Event Title
FSM06 - Surrealist (video) Games
Location
CB1-117
Start Date
3-11-2017 11:15 AM
Description
Perhaps one of the biggest strengths of as well as challenges in the digital humanities is its interdisciplinary nature. The numerous sub-fields which have risen from the larger umbrella of DH have flourished due to this lack of constraints. Game studies, for example, developed from a fusion of principles in digital media, literature, and software engineering. However, as the field matures and its corpus of scholarship grows, scholars in the field are increasingly pushed toward a more rigid structure of disciplinarity. In my proposed soapbox talk, I will argue for maintaining a more transdisciplinary framework within the study of games. To demonstrate this, I will discuss the combination of Surrealism and video games as a means of discovery. The two principle points of entry for this talk are Surrealist play and Surrealist design. In both cases, the Surrealist Game, "Exquisite Corpse," will be the method which informs my approach. In the case of Surrealist play, I will discuss my own experience of combining details from unrelated quests in games to gain new understandings of the gameworld to which a player visits. In games with an open play structure, there is often the feeling that once a quest or related string of quests is finished, the player never needs to worry about those events again. This is especially true with the side quest, little diversions that do not affect the overall narrative of the game in any significant way. By bringing the Exquisite Corpse to these games, I will showcase how the player's understanding of interactions can be shifted with the minor adjustment of playing as though these individual micro-narratives are connected. On the other side of this discussion is Surrealist design which brings elements of chance to the design process in order to create moments of surprise and delight in the finished project of a game. I will demonstrate how the Exquisite Corpse can be brought to design decisions in the more traditional sense (through selection and cut-up) as well as how this element can be replicated in the design through the careful addition of randomness in the actual code. Using the Unity Engine, I will showcase examples of how this influences my own work in both the scripting and finished product. At its core, the principles of Surrealist (video) Games demonstrate the ways that a digital humanist is uniquely equipped to address the epistemic. In truth, the possible worlds of digital humanities are limitless, but we can only meaningfully engage with them if we, as a field, continue to do so openly and creatively.
FSM06 - Surrealist (video) Games
CB1-117
Perhaps one of the biggest strengths of as well as challenges in the digital humanities is its interdisciplinary nature. The numerous sub-fields which have risen from the larger umbrella of DH have flourished due to this lack of constraints.
