Image:BAFTA/Revolution
Video games…gaming…gamers. Not a subject that often crops up in the arts and culture hub that is FADwebsite. You should not, however, fall into the common misconception that video games are for the culturally disengaged (though admittedly this may be the case in the majority of cases!) Recently I have come to appreciate the genuine art form and skill that lies at the heart of video game creation as an art form of the moving image.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), though best known for their Film awards, in fact supports all art forms of the moving image which includes video games. This Friday evening (19th March 2010) will see the highest achievers in the world of game creation recognised for their mastery of the craft at the BAFTA Video Game Awards. With the category of Artistic Achievement proving to be one of the most coveted prizes, it is clear that stunning design is at the core of a video game’s success.
A great example of stunning VG imagery is the 1994 classic game Beneath a Steel Sky. Comic book artist Dave Gibbons hand drew the background for the game as well as creating intricate character designs. Gibbons was the original illustrator of Watchmen, a highly acclaimed, twelve-issue comic book series published during 1986 and 1987. According to Gibbons, who admits to not being much of a ‘gamer’, his background in comic book illustration was the perfect artistic inspiration for Beneath a Steel Sky. In an interview with BAFTA, Gibbons tells how his relationship with Charles Cecil (his collaborator on the game) developed. “He’d seen what I’d done with building worlds and characters in Watchmen and thought that skill was transferable to the kind of computer games that he was interested in.” (Read the full BAFTA article here.)
SO, for all you art fanatics out there, if I’ve managed to convince you of the artistic integrity that lies at the core of video game creation, you can keep an eye on the BAFTA Video Game Awards online by watching a live stream of the event HERE
Nominees in the Artistic Achievement category are as follow:
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Flower
Streetfighter IV
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
