SHP Forums

dotkel50 wrote:http://www.mobygames.com/game/psychonauts

Ah. Cover looks familiar. But not sure how a game that came out for XBOX and PS2 (and PC) - could be the whole reason for the "she-bang" of it all happening? There were many other games out that had a larger impact? So - could you explain more Datadog?

And side note - never saw "Scott Pilgrim" either because... Well, it didn't look entertaining. Looked like a galactic "Joe's Apartment" or whatever that movie was!

(I am sure at this point Datadog is going to send in the same team that killed Osama to take me out!)

Never saw Scott... JOE'S APARTMENT? *eye twitches*

Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in... breathe out... out of sight. Out of mind.

In regards to Psychonauts, it's a fun game on it's own, but the art design is exclusive to the game's experience. Because many levels inside the game take place in the human mind, the art team had to make caricatures of characters' personal emotions, feelings, and fears and turn them into tangible worlds where the art design is essential in understanding the story. Of course, I could really write for hours about why else I think the game is art, but I'll spare you the blocks of text piling up in my head.

Googling around, I find there's quite a few people also as miffed as me. But there's an old Cracked article where Michael Swaim put it best:

Michael Swaim wrote: Raz' descent into the world of thought is nothing short of an attempt to suss out the true inner workings of the human mind. As levels shift and flow, illusory as dream, we are faced with the manifold physical manifestations of the metaphysical: the body of self-loathing, the shape of fear, the dark recesses of denial and repressed emotion. We emerge sobered, and ready to explore our own minds with an equal amount of depth and rigor.

So, yeah - much like "Scott Pilgrim," this is one of those things where the people who love it will probably fight to the death to defend it's status as art with a near-dangerous and stubbornly passionate obsession.

What's Joe's apartment?

One of the things I posted about to the curator is that so many franchises have multiple nominees, like Panzer Dragoon (I never heard of that) and Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda and Mario, two Pitfall games, Phantasy Starr... and so many games that are definitely important weren't even nominated at all because they preferred 3 Playstation categories over one Amiga or pre-1995 DOS. I mean, leaving out the original Prince of Persia is about the worst. Or Tetris. Or Lemmings. And now you can see the problem. Lots of Super Mario. What makes it even worse for me is they picked it as one of the five playable games. It's not a serious exhibition, it's a Mario convention.

Glancing on the list I see a number of things I voted for, like Brutal Legend, Attack of the Mutant Camels (Never heard of it but I was laughing my ass off when I read that title), Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Space Invaders. But I'm sad Grim Fandango didn't make it. If there's one nominee that deserves museal exposure, i's GF.

And about Joe's Apartment: isn't that the Frank Oz movie with talking cockroaches? Best thing about that was the Primus poster on the wall.

Had this in my inbox.

The Art of Video Games exhibition (opening March 16, 2012) will explore how game designers combine visual effects with narrative, audio, and player interaction to create immersive and meaningful experiences.


To celebrate this ground-breaking exhibition, we are looking for photographs that show how video games can inspire creativity! These might include images of video-game-inspired drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, clothing, events, graphics, food, wallpaper... anything, really! We're particularly interested in seeing creative and crazy costumes inspired by your favorite game characters.



We've created a Flickr group to collect all of these images, which we're hoping will continue to grow through the run of the exhibition and beyond. Please add your photographs to this group and help us spread the word!

I'm sending in a picture of my home-knit Boogle.

BBP wrote:Had this in my inbox.

The Art of Video Games exhibition (opening March 16, 2012) will explore how game designers combine visual effects with narrative, audio, and player interaction to create immersive and meaningful experiences.


To celebrate this ground-breaking exhibition, we are looking for photographs that show how video games can inspire creativity! These might include images of video-game-inspired drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, clothing, events, graphics, food, wallpaper... anything, really! We're particularly interested in seeing creative and crazy costumes inspired by your favorite game characters.



We've created a Flickr group to collect all of these images, which we're hoping will continue to grow through the run of the exhibition and beyond. Please add your photographs to this group and help us spread the word!

I'm sending in a picture of my home-knit Boogle.

Oh! Cool! Post the link after you post it on Flickr! Would love to see it!