Game making inspired by formalism in art.

• Main Author: Tan, Justin Jianyang.
• Other Authors: Kenneth Feinstein
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music::Media
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44544
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report shall discuss the rationale behind and the development process of Chronometry Garden, a game built for my Final Year Project. It begins with the limitations of already existing game making approaches, followed by the proposal of a different perspective, one inspired by formalism in art. This is the starting point for an exploration done through an actual game developed along these guidelines. The game was built within two design limitations. First, each player may be assigned only one key for control input. Second, the game's semantic identity must be abstract – it cannot rely on narratives or representational art to convey meaning. These restrictions are part of a personal study to better understand the nature of games by reducing the emphasis on physical interaction as a determinant of game form and by freeing the work from the sort of discourse that may be derived from a game’s fiction (such as violence, hypersexuality, symbolic interpretation).