Surrealism in Games Design? Short Survey for FYP
Hello Polycount users!
Over the past few months i have been collecting research on the origins of Surrealism (1920's art movement that focuses on free thinking, creativity without boundaries and dreams and illusion)
My research has led me to the belief that Surrealism can help support innovation, especially when considering that innovation occurs when "A new method, idea, product" is created, and surrealisms core fundementals centre around juxtaposition and creativity.
If you like what youve read so far, and want to help prove / disprove this theory, please take part in the anonymous survey linked below, and read on / comment below!
SURREALISM IN GAMES DESIGN?
For example, if a game design was to take on different Genre's as once, such as FPS and RPG, the game would become something new, different, and therefore innovative (Borderlands is a good example of those Genres being mixed)
Innovation can be seen easily with advances in technology today, such as googles augmented reality glasses, and valves rumoured BioMetric controllers.
This gives massive realms of creativity to designers from the get go, new hardware, new interactions, new game play! This Innovation, or evolution of technology and theory one could say, has inevitably sprouted from experimentation, imagination and creativity.
My Final Year Project focuses around this, and as "An investigation into Surrealism within Game Design", hoping to show that with Surrealism, and the act of creating something that abstracts from the boundaries (similar to subversive design) innovation can be forwarded
The main reason behind this paper is due to the Hot Topic in the Gaming Industry (and many other industries) of Innovation. And aims to suggest that surrealist considerations during games design, such as juxtaposing genres and experimental (and sometimes irrational) game play can complement Innovation.
Thanks for reading, and taking an interest in my thoughts on games design and innovation, please take a minute to take the anonymous survey:
Surrealism In Games Survey
Over the past few months i have been collecting research on the origins of Surrealism (1920's art movement that focuses on free thinking, creativity without boundaries and dreams and illusion)
My research has led me to the belief that Surrealism can help support innovation, especially when considering that innovation occurs when "A new method, idea, product" is created, and surrealisms core fundementals centre around juxtaposition and creativity.
If you like what youve read so far, and want to help prove / disprove this theory, please take part in the anonymous survey linked below, and read on / comment below!
SURREALISM IN GAMES DESIGN?
For example, if a game design was to take on different Genre's as once, such as FPS and RPG, the game would become something new, different, and therefore innovative (Borderlands is a good example of those Genres being mixed)
Innovation can be seen easily with advances in technology today, such as googles augmented reality glasses, and valves rumoured BioMetric controllers.
This gives massive realms of creativity to designers from the get go, new hardware, new interactions, new game play! This Innovation, or evolution of technology and theory one could say, has inevitably sprouted from experimentation, imagination and creativity.
My Final Year Project focuses around this, and as "An investigation into Surrealism within Game Design", hoping to show that with Surrealism, and the act of creating something that abstracts from the boundaries (similar to subversive design) innovation can be forwarded
The main reason behind this paper is due to the Hot Topic in the Gaming Industry (and many other industries) of Innovation. And aims to suggest that surrealist considerations during games design, such as juxtaposing genres and experimental (and sometimes irrational) game play can complement Innovation.
Thanks for reading, and taking an interest in my thoughts on games design and innovation, please take a minute to take the anonymous survey:
Surrealism In Games Survey
Replies
Prey was kind of surreal using non-euclidean space too, but in terms of taking the realm of the real, and turning it on its head, pretty much every game shows some sense of surrealism, such as the one man armies of duke nukem for example, or many FPS games, and the ability to paint walls and save communities as a paint blob!
My thesis focussed on the limitis of the magic circle in terms to surrealism, to be truely surreal within a "piece" or game for example, one must venture outside that magic circle, sometimes at the risk of immersion, but for indie titles that risk is probably a lot more viable, therefore being home to a lot of partly "surreal"works
(and when researching indie culture in games as well as music and film it was clear that without them, a lot of strong genre's wouldnt be around today, let alone tech - i found that interesting!)
Thanks =]
check it out here and see what you think!
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crashed.. so I will take it as a sign to be concise. ( and try to ignore marxism after the birth of nationalism... and other tangents )
Unlike the luddites we still suffer with to this day...
Modern Artists embraced science hardcore since the dawn of the 2nd industrial revolution's micro advances ( bio-genetics atomic science microbiology )
Late 19th early 20th century perceptions changed rapidly! Together with the surrealist's embrace of the u-<>subconscious<>-c, and the artform made good use of jung's archetypes.
From what I can tell...
I do not know if the doors of perception would have really ever opened if not for Carl. ( the true father of surrealism ).
Depends I guess, what progress would have been made in the 60's when the veil was finally lifted for most of the literati after their first kool aid acid test?
Without the Persona? The Animus? or a Collective unconscious?
However, the problem with having fun reveling in sophmoric idealism with manifestos on how "this is not a Video game/pipe"...
Is that the war is won already!
Sometimes it is not apparent that the wheel does not need to be re-invented again.
yeah, thats no fun when u r just graduating. When the dadists and the surrealists had alot of academic bad-assery going on.
But when the world has already learned how to leverage dreamscapes, archetypes, Brainstorming is simply a part of the curriculuum now. hurray! Surrealism and the worlds elevated awareness has already reached it saturation point. ( I suppose there is enough dullness and greed dumbing down the truth of it? )
As a young person with a lot of energy, there are still some revolutions to win?
Despite what some folks, cozy with their nintendo childhoods would like you to believe...
The language to describe realtime interactivty with immersion levels beyond cinematic quality is probably still in it's infancy. And will probably have, much opposition from the conservationist and the insecure. Instead of the surrealists. A better fit for our times would probably be to look at DW Griffith inventing the language of film. ( hopefully without the white sheets this time around ).
more soReal screening ( best soReal directors: Cronenberg and Ken Russell )
( vigor Mortenson as Freud... perfect )
Movie will probably assure Sabina Spielrein her rightful place in history.
( if not explicitly exposed in the movie )
As far as sublime archetype inner journey movies go...
Altared States iz still my favorite sophmoric guilty pleasure! ( the movie playing in my ego's background during college. )
Released at that time in the early 80's...
I still find Ken Russell's surrealistic imagery works fine ( the graphic's limited for the time but the zeitgeist is now starting to work in favor of the movie! )
that that true self, that original self, that first self is a real, mensurate, quantifiable thing, tangible and incarnate.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98179
Drawception sounds really cool too thanks! i looked at the surrealist game "cadavre exquis" as shown in the original manifesto, i really tried to go back to the roots of surrealism, and cosidering it grew from dada and Jung is encompassed in dada i should really research it further
In relation to recent statement on how i aimed to show how surrealist principles can be applied to game design to help innovation ( as opposed to surrealism is innovation...innovation can be achieved a thousand ways im sure, my investigation into surrealism simply showed me a path that could be taken)
A path that uses juxtaposition - genre crossing, cadavre exquis - random creativity, and of course the collective unconscious (and conscious) - many minds helping forward innovation
my original aims were to adapt a realistic environment, and push it into the surreal (visually) whilst keeping the proportions and game play the same (to prove that simple adaptation of visuals can really affect game play) but this is pretty obvious.
So instead of basing my paper on something that everyone knows (changing elements of a game will alter game play!) i decided to go deeper into the origins and see how the core fundamental and principles could be complemented by modern trends and industrial changes - such as the boom of Indie developers (where they are capable of taking those risks that step outside the circle without impacts to reputation of revenue if the game isnt a success)
the drawception game, the recent AAA title releases such as DMC and a tonne of indie games and other studio titles mentioned in the survey support this, im quite happy with the result so far, nearing 50 respondants now, a 100 is my hopeful aim, i have another 7 days to reach that, at the moment it is slowing to about 2-5 a day though, and will probably decrease further if not shared amongst the community further (please help by sharing the survey link! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9HWMC58 )
"the doors of perception"
i like that wording, i wanted to implement a high sense of perception within my final piece based on my research - to change a players blindsighted-ness of the environment their in and mindless objective following, and turn it into an interactive experience for learning, exploration and discovery (my survey has shown a 75% lean towards explorer types also - Professor Bartle Player types)
My actual game play tests have shown that players will "follow the light", that they are expectant of rewards when being told what to do, however from my experience, doing exactly what your told to the letter makes you a drone, a robot and a follower, to break from this allows creativity
"realtime interactivty with immersion levels beyond cinematic quality is probably still in it's infancy."
i agree with that, especially when technology now has the capability of creating games of true cinematic quality!
Thanks for the discussion everyone im checking this pretty much hourly so the more feedback the merrier, ill post my actual paper for feedback mid to end week for those interested in 12,000 words of surrealism in games!
Visual surrealism is great, but i'm still trying to focus on its narrative context, as a lot of it was based in poetry novels etc (although they seemed to shun theatre?)
Its cool that so many games are showing surrealism (and the dream of revolution) as my report and testing (including this survey) have so far shown that of all the gamers, most were more interested in exploring a world than competition against others (this is however a tiny amount of respondants) but still, it says to me if it was to continue that way that the formula for succesfull modern games has boomed, and mobile games and the new generation of hand held games are generating the new market (thats already supported in my written piece by other studies of the market at the moment)
but that, linked with the evolution of art (in essence going from realism to surrealism - i read from various places, that at the basics, once we were able to recreate what he saw, we became satisfied with our ability, and then took it further)
If games have, and will further reach the ability to give the illusion of a realistic world, then it could follow the same path, everything seems to work in patterns! Revolution after revolution, and with so many indie developers booming now, the risk takers etc, im effectively predicting that some principles of surrealism will take root again
(atleast in my current production they will, because my testing pretty much points at it with a huge arrow - of which im then turning full circle (not breaking rules) and following exactly what my own research tells me - true surrealism is hard to find it seems)
It was a game where you shot things to melt them (clocks, beans, chairs) and or time-shift them. It was supposed to be a time-oriented 3rd person shooter type puzzle thing.
One of the level bosses would be Soft Self construction with Boiled Beans;
Anyways the issue with these things aren't innovation, but marketing. There's no marketing data to support that surrealism would MAKE significant amounts of money, therefore it will not be made.
Zombies & space aliens in a dystopian future in a war setting however.... that shit sells.
T-T
if you said that to me i wouldve been :poly142:...
Here are some of the entries from the anonymous survey (unsurprisingly, adventure games) -
most obvious - psychonauts (exploration of the mind)
Deus Ex (to achieve surrealism you have to be able to compare to the real - this game was so visually realistic that the surreal elements within the narrative really shined, and made people think)
Silent Hill - Realm shifting, requirement to make (surreal) choices that you dont encounter everday, events that link two realms
"Lemmings. Because the lemmings have clothes. In real life they don't."
Dear Esther - (from what ive seen) based around some of the principles of surrealism, "a stunningly realised world" (from steam page) that sends you on an adventure and a journey if you like
Myst wasnt mentioned but i feel its self explanatory, the whole narrative behind that game shouts surreal at me, including the visuals (which arent always needed to give the effect - a game came out recently, of which the name escapes me - with no visuals, it won a BAFTA i believe, but searching resulted in nothing)
Homeworld - Was a vision of the future from 1999, (and the first strategy/space game to introduce all three axis of movement)
Machinarium and Samorost were mentioned, in terms of adventure (which my report also focuses on especially with professor Mary Flannagan and Tim Schafer, as well as richard bartle briefly for player type info) The visuals in these games are pretty surreal, trends are showing a lot of dystopian, eutopian, fantasy and (dare i say) steampunk recently. Its commonly due to political, economical and social impacts in terms of trend setting, but once everyone gets over 2012 i reckon it will become mainly futuristic - as the world is getting to the point where Moore's Law is going to really show its impact (all the awesome stuff!)
Cocktel Vision's old Gobliiins - never heard of this, and cant find any screenshots
Sublustrum(outcry) - never heard of this before, yet another smaller studio making an epicly surreal game, the visuals are incredibly abstract
The Void - im going to play this now! (infact many of these have interested me - as i picked a topic that i love! thankfully) This games bio on wikipedia mentions how its set in a purgatory like place, that suggests to me the narrative elements of surrealism, the realm of dreams / imagination, (or sur meaning beyond, and realisme meaning realism)
Journey - ive seen a lot of articles praising this game recently, a short but fulfilling adventure, the art style is pretty unique from what ive seen as well
"Mario. Setting and plot is established, but operates on moon-logic." from what i found on moon logic, its a puzzle design theory of game design, and its quite surreal within itself
Alan Wake (especially the DLC) - reminds me of when i looked at dear esther, its based on amnesia, which is a mental illness, which surrealism (with its various links to freud) would suggest an aire of surrealism within the game (as with the amnesia and penumbra games)
"zeno clash has a very surrealistic art style. " Zeno Clash shows some fantasy settings from the images ive seen, so many games have this though, and therefore making something surreal amongst so many inherantly surreal creations becomes a problem, or an obvious path to take
"bioshock is surreal in its premise, especially in the genre-bending sense" i have this game, i played the start, and as a gamer who hasnt really experienced horror survival games i pretty much shat a brick at parts! genre bending of an fps, or a survival horror (or a genre cross maybe) it can be linked to surrealism as stated at the start of my thread, and within my thesis, in terms of abstracting from the linear path that a single genre can offer if not melded into something unique (via introduction of other more varied elements, such as narrative, and visuals)
"Alice:Madness Returns, the art style and gameplay direct this to be a more interesting surreal experience" I looked at this game briefly in my paper, and at the original narrative from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and its link to surrealism through Freud and dreams
"Killer 7. Unusal Visuals, mechanics, character, story. I.E. Everything in the game was unusual." this respondent mentions the word unusual, which opens surrealism out of the box even further;
If surrealism for some gamers is a sense of the unusual, the in-ordinary, then so many games incorporate surrealism by accident! For this and many other reasons mentioned, id really like to aim my paper towards suggesting that surrealist consideration during game play, narrative, and visual design is a viable, and useful method to create something "unusual", different, and a unique experience (like many of these successful, and memorable games)
The list goes on: Braid, Flower, Bayonetta, Limbo, Heavy Rain, Left4Dead, Dead Rising, Yumi Nikki (infact when i think about, many Japanese Developed games encorporate a sense of the surreal), Metro 2033, Elder Scrolls, (blackreach in skyrim was mentioned), Assassins Creed (the animus included - exploration of the subconscious, game play however, such as the incorporation of the tower defense element was too surreal and broke the game imo), NiGHTS, psychonauts, psychonauts, psychonauts, psychonauts, psychonauts!!!!!!
They are from the survey so far, hopefully this time next week even more insightful entries will occur (please share the link : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9HWMC58)
p.s my own two pence on recent surrealist exploration within games include SuperBros Sword and sorcery, and Insanely Twisted Shadow planet (and that just from trailers, i expect the game play will also be creative and unique) ...oh and De Blob! Just something about that game that tickles the child gamer inside, and the narrative appeals to my more mature side...as much of it as there is being a game designer!
Thanks again everyone (im writing in the tiny text box so i have no idea how long this post is :S, hope you enjoy the read and thoughts)
I recommend this game for explorers and adventure gamers
EDIT: OH! Sanitarium! The entire game was an exercise in psychological surrealism and subtle anachronism. Great storytelling too, although the voice acting was... eh.
The same way Dali could paint it.
Just because you're conveying it digitally doesn't mean you can't make it irrational. Visual and temporal irrationality can be conveyed just fine through pixels.
But nowadays, if our "collective unconscious " and lifestyle impacts come into play, during creation of games say, I think the "surrealism" seen would appear in a completely different way.
For the final product I will be creating a demo of some (hopefully) experimental adventure game play and environments, obviously I aim to include my research, what would you rather see, a fully realized 3D environment that links to my research or more of a game play prototype that focuses on surrealisms original principles?
Thanks everyone :-)
But it is true that abstraction and irrationality can come with art, and how those interactions / game play is used, modular coding for gameplay could be the answer?
Thanks for the help towards 100 responses everyone =D
[ame="
I think Cat Mario does fairly well as a surrealist game in terms of rules and gameplay. Yes everything that happens follows a preset structure, but it's not one that the player can logically deduct. We're all familiar with Mario Bros., and it forms the basis for our understanding of this game world - but it keeps throwing altered rules at us.
Most hilarious was placing a portal style cube puzzle in a map, when you placed the cube on the button it displayed "button pressed" on the screen, and the player kept walking around trying to find how to use the button, the way to escape was to use the cube they kept leaving on the button!
Another was based on leading players to their death via lighting, the final game design aims to play against all the pre-learnt gaming tropes and idioms, and expectations etc, and create a challenging, but pretty much logical adventure / puzzle game!
P.S here is a teaser for my final piece that im finishing today :P