That video games are one of the freest creative activities today (perhaps the freest of all) can be argued from the narrative side, the interactive side, or the sensory side.
Of course also from the aesthetic part.
Tomorrow Pentiment is released, a narrative role-playing game based on 16th-century Bavaria. The work puts us in the shoes of an artist of the time who must investigate a murder of which a friend of his is accused. The context puts us in a very interesting time: the transition between the era of hand-made codices and the era of the printing press. And the artistic style that interests us today is a unique creation that draws on engravings of the time, medieval manuscripts and woodcuts.
“When Josh Sawyer – the director – came up with the idea of making Pentiment a 2D narrative adventure game, it was natural for the game’s visual style to evolve, inspired by the illustrations in the books of the time,” explains Hannah Kennedy, the artistic director of the game and from whose hands the unmistakable look of the work comes. “We didn’t feel compelled to replicate the style exactly, but given that the game’s story is fairly faithful to the historical context and setting, it made sense that the art would do the same,” he analyses.
From the purely artistic training, Kennedy’s integration into Pentiment crystallized into an idea that is becoming more and more concrete in the industry: that the video game functions as a kind of Noah’s Ark of the arts. In other words, all kinds of artistic works can end up working together in an interactive work. “While we often have people who have ended up in technical departments with a background in engineering and programming, and people in creative departments with a background in classical arts, I’ve also met a lot of game artists who have completely unique artistic backgrounds.” “And it really helps to have that specialized background from industries outside of gaming, because the world of gaming can be anything. So the more references we can have in areas other than game development, the better.” And with this phrase, Kennedy provides perhaps one of the keys to the creative effervescence experienced by the medium.
A moment of pentiment.
The team spent a great deal of time studying the art of the period, reviewing other forms of narrative media to unravel how they represent similar narrative themes, particularly animation and film. “Because we chose a third-person 2D art format, we have control over framing and perspective similar to that of film,” notes Kennedy. The free camera application in video games allowed the player to take charge of the recording, which is no small feat in an audiovisual device. But games like Pentiment, with their still images, allow the artist behind the game to dig into what they want to tell, exactly how they want to tell it.
The documentation process was crucial, concludes Kennedy, who also highlights the use of the different fonts associated with each character’s dialogue: “We spent a lot of time searching the archives of online libraries for various printed and illuminated books of the time. ” he says. . “On a pre-pandemic trip, we were able to visit the Getty Museum together to see a personal display of illuminated bestiaries.” And these sources influenced not only how scenes were drawn and textured, but also the color palettes and textures used throughout. throughout the game. Music, mechanics, interactive experience and… pure classical art. Quite simply, in this second half of the year, few interactive works exemplify the idea of video gaming as a unique artistic experience as well as Pentiment.
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