Why is gaming so important for my art?
This will be a very personal one and maybe a topic that not everyone relates too at a surface level. But when you dig deep you can find common ground for everything that ignites your inspiration and pushes your art forward.
I have been gaming all my life, since i first got a personal computer and played the original Sim City and got my mind blown away. To this day i have played video games on Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Wii, DS, Switch and of course PC. Usually i play all kind of video games but i am a sucker for games with incredible cinematic stories.
So when i first started to create art the connection was natural because i have been exposed to this form of art all my life.
Some people see games as only that, a medium that allows people to spend a good time and forget what other things are in their life for that time. And they are. But they are also art. And as an artistic form of expression they have characteristics that we can apply to all forms of art.
What do i take from video games to my art:
Storytelling: This is probably the main one. The way stories are told has always been a fascination of mine in all mediums. But the way video games do it in a visual way is just incredible. We could compare it to movies of course. But with video games you get a consistency of plot, visual identity and concept that runs for more than a couple of hours. That was vital for my photography but also for my writing.
Visual identity: Some games nowadays have big budgets, like some movies and that translates to better tech for better graphics. Those games give you all the eye candy you could ever want. But some titles use visual identity as a way to stand out and to tell their story (i will give examples later). That is fundamental to understand that we don’t need big tech, huge environments or actors to transmit our message. We need to have a strong grasp on who we are and how we are going to tell our story in a visual way.
Inspiration: Looking, touching, watching or playing any form of art will give you some sort of inspiration. You will get ideas from the music, plot or the visuals. This is common sense of course, but many find that video games are just to spend some time and there is much more to them than that.
Approach: The video game market has grown so much that there are a lot of video games that approach the same subjects in the same way and as other artists they fall into oblivion and get stuck in their own ways. But other video games try out new ideas and try to innovate even if it costs them sales. This is something i learned from video games and something that i always try to have in my art, try new things. Video games can teach you to approach certain themes in a new way from a new angle and that can make you grow as an artist.
These are just some of the things i take from video games. It is important to say that i also take a lot of joy when i am gaming and that does wonders for my mental state and to overcome artists block.
So even if you don’t like to play video games i would suggest that you would watch some of these trailers: