The Shanghai Oil Tank Art Center, which was transformed from an air storage tank, recently ushered in the "Youtopian Game Scene", an exhibition with 19 independent game works as a series of creations, attracting the attention of many young people and becoming a high-frequency punching point for Generation Z.
This is the first time in China that high-quality games for the public have been moved into the art museum as on-site products, cultural works, and research objects. Through the dismantling and reproduction of the game creation process, the exhibition allows the public to see the side of content creation behind the scenes of the game, and also allows the public to more intuitively feel the charm of the game as the "ninth art".
Get rid of prejudices, go back to creation, and see how games can combine artistic value with cultural attributes
Yang Jing, curator of "You Tuobang Game Scene", told reporters that the 19 games selected for the exhibition are not large-scale online games, but games that are biased towards independence. They can break the existing stereotypes in terms of aesthetics, interaction design, narrative environment, emotional experience, etc. "The exhibition uses an artistic magnifying glass to focus on the most subtleties of game design and artistic practice, dissecting the games that seem to be mixed into one, opening the background of game production, and lifting the curtain of the production site such as images, programs, and scripts, so that everyone can understand how the game is refined." Leaving aside the prejudice against games, games can also be very academic, have artistic value and cultural attributes. You can see in the exhibition why the game is also called the 'ninth art'. ”
In terms of time, the exhibition retreats to the game artists and designers except for a whimsical idea in their heads, to see how they go through the steps of prototype, iteration, testing, user generation, etc., gathering sand into towers; spatially, the exhibition separates the buildings, characters, art, animation, text, narrative, levels, and subsystems in the game, and through the microscope of system theory, look at the appearance of each part in the final giant system and the tension and buffer inside the system.
Returning the game to the world of content creation is the greatest value presented in this exhibition. In this creative world, the game's gameplay mechanism and selling points have given way to the content connotation created by the game and the exploration of the information that wants to be conveyed, the game work has become the image, artwork and various props placed in front of the person, the interaction between the person entering the scene and the creation process has replaced the daily play pastime, the well-known concept of the game has been dissolved, the meaning of the medium itself has been highlighted, and the mutual understanding of the creator and the experiencer has become the core theme.
The miniature model of Jiangnan Ancient Town was moved to the hall to show the charm of traditional Chinese culture
Among a number of highly experimental and exploratory exhibition projects, the miniature landscape of Coconut Island Games' "100 Views of Jiangnan" attracted many people to stop and take photos to witness the appeal of traditional culture to Generation Z.
The miniature model landscape with a large-scale booth space, combined with the tenon structure pavilion on the exhibition line design, the audience can instantly enter the scene of Jiangnan ancient town created by "100 Views of Jiangnan". From Yingtianfu, Huizhoufu, Suzhoufu, Hangzhoufu and finally to Songjiangfu, from the Eight-Foot Arch to the Broken Bridge, from the Liulang Wenying Warbler to the Yuyuan Jiuqu Bridge to the City God Temple, the miniature landscape models are presented from the details one by one, and the audience can clearly see the system and traditional layout of the Jiangnan Ancient Town architecture during the Ming Dynasty, and can also feel the respective wonders of the Jiangnan Ancient Town, like the Grand View of Jiangnan Ancient Town.
As a representative of the on-site national style exhibition, the miniature landscape follows the highly acclaimed classical Chinese painting techniques and styles of "Jiangnan Hundred Scenic Spots", and was created by the production team to invite craftsmen to create them one by one, which took several months to finally present the popular ancient town scenery in "Jiangnan Hundred Scenic Spots".
The pavilion, which was moved into the exhibition site, consists of a mortise and mortise structure, is a public art installation created by an artist, and is also the private collection of the director of the Oil Tank Art Center. People can stop here, play with the 100 Views of Gangnam, talk about exhibitions, art and games.
It is reported that allowing the audience to quickly "enter the painting" is an important consideration in the design of the booth, and the reason why there are works such as miniature landscapes is also based on the past experience of "Jiangnan Hundred Views" in the inheritance and linkage of traditional culture. As a head of the national style game work, "Jiangnan Hundred Views" with its inheritance of classical Chinese painting techniques and styles such as "Qingming On the River Map", the reproduction of the style of Jiangnan ancient town in the Ming Dynasty, to achieve a broken circle in the young group and even the public group. In the past, the offline scene linkage and content linkage cases that were invited, such as Shanghai Yu garden, Huizhou, and the movie "Tianshu Qitan", are also mostly related to traditional culture, which has promoted the production team to have the idea of continuing to deepen, refine and thoroughly do traditional cultural themes.
In the planning, on the one hand, "Jiangnan Hundred Scenic Maps" will expand the presentation of traditional Chinese cultural features in the works by implanting more scenes, such as the newly launched Yangzhou City, on the other hand, in the external promotion, "Jiangnan Hundred Scenic Spots" always adheres to the dissemination of Chinese culture as the primary element, so that the charm of traditional culture becomes the audience's first perception point. For example, since the beginning of the game's launch, it has been making videos that promote traditional festival customs.
In the view of the production team, every creative dimension and detail of "Jiangnan Hundred Views" is an amplification of traditional Chinese culture, which also determines that in the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, "Jiangnan Hundred Views" does not need to do deliberate marketing and linkage, and doing a good job is the best inheritance.
At present, the promotion of "Jiangnan Hundred Views" for global audiences is in an orderly manner, and for Coconut Island Games, based on Shanghai, it will be a long-term goal to promote "Jiangnan Hundred Views" in the world and become the main medium for the dissemination of traditional Chinese painting elements and Jiangnan culture.
Chen Wen, COO of Coconut Island Games, said that in addition to commercial value, games as a popular medium for young people and as an important form of artistic creation should also be faced squarely, and in addition to presenting mainstream culture or niche culture, a series of examples have also proved that games can play a positive leading role in telling Chinese stories and inheriting and exporting traditional culture to the world. "We have proved the charm of traditional Chinese culture through "100 Scenic Pictures of Jiangnan", and we will also dig more good content creation themes in the future to show the charm of Chinese stories to the world."
There are a lot of chic games in the exhibition that impress people.
For example, "Tide", which is also in the Chinese style, invites players to explore nearly 100 levels by hitting lanterns in the air and crossing obstacles such as gears and cliffs. The art style that integrates oriental style architecture and the sad and beautiful plot story all present a sense of freehand beauty. At the exhibition site, "Tide" leads to a space-to-air dialogue between developers and players through character manuscripts, art reference photos, organ maps and scene material maps.
The interactive puzzle game "Tower of Moon Shadows" uses excellent art style and exquisite background music to build a strange and beautiful fairy tale world. In the exhibition, people can see a very detailed art design content and level design around the game, and there is a video to tell the whole development process.
Games that carry creativity and ingenuity explain how they have become an important part of contemporary culture with their unique charm.
Author: Fan Xin
Editor: Zhou Minxian
Editor-in-Charge: Huang Qizhe
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.