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计算机游戏设计的艺术(克里斯·克劳福德)The Art of Computer Game Design (Chris Crawf...
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本书是认真从事电子游戏的先驱之一。 这与游戏设计和架构背后的基本技能有关。
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The Art of Computer Game Design
by Chris Crawford
Preface to the Electronic Version: This text was originally composed by computer game designer Chris
Crawford in 1982. When searching for literature on the nature of gaming and its relationship to narrative
in 1997, Prof. Sue Peabody learned of The Art of Computer Game Design, which was then long out of
print. Prof. Peabody requested Mr. Crawford's permission to publish an electronic version of the text on
the World Wide Web so that it would be available to her students and to others interested in game design.
Washington State University Vancouver generously made resources available to hire graphic artist
Donna Loper to produce this electronic version. WSUV currently houses and maintains the site.
Correspondance regarding this site should be addressed to Prof. Sue Peabody, Department of History,
Washington State University Vancouver, peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu.
If you are interested in more recent writings by Chris Crawford, see the "Reflections" interview at the
end of The Art of Computer Game Design. Also, visit Chris Crawford's webpage, Erasmatazz.
An acrobat version of this text is mirrored at this site: Acrobat
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement■
Preface■
Chapter 1 - What is a Game?■
Chapter 2 - Why Do People Play Games?■
Chapter 3 - A Taxonomy of Computer Games■
Chapter 4 - The Computer as a Game Technology■
Chapter 5 - The Game Design Sequence■
Chapter 6 - Design Techniques and Ideals■
Chapter 7 - The Future of Computer Games■
Chapter 8 - Development of Excalibur■
Reflections - Interview with Chris■
WSUV Home Page | Prof. Peabody's Home Page
Copyright © 1997 Washington State University. All rights reserved. REV.7.17.97
Comments and questions: peabody@ vancouver.wsu.edu
The Art of Computer Game Design
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am deeply indebted to Madeleine M. Gross for her painstaking and thorough criticisms of this
book. In many cases she invested greater efforts into her criticisms than I had put into my original
thoughts. She strove to restrain my wild hyperbole and place my arguments on a firmer foundation
of rigorous logic. The logical consistency and reliability in this book I owe to her; the speculative
flights of fancy must be laid at my doorstep.
Top
PREFACE
The central premise of this book is that computer games constitute a new and as yet poorly
developed art form that holds great promise for both designers and players.
This premise may seem laughable or flippant. How could anybody classify the likes of SPACE
INVADERS and PAC MAN as art? How can TEMPEST or MISSILE COMMAND compare with
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Michelangelo’s Pieta, or Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms?
Computer games are too trivial, too frivolous to be called art. They are idle recreation at best. So
says the skeptic.
But we cannot relegate computer games to the cesspit of pop culture solely on the evidence of the
current crop of games. The industry is too young and the situation is too dynamic for us to dismiss
computer games so easily. We must consider the potential, not the actuality. We must address the
fundamental aspects of computer games to achieve a conclusion that will withstand the ravages of
time and change.
There are many definitions of art, few of which make much sense
to the uninitiated. I will present my own pedestrian definition: art
is something designed to evoke emotion through fantasy. The
artist presents his audience with a set of sensory experiences that
stimulates commonly shared fantasies, and so generates emotions.
Art is made possible only by the richness of the fantasy world we
share. Art is nevertheless difficult, because there are so many
practical problems associated with stimulating fantasies deep inside another person’s mind. A
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major problem is getting the attention or participation of the audience. Most art allows very little
participation. You sit quietly and listen to music that other people created and perform, or you
stroll through a museum and stare at pictures or statues other people made. You sit passively and
read a novel, or a poem, or a short story. With all of these art forms, the role of the audience is
passive. The artist does all the active work, makes the biggest emotional investment. The audience
is expected to absorb quietly the fruits of the artist’s exertions. Active participation is severely
curtailed. Without participation, attention dwindles and impact crumbles away.
This is in no wise a criticism of art or artists. The technologies of art preclude participation. If we
had every klutz jump into the orchestra pit, or prance on the opera stage, or slop paint with
Picasso, we would have some great parties but no art. it seems the curse of art that artists can say
so much in their work and most people will hear so little because they cannot participate in the art.
Enter the computer. Conceived long ago, born in war, reared as the servant of business, this now
adolescent technology has exploded out of the computer room and invaded shopping centers, pizza
parlors, and homes. Popular characterizations of the computer alternate between the old image of
the computer as omniscient, cold blooded, giant calculator, and the new image of the computer as
purveyor of video thrills and 25 cent fixes. Originally developed as a number cruncher, the
computer assumed a new personality when it was given graphics and sound capabilities. These
capabilities gave the computer a powerful asset: it could now communicate with the human, not
just in the cold and distant language of digits, but in the emotionally immediate and compelling
language of images and sounds. With this capability came a new, previously undreamed of
possibility: the possibility of using the computer as a medium for emotional communication art.
The computer game has emerged as the prime vehicle for this medium. The computer game is an
art form because it presents its audience with fantasy experiences that stimulate emotion.
Unfortunately, the current generation of microcomputers cannot produce a sensory experience as
rich as that produced by, say, a symphony orchestra or a movie. This weakness is more than offset
by a fundamental advantage lacking in most other art forms: a game is intrinsically participatory in
nature. The artist has here a tool that is more subtly indirect than traditional art. With other art
forms, the artist directly creates the experience that the audience will encounter. Since this
experience is carefully planned and executed, the audience must somehow be prevented from
disturbing it; hence, non participation. With a game, the artist creates not the experience itself but
the conditions and rules under which the audience will create its own individualized experience.
The demand on the artist is greater, for s/he must plan the experience indirectly, taking into
account the probable and possible actions and reactions of the audience. The return is far greater,
for participation increases attention and heightens the intensity of the experience. When we
passively observe someone else’s artistic presentation, we derive some emotional benefit, but
when we actively participate in a game, we invest a portion of our own ego into the fantasy world
of the game. This more sizable investment of participation yields a commensurately greater return
of emotional satisfaction. Indeed, the role of participation is so important that many people derive
greater satisfaction from participating in an amateur artistic effort than from observing a
professional effort. Hence, games, being intrinsically participatory, present the artist with a
fantastic opportunity for reaching people.
Until now, games in general and computer games in particular have not been very impressive as
art forms. The computer games especially are downright puerile. This is because the technology of
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computer games has been in the hands of technologists, not artists. These guys (and they are
almost all male) can write beautiful operating systems, languages, linking loaders, and other
technological wonders, but artistic flair has heretofore been treated as subordinate to technical
prowess.
Another contributor to the fecklessness of our current computer games is the timidity of the
marketplace. These machines are new; the public is unfamiliar with them and the manufacturers
are hesitant to press the public too hard too fast. We therefore opt to build inhibited little games
pathetically whispering some trivial emotion. Truly intense emotions or situations such as pathos,
ecstasy, majesty, rapture, catharsis, or tragedy intimidate use. We hide behind the defense that we
are in the entertainment business, not the art business, but that defense only betrays a profound
misunderstanding of art. Art can be starchily elitist, but good art can also be a foot stomping blast.
Elitism arises from the intellectual content of art; impact springs from its emotional honesty.
Fortunately, times are changing. Already, we see a backlash developing against computer games.
It expresses itself in many ways: in ordinances against the placement of arcade games in some
areas, in statements by educators denouncing the games, and in more vigilant regulation of
children’s game activities by parents. This backlash is viewed by smaller minded members of the
industry with anxiety. More visionary thinkers watch the backlash with eager interest rather than
defensiveness. The American people are telling us something here, something very important. It is
imporant enough to them that they are willing to compromise their traditional reluctance to
interfere with other people’s business. While the arguments presented in public debates normally
focus on formal issues such as delinquency from school, creation of large groups of rowdy
teenagers, and so forth, the concerns expressed privately reflect a distaste for the games, a vague
suspicion that the games are a waste of time. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time; they
are beginning to realize that the world of computer games is as yet a vast wasteland.
Computer games are much like candy, comic books, and cartoons. All four activities provide
intense or exaggerated experiences. Whether they use sugar, exclamation points, or animated
explosions, the goal is the same: to provide extreme experiences. Children appreciate these
activities because their novelty value is still strong. Adults, jaded by years of experience with such
things, prefer diversions with greater subtlety and depth. We thus have the panoply of culinary
achievement, the vast array of literature, and the universe of movies as the adult counterparts to
candy, comic books, and cartoons. Yet, we have no adult counterpart to computer games. This
deficit is pregnant with possibilities, for it suggests a momentous upheaval in computer game
design.
This developing revolution has nothing to do with the rapid technological developments of the last
few years. While technological improvements will surely continue, we are no longer hampered
primarily by the limitations of the hardware. Our primary problem is that we have little theory on
which to base our efforts. We don’t really know what a game is, or why people play games, or
what makes a game great. Real art through computer games is achievable, but it will never be
achieved so long as we have no path to understanding. We need to establish our principles of
aesthetics, a framework for criticism, and a model for development. New and better hardware will
improve our games, but it will not guarantee our artistic success any more than the development of
orchestras guaranteed the appearance of Beethoven. We are a long way from a computer game
comparable to a Shakespeare play, a Tchaikowsky symphony, or a Van Gogh self portrait. Each of
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these artists stood on the shoulders of earlier artists who plunged into an unexplored world and
mapped out its territories so that later artists could build on their work and achieve greater things.
We computer game designers must put our shoulders together so that our successors may stand on
top of them. This book is my contribution to that enterprise.
Top
Top | Table of Contents | Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
WSUV Home Page | Prof. Peabody's Home Page
Copyright © 1996-7 Washington State University. All rights reserved. REV.5.27.97
Comments and questions: peabody@ vancouver.wsu.edu
The Art of Computer Game Design
http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html (5 of 5) [7/12/2000 1:34:19 PM]
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