T w e n t y S i d e d

The following job listing was forwarded to me by a friend. It’s… amazing:

The ending should read “If you are a dozen people, please apply today!” Imagine if someone put up a job listing for a “bricklayer” that required designing homes, electrical wiring, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, operation of earth-moving equipment, insulation, overseeing personnel, and experience as a realtor. Now, I’ve worked in some very small-company situations, and I’m all for hiring people who can wear a lot of hats. I’m certainly one of those people. But this is preposterous. This is basically “everything”. I imagine the guy who gets hired will be put in a room with a computer and told, “Make a game and get it published. Let me know when you’re done and I’ll have another assignment for you.”

The only people with these abilities are one and two person studios like 2D Boy. And finding someone who can do all of that, for all platforms? And multiple shipped titles?

I love “develop workflow schematics”. Yeah. You don’t need to document the workflow process if you’re the only one involved it it. A bachelor doesn’t write down the menu each day before he makes himself breakfast.

Also good is “Effectively receive and give constructive criticism”. At the same time! To yourself!

“Develop schedules and manage teams to them to ensure product goals are met” – Teams which will be run by and comprised entirely of… you!

“PC, Xbox, PS3, Wii” – Has there ever been a single title that shipped on all of these platforms? I can’t think of any. [EDIT: According to the comments below, yes there are! I just haven’t played any of them yet. While not common, this does happen. Of course, we’re talking about games from immense development houses, who we assume wouldn’t go around trying to hire the one-man-band of game development.]

Whew. Crazy.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

In reading the review of The Path over at Playing with Pat, the author talks about the search for “artistic” games. If you’re trying to defend the notion of games as art (always a surefire flamewar in a can) then you should be able to point at a game and say, “This one”. I know we’ve been over the subject before on this site, but this is a topic that bears revisiting.

I’d actually take the position that just about all games are art, it’s just that 99% of them are “low” art. Nothing wrong with that. So what if the medium has churned out a lot of Walt Disney without producing many Mona Lisas? It’s given us a lot of Lethal Weapons without Citizen Kane. A lot of Three’s Company and not much MASH. The fact that something sucks does not disqualify it as art. Otherwise, it would be impossible to make bad art.

But a couple of “artistic” or “evocative” games can help bolster your argument if you’re in the mood to debate a “games aren’t art” type of person. So, which games would you show to someone to make the case that games are art? My own list would be made up of games that did more than just entertain. They told stories that interested me and continued to provoke thought and curiosity long after I’d stopped playing.

In no particular order:

1) Silent Hill 2 – Just read the linked article. It’s a very interesting study of a man who has been broken very badly in some very subtle ways.
2) Jade Empire – Surprising, beautiful, witty, and well-characterized.
3) Morrowind – This one is a bit odd because most of the game is just an endless series of variations on the “kill ten rats” idea, but the main quest and the villain are pretty interesting.
4) Planescape Torment – I guess this is the gold standard of RPG stoies for a lot of people. I’m not quite in the “PST is the best story game, ever” camp, and the game didn’t completely blow my mind the way it did for some. But the significance of the title is undeniable. It’s deep, rich, diverse, and full of interesting ideas. I’d play this through ten times before I even thought of looking at Neverwinter Nights 2 again. It also makes a pretty good case for hand-painted backgrounds over polygons. Alas that we won’t see another one like this anytime soon.

I wouldn’t suggest the Path, because while the Path is clearly art, its status as a game is kind of debatable. Enough so that I wouldn’t use it as an example when trying to explain the importance of mainstream games to the skeptical. No matter how you classify it, it’s fringe and experimental.

So, what games would you show to someone to make the case for games as art?

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.