Do you see games as pieces of art? *potential spoilers*

[Mnementh]

IcaroRibeiro said:

I was reading there must be a line dividing what is art and is craft and design. I guess this line really exists, I'm a software engineer and software engineering isn't REALLY engineering, but it's design. It's creative, as I can write my code in a perfectly different way of another developer and we somewhat arrive at the same results, this make coding software craft and design for most part, even though it's still largely based on science. I, indeed, think this is what set software engineering and computer science apart

However people who design aesthetic concepts for websites and apps in general, they are concerned with how people will perceive their work, so here while we are still doing design we are starting to cross the line from design to arts. Games are similar, it has science components, design components and art components

When devs need to think how to solve vectorial problems to be able define the physics of a game, games are science
When devs need to think how the physics can be used to create levels and and challenges, games are design
When devs need to think how they can they can use sounds to creative immersive experience to communicate and evoke some kind of feelings, games are art

Makes sense for me

As a software engineer myself, I can fully relate to this post. On my shelf resides a book named 'The Art of Computer Programming' by Donald Knuth. I try to follow the principles of Software Craftmanship. There is Perl Poetry, which tries to be functional (being an actual program) while also reads as another artistic meaning.

Games usually try to lean either into being a product (like most AAA) or sometimes into being artistic (some indie games). Usually there is this split in design choices, but an area where I think both are merged well is architecture. In architecture the goal is to have something functional, yet at the same time expressive. Which is great I think. There are few examples that excel at a synthesis of these two in gaming, for me personally A Short Hike and Katamary Damacy come to mind.

Last edited by Mnementh - on 19 June 2022