Phantasmal Spaces, Archetypal Venues in Computer Games – Mathias Fuchs
Fuchs refers to the uncanny and phantasmal space of the forest (the environment of my previous project) in Wagner’s opera Siegfried as conjured by “poetic description of sounds, of affective bodily states and shadows of light and darkness. The horror of the forest consists not in the concrete threats […] but of the spectres of the night: invisible projections of our inner fears.” (p.86)
I beleive the same exploration of the ‘uncanny’ could be applied to the Railway Station. The use of the echoing ticking clock permeating the environment leans into Lefebvre’s “concrete modalities of social time present” or rhythm in everyday life – abstract, quantitive time.
Visually, I aim to do this with shadows and stark contrast as I found It effective in my previous game, as well as combining elements visual elements from the modern day and past.
Mechanically it would also be interesting to explore non-euclidian environments, such as making the platforms neverending or ‘looping’ (such as the wrapping around that occurs in games such as Pacman) through this may be out of my technical capabilities.
On the topic of uncanny, another project I worked on earlier this year was manipulating field recordings and photogrammetry of a park that was once a graveyard in order to explore difference in time and sonic environments.
I read about Foucault’s concept of Heterotopia, meaning ‘Other’ place – spaces that have more layers of meaning or relationships to other places than immediately meet the eye.
Foucault explains the link between utopias and heterotopias using the example of a mirror. A mirror is a utopia because the image reflected is a “placeless place”, an unreal virtual place that allows one to see one’s own visibility. However, the mirror is also a heterotopia, in that it is a real object. The heterotopia of the mirror is at once absolutely real, relating with the real space surrounding it, and absolutely unreal, creating a virtual image.
“the heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites which are themselves incompatible“
“museums and libraries have become heterotopias in which time never stops building up and topping its own summit“
The Gameworld as Interface – Kristine Jorgensen
I previously read some of The Gameworld as Interface in second year and still find it relevant in the context of the game environment as an instrument, however this time Im focusing on the game in a performance context.
to state that the gameworld is an interface does not reduce it to a tool. On the contrary, it means that medium and content merge and become two aspects of the same experience and that one cannot understand the game system without also understanding the gameworld.”
p.57
The previous quote is interesting to consider when framing the game as a tool, instrument, and an ecological environment.
The gameworld as interface
Gameworlds are most obviously also games. They are world constructs built around games and game logics. They are built upon a logic that downplays an accurate simulation of the world for the sake of creating a meaningful game experience. Gameworlds are regulated by a system of game rules and include challenges and goals in a ludic environment. In this sense, they are world constructs governed by game mechanics. In this chapter, I discuss what this definition means for interface design as well as for how gameworlds relate to other comparable spatial constructs.
Defining Gameworld
According to Rune Klevjer, gameworlds are worlds designed for the playing of games. They are structured as arenas for participation and contest, so they are environments that conform to a specific coherent purpose-namely gameplay (Klevjer 2007, 58). They are designed in a certain way that is meant to influence the player’s perception of and interaction with them (Björk and Holopainen 2005, 56-57). This view is reinforced in this chapter, where I show that gameworlds are functional worlds built according to principles of player experience and challenge with respect to gameplay. Gameworlds do not have to follow the rules of interaction and manipulation of the physical world. Instead, game mechanics are the guiding principles for how the world works, and they decide which actions are valid or possible within the game-world. Game mechanics are, in short, interactions and operations restrained by the game rules (Sicart 2008) and may be understood as the part of the rule system with which the player engages in the course of gameplay.”
(p.56.)
I do find the defining of gameworlds useful, as its one of the things I struggle with naming as part of my practice. For the aim of this project, as with the previous, I intend to create a gameworld with sound as the core of game mechanics.
From the Shadows of Film Sound, Cinematic Production & Creative Process in Video Game Audio – Rob Bridgett
I have issues with the idea of ‘cinematic production’ of games – what does it mean for something to be cinematic? High budget, glossy, ‘immersive’?
I did find some applicable information though – from page 95, Bridgett talks about sound designer Randy Thom’s perspective that a movie should be designed for sound, rather than the other way around – returning to the concept of the gameworld, this is what I aim to create, with the core mechanics being sound.
Bridgett’s perspective however seems very focused on AAA tiles, large budget games with larger organised teams, opposed to indie developers going back to my thoughts on ‘cinematic’ production, instead of artistic process and exploration – perhaps also a reflection on the games as a product of design opposed to art work.
Emissary’s Guide to Worlding – Ian Cheng
"What is a World? How do I create a World? How do I keep a World alive? And when should I set it free? There is an unnatural art emerging, ripe for our strange and complex times: Worlding. EMISSARY'S GUIDE TO WORLDING is for anyone interested in bridging the complexity Worlding with the finitude of human psychology. Reflecting on his experience making Emissaries, artist Ian Cheng derives practical methods for seeing and making Worlds as a whole-brain activity. To create a World, we must summon the artistic masks who already live inside us but rarely get to exercise their power. We will get to know the masks of the Director, the Cartoonist, the Hacker, and the Emissary.