Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 2/18/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Sawyer Sutton Game designer Jason Rohrer discusses how his work is like an art. Unlike most games, Rohrer's work forces players to reflect on themselves.

Thousands of games lay on the shelves of rental stores, but when local game designer Jason Rohrer looks at them, he sees a montage of the same thing: games designed around the glitter and glamor of three dimensions. His work is about making game design into an art.

At the presentation sponsored by Interactive Digital Entertainment and Art (IDEA) and the Digital Arts and Sciences department, he discussed how, instead of moving towards the dimension of media now monopolized by movies, the game industry should be moving away from it, while monopolizing on the innate abilities that games possess.

His first slide held the words, "From Jason's observations from the front lines of the 'games as art debate,' he will inspire game developers, artists and players alike to change their perceptions of games as a capable art form." The three year game developer, who's been a Potsdam resident for four years, has received several awards for his second game entitled Cultivation. He has had one of his games called one of the most emotional games that one of the creators of God of War has ever played.

Rohrer was a computer science major who always knew he was interested in game design. His primary interest has been making art out of games and exploring the aspects of humanity, which he believes will make games an art form. He draws his comparisons from film. By displaying text on film and slide show on film versions of the movie Lost Highway by David Lynth, Rohrer showed how the emotion created by a scene in a movie was absent when a filmmaker did not use all of the available tools, such as camera angle, sound, motion, costumes and set design. He drew the same conclusion about games, but also threw in the major difference, in his opinion, between a movie and a game: the human interaction. The game mechanics, which govern how the player plays the game should be instrumental in conveying the message of the game, instead of being simply slapped on top.

Rohrer also drew a correlation between film genres and game genres. Currently, films are categorized into genres describing how they are supposed to make the viewer feel, with horror, romance, comedy, and action being some of the examples. Instead, games are categorized by the game mechanics associated with them. First- person shooters, adventure, logic, and fighting all describe the set-up of the game, not how it's supposed to make you feel.

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