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Critters, Art, and Development: Epicenter Studios' Bryan Jury
Posted by Maggie Greene at 5:30 AM on August 25, 2008
Epicenter Studios (Critter Round-Up, Real Heroes: Firefighter) cofounder Bryan Jury sent us a heads up about an interview he did with GameCritics.com's Brad Gallaway. While I found his email references to himself in third person a little odd, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since the interview was pretty good. He described it as "a former Call of Duty producer-type from Activision, talks about starting up an independent studio, kind of trashes Gears of War in an answer about games being art, and explains how they got their first game deal", which more or less hits the nail on the head. On 'games as art,' he's got this to say:
I'd like to think that gaming is still in its infancy stage and will have a chance to grow. I just think there are a lot of factors against that happening. As an interactive medium, there's really nothing else that's comparable. Sports perhaps, and I think there's an argument to be made that some sports or sporting events can be considered art, but again, I'd like to think that gaming is deeper than just competition.
I do think the day will come where games as a medium can be considered art, but we're going to have to solve some pretty big issues before that happens. We need to find ways of financing games other than through the traditional publisher/developer relationship. He who controls the money controls the power, and all too often that power is tied up into market research whitewashing innovation or making copy-cat titles that chase the latest hot trend and not with the creators trying to put their ideas on the screen.
The rest of the interview — on starting a new studio, developing Critter, and talk about the studio in general — is an interesting and reasonably quick read.
Interview with Epicenter Studios [GameCritics.com]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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excel_excel
Posted 6:04 AM 25/8/08
He's right, art in gaming is entirely subjective, as it is in movies, still a game like Gears of War shouldn't have to strike an emotional chord, it should be and IS like a great popcorn action flick and theres a lot of those in hollywood so I don't think its damaging the whole 'are games art' debate.
Its really interesting how he says that for a game to be considered art it should bring forward emotions from within yourself, like going back to shadow moses in MGS4 floods you with an eerie sense of nostalgia
excel_excel
TheGuilty1
Posted 5:56 AM 25/8/08
How in the hell is gaming still in it's infancy?
TheGuilty1
Toasticus
Posted 6:46 AM 25/8/08
Counter-examples to the proposition of games being art aren't helpful. They prove nothing other than that the specific cited example is not art. Otherwise one could just as easily say music is not art because of songs like "Who Let the Dogs Out", that painting is not art because of painters like Thomas Kinkade, and that film is not art because of movies like "Ocean's Eleven". (N.B.: I actually like Ocean's Eleven, but it is not an artistic film.)
Perhaps we do not have a true artistic masterpiece yet. But with games like Braid, Shadow of the Colossus, Portal, and Bioshock out I've already come to the conclusion that games can be art. Although I'm not inclined to label those games as artistic masterpieces themselves, they do indicate to me the capability of the medium to produce artistic masterpieces. With that conclusion made, I'm much more interested in actually discussing games from an artistic viewpoint under the assumption that the capability is there, rather than fretting about whether games can be art in the first place. Artistic merit is not a boolean value; it's not a switch that you flick on or off, or some discrete threshold that you pass.
Toasticus
Paroxysm
Posted 7:48 AM 25/8/08
Considering Critter Round-Up was the sorriest excuse for a released game I can ever remember playing I wouldn't put a lot of weight on this fellows opinion. Any other company would have considered the state of that product alpha.
Paroxysm
AtomixIGN
Posted 9:08 AM 25/8/08
"Considering Critter Round-Up was the sorriest excuse for a released game I can ever remember playing I wouldn't put a lot of weight on this fellows opinion"
It was horrendous.
AtomixIGN