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I was looking at the gaming industry, as one does, and making comparisons with the film and music industry and then something occured to me.
Both the film and music industry have an 'arty' side to them. By that I mean a slightly surreal, less accessible side but always have huge cult followings. I mean bands like the 'Mahvishnu Orchestra' that are just odd and sometimes hard to listen to (mainly due to the vast quantities of drugs the band members were taking) or John Zorn and his film noire music!?! They have massive followings but are relatively unheard of.
Of course everyone knows about some form of 'art' film, generally they don't make a lot of sense and people who regard themselves as intellectuals love them. The idea being that there meaning is much deeper than most mortals can understand. Films like 'desserts' starring Ewan Mcregor are the slightly more accessable films of an arty nature.
What I was wondering is:- Will there be an 'arty'/ surreal side returning to gaming?
Jeff Minter (or Yak to his friends!) was the last person I can think of producing surreal titles. Games like 'Llamatron' or 'Revenge of the Mutant Space Camels' admittedly they both fitted into existing genres but they where far from mainstream. The surreal qualities of both of these games really made them interesting and though they were never designed to be thought provoking this was only the beginning, or so I thought.
Both of these titles are over 10 years old and very little has been developed in this way since. Seeing as there are so many different genres of games already is it realy too big a risk to take an 'arty' approach once more?
I think 'no', I say bring back Yak and fund him big time.
There ae so many interesting ideas out there and why not start trying to bring some of them to the gaming industry?
Any thoughts/ Arguments?
Both the film and music industry have an 'arty' side to them. By that I mean a slightly surreal, less accessible side but always have huge cult followings. I mean bands like the 'Mahvishnu Orchestra' that are just odd and sometimes hard to listen to (mainly due to the vast quantities of drugs the band members were taking) or John Zorn and his film noire music!?! They have massive followings but are relatively unheard of.
Of course everyone knows about some form of 'art' film, generally they don't make a lot of sense and people who regard themselves as intellectuals love them. The idea being that there meaning is much deeper than most mortals can understand. Films like 'desserts' starring Ewan Mcregor are the slightly more accessable films of an arty nature.
What I was wondering is:- Will there be an 'arty'/ surreal side returning to gaming?
Jeff Minter (or Yak to his friends!) was the last person I can think of producing surreal titles. Games like 'Llamatron' or 'Revenge of the Mutant Space Camels' admittedly they both fitted into existing genres but they where far from mainstream. The surreal qualities of both of these games really made them interesting and though they were never designed to be thought provoking this was only the beginning, or so I thought.
Both of these titles are over 10 years old and very little has been developed in this way since. Seeing as there are so many different genres of games already is it realy too big a risk to take an 'arty' approach once more?
I think 'no', I say bring back Yak and fund him big time.
There ae so many interesting ideas out there and why not start trying to bring some of them to the gaming industry?
Any thoughts/ Arguments?
I was looking at the gaming industry, as one does, and making comparisons with the film and music industry and then something occured to me.
Both the film and music industry have an 'arty' side to them. By that I mean a slightly surreal, less accessible side but always have huge cult followings. I mean bands like the 'Mahvishnu Orchestra' that are just odd and sometimes hard to listen to (mainly due to the vast quantities of drugs the band members were taking) or John Zorn and his film noire music!?! They have massive followings but are relatively unheard of.
Of course everyone knows about some form of 'art' film, generally they don't make a lot of sense and people who regard themselves as intellectuals love them. The idea being that there meaning is much deeper than most mortals can understand. Films like 'desserts' starring Ewan Mcregor are the slightly more accessable films of an arty nature.
What I was wondering is:- Will there be an 'arty'/ surreal side returning to gaming?
Jeff Minter (or Yak to his friends!) was the last person I can think of producing surreal titles. Games like 'Llamatron' or 'Revenge of the Mutant Space Camels' admittedly they both fitted into existing genres but they where far from mainstream. The surreal qualities of both of these games really made them interesting and though they were never designed to be thought provoking this was only the beginning, or so I thought.
Both of these titles are over 10 years old and very little has been developed in this way since. Seeing as there are so many different genres of games already is it realy too big a risk to take an 'arty' approach once more?
I think 'no', I say bring back Yak and fund him big time.
There ae so many interesting ideas out there and why not start trying to bring some of them to the gaming industry?
Any thoughts/ Arguments?
Both the film and music industry have an 'arty' side to them. By that I mean a slightly surreal, less accessible side but always have huge cult followings. I mean bands like the 'Mahvishnu Orchestra' that are just odd and sometimes hard to listen to (mainly due to the vast quantities of drugs the band members were taking) or John Zorn and his film noire music!?! They have massive followings but are relatively unheard of.
Of course everyone knows about some form of 'art' film, generally they don't make a lot of sense and people who regard themselves as intellectuals love them. The idea being that there meaning is much deeper than most mortals can understand. Films like 'desserts' starring Ewan Mcregor are the slightly more accessable films of an arty nature.
What I was wondering is:- Will there be an 'arty'/ surreal side returning to gaming?
Jeff Minter (or Yak to his friends!) was the last person I can think of producing surreal titles. Games like 'Llamatron' or 'Revenge of the Mutant Space Camels' admittedly they both fitted into existing genres but they where far from mainstream. The surreal qualities of both of these games really made them interesting and though they were never designed to be thought provoking this was only the beginning, or so I thought.
Both of these titles are over 10 years old and very little has been developed in this way since. Seeing as there are so many different genres of games already is it realy too big a risk to take an 'arty' approach once more?
I think 'no', I say bring back Yak and fund him big time.
There ae so many interesting ideas out there and why not start trying to bring some of them to the gaming industry?
Any thoughts/ Arguments?