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American braves - total aesthetics: an opinion piece on game design for academics
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American braves - total aesthetics: an opinion piece on game design for academics
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AMERICAN BRAVES TOTAL AESTHETICS: AN OPINION PIECE ON GAME DESIGN FOR ACADEMICS by Ryan Watterson A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF FINE ARTS (INTERACTIVE MEDIA) May 2012 Copyright 2012 Ryan Watterson ii Table of Contents List of Figures iii Abstract v Preface vii Introduction 1 Elements of Aesthetic 8 Art 8 Sound 17 Narrative 18 Design 19 Narrative Design 19 Ludic Design 20 Engineering 20 Aesthetic Choices in American Braves 22 Art 24 Sound 26 Narrative 28 Design 30 Engineering 31 Benefits 34 Conclusion 41 Prior Art 43 References 56 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Kara as a Symbol 2 Figure 2: One Chance 5 Figure 3: Diverse Games from the 1990s 9 Figure 4: Dear Esther 10 Figure 5: Bit Trip Runner 11 Figure 6: Castle Crashers 12 Figure 7: L.A. Noire 13 Figure 8: Call of Duty Black Ops 14 Figure 9: Red Dead Redemption 14 Figure 10: Kara in Photorealistic 3d 15 Figure 11: Kara in Real Life 16 Figure 12: The Spirits Within 17 Figure 13: Film Sprites 25 Figure 14: Music Recording 27 Figure 15: Game Heroes from Two Generations 40 Figure 16: Streets of Fury 43 Figure 17: Mortal Kombat 44 Figure 18: Xenogears 45 iv Figure 19: Breath of Fire 3 46 Figure 20: Big Fish Poster 47 Figure 21: Final Fantasy 7 Menu 48 Figure 22: Nirvana Album Cover 49 Figure 23: Silverchair Album Cover 49 Figure 24: Bob Dylan 50 Figure 25: The Animals Album Cover 51 Figure 26: Quest for Glory 52 Figure 27: Deus Ex 3 53 Figure 28: Mass Effect 53 Figure 29: Final Fantasy 6 Battle System 54 v Abstract Contemporary American interactive work has entered a period dominantly characterized by two movements: the games industry movement, and the independent games movement. These movements satisfy many, but they do not represent or address the totality of what is possible, or what is desirable, from interactive work -- this is because they do not embrace a philosophy of total aesthetics, instead choosing to emphasize particular aesthetic components arbitrarily, in-line with their own anecdotal successes, or selected by personal bias. The total aesthetics of an interactive work include the media content in concert with design and technology. Interactive work produced under the philosophy of total aesthetics recognizes that each aesthetic element can be accomplished in numerous ways and that, while projects may emphasize certain elements over others, no element has an inherent necessary emphasis nor a relationship of superiority or inferiority with other choices. The term total aesthetics is chosen because the aesthetic of a game -- its total aesthetic -- is a standalone product independent of its individual aesthetics and their quality. vi This paper argues that a philosophy of producing interactive work that emphasizes total aesthetics will produce more creative and varied work, more engaging work at cheaper costs, work with more authorial voice. The project, American Braves, is a submission of interactive work that was created under this philosophy. This work contains a total aesthetic which has never been seen before. This was made possible not by technological innovation, myopic focus on studies and analytics, or craftsman-level dedication to the individual aesthetics of work, but by an improvement of mindset in the creation of work -- focusing on authorship, influences and intention as they relate to the total aesthetic. vii Preface My name is Ryan Watterson. I have had lifelong experience making all forms of media. I was a formally trained guitarist, pianist and vocalist for 5 years beginning at age 12, and have produced music all my life. In the last three years I've written and recorded two acoustic albums and a number of instrumental pieces intended for video game and film projects. In college I majored for two years in my high school passion, film, and was exposed to the greatest works of the form from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to Sunset Boulevard to Koyaanisqatsi to The Decalogue. I received my undergraduate degree in English focusing on literature and creative writing where I was not only exposed to the greatest literature of the English language such as the work of James Joyce, John Milton and Mark Twain, but the greatest works of world literature and the history of literature with exposure to figures from Chaucer to Dostoevski. Over the duration of my life, I've played thousands upon thousands of video games with deep passion, drawn especially to those which gave a glimmer of the possibility of achieving the fine art qualities that many works in other media forms were able to create -- those works which are still fondly remembered by their effects on society and art thousands of years after their creation. To me, the viii games which have come closest so far, though still distant from that goal, were the jRPGs prominent in the 1990s such as Vagrant Story, Suikoden 2 and Final Fantasy 7, the game from which Jenova Chen derived not only an obvious deal of influence, but also his first name. During my grad school career, I was able to develop several game projects and expand from a connoisseur to a creator in that field as well. As far as media goes, the unhealthy depth of my obsession knows no bounds. In addition to these experiences, I have become an experienced blogger, writing blog entries as a hobby over the last five years. When reading this paper, please take into account the source of its development. I am not a scientist -- this is not a scientific paper, nor is my project a science project. I am a personality blogger in the greater tradition of such figures as Mark Twain and Jon Stewart, and a producer of media; this paper will inevitably reflect my background. While I understand my audience for this paper is academics, please read it with the understanding that my goal, as it is when I write other opinion pieces, is as much to entertain or even frustrate the reader through my on-air personality and word choice as it is to provide a stimulating and thought provoking critique of modern game design. Above all, my goal is to communicate what I believe to be the truth and to do so with straight talk and common language. 1 Introduction Digital games, despite their relatively short history, have had a long track record of creating all sorts of creative tools and techniques, only to marginalize or discard those techniques at the first sign of overuse, misuse or antiquation. Perhaps this is because of cultural fetishism of the new, or because games are developed by those educated in the sciences who see problems as having correct and incorrect answers as opposed to just answers. No matter the cause, it has happened both to techniques used to fulfill individual aesthetic components, such as photography based art or text based story, as well as to aesthetic recipes that compose entire genres, such as the adventure genre. This has led to a contemporary interactive scene that marches proudly to hegemony even in its attempts to create diversity. Biased movements, such as the games industry movement with its technological fetishism, and the independent games movement with its overemphasis on new ludic game mechanics, institutionalize these biases by offering society a rigged marketplace of competition marred by arbitrary selection biases -- in doing so, creating a box where there really is no box. 2 With regard to the assertions about the game industry -- the recent Smithsonian exhibit was criticized by an art critic in the Washington Post in a similar way. Phillip Kennicott called it "A technologically impressive but intellectually inert exhibition . . . [that] belongs in a history or technology museum, not in an institution devoted to art". (Kennicott) He goes on to say "It focuses on technology, as if the overriding force of game design is basic verisimilitude." At the same time of the publishing of his scathing critique on what game circles had curated as being great examples of their art, at GDC the heavy hitter was a technical demo called Kara. First hand I was able to see reactions demarcated by background -- scientists in our industry heralded this tech demo precisely because of its verisimilitude. Reactions from the more artistically inclined were much less friendly. Unfortunately we cannot please everyone by trying to continue in these two paths simultaneously: if the scientific goal is producing tech demos which bring us toward greater verisimilitude, we cannot make headway with the fine artists who criticize us for doing exactly that. Figure 1: Kara as a Symbol 3 With regard to the IGF sphere, they're been criticized for their insular culture. A revealing scandal this year started by the blog TheRottingCartridge, found that the judges not only did not access most of the games submitted (IG) -- revealing that success has to do more with connections than any integrity of artistry or form -- but also the basic rubric upon which they judge games creates a bias; it limits the submissions to a particular genre in which the judgers feel confident. To illustrate this example, the rubric upon which an RPG is judged by the top RPG review site RPGamer.com is "Battle System, Story, Originality, Music, Graphics" (RPGamer). This rubric exists in the confines of the genre. At IGF the rubric is "Best Visual Art, Best Audio, Best Design, Technical Excellence" and then a breakdown of publishing avenues. While subtle, the difference here reveals that both judging rubrics define the confines of a genre. If the IGF people are not judging on Battle Systems or Story, how can they ever judge the quality of an RPG? What RPG makers would ever submit to them? Likewise, if audio, visual art, ludic design and technical excellence have nothing to do with a poignancy of a work, how will it succeed in the IGF sphere? Jonathan Blow, at GDC 2011, gave a talk in which he said "In movies, we have all these different genres of movies. When you go to a different genre of movie you have different emotional expectations. They are this still sort of this commercial experience in that you feel 'I paid to go see a comedy so it better be 4 funny' but that is not an expectation you'd have going to see a drama or going to see a documentary. In games we don't seem to have that. Everyone seems to expect this fun thing out of all the games. Right now our genres are all along mechanical lines instead of emotional lines." (Blow) When we take this rubric enforced by the IGF circle and apply it to contemporary games which exist and approach being fine art, we find that it fails to pull out the qualities which make those pieces of work stand out. Additionally, those pieces of work fail to succeed in any of the categories defined by the IGF. The three most successful fine art experiences I've felt in the modern era have been: One Chance, an art game by AwkwardSilenceGames, Every Day the Same Dream by LAMolleIndustries, and Train by Brenda Brathwaite. Each of these games boasts: no excellence in visual art (the art styles are unique and compelling, but in a craftsman's terms they are not high quality on their own); no excellence in audio (two of them have one simple techno track of mediocre quality on its own, one has no prepared audio of any kind); no original or high level ludic design (two of them contain extremely basic navigation systems, one contains a board game racing game mechanic of similar simplicity); and subpar technicality (two of them have extraordinarily weak technical implementations, and one has no technical implementation whatsoever). 5 Figure 2: One Chance One Chance, a game with a deeply compelling scenario derived from its interactivity, has none of the characteristics judged by the IGF. Its art is low quality, its soundtrack is a single dull techno song, its technological innovation is both simplistic and poorly done. Additionally, as far as its design elements: its narrative design is a quite simple navigation system based around movement and display of dialog; its ludic design is non-existent -- there is no attempt at play. However, One Chance is a great success due to the meaning and personality that it conveys. By going through the scenario -- wherein you play a father who's going to work at a genetics lab trying to cure a disease that's overtaking the world -- you experience the dichotomy between feeling the necessity and desire to 6 spend your remaining time with your family, or expend it on an impossible to reach goal of going to work. Everything about it is very simple -- and yet it makes you feel. It affects your heart and your perceptions. The defining characteristics which make those examples of games which approach fine art stand out is a compelling scenario, authorial intentionality, and a compelling total aesthetic -- even though each of their aesthetic elements when taken alone is subpar, the overall aesthetic of the mediocre visuals combined with the music, combined with the technical simplicity, produces a whole aesthetic which is compelling. IGF takes to opposite approach -- they seem to think that aiming games toward having high quality individual aesthetic will produce examples of work like this when it will really do anything but. The only way to move interactive work from this ecology of competing aesthetic biases is to reject the notion of aesthetic bias altogether. If interactive work is to expand, this trend of imposing limits must be reversed. In fact, the box must be rejected altogether. Interactive work is not limited to trying to create fun -- only engagement, if even that. Interactive work is not limited to work that emphasizes ludic based game design; it is not even required to have ludic based game design. There is no best formula for interactive work -- 3d, while having its own affordances as an aesthetic choice, has no inherent superiority or inferiority to 7 another choice such as photography. The inherent affordances of an aesthetic choice can only be labeled pros and cons in conjunction with other aesthetic choices and authorial intent. These biases must be recognized in all guises -- rules, theories, sales figures, blogs -- as biases and nothing more, affected more by the life experiences of those who try to impose them than a reality in which all aesthetic options for interactive work are still possible. This change in philosophy means that every idea which has been thrown out, from claymation to branching plots, is back on the table. Old genre recipes such as adventure games are back on the table. Only a fraction of the potential of any of those things has ever been seen. Total aesthetics means that the overall interactive work has a single aesthetic composed of several aesthetic elements which have no inherent pros and cons on their own. 8 Elements of Aesthetic The elements of total aesthetic in an interactive work are as follows: Art: The visual aesthetic. Graphics. These days, there is a direct choice between using 2d or 3d elements, and then a deeper choice on how to accomplish the composition of those elements. First is at the media level -- for 2d, there is a wide and rich tradition of all sorts of varieties of 2d art: photography, painting, digital art, drawing. Second is at the content level: noir photography or another kind? expressionist, abstract or another kind for painting? Interactive work seems to have limited itself in this sea of options to photorealistic 3d and drawn cartoon 2d. 9 Figure 3: Diverse Games from the 1990s The Neverhood (1996) -- Claymation Visual Style, Pandora Directive (1996) -- Film Visual Style, The Last Express (1997) -- Rotoscoped Photography This ecology of diversity has died and given way to insular in-jokes and ever increasing hegemony. To better illustrate this point, let me reference some of the work that has received accolades for visuals in the modern game design era. 10 Figure 4: Dear Esther Dear Esther, this year's winner of IGF's 2012 Visual Excellence award, embraces photorealistic 3d and not only that has environments which are noticeably subpar even when compared with heavy hitters from the industry which do the same thing -- such as Red Dead Redemption, and Fable. Its UI style is straight up copied from Half-Life. There is no originality, style or compelling attributes to this visual style. 11 Figure 5: Bit Trip Runner Bit Trip Runner, IGF's 2011 Visual Excellence award uses a bit-art style, a form of cartoon 2d (as it derives from attempts to produce cartoon 2d in earlier generations where technical limitations led to this style of visual art). This form of bit-art is a game culture in joke with little appeal on its own. Not only does it lack craft-derived quality of visual art, it lacks originality following a short- lived fetishist trend -- nothing stands out about it that isn't contained in every other game which followed the same trend that year. 12 Figure 6: Castle Crashers Castle Crashers, IGF's 2006 winner of the Visual Excellence award, is the most in-your-face example of this biased fetishism for cartoon 2D from the IGF sphere. Art styles in the industry sphere have invariably gravitated toward photorealistic 3d and they spend millions upon millions, large percentages of each game's individual budget, in order to achieve that goal. Here are some examples of 3 critically acclaimed products from 2011: 13 Figure 7: L.A. Noire L.A. Noire spent millions on its state of the art facial capturing system trying to achieve photorealistic verisimilitude. For all that effort, not only did it fail to exit the uncanny valley, it failed to produce a better product than The Pandora Directive circa 1996 in terms of experience as well as the level of verisimilitude it achieved with simple film. 14 Figure 8: Call of Duty Black Ops Call of Duty Black Ops, the Top Selling video game product of 2011. Figure 9: Red Dead Redemption Red Dead Redemption, a critically acclaimed experience. 15 You may notice also there are further examples of artistic hegemony from these games: every single one stars a 20-30 year old white male with a gun. One final example of this lust for photorealistic 3d: in GDC 2012, the makers of Heavy Rain revealed their latest attempt to achieve photorealistic 3d -- a tech demo called Kara which produces barely a marginal increase over the 3d photorealism achieved in Squaresoft's 2001 failure "The Spirits Within" which aimed toward a similar rabbit hole and bankrupted their company, forcing them to accept a white knight merger with competitor Enix. Figure 10: Kara in Photorealistic 3d Kara, a multimillion dollar project aimed at a goal of improving photorealistic 3D. 16 Figure 11: Kara in Real Life A photo of the actress Kara is based on, which cost nothing. 17 Figure 12: The Spirits Within An example of Square's 2001 "The Spirits Within" which cost millions to produce and failed miserably at the box office, bankrupting their company largely due to the fact that outside of the technical circles in which the novelty of photorealistic 3D is fetishized, the product is not compelling. Sound: The auditory aesthetic. In our universe there is a deep richness of sound; music of all kinds from all cultures, and endless sounds from our every day lives. Yet games are very limited in terms of sound, very much like art. However, instead of locking themselves into, say, anime, they will lock themselves into orchestral, or movie-style diegetic sound. The idea of lyrical music in a game is typically 18 disregarded despite its historical successes when tried in games. Sound effects are mostly created with a foley based true-to-life philosophy: why do we do that? In film that is done because a film is photo-representational -- in a game this is almost never true, graphics are almost always abstracted to some degree. Narrative The narrative aesthetic. This exists in all the other elements at the content level. If the art is of a character, that character is a narrative element. If the song puts through an emotion either through lyrics or the language of melody, that is a narrative element. If text is present, that is a narrative element. Games tend to have trended toward attempting to 'advance' the form in which game narrative takes place. There was a creative hierarchy: cinematics are better than voice over are better than text. But this is not true and never has been -- like all other aesthetic elements these options have their own affordances that need to be considered. For instance, text bubbles are inherently interactive -- a player skips from one bubble to another creating engagement; meanwhile cinematics are inherently non-interactive -- if a player has been engaging with the experience interactively, they're left in the cold. Given that vantage point, it's easy to see why the 'advancement' from text to cinematics actually damaged the quality and reception of games providing narrative. 19 Design The design element takes two forms: narrative design and ludic design. Only one of the two is necessary to create a narrative experience, however both are typically present in some form. Narrative Design Narrative design is the systems design which covers how the content is presented and conveyed. A menu versus a navigable environment is a narrative design choice. These narrative, or content display systems, are created using the content components of art, sound and narrative and need to reflect their purpose and form. For instance a navigation system in which text is found by interacting with NPCs has a very different result on the total aesthetic than using the same art, sound and narrative elements to produce a navigation system in which the text is found by selecting the NPCs from a menu using a cursor. The fields of design have been looking for advancement and reinvention: however in narrative design, what is the need to throw away navigation systems and menu systems and try to invent new systems? It's like going to display a painting and instead of framing it trying to invent some new way to display paintings every time. 20 Ludic Design Ludic design is the systems design that creates engagement based on a player's interaction with the system itself. Rather than showcasing content that is created, it creates content. However, the content created by a ludic system cannot take the place of content provided by other aesthetic components. Ludic content has its own uses and necessitates some amount of narrative design if only to convey the rules that govern the ludic system to the player. Modern interactive work overemphasizes this element enormously limiting the entire ecology of interactive work to games which use ludic design as the focal point of their engagement strategy. Engineering Engineering, separated from the design element, is the individual design and construction of the necessary functions of an interactive work. This element contributes to the overall aesthetic, especially with regard to three areas: input, form and engine. The construction of the input system decides the basic interaction players are engaging in: is it poking, clicking, typing, waving their arms, pressing a button? Many game designers view this as a hierarchy -- more sophisticated actions mean more engagement. However this is not correct, as evidenced by the fact that some people read and some people play sports after thousands of years of those things existing simultaneously, and no one would 21 argue that reading produces more engagement than sports or vice versa. So the input element has its own affordances, and like all other areas, these are not a hierarchy. In terms of form, engineering decides the distribution venue which directly affects aesthetic. And in terms of engine it decides the factural nuances of the realization of the design systems. Each of these aesthetics is characterized by an interesting phenomenon: people who specialize in those aesthetic elements proselytize that their favorite element should be emphasized, or that their methodology for completing, if anecdotally successful, is better than other methodologies. The total aesthetic of an interactive work exists only when these independent elements have been deeply conjoined. As such, satisfying whole aesthetics will be composed by people who understand not only the underlying relationships between these aesthetics when conjoined, but people who understand the independent affordances of all elements and can compose them specifically to be conjoined. 22 Aesthetic Choices in American Braves American Braves takes a creative and different approach to produce its total aesthetic. To describe the choices, it's necessary to first explain a little bit about the project. American Braves is a short story RPG; its initial goal was to be a narrative game experience as popularized by games like Final Fantasy -- the particular breed of RPGs with literary intentions, which was popular in the 1990s. The recipe for this genre is used: more narrative design; several characters; a navigation based movement system that features a dialog display system as the main narrative systems; and a mild but engaging RPG based ludic system. However, RPGs of this breed are no longer popular in America, supplanted by a different breed either of cRPG that comes from a lineage based in Western Dungeons and Dragons games or RPGs which derived more from the combat systems of the 1990s RPGs than the recipes as a whole. I have seen a number of theories to why the jRPGs fell out of fashion, such as narrative games don't work (obviously false, given a reality in which narrative games have been vastly popular). However, I have my own theory: Americans don't respond to aesthetic choices 23 those games began to make, or the aesthetic choices enforced by industry trends became at odds with the choices which would have furthered the genre. In the history of this genre, the downfall began around the PS2 era. This era was characterized by the full adoption of 3d in games, a rivalry between Sony and Microsoft that saw RPGs often become Sony exclusives and as a result became more Japanese, turning off Americans, and a swing toward more cinematic game experiences. Unfortunately for RPGs, all of these factors destroyed the possibility to achieve the recipe which made RPGs work: 3d prevented worlds from being large and imaginative; high requirements for many art assets became straining and developers then used to making games with hundreds of characters with compelling animations had to severely cut that number; cinematics made the stories non-interactive and non-literary; and a Japanese industry that was pulling away from the west stopped appealing to Americans content-wise. However, those problems can be solved, and the solution lies not in the typical places game designers look to advance (like technology), but in aesthetics. 24 As a result, American Braves follows the same basic recipe for an RPG, but changes many of the individual aesthetics to create a new total aesthetic which is more modern and overall satisfying. These changes are as follows: Art: Art is done by a combination of film, drawing and 3d. At the height of RPGs popularity, high quality, drawn 2d sprites were placed in a 3d world. This was a popular strategy; however the anime influenced 2d sprites did not appeal to a western audience. When this visual style did not appeal to a Western audience, developers decided the problem was the sprites were 2d and switched to 3d characters, which also had anime influence and appealed even less. This problem was solved incorrectly, and that's part of the reason RPGs fell by the wayside. So I go back in time and pick up this problem and solve it correctly: anime does not appeal to the American mainstream, as it's very foreign. Film does; the film based sprites exist in the Western storytelling tradition, silent acting has a deep western history, and storytelling with actors makes sense in America. 25 Figure 13: Film Sprites 26 When I pursued my art style, I looked to a variety of inspirations. I'm heavily influenced visually by music videos of all kinds, including videos from such famous directors as Spike Jonze. I found that I have taken a lot of visual influence from the director Tim Burton, especially his works Beetlejuice and Big Fish. To explain a little about my process in deciding to use film based sprites, I had been exposed to a variety of different techniques, such as making sprites out of claymation, rotoscoped photography, animation, as well as the film sprite technique I ultimately selected. I first became aware of the possibility of making sprites out of film in 1992 when Mortal Kombat from Midway was released. I selected this particular method because I found it to be attractive for storytelling purposes, and a good fit with the 2d sprite on 3d environment style that I selected due to my influences from the jRPGs of the 1990s, such as Xenogears, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy 7. Sound: The music is a grunge rock album that I composed, performed and recorded. RPGs had traditionally used contemporary music from their place of origin. jRPGs at the height of their popularity used Japanese jazz fusion and orchestral soundtracks composed by famous musicians. However these musicians were 27 not famous or contemporary outside of Japan; the magic of the musical choices lied in the fact that the total aesthetic benefitted from contemporary music that created a mood and tied audiences together -- orchestral and jazz fusion had no inherent element that made them well suited for a game. In America, we've just had our mainstream contemporary music awards ceremony and the big heavy hitters were post-grunge rock bands like the Foo Fighters, pop, and dubstep techno. So again, this problem is solved not by changing the recipe or new technologies, but simply by approaching the aesthetics differently: rather than try to improve the quality of an orchestral soundtrack, do a soundtrack that is based in a kind of music that is contemporary. Figure 14: Music Recording 28 In recording my album, I took many influences and inspirations. Foremost among these influences was the band Nirvana, whose temperment, brand and music affected my overall style as well as the feel of the music. The style of grunge folk presented by Nirvana in Nirvana Unplugged did a lot to popularize and pioneer the style of grunge folk music that I composed the soundtrack to fit alongside with. Additionally I took a lot of influence from several other bands, such as Silverchair, The Animals and Bob Dylan. These artists not only inspired my soundtrack, but contributed to my overall style and inspired the project as a whole. From this list, Bob Dylan was especially an inspiration to me, as his fame was based around his heart, the quality of what he was saying, his personal style, and his talent for poetry and beauty -- all of these characteristics above technology. Not only above technology, but in place of it. This approach to art is deeply inspirational to me, especially at this point in time where video games have fetishized technology and supplanted all of these characteristics which made Bob Dylan stand out. Narrative: The narrative is an episodic contemporary fiction with magical realism elements. This is the same kind of thing you see in TV series these days like Lost, a far cry 29 from the content which existed in jRPGs: Japanese coming of age epics. The Japanese stories were sometimes good, but did not resonate with an American audience. Stories more in tune with Western contemporary culture as well as the Western storytelling tradition fare better. Additionally the format of an epic was outdated: America is the home of the short story, which is more appropriate not only content wise but also time-management wise. Finally, as RPGs began to decline with the advent of voice acting and cinematics, American Braves returns the exposition of the story to text, as this provides a literary and interactive element which was lost and sorely missed by the previously mentioned transition. In creating my own project, I took a great deal of influence from contemporary American magical realism works. Magical realism works, especially novels like Tuck Everlasting and The Giver inspire me, with their approach to dealing with real life emotion and issues by adding a magical twist. Additionally I'm inspired by the several contemporary works of magical realism which have become popular within the last five to ten years -- works such as Lost and Misfits. Finally, contemporary movies in this genre of storytelling inspire me: Donnie Darko, Big Fish, Chronicle. 30 Design: The design of RPGs was hampered by complex and alienating battle systems. While battle systems were fun, they held the genre back and alienated the female playerbase. However, the character growth elements of RPGs, the ludic elements of selecting skills from a menu -- these were very engaging. Like other elements, changing the content of this element as opposed to the recipe, or looking for a technological solution, shined a light on the problem: the same mechanics could be applied to another theme besides battling. Since RPGs are ostensibly about showing stories in a navigable environment with intermittent ludic sections, I felt a conversation would be a perfect theme over which to apply the same jRPG elements. As a result, the player's character grows over time and gains skills, but players are choosing whether to hug, smile or taunt as opposed to attack, cast spells or use items. In selecting this type of RPG conversation system design, I was influenced by many of the works I was exposed to, and created my own design which has never been attempted before, by combining a series of influences. Many RPGs, such as Mass Effect have a system of dialog selection with some simplistic RPG mechanics overlaid onto them -- usually in the form of a 'persuasion' skill or a game metric which defines the speakers morality. I took this concept which has been only very narrowly explored and ran with it, replacing the simple 31 'persuasion' skill with an entire RPG system, which involves growth, leveling characters, and learning new skills. Finally, in mid-production of my project, I was exposed to an attempt, in the game Deus Ex 3, to turn the typical conversation system in an RPG into a ludic system in itself. Their attempt was implemented in a very different way, with very different mechanics, but still informed my later iterations. Engineering The main evolution in the engineering aesthetic for American Braves is in the area of input. The inputs, simple iPad taps, are on the surface rudimentary in a game design environment that would pressure developers toward more 'advanced' forms of input system. However, input systems do not have these hierarchies of advancement. What is special about the taps is that there is no learning curve or games literacy required. It has all the difficulty of turning pages on a book. Additionally, it thankfully resists the pressure to use more complex motions for the same reason that no one ever made money by writing a book you had to read while doing jumping jacks -- there are places where choosing that element for this aesthetic would be appropriate, but not here. Here I was inspired deeply by audience. I found that, through playtesting, laypeople without hardcore game experience were able to play through the 32 experience without having problems with the input system. For instance, my elderly father was able to navigate the environment with no problems -- a feat that could not be achieved with Kinect (due to his age and lack of physical flexiblility) or 3d navigation environments (due to the amount of practice required to master the skill of piloting a 3d avatar and understand the non-intuitive tropes of such navigation). Choosing this style of intuitive inputs was an enormous success, as my goal for game design is not only to offer work that pleases the existing demographics who enjoy games, but to expand it. Finally, the most important thing about each of these decisions is the factural effect it has on the piece. Each of these elements is accomplished in such a way that it strongly conveys evidence of authorship and the creation of the piece. While most interactive works are so over processed that they may very well have been created by a computer, my work displays a very human touch, evidence of my work on their creation and tiny mistakes that add to the aesthetic. The filmed sprites show the player a connection to real people that could not have been modeled or drawn; the lyrical music connects the player to a musician who is speaking to them through the game, not to over processed orchestral music that might as well be anything; the text based story exposes itself through written dialog with its own authorial voice and style; and the design reflects deep 33 influences in RPG game design. These things convey the heart of the author, which means the piece conveys the heart of the author -- a much different product than the over processed games you see around. 34 Benefits Based on my experience in producing this project, embracing total aesthetics has a number of benefits. Producing a project with this philosophy has provided me with these results: Interactive Work Cheaper to Produce Because controlling the total aesthetic requires individual involvement in all the components, large teams are not required unless an aesthetic element that requires a large team -- such as a large 3d modeling team -- is for some reason desired, and this team requirement is a con to choosing that element. If 3d is not better for the project than film, and film can be done with just a few people, why pay multiple times that investment for 3d to get a less satisfying result? Additionally, because the content is all created by an author and composes the aesthetic, that content can all be monetized, providing additional marketing and revenue. Soundtracks can be uploaded to youtube and distributed; art process can be documented and shown. Each of these pieces advertises the others and becomes more than itself by being a part of the total aesthetic. 35 There is an argument that an aesthetic style based on film can inflate to be more expensive. While this is true, the point of this aesthetic is not to 'be film', it is to 'be different' -- aiming toward producing original aesthetics will not only achieve higher quality at cheaper costs, it will produce new aesthetic recipes which promote diversity. These methods can then have their costs inflated appropriately. This mantra is no different than what was outlined by Raph Koster in his groundbreaking blog post on the direction of the industry "Making Games More Cheaply" in which he advocates that designers "Stop chasing bleeding edge graphics, chase unique aesthetics instead." (Koster) Interactive Work More Personal By making root-level choices about aesthetic, a lot more authorship comes through. Games in the modern period are criticized heavily for being somehow so numerous and yet so hegemonic. The major reason for this is that the construction process is identical: indie games are built in roughly the same way, with the same aesthetic choices being made; simultaneously games industry games are built in roughly the same way as each other. There is no real diversity in building. If interactive work comes from the heart and not a paint by numbers 36 book, this is no way to play. If the goal is to build an environment, there are many ways to do it that enhance the player's personal connection with the author. Aesthetic elements can be used as an opportunity to display authorial voice. If a lyrical album is made as an accompaniment to a game, it can expose the narrative, the attitude, the style and the mood constructed by the author. Music is an opportunity for the author to connect directly with the audience and touch them. Writing is an opportunity for the author to connect directly with the audience. Art is an opportunity to connect directly with the audience. Interactive Work Less Insular Diversifying the ways in which interactive work is constructed means branching out the social networks of people who make games. A lot of the aesthetic choices that have been made in games were made because of existing cultural ties and alliances, with no real regard for what a game should do. After-the-fact theories exist in a reality where the potential of games has not even reached mainstream society and authors are still a socially insular group that can maintain barriers. However eventually tools will increase at the same time that the average American's programming literacy increases and these attempts to 37 control 'what game design should be' will look very silly and small. Games had produced sci-fi fantasy stories because programmers who created those games loved sci-fi fantasy -- in a world where the authors did not have this cultural bias, who would have ever decided to take games in that direction given that sci-fi fantasy is measured as one of the least popular and most expensive to produce genres by most traditional media companies? New ways of manufacturing games means getting new people and creating new kinds of experiences with them. In American Braves, based on my aesthetic choices, I worked with these people: actors, artists, writers. This is not the traditional trifecta of designer, artist, programmer. And more than that, these people I worked with were non- traditional -- for example, I need movement actors, so theater actors as opposed to film actors. If I expanded, I would start spending money on costuming, music equipment and photographers. These are not traditionally the types of people you think of getting together to make a game. But if you start building them in a different way, this starts to happen and that's how interactive work expands. Game designers are an insular group that clings to their cultural quirks, but only for now. 38 Interactive Work More Socially Relevant Total aesthetics has the opportunity to advance socially relevant projects by rejecting an over-reliance on game mechanics. Message-oriented games are by definition games that portray a message. Hamstringing them with the 'emergent message' requirement is an absurd handicap. In a total aesthetics framework, message-oriented games could use ludic elements in support of a narrative thrust in order to provide an addictive element and an experiential connection. Interactive propaganda is perhaps one of the most powerful things to ever have been invented in history but people aren't trying to pull heartstrings and take actions with it, they're trying to get people to translate 'fun' into 'serious issues'. By eliminating the preconceived notions that interactive socially relevant projects should adhere to ludic game design conventions, makers of those games will be free to make the aesthetic choices which benefit them. Having played many socially relevant interactives, my experience is that the ones which have interactive charts and take you through some kind of narrative are the most effective an informative -- and also the least fun. 39 Interactive Work More Varied Total aesthetics means a much wider variance of interactive work. To make even a simple platformer with different manufacture techniques: the surface of that has not even been scratched. Even that one simple recipe: the characters could be filmed, drawn anime, drawn cartoon, 3d in a 2d space, a stop-motion captured doll, claymation. For the music as well, any number of things. Doing things in different ways gets new kinds of people in on it, and they will think of newer, even more different ways to do things. For this vision of a wide, creative ecology of interactive work, exactly the wrong things are happening. Content is being shunned, the industry is moving toward skinner box game design, teams are largely an insular, homogenized group of programmers and 3d modelers from similar backgrounds and with similar life experience. Tools for creating games are hidden instead of out in the open. It's a dull and grey horizon. There are a lot of brilliant colors on the palette no one will ever get to touch in an environment like this. 40 Figure 15: Game Heroes from Two Generations The Top Images are Screenshots from the Best Sellers from the XBOX/XBOX360 era. The Bottom Images are Screenshots from the SNES/Sega Genesis era. 41 Conclusion American Braves is a project created under the philosophy of total aesthetics for interactive work. This means the total aesthetic created by the combination of aesthetic elements (art, sound, story, design, programming) is independent of its components and their individual qualities and affordances. As such, those components should be selected creatively in order to produce a creative and unique total aesthetic that showcases authorial voice. Total aesthetic is an approach that rejects the notion that the techniques used to accomplish aesthetic elements in interactive work have inherent value relationships to one-another -- one type of music is not better than another, one method for producing graphics is not better than another. Total aesthetics, which says emphasis on each aesthetic element depends on the project, is in opposition to the philosophies of two existing modern movements: the games industry movement, and the independent games movement, as the former advocates an emphasis on 3d art and technology, and 42 the latter advocates an emphasis on ludic design. Both of these movements fit into the total aesthetics -- but are simply movements with a bias toward their own choices. American Braves, produced with the total aesthetics philosophy, is able to correct many problems that plagued the jRPG genre by altering them at an aesthetic and content level, as opposed to trying to find a new technology upgrade or fundamentally change them from narrative games to ludic games. The different way in which American Braves was manufactured provided a number of benefits. American Braves was able to be produced with a small team, due to the authored nature of its aesthetic. It was able to get non-traditional people into the game making process. It has a different aesthetic and adds to the aesthetic variety of interactive work, and finally it is produced in such a way that the elements have evidence of human manufacture which give the piece a highly personal feel. Embracing the total aesthetics philosophy can provide these benefits to other projects as well. 43 Prior Art Art that influenced the production methodologies of the project American Braves: Art Streets of Fury: Streets of Fury, an fighting game for XBox Live released in 2009, uses a technique of applying live-action greenscreen filming to sprite production. This technique was used famously before, in Mortal Kombat, but has historically only been applied to fighting games. Given the 2d sprite on 3d background style for RPGs popularized by 1990s RPGs such as Xenogears, I found this technique to be interesting and applicable to the production of RPGs. Figure 16: Streets of Fury 44 Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat, Midway's famous, flagship fighting game, was released in 1992. It used a method for producing its sprites of costuming and filming live actors. This game was hugely famous and developed into a large franchise over the course of several years. Including live action images added directly to its success. The mix of realism combined with digital effects was largely compelling. Figure 17: Mortal Kombat Xenogears Xenogears was a large influence on my work for many reasons, from its high quality story to its incredible look and feel. Its visual style directly contributed to 45 the choices I made with work on my project American Braves. Xenogears features 2d sprites applied on top of 3d environments, a technique that I also applied to my project. Figure 18: Xenogears Breath of Fire 3 Breath of Fire 3, the third game in the Breath of Fire series released by Capcom in the 1990s, was a masterpiece of the era. It has influenced my work in a number of ways, but notably for this project it uses the same style of 2d sprites on 3d background that I chose to use for my project. 46 Figure 19: Breath of Fire 3 Big Fish Big Fish, a film by Tim Burton, greatly influenced the content of the project I've produced. It centers on a theme of American folktales and magical realism. Its art direction showcases a rural American South lush with forestry, lakes, trees and small towns that seem to be exist on the edge of time. Additionally, Tim Burton, overall, has influenced my visual art style. 47 Figure 20: Big Fish Final Fantasy 7 Final Fantasy 7 was an incredibly famous RPG produced in the 1990s by Squaresoft. Of all the 1990s RPGs that have influenced my work in games, Final Fantasy is easily the most recognizable to laypeople. Its plot formed a kind of literature aimed at juveniles that has rarely been seen in the game sphere since; its themes of individuality, environmentalism, rebellion and love go beyond what almost any game has offered since. For my project in particular, it influenced my GUI art style, particularly as a form of homage. 48 Figure 21: Final Fantasy 7 Menu Sound Nirvana Nirvana is a grunge rock band from the 1990s. Their most famous and popular record, Nirvana Unplugged, gave rise to the popularity of a form of grunge folk. Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the band, was an influence on the character Eastwood from my project. Additionally, the original 7-song album I recorded for 49 the project features a cover of 'Oh Me' from Nirvana Unplugged, performed by me. Finally, the attitude and style of Nirvana's alternative rock brand informs my work overall, as well as my individual identity. Figure 22: Nirvana Album Cover Silverchair Silverchair is an Australian grunge rock band which achieved international fame in the 90s with its hit song 'Tomorrow'. This genre of grunge rock informed the soundtrack album I recorded for my project, and Silverchair was a major influence to me musically. Figure 23 Silverchair Album Cover 50 Bob Dylan Bob Dylan, a famous musician, was the grandfather of the grunge folk picked up by artists from later generations such as Nirvana. His singer/songwriter identity cut through a music scene that, at the time, was struggling with the introduction of new technologies. Bob Dylan proved that the soul of artistry and poetics developed by combining termperment with life experience is where compelling art came from, rather than technology. This inspires my work in games, which is also at a time when technology supplants all other artistic faculties. Additionally his music has influenced my soundtrack album. Figure 24: Bob Dylan 51 The Animals The Animals led by frontman Eric Burdon, are often recognized as the first real alternative rock band. Their hard, concrete sound with hits like 'House of the Rising Sun' took America by storm. Eric Burdon, famous for his attitude and demeanor, is often thought of as the first rock star. Eric Burdon is an inspiration to me, and additionally the music of the animals has influenced my musical style. Figure 25: The Animals Album Cover Design Quest for Glory Quest for Glory, an adventure RPG created in 1989 by Sierra Entertainment, was a submission within a breed of adventure RPGs popularized another game called King's Quest. The narrative design and navigation systems used in my project are influenced by the narrative design and navigation systems used in this game. 52 It features a point and click, graphical adventure interface, where the character is controlled by clicking graphical representations of locations represented in a scene. Figure 26: Quest for Glory Deus Ex 3 Deus Ex 3, a game which came out after I completed my prototype and began iterating on my concept of a conversation based RPG system, has some similar ideas which informed my later iterations. Although it is not the same because it does not apply RPG leveling mechanics to the system, it features a conversation system that turns the conversation delivery system itself into a form of gameplay. 53 Figure 27: Deus Ex 3 Mass Effect Mass Effect, an RPG released by Bioware in 2007, had the opposite influence of Deus Ex 3 on the ludic design portion of my project. While it did not make the conversation system it presented into a ludic system, it did apply very rudimentary application of RPG style leveling mechanics to its conversation system in the form of developing levels of 'persuasion' skill and 'morality'. Figure 28: Mass Effect 54 Final Fantasy 1-7 The Final Fantasy series, produced by Squaresoft from the late 80s until Final Fantasy 7 in 1997, used a turn based RPG combat system that informed the ludic system I used in my project. I took the same basic concept and reimagined the turn-based RPG mechanics as applying to taking turns of conversation. Figure 29: Final Fantasy 6 Battle System Narrative Tuck Everlasting Tuck Everlasting is a fantasy children's novel published in 1975. It deals with themes of immortality and romance. The plot, about a girl who falls in love with an immortal boy who is feared by the locals, influenced the plot of my scenario for the character Eastwood. The character, Tuck, also influenced the character Eastwood himself. 55 Power Rangers Power Rangers, a TV show for children that debuted in 1993 from Saban Entertainment, was widely popular in my generation. It featured an ensemble cast of heroes: red, green, pink, black, and yellow rangers. My game's narrative features an ensemble cast modeled similarly after what existed in Power Rangers. Lost Lost was a TV show that debuted in 2004. It featured an ensemble cast with no official main characters, episodic plots and a magical realism story. Magical realism is the storytelling genre that the plot of my project is written within, and the traits of having an ensemble main cast, no official main characters, and episodic plots informed my choices. Misfits Misfits is a British TV show with an ensemble cast about 5 misfit teens who receive super powers. The show contains magical realism elements -- real life drama and issues accented with the addition of magical featuers in the real world -- as well as an ensemble cast and episodic storytelling. This show, as well as this genre of story, influenced the narrative decisions in my project. 56 References Access Software. The Pandora Directive. Access Software, 1996. PC. AwkwardSilenceGames. One Chance. Newgrounds, 2010. Web. <http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181 http://www.newgrounds.c om/portal/view/555181 > The Behemoth. Castle Crashers. Microsoft Game Studios, 2008. XBox 360. "Best of 2011 Editor's Choice Awards." RPGamer. n.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. <http://www.rpgamer.com/awards/2011/ http://www.rpgamer.com/awards/2 011/ > Blow, Jonathan. "How Mainstream Devs are Getting it Wrong." Youtube. Youtube, 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=I1Fg76c4Zfg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Fg76c4Zfg > The Chinese Room. Dear Esther. Indiefund, 2012. PC. Gaijin Games. Bit.Trip Runner. Aksys Games, 2010. Wii. IG. "What's Wrong with the IGF." The Rotting Cartridge. n.p., 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. < http://therottingcartridge.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/whats-wrong-with- the-igf/ http://therottingcartridge.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/whats-wrong- with-the-igf/ > Koster, Raph. "Making Games More Cheaply." Raph's Website. n.p., 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 3 Mar. 2012. <http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/04/making-games-more- cheaply/ http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/04/making-games-more- cheaply/ > 57 Kennicott, Philip. "In The Art of Video Games." The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/exhibits/the-art-of-video- games,1215143/critic- review.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/exhibits/the-art-of-video- games,1215143/critic-review.html > MolleIndustria. Every Day the Same Dream. Armor Games, n.d. Web. <http://armorgames.com/play/6244/every-day-the-same- dream http://armorgames.com/play/6244/every-day-the-same-dream > The Neverhood, Inc. The Neverhood. Dreamworks Interactive, 1996. PC. Pratt, Charles. "300 Word Review - Train." Game Design Advance. n.p., 22 Apr. 2010. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. <http://gamedesignadvance.com/? p=2155 http://gamedesignadvance.com/?p=2155 > Rockstar San Diego. Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar Games, 2010. XBox 360. Smoking Car Productions. The Last Express. Interplay, 1997. PC. The Spirits Within. Dir. Hironobu Sakaguchi. Columbia Pictures, 2001. Film. Team Bondi. L.A. Noire. Rockstar Games, 2011. XBox 360. Treyarch. Call of Duty: Black Ops. Activision, 2010. XBox 360. Quantic Dream. "Quantic Dream's Kara." Youtube. Youtube, 7 Mar. 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Dou4Gy0p97Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dou4Gy0p97Y >
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Contemporary American interactive work has entered a period dominantly characterized by two movements: the games industry movement, and the independent games movement. These movements satisfy many, but they do not represent or address the totality of what is possible, or what is desirable, from interactive work -- this is because they do not embrace a philosophy of total aesthetics, instead choosing to emphasize particular aesthetic components arbitrarily, in-line with their own anecdotal successes, or selected by personal bias. ❧ The total aesthetics of an interactive work include the media content in concert with design and technology. Interactive work produced under the philosophy of total aesthetics recognizes that each aesthetic element can be accomplished in numerous ways and that, while projects may emphasize certain elements over others, no element has an inherent necessary emphasis nor a relationship of superiority or inferiority with other choices. The term total aesthetics is chosen because the aesthetic of a game -- its total aesthetic -- is a standalone product independent of its individual aesthetics and their quality. ❧ This paper argues that a philosophy of producing interactive work that emphasizes total aesthetics will produce more creative and varied work, more engaging work at cheaper costs, work with more authorial voice. The project, American Braves, is a submission of interactive work that was created under this philosophy. This work contains a total aesthetic which has never been seen before. This was made possible not by technological innovation, myopic focus on studies and analytics, or craftsman-level dedication to the individual aesthetics of work, but by an improvement of mindset in the creation of work -- focusing on authorship, influences and intention as they relate to the total aesthetic.
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Creator
Watterson, Ryan
(author)
Core Title
American braves - total aesthetics: an opinion piece on game design for academics
School
School of Cinematic Arts
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Degree Program
Interactive Media
Publication Date
05/04/2012
Defense Date
03/23/2012
Publisher
University of Southern California
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University of Southern California. Libraries
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Tag
adventure,american braves,film,fine art,grunge,jrpg,narrative design,OAI-PMH Harvest,rpg,total aesthetics,video games
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English
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Kratky, Andreas (
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), Adams, Eric (
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), Brinson, Peter (
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), Fisher, Scott S. (
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)
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ryanwatterson01@gmail.com
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https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-27077
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Watterson, Ryan
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The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
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Tags
adventure
american braves
fine art
grunge
jrpg
narrative design
rpg
total aesthetics
video games