If you’re reading this page it’s because you’ve just found out the course policy “don’t make a game”. You might be feeling upset or confused about this rule. This page is just to set out our reasons for this policy and to help you find a better way forward in the course.
First of all, just to clear something up, we love games and think games are great. Absolutely no question that games are fun and include great media innovations and interactive elements. Game development is an amazing area of creative computing.
However, and this is a big one, games are not the same thing as interactive artworks. Yes, there are some games that are so compelling as interactive experiences that they become more like artworks. Some games even end up in gallery collections (here’s a list). Examples like Journey, Myst, or Katamari Damacy come to mind. One aspect of these “arty” games, is that they are often not that game-y. They ended up doing something different and not looking as much like a game as many players would expect.
In class we defined computer-based interactive art as:
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artworks that react to a participant (somehow)
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artworks where interaction between a participant and the artwork enhances the experience.
We also discussed that context for an artwork is important. In terms of the major project, the context is an artwork exhibited in a gallery. Although you will mostly see your work on a computer at your desk or workspace, you have to imagine that it is on display in a gallery where people walk by looking at it and might interact.
This is obviously really broad, but it still doesn’t really cover games completely.
Reasons that games are not always interactive art
Games focus on narrative development
In many games, the story is a super important element. Interaction is often used to drive the story forward (and not simply to enhance the experience).
Games focus on skill development
Many games focus on puzzles or challenges for the player’s skill at interaction. Some games help the player along with in-game skills that unlock as they play (again, story). The point of the interaction isn’t just to interact, it’s to do something: score goals, defeat baddies, blow up space ships, etc.
Games are long!
A short game is like 2 hours long! Big games take 100s of hours to play! Artworks are usually supposed to be appreciated and enjoyed in a few seconds or minutes so the timescale expectation is really different.
Games have set modes of interaction!
Keyboard and mouse, game controller, WASD, shift-to-sprint, there are lots of expectations for interactions in games that don’t exist (or need to) in art. The point of an interactive artwork is often to discover the interactions that are possible, not to know how to use it before you start (or read a manual).
Reasons that it’s a bad idea to make a “game”
Ok, maybe the above doesn’t convince you because, yes there are arty games that are a lot more like interactive artworks than games. But we still have reasons that making a game, especially for a major project, is a bad idea.
It’s hard
Games require so. much. art. You need backgrounds, level designs, characters, sound track, sound effects. Honestly, it’s way beyond the scope of this course to do all of that.
p5 is a terrible environment for making games
Game engines are specifically designed to accelerate game development, p5 is designed to help beginner (and advanced) coders create interactive art. Trying to implement a whole game in p5 is going to be extremely challenging and again, way beyond the scope of this course.
Interactive art can be simple
You have a lot more options in interactive artworks to simplify aspects that start out as complicated. Characters are hard to draw? Create a blob! Backgrounds need work? Use a gradient! You can get started with the basics and add more as you develop your interactions.
The interaction in a game is not the main thing.
The main thing that defines a great 1720/6720 project is interesting interaction. Game interactions are usually not super interesting because the story and skill development aspects are usually the main elements. You don’t get good value (as in marks) for the effort put into creating simpler game interactions.
Conclusion and warning signs
The assignment specifications are clear: don’t make a game. But you might find you have started to make one by accident. Here’s some warning signs:
- your artwork includes a “score”
- your artwork has enemies that must be defeated
- your artwork has “instruction” of which buttons do which thing
- your artwork can be “won” or “lost”
If any of the above applies to your work, consider talking to your tutor about whether it is actually a game.
But I really really really want to make a game
There’s a course for that! Check out: