I am pleased to present the inaugural issue of the Video Game Art Reader (VGAR), a peer-reviewed journal for video game audiences and video game practitioners interested in the history, theory, and criticism of video games, explored through the lens of art history and visual culture. Our aim is to break down the barriers restraining video game discourse. …
Read MoreJosuhe H. Pagliery is an artist and game developer based in Havana, Cuba. He is one half of the co-creators behind the new and critically-acclaimed video game Savior, along with partner Johann H. Almenteros. In this interview, Pagliery discusses the background and influences of Savior, as well as his aesthetic approach and efforts to collect resources to make the project a reality. …
Read MoreGames have become a novel medium for appreciation of the arts. Many herald their interactivity as a brave new art form, but game makers and fans know that games are more than just their mechanics. This article examines several points of view on games as art, not discussing whether they are, but rather how they are. It also digs deeper to explore how elements of games—artwork, sound, music, and so forth—can themselves be artworks. …
Read MoreWith the rise in popularity of video games and gamification, it is more necessary than ever to establish how play creates meaning and shapes persuasive and expressive thought. This paper utilizes games studies theory and visual rhetoric to develop a ludic literacy which allows for a greater understanding of how play engages limits and conditions to create a specific message. …
Read MoreWalking simulator video games are a comparatively new genre comprising those games that offer little to no ludic interactivity and agency to their players other than moving through virtual spaces to discover fragments of narratives that may or may not form a coherent story. To understand this genre better, this study focuses on its emergence, relation to the medium in general, and possible engagement appeal for its players. …
Read MoreArcade Operator (Test Rom Edition) is an experimental art game where the player takes on the role of a video game Arcade Operator. Instead of playing the coin-ops present in the diegetic space of the onscreen arcade, the player must interface with the game cabinets as both operator and technician. …
Read MoreThis article explores complicity as a tool for narrative expression in digital games. Complicity is defined as the moment in which the player is required to do something they find morally or ethically repugnant in order to continue playing the game. Direct and indirect forms of complicity exist in multiple digital games, but two recent titles, INSIDE and The Swapper, use complicity to explore player/character identity in structurally and mechanically complex ways. …
Read MoreThis essay explores theoretical approaches to my recent video game art installation Super Metroid: Nightmare Edition, exhibited at the Visual Arts Exchange in Raleigh, NC. The installation permits patrons to interfere with a player’s experience of Super Metroid (Nintendo, 1994) by touching sculptural objects and disrupting technical attributes, such as game speed and sprite layers. …
Read MoreVideo games, past and present, simulate freedom like a hall of mirrors simulates infinity. Reaching beyond the mirror, while perhaps an empowering gesture of player-agency, breaks the illusion, shattering the developer’s intentions. …
Read MoreThe Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is home to The Experience, a museum exhibiting the history of media in the Netherlands. For ten months in 2016 and 2017, The Experience hosted a temporary exhibition entitled Let’s YouTube. During the Let’s YouTube game month, we programmed a ten-day exhibition with a focus on video games as Dutch cultural heritage. …
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