their form/format/medium. Photographers are not just looking at photographs, painters are not just looking at paintings, cinematographers are not just watching films, writers are not just reading articles and books, and game designers are not just referencing other games.
As you begin to envision and design games in the next few quarters / years, remember that you can always look beyond games as sources of inspiration and reference, especially when designing a visual aesthetic. The video below discusses many of the types of visual "styles" - or aesthetics - that have been established by game designers and artists working with a range of inspirations, while also navigating an always changing landscape of technological limitations {that were sometimes also human-engineered / influenced}. These styles would not have been established if designers and artists had only explored and referenced visual designs and inspirations that present in other games.
To conclude this module, and the course, I now want to focus on some recent forms of art, cinema, visual media, and popular culture that heavily reference and/or are informed by games. The films below do not reference games specifically, in any way, but their visual aesthetics are very similar to visual aspects of many contemporary games.
Each of these films feature multiple "worlds" that are greatly defined by different VISUAL aesthetics, among other narrative components. At times, Across the Spider-Verse and Everything Everywhere All At Once shift between these visual aesthetics / worlds very quickly, while Barbie's transitions are a little slower, but still very critical to the overall story and visual aesthetic.
I believe that these shifts from one highly designed visual aesthetic to another would not be understandable or easily processed by mainstream viewers without the visual language defined by digital games. In some of these films, these shifts happen almost immediately and without a lot of narrative guidance, and at other times multiple visual aesthetics appear within a single scene or frame. This combination of visual aesthetics is heavily featured in games and other forms of interactive media, but much less in traditional film and animation. For these reasons, I believe that films like Barbie, Across the Spider-Verse, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, reference the visual aesthetic of games, and/or indirectly rely on a visual language and combination of aesthetics more easily understood through games and interactive media. Looking at these films from this perspective, demonstrates how games themselves have and will continue to influence other forms of art + design.