Chris Totten - Gorgeous Games CDK
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Christopher Totten is a game artist and executive organizer of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Indie Arcade event. As game artist in residence at American University, he creates games that explore artistic styles and techniques from other mediums. The Indie Arcade began as a one-day event showcasing regional indie games and has grown into an international event, increasing attendance from 4,000 to over 11,000. Totten's own games have incorporated paper cutouts, fabric patterns, and mixed media to bring artistic influences into gaming.
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Chris Totten - Gorgeous Games CDK
- 1. “GORGEOUS” GAMES Chris Totten – Game Artist in Residence, American University
- 2. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN Executive Organizer Smithsonian American Art Museum Indie Arcade Game Artist in Residence American University Author An Architectural Approach to Level Design and Game Character Creation in Blender and Unity Community organizer Washington, DC game community, IGDA DC CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87
- 3. SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM INDIE ARCADE 1 day event showcasing indie games Classic gaming and game cover bands by MAGFest 1st year: Mid-Atlantic regional indie developers, 43 entries, 16 chosen games, ~4000 attendees 2nd year: International scope, 150+ entries, 32 chosen games, 11,750 attendees CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87
- 4. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87
- 5. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Jesse van Dijk, Concept art for Destiny, 2014, Found on Kotaku Australia “Fine Art”
- 6. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Left: Gomez sprite from Fez, 2012 Right: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by William Morris’s Kelmscott press, 1896
- 7. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87
- 8. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87
- 9. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87
- 10. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Lumino City, State of Play, 2014. PC game created with real-world dioramas
- 11. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Ever Yours, Vincent, Federica Orlati, in-progress. PC game created with mixed media
- 12. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87Link: apple.co/WEbDiP
- 13. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Left: Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, El Lissitzky, 1920 – lithographic propaganda poster Right: Lissitzky’s Revenge, Chris Totten, 2015 – paper cutouts in the Construct 2 game engine Link: bit.ly/1c1OfDF
- 14. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Addie’s Patchwork Playground, Chris Totten, Anne Sullivan, and Alex Neuenkirk, - Unity game with fabric patterns and handmade sprites
- 15. CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - @TOTTER87 Dead Man’s Trail, Pie For Breakfast Studios - Unity
Editor's Notes
- So what does all this have to do with video games?
- Unlike history paintings, these pieces of art can vary in subject. Some eye-candy or mood-setting pieces of concept art show epic scenes just as The Last Day of Pompeii or the myriad of history paintings derived from the Bible did. Others conceptualize landscapes and close-ups of characters, depending on the production needs of the game.
- By observing the transition from AAA-like 3D games to retro pixel art, he contends that pixel art has become for many designers, a sort of return to the roots of video game graphics. An effort to recreate the authenticity of the game medium much as the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century created hand-made objects as a rebellion against the Industrial Revolution.
- In a Digital Games Research Association Conference paper by scholar Jesper Juul titled High Tech, Low Tech Authenticity: The Creation of Independent Style at the Independent Games Festival, Juul explores the art history of winning games at the Independent Games Festival.
- Courbet and other artists’ breaking with the hierarchical form opened the doors for artists to explore other subject matter and techniques in painting, resulting in a plethora of styles and even entire art movements – Impressionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Art Nouveau, Modernism, Cubism, Surrealism, Pop Art, and others.
- The downsides of pixel art, however, are that while it was once the sign of being “unique” it’s now EVERYWHERE…
- These games have gotten significant exposure on gaming news sites and online communities such as GameJolt.
- These games have gotten significant exposure on gaming news sites such as Rock Paper Shotgun and online communities such as GameJolt (12,000 plays for the demo, 25,000 views)
- Being a developer myself, I’m looking to see how such methods can be integrated into production pipelines. Are they faster? What kind of look or novelty do they generate? One such exploration was a game called Zup!, which is now available on the iOS and Android app stores. Foam core cutouts, cotton ball clouds, and a scanner created not only a novel art style, but also an entire game’s worth of character, environment, and UI art in under a week.
- Likewise, I am undertaking a project called Atelier Games, named after the method of learning art by studying under renowned masters. The first in this series is a mash-up of Russian Suprematist artist El Lissitzky and Yar’s Revenge, titled Lissitzky’s Revenge.