The Inspiration Behind Ico’s Iconic Cover Art

          Ico is a Playstation 2 game that has recently made news with its re-release and new cover art. Ico is an action-adventure game that was released in 2001 and received much attention because of its minimalist and subtracting design - where elements of gameplay where reduced to not interfere with the game's setting or story. Ico received many awards from the press and publications such as: "Excellence in Level Design," "Excellence in Visual Arts," "Game Innovation Spotlight," and also, "Art Direction" and "Character or Story Development."

          Such an artistic game should have an equally artistic cover right? Wrong. In fact, the North American cover was considered one of the worst in history and was said to contribute to poor sales.

          However, the game's re-release had a much more attractive, appropriate, and artistic cover:

          Besides cover the art, the actual game itself was inspired by the works of Giorgio de Chirico, a surrealist artist of the early 20th century who was considered the founder of the Metaphysical art movement. De Chirico's works inspired famous artists like Dali and Max Ernst, but more appropriately the creator of Ico, Fumito Ueda. Specifically, the works titled "The Nostalgia of the Infinite"

 and "Melancholy and Mystery of a Street"

         You can see in both works there is a minuscule, silhouetted and lonely figure being overshadowed, so to speak, by enormous buildings and structures. The cover is very similar to De Chirico's work; the massive structures towering over tiny people with big shadows and the color is similar in the shades and tones. Ueda says that De Chirico was one of the primary inspirations in developing Ico. The feeling of loneliness and being trapped by an overbearing building is a constant theme throughout the game, from the beginning to end.

     

          I thought this was really cool and interesting because I've learned about De Chirico in several of my classes here at the UofA and specifically remember being taught about "Melancholy and Mystery of a Street." Most people wouldn't think of this type of art and video games to converge but it is a rather common and unseen action that occurs on many instances. I never have played this game but remember hearing many great things about it when it was released. I remember people talking about how artistic it was and remember seeing screenshots of a little boy being dwarfed by a huge giant monster, relating to the overpowering structures in De Chirico's works. 

         

Skyrim Timelapse

          The video below is timelapse photography from the recently popular video game - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by a professional photographer in Chicago, Tom Harris, who made this on a PC with ultra-high game settings. Skyrim has received a lot of attention and notoriety lately being one of the many top blockbuster games released in this last quarter of 2011. Critics and players alike praise the game for its sense of immersion, many various tasks/activities to perform, great story, and perhaps most recognized - its outstanding visuals. Video games nowadays have incredible graphics engines that can deliver impressive results. Environments in games are becoming increasingly realistic and lifelike and the amount of detail put into some games are simply amazing. As the future progresses, more of society will realize that video games and art are slowly becoming synonymous with each other...its just a matter of time.

          Harris used Skyrim's incredible graphics to create timelapse photography within the game. Timelapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing (Wikipedia). Timelapse videos have been around for quite some time now and the most popular themes are usually - clouds or celestial motion, plant growth, fruit rotting, evolution of a construction project, or people in the city. Harris used timelapse photography to show the amazing environments of Skyrim and really emphasizes the landscapes and weather in the game. Plants sway in the wind, the aurora borealis lights up the night, the moon drifts slowly with the clouds and stars, fog crawls over the mountaintops....all while the player is controlling their character throughout these environments. Without seeing this video, some people may never realize and appreciate how beautiful the world in Skyrim is. Game developers are creating realms where the player really feels like they are interacting in a living, breathing world. 

          Below is another timelapse made in Red Dead Redemption, a western style GTA-like game that is also recognized for its realistic graphics and environments

          I own Red Dead Redemption for Xbox and have also noticed the wonderful landscapes and weather. Riding your horse through dusty trails hunting deer and rabbits never felt so engaging and real. Tumbleweeds constantly blow by while the warm, western sunlight shines over the mountains....it's very surreal. Being able to explore such a dense, vast landscape is very inviting and with all the living creatures running about, the possibilities of what you can/want to do are endless. Thinking back when I was a kid, I never thought I would start to appreciate video games in an artistic sense, but looking at video games in 2011, I believe they deserve all the acclamations they received. 

Star Wars Minecraft Trench Scene

          Minecraft is a game that has been receiving a lot of attention lately in the gaming world. Essentially, it is a sandbox-style game where players can build anything they desire out of textured, pixelated cubes in a 3D world. Gamers have been becoming increasingly creative with their Minecraft constructions where the possibilities are really endless.
          On the other hand there is Star Wars....and does that really need an explanation? But who can forget the famous scene where Luke Skywalker flies his X-Wing through the Death Star's trenches, inevitably blowing it up? I for one, cannot, and remember watching it as a child thinking it was one of the coolest, most exciting movie scenes I've ever seen. Dodging TIE-Fighters while green and red lasers zoom across the screen couldn't be more exhilarating for a young, adolescent boy, especially with the introduction of Darth Vader and his special TIE-Fighter.
          Well, a man that goes by the alias "Paradise Decay" used Minecraft to replicate this infamous scene in the form of machinima. Machinima is using real-time computer graphics rendering engines to create cinematic productions. Basically using a video games graphics and content to create movies. This is much more creative and difficult than other ways of movie-making because the artist does not have as much control as other forms of media. Games set limitations on what can be controlled or changed within, so part of machinima is the artist's ability to work around these boundaries and find ways to produce a film using other methods.

          Paradise Decay uses the original audio from the movie and overlays it on Minecraft scenes to make a pretty good adaptation of great filmmaking back in the day. While the work isn't too visually appealing, what matters is the process behind it and the creativeness that was utilized to make this process work. Each scene consists of thousands of singular blocks that the artist had to create one-by-one to replicate each part of the scene. This can take numerous hours and days just to create a YouTube video that is less than 5 minutes long. There actually is an impressive amount of detail that isn't noticeable when looking at the grand spectrum of things but for taking this video for what it is, then you can see how much work was put into it. This is another example of the many ways computing and the arts can be combined and machinima has been growing steadily since it's birth and has many examples from all types of games.