Art game

For other uses, see Art game (disambiguation).

An art game or arthouse game is a video game that is designed to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience. Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or complexity in design. This concept extends to the realm of modified ("modded") gaming when modifications have been made to existing non-art-games to produce graphic results intended to be viewed as an artistic display, as opposed to modifications intended to change game play scenarios or for storytelling. Modified games created for artistic purposes are sometimes referred to as "video game art."

Art games are often considered a means of demonstrating video games as works of art.

Art game versus game art

As video games became increasingly common as a form of media throughout the 2000s, video games that deemphasized the game portion of the medium (such as serious games, non-games and art games) saw a rise in production. The contemporaneity of improvements in graphic capabilities with the increases in art game releases has led to some confusion regarding the difference between games with artistic imagery and art games. This difference has been described by Justin McElroy of Joystiq as "the same [as that] between a sculpture and a building. Though a building/game can be aesthetically pleasing, an art game/sculpture is using its very structure to produce some kind of reaction." This same comparison has been used by Jenova Chen in an interview discussing art games and the prominence of non-games to the artistic gamer community.

Along with expanding on the notion of art games as comparable to architecture in a 2010 interview with Nora Young for Spark, Jim Munroe suggested that whereas video games such as the "art game" are shifting in the direction of the "high arts" within the realm of art generally, traditionally video games have occupied a position in the "cultural gutter" (making up the "low arts").

Another key difference between art games and game art is that art games are artistic creations from the outset whereas game art pieces employ non-art games as the artistic medium. Thus the "game" portion of "game art" is merely the means to an artistic end.

List of art games

• Moondust (1983, C64) - a video game created by Jaron Lanier that is generally considered the first art game. It has been used in numerous museums as an art installation.
• Ico (2001, PlayStation 2) - a title created by Team Ico that has often been cited as an example of a game that is a work of art.
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001, PlayStation 2) - a stealth game by Hideo Kojima that has been cited as a primary example of artistic expression in video games, and is considered the first example of a postmodern video game.
• Invaders! (2002, PC) - a political art game making reference to the September 11 attacks.
• Samorost (2003, PC) - a video game that employs organic and wooden materials in its presentation.
• Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (2005, PC) - a video game exploring the Columbine High School massacre whose exclusion from Slamdance '07 led to a partial boycott of the event for anti-censorship reasons by numerous high-profile indie developers.
• Electroplankton (2005, Nintendo DS) - A free-form music game considered to be the first art game for the Nintendo DS.
• Shadow of the Colossus (2006, PlayStation 2) - a title created by Team Ico that has been referenced numerous times in debates regarding art and video games.
• game, game, game and again game (2007, PC) - A Flash based absurdist game, one of the first to combine poetry with art in a game interface, created by Jason Nelson.
• Virtual Jihadi (2008, PC) - a political art-piece created by artist Wafaa Bilal.
• Aether (2008, PC) - a video game that employs a unique visual style and atmosphere.
• Braid (2008, Xbox 360, PC; 2009, PS3) - a video game that enables the player to "rewind" the game at will
• The Graveyard (2008, PC) - A simple but highly artistically detailed game about an old woman visiting a graveyard.
• Gravity Bone (2008, PC) - a cinematic spy game featuring cubical characters. Winner of the GameTunnel Best Arthouse Game 2008 award.
• The Path (2009, PC) - An experimental game developed by Tale of Tales in which the player uses different characters to unfold the narrative in a Little Red Riding Hood inspired environment.
• Passage (2008, PC) - a meditation on death created by independent art game creator, Jason Rohrer.
• Every Day The Same Dream (2009, PC) - An existential game by Molleindustria that addresses the topics of labor and alienation.
• Deadly Premonition (2010, Xbox 360 & PS3) - A survival horror that has been described "the strangest video game of the year" and a primary example of "games as art", praised for its "emotional range, from traditional survival horror scares to farcical comedy".
• Limbo (2010, Xbox 360) - Platform-puzzler game using film noir-like monochrome visuals and subtle ambient environment sounds as the player guides a boy through a dark and scary forest to find his missing sister.
• Flower (2009, Play Station 3) - Game designed to arouse emotions to the gamer and doesn't follow normal gameplay.
• Machinarium (2009, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, iPad 2, and soon Play Station 3) - It won the Excellence in Visual Art award at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival.
• Rez
• Beat Sketcher

See also

• Video games as art