This book was shipped to me as part of my first game design course, and at first I didn't really understand. Comics? This is game design. But, as I've learned the hard way several times before in my short college life, sometimes my naivete knows no bounds. After reading the first two chapters, I soon very much realized why this book was put in my hands. Huzzah!
After reading only a little bit of Understanding Comics, you soon realize that the word comic in this case is very much interchangeable with other nouns: games, and movies. As I read through, I got into the habit of simply switching out the word comic with video game. Or even just game, really. Doesn't have to be a video game. But, as we all know, most people who get into game design aren't usually thinking of analog games, and I'm no exception. My brain operates in video game mechanics and scenarios, dabbling forever in that realm of sense that is beyond the conceptual realm, thinking of new ways to breath life into a world and characters that can be manipulated by my Playstation controller. But...this isn't my point. On to McCloud's book...
In Chapter 2, titled "The Vocabulary of Comics", McCloud explains that the picture of a tobacco pipe isn't a tobacco pipe, despite that the picture is telling the reader otherwise. It literally says, "this is a tobacco pipe", or something to that effect. It's a picture. Of a pipe. But really, it's just lines on a paper, with shading and other details, made to look like a pipe. Comics are an art form that use symbols, and icons, to represent what we as humans can identify as that symbol's and icon's real world counter part. This example is shown better in the picture of a man's face. There are several different steps, starting from a drawing with almost photographic detail, to a stick figure/smiley face combo. But what does our mind see in either case? A person, or a man. Whichever.
What does this have to do with video games? Everything. It can make several different statements, none of which are any less important than the last. Games themselves are indeed a representative art form. Although facial-capture technology and 3D graphics in general are expanding, games even five years ago left a lot of blanks to be filled in by our brains. But this is where I think the whole affair is brilliant: games are nothing more than stacks upon stack of imagination, compiled together to make a journey and experience for humans to take. You could say that a lot of imagination is poured into the creation of a digital game, and a lot of imagination is required to play most analog games. In either case, myself as a game designer and we, people, as players, must be willing to let our minds do what they do best: fill in the blanks.
In the same chapter, McCloud talks about the conceptual world and the realm of senses. The realm of senses is where video games thrive, and I could write much more on this...but I feel it's a little too late in the evening. Next time, then.
No comments:
Post a Comment