Art Game--Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus did some perfect work on the visual part.

I think buil a mysterious land is far more difficult than we think. not to mention it looks so real.

I make a very simple mind map to show the visual part of the game

 From the context, we can see that it's a game about Hero's journey in a mysterious land who is fighting for his girl.

 Love is the power to make people be brave. How to show the brave? And i think to fight with the huge monster is always the best idea.


We all afraid of the thing that out of our control or imagination. Especially in real world, we dare to fight the "giant" things. 

I forget the important thing in the context, that's the "Giants". Giants is the key role to make the game special. 

A hero's journey must be lonely and far away from daily life, so a vast and unpopulated peninsula gives a better imagination.

I think they use the way of regionalism is trying to make the scene more real and make people take it serious. Although it's a game, it also leads us thinking lots of questions about our real life.

From this game, I know a artist----Andrew Wyeth

From the wiki: "Andrew Newell Wyeth (/ˈwaɪ.ɛθ/ wy-eth;^[1] July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style."

Here I would like to show 2 pics of both realist and regionalist:

Regionalism

Realism

I

And let's see Andy's work:

Art Game-Fallout Series

The Fallout Series game is based on a scenario of an alternative American history. 

 Now I think the concept maybe not "Bizarre", it would be more proper to use the word " Horror". 

And the Aesthetic is based on Retro-Futurism, which is "Bizarre", normally, "retro" and "Future" are opposite  to each other. In that case, to combine these 2 elements together will be absolutely bizarre.

The above face mask is similar to the one in the World War 2. It uses the background of Cold War and derives something new on a new scenario.

First they need to build a story background, and in order to show the horror, there is nothing more terrifying than the world  after nuclear war.

And the weapon design is based on the Retro-Futurism. This part is very crucial part, because the designer will consider a lot based on the original technology at that time , and to create the proper equipments for an alternative world without considering the development of the technology in the real world.

It even use the 50s AD style to make things more retro feeling.

Let's talk about the artist has the same style --Ron English

Art Game- The Last Resort

The Game 《The Last Resort》is  based on Mark Ryden's art work.  

Below is the pic of The Last Resort:

And Let's see Mark Ryden's painting:

If you like Mark Ryden, you can visit his website: Mark Ryden

Mark like to use the "retro" element, we can see it in the back ground as well as the dress up and props. 

He like to use the portrait way of showing the characters, and most of them has no expression on the face. 

 And also like to combine some conflict characters together in a very wired scene.

After study above, I made my own copy:

Art Game- Katamari Damacy

About Katamari Damacy, I've never played this game before, but it seems a very welcome and hot game all over the world.

I've made a mind map and show what I'm thinking about this kind of art game.

First, I should say that, this game give me a "Bizarre" feeling, however, I think the feeling is mostly from the way of playing it. " like a dung beetle" to roll shit into a ball. It can almost run every real thing into a big ball. And that is the most bizarre things, as nobody can do that in real world.

From the art aspect, I think the bizarre is show on the role part, especially the apparel. I think the inspiration is from the people wearing the inflatable clothing on the street to sell something.

The roles in the game all have a very humor character and express it in ridiculous way.

we can see the whole game is under a bright colors and all roles have a very simple and striking shapes.

One article 10 Video Games As Modern Art gives me a clue of some ideas above. 

In the Modern artist to compare it to , the article gives me 2 Modern artists name.

1. Takashi Murakami

I think the color use is very impressing, as in such a complex painting, it do also has a main color, which makes the painting looks harmoniously. The above one is mainly in blue and the below one is mainly in orange.

It does has the conflict of the color as well as the shape. The single shape is simple, and when it get together, they also present a simple shape-Spherical.

In a painting with massive bright colors, it would be good to put some black and white. 

So from above 2 paintings ,we can see that, it just very simple shape: the sun flowers and skulls.

In the frist "Blue" piece the face color of the sun flower is changed between black and white as well as the skulls. The petals are in various bule colors which make the basic color is blue. It does with many colors, but those tiny bright color will not effect the whole painting but makes it more bright in some way.

In the second " Orange " piece, the face of the sunflowers are mostly yellow and occasionally with black color.  The petals are in various different color which makes the whole color mainly in warm color"orange"

And when it add the big flower spherical, the conflict is between the shapes, the irregular shapes with the regular shape. In that case, all the background seems like a big fantasy stage waiting for the super star. (ps: The main color of the super start is close to the background main color)

 Takashi Murakami is surely influenced by the Master-Henri Matisse

Another artist is a Michel De Broin, he is very good at gathering some ordinary things together and endows them a new meaning.

I personally like the above piece of work, because it's really beautiful in the nature just like a magic thing there. It show many aspects of the point of view and gives a new way to think about out true world.

Of course, the below work will be surly the inspiration of making the Katamari Game.

The above piece gives us an idea that if chairs can roll together like a ball, why can't we roll every thing? 

——————————————————————————————————————

Below is my practice:

  

Mini Bazaar One Year!

• The original idea of "Mini Bazaar" was from our Southeast Asia trip in the end of 2011. 

  First, I thought it would be a good idea to sell something during my trip. It can help to increase the fun.

  China has an online market called : Taobao. It seems like eBay. People can buy something with low budget. 
  
  I bought some different sizes of glass bottles as the Wishing bottle. And also bought a pile of blue and white porcelain piece and rope,  and Matrix use them to compile a bunch of beautiful necklaces.   Chinese and Tibetan style postcards, hoping to enhance cultural exchanges. Oh, We also got some seaside style scarfs, because it would be useful when wearing the bikini。

  In this way, carrying a pile of goods, two proud international peddler on their way to SEA.
  
  
  
  

  

  
  In Sapa, Vietnam, local women were interested in our goods, and we chatted with each other in English. They learn the English by practice with the foreign tourists. One of them bought a pair of earrings to her children.
  
  

  
  
  
  

  Our next stop is Vietnam's southern seaside Muine.　The fact was, if we want to eat a rich seafood meal, we had to sell something first. I played a peddler in the last day morning we stay in Muine, and sold nearly 200 RMB goods to a Russia aunt who stay in an luxury hotel. When someone makes up the mind, there always has a way out.
  
  

  

  
  In Cambodia, I didn't sell anything there, but we spend a leisurely day at Angkor Wat . After breaking his Kindle, Matrix took a snap，and I kept on doing the handcraft work.  
  
  

  

  Mini Bazzar in Hua Hin, Thailand.  

  

  Mini Bazzar in Khao Lak, Thailand.

  

  Mini Bazaar in Pattaya Beach,Thailand　

  

  
  

  When I back to China, my sister Cat Lee told me that she was selling second hand goods on the Huangjueping street,Chongqing, China. She is a collage student and her home is near the school.  This small business made her  to  experience a lot.

  Huangjueping has a free style night market, People can pay 2-3 RMB/per night tax to rent a place for selling something.  

  In the early days, Cat Lee could only sell the goods less than 50 RMB one day. I asked her if she would like to sell new things instead of second hand goods. She was very interested in that idea, so I gave all my rest goods to her. 

  This is how Mini Bazaar roots in Huangjueping Street. We began to find new goods resources online, since we can't make the bulk purchase, the price can't be the lowest offer. However, we thought it still gave us some space to get profit. Occasionally we found some clothes clearance sale, and the quality is also very good. 

  Cat Lee became diligent and focused more on her small business. She said she learned a lot from that more than in school.  I remember the first time she was so exciting when sold out 500 RMB goods in one evening, it likes a milestone for our business.

  The bad experience was she received two 100 RMB counterfeit money, she nearly cried for it. She also encountered the embarrassing situation that didn't sell anything for one week.  

  Here are some photos to record it, we tried the Japanese  style, Thai style, retro style, lovely style, in short,popular style.

  

  

  

  
  

  

  The whole year, we have 20000 RMB turnover, and our profit is about 8000RMB. This 8000 RMB did change her life a lot.She spent 2000 RMB bought a british blue hair cat and became a cat mom. 

  

  
  

  New year is coming, fighting Cat Lee, for our Mini Bazaar!

Make an art game within 48 hours -Global Game Jam

A couple of days ago, I  participate the global game jam, which is a global "race". It requires the participants make out a game under the pointed topic within 48 hour .

No  limitation of the participants when build up the team, even one person can also be a team. This is a no bounty race, however, people who like it are all love to join in. It seems like a celebration of game designers!

Many countries around the world have the actual venue. However, due to the special situation in  China,  Shanghai has the online race.    


At 5:00 p.m. on the 25th Jan. the topic comes out:  heartbeat sound. 

Generally when we think about the heartbeat , live and love would be the first idea comes to our mind.  


My first idea is : one man's heart is not in his chest, instead, it has a certain distance away from his body and suspends in the air. he need to find the antidote to get his heart back into the body. On that journey, he must take every movement into account because both his body and the heart can't be hurt to much.The idea came from an animated "Schizophrenia"

The idea was immediately came to and dead end as it's  too difficult to implement within 48 hours. A good idea is one thing, but to do is another matter.

Then we start combination with heartbeat words (love, life, happy, sad, horror...)   

A short time later, we think about a game about ECG. I suggest that we can do an ECG-related, such as the players according to the ECG trajectory to run. Matrix said it seems a good idea and then we began to talk about the details.

Matrix then showed me a very interesting video game. It another version of the 《The House of the Dead》and it's name is 《The Typing of the Dead》 

I have an idea after looking at this game. we can also make a game using the typing as the mechanic.

About the Aesthetics, I like the 《LIMBO》art style, and I also show my respect in this game design.

The schedule:

25th Jan, after knowing the topic, we figure out the game concept at night.I've draw the draft of the game background. 

26th Jan, After finish the opening and all pics in the inkscape, I do something about the details justification. I try to find some nature sound effect, however, this part was done by matrix in the afternoon. at night, we adjust the animation of the grassland move and how frequent the meteor cross the sky.

27th Jan, we finish this in the 4 am and sleep for a while. and i draw a pics of our team in the morning.

Totally,we use 36 hours to finish this game design and make it out. And it has a very beautiful name " Kindle"

Introduction page and play links on the global game jam: 

http://globalgamejam.org/2013/kindle

   

Why we make this game:

A light ball in the Night (Firefly), in an open and beautiful wild flying. Visualize yourself in that scene, beautiful text, such as poetry, just as light in the dark . The poems have been displayed at the bottom of the screen, there is a green dot prompt leads to type. If you are playing on the screen petition, fireflies will gradually become stronger and bigger, and then began to beat up.

Wish you all enjoy it.

Game website

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/45368132/Kindle/Kindle.html

Video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5qPGpJrAHY