The Video Game Industry: Presenting a New Medium

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing my grandfather, a man who has achieved what most sought after: The American Dream. Raised in rags in Central Cuba, my grandfather was amidst the Socialist revolution that destroyed his future within his homeland. Fleeing to the USA, he found riches in exploiting Communist officials and militia for the CIA during the Cold War, and became President of an organization that helped many Cuban refugees assimilate into American society. So when I sat with a decorated and intelligent man like my grandfather at a La Carreta, I had an extremely hard time explaining why Video Game Industry is important to me.

“But, Jorgito,” my grandfather said as he clasped his hands in front of his face, “those are just toys. You can make money in that?”

“Yes, you can! They are not just toys though. It’s art. Like Toy Story; do you know Toy Story?”

And maybe that wasn’t the best example because he laughed at the irony of my rebuttal. Only in the last decade were video games considered under the 1^st Amendment as a creative expression of art, and newly recognized, it continues to gain mainstream approval as gaming technology progresses and new ideas are explored. [ref] Like my grandfather, most people have given me shrugged shoulders or rolled eyes whenever I discuss gaming as an art form, and being a patron of this relatively new medium, it’s important to educate others why gaming and immersive technology will flourish in the digital age.

Silver Screen Gaming

The industry has come a long way from simple pixels and arcade mechanics. The forefront “blockbusters” of the game industry, known as AAA games, are believed to set the golden standard as to how a game should look, sound, and play. The standard that AAA game developers and publishers set for themselves are being able to excel in all elements such as gameplay, story, graphics, and music, while also bringing something new to the table. With every new generation of consoles, we see a significant increase of graphics and processing power.

One example of this would be Lucasart's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Launched initially on the Xbox in 2003, It used the internally superior system to produce a large expansive world, that allowed the player to make a choice: good or bad. While excelling in awesome jedi combat, coupled with a bombastic score and intriguing plot-twist, the game is also one of the first to fully-voice all NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) that the player interacts with. This was mind blowing to me, at the fresh age of 12, because although the game would’ve succeeded without voice-acting, it gave a sense of humanity to several interactions with supporting characters that I would’ve otherwise not cared for, given that I couldn’t listen to them.

Lucasart's is also responsible for Secret of Monkey Island (1990), a pioneer of interactive storytelling in the industry.

This is what’s becoming important for games to be recognized as a medium. When you go to a museum, and you look at a painting or a sculpture, part of you is looking for the human attachment or significance to that piece of art. A video game can have that same attachment; within it’s art direction and the story it’s trying to tell you.  In the adventure game, The Walking Dead: Season One, you play a former convict named Lee, that finds himself in the wake of the zombie pandemic birthed from the same universe of the beloved series.

While you are free to make choices that could affect who you survive with, you’d find that you could develop a sincere liking and nurturing to the protagonist’s supporting character, 12-year old Clementine.  By understanding Lee’s role as Clementine’s guardian, the choices you make throughout the game will give priority to Clementine’s survival. Without giving anything away, I found myself nervous for her whenever she was in any kind of danger, and at one point, a walker grabs Clementine by the hair. You're given a small window of opportunity to save her, and I found myself mashing the buttons on my Vita, indiscernibly whimpering because I was legitimately worried for her life. 

Erm.. choose your words carefully?

It’s easy to look like a fool like I did for Clementine when faced with this danger, and as you develop the relationship between Lee and Clementine, you start to feel the subtle emotions that come with a normal conversation, as if your living through Lee. Ask anyone who watches me play: as I'm given the option to coach Clementine on taking care of herself, anyone watching me play would find the dumbest smile creeping across my face. It's the same look people make when they watch movies, and this is how the game succeeds, not by finding satisfaction ultra violence or eradicating waves of zombies, but by the decisions you make for Lee and Clementine that drive your want to play the game.

The Next-Gen Movement

As environments become more photorealistic and character animations become more life-like, there’s a greater chance to find a connection between the audience and the game, much like what you experience in films. Although PCs have been leading the front for cutting-edge technology, the new line of consoles are bringing a slew of games that look real enough to touch. Being that there was a 5-7 year period since the last generation of consoles came out, a lot of new features have been developed in the industry to create lifelike performances within a virtual world.

Naughty Dog is a developing studio responsible for bringing us cinematic games like the Uncharted series, and most recently The Last of Us, but little do some know that this is the same studio that created a game like Crash Bandicoot. Graphical and processing upgrades can only do so much to evolve a studio like this. If you ever have the luxury of playing any of their games, it’s easy to see a functioning personality and a range of emotions within each game character.

Part of the way this was done was by using a technology known as performance capture. Based on what was explained on The Last of Us documentary by Area 5, a game can use Performance Capturing, a practice found in mainly CGI-heavy films, in where actors choreograph scenes from the game, and their movements and voices are referenced to be used with the game engine. [ref] So if an animator needs the anatomical reference for a game character jumping over a short barrier, an actor would just have to re-enact the scene in real life. 

Still from Grounded: The Making of The Last of Us, showing performance capturing in the process.
The link to the documentary is here.

Neil Druckmann, Creative Director of The Last of Us, even states the importance of performance capture, "Having the actors perform as well as being recorded at the same time was imperative to get an accurate performance, 'cause every time you split up the performance in any way, you lose some of that magic where they did a gesture or they delivered a line a certain way. And those things have to be in sync or there's just something subconscious that's just, like, off-putting about the performance when you don't do it that way." Having real actors perform scenes for a game blurs the line between choppy character animations, and the message the designers are trying to send the reader. It brings about a human connection between the player and the game that has little been explored in the industry. 

Be Nice to your Community

The industry wouldn't be where it is now without it's strong sense of community. In the world we live in now, we hunger for information right here and right now. In order for Video Games to grow as an art form, it has tailored itself to the time we live in, with developers and publishers constantly putting out new information on forms of social media like Facebook and Twitter. I would have never known about indie games like Spelunky and Starbound if it weren't for constant notifications from Steam. Also, reiterating how important video game conventions are, I wouldn't be so amped and ready to throw my money if it wasn't for quality presentation and ambitious promises on new gaming experiences. Behind every product is the designer and programmer that makes the product.

Nick Wozniack's and his pixels.

Just like you would watch an interview with Vin Diesel on how he grunts so well in Guardians of the Galaxy, the insight that you can find about the game your playing is easily obtained by asking the crew behind the game. At this year's Supercon, a small geek convention in Miami, I had the opportunity to meet Nick Wozniack, a designer for Yacht Club Games. Responsible for the pixel art for the retro-game inspired Shovel Knight, the artist was extremely friendly as I got my first hands-on experience with the game. Worst part was that I didn't know who he was, and after saying I couldn't afford his game because I was too busy playing The Wind Waker HD, he was still open to talking about how Mega Man was a huge inspiration for the art design, and that keeping the punishing difficulty you'd find in arcade games is essential to driving the theme of Shovel Knight. I knew exactly what he meant because I still haven't beat the game. 

It was a short conversation, but it mattered because every time I pick up Shovel Knight now, I appreciate the pixel art for all it's small intricacies and smooth animations more because I understood the artist's intentions behind it. It's this openness that is hardly present in film-making and music that allows for the industry to grow. Go ahead and try yourself. Give feedback to your favorite developer about their game through twitter or their personal forums, and see if you don't get a response. Like artists holding an exhibit of their work, it's showing appreciation for gamers and the game makers that helps the industry thrive.

Reaching out to Others

News travels fast in this day and age, and the way you present yourself today can be judged by every small increment of your life, whether it'd be celebrating a promotion through Linked-In or an embarrassing photo you may have been tagged in Facebook. This applies to business as well, as a developer and publishers reputation and strengthen or weaken based on how it represents its product.

This industry is going to open our eyes into fantastic ways we can connect as people through its art, and recognition is being received where you'd least expect it. Steven Spielberg announced back in May 2014 that he would produce a Halo  TV series for Xbox One. The Last of Us is even being adapted for a future movie release as a result to the critical acclaim it revived for it's heartwarming story. This interconnectivity between industries will go a long way into making people like my grandfather understand the importance of this new medium.


We have a serious passion for games at Part-Time Geks, and for the way games are made. If you have the same deep thoughts or feelings about the industry like we do, feel free to comment in the section below.