The Mendicant Bug

I love how art evolves. Well sometimes I hate it, but usually it travels in interesting directions. One of my favorite new trends is art in video games, video games as art, and art in video game advertising. Andy Warhol helped bring art to pop culture and advertising. That hasn’t stopped thousands of hacks from doing a lot of crummy advertising, but every once in a while you get something amazing. The same is true for video games.

7th Guest

One of the first CD-ROM games we got for our brand new 486 way back in the day was 7th Guest. It was a puzzle game based in a haunted mansion. Old Man Stauf was a beggar who started making amazing toys for children. And then the children started dying. You’ve been invited to dinner at the mansion, but the guests have begun disappearing. As you make your way through a series of increasingly complicated puzzles, the mystery of Stauf is unraveled. It was a very fun game and apparently was quite popular and is credited with accelerating CD-ROM game sales. The game was well done, incorporating a lot of live action scenes. Back then and in the fondness of my memory, I considered it to be art. Games like Myst came out around the same time and were also lauded for their artistic vision.

Gears of War

An advertisement for Gears of War last year used the remake of Mad World by Gary Jules (not the Tears for Fears original). It’s a haunting melody, made popular by Donnie Darko. The original could have been better except for being plagued by 80′s synth drums and some really odd sound choices throughout like a freakish trumpet motif. Also the pace was a bit fast perhaps. I’m probably tainted by the new version. Anyhow, the game commercial features a soldier in the wreckage of a city. He examines the broken head of a statue of a girl and then the earth begins to shake. Anyhow, I just thought it was the coolest commercial I’ve ever seen.

Another great set of ads are the Believe commercials for Halo 3. One example is below. On the surface they aren’t especially catchy, but they are definitely edgy. They’ve drawn a fair amount of flack by playing on interviews of vets from World War II. I don’t think they are disrespectful, myself.

Other Games

All games nowadays require at least one artist on staff to help create the various images, characters and landscapes. Often, there are entire teams. Games like Silent Hill create a mood and require a certain dark vision. This is not merely cobbling together other people’s ideas into something mechanical. It is a very creative and collaborative process. The shots from Shadow of the Colossus are beautiful. And then there are games like F.E.A.R. This game is probably one of the most artistic I’ve come across. The theme is heavily influenced by Japanese Horror like Ju-on (the Grudge) and Ringu (the Ring). Psychological element play a large role in the game. A telepath named Alma appears out of nowhere at odd times and can totally creep you out. Her appearances are often accompanied by disturbances. Good times.

Limbo

And now the reason for this post. Limbo. This game is currently still in the concept stage as far I’ve been able to find out. But that looks very promising and quite artistic.

The vision is dark and punctuated with bursts of contrast that create an atmosphere unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a game before. Plus it’s just plain beautiful. I mean look at these shots. Be sure to check out the video too. This looks like it may be one of the coolest things to hit the shelves in a long while. Limbo comes from the mind of Arnt Jensen.