Nic Kelman’s ‘Video Game Art’

The video game art debate sparked by Roger Ebert has died down, but fortunately his uninformed comments concerning the debate have really sparked a huge interest in video game art. I was at the local bookstore yesterday and came across an interesting book titled ‘Video Game Art’. After checking out the book, I realized that perhaps people like Roger Ebert and the rest of the Hollywood scene are realizing that the video game industry is a true threat to them. Regardless of what some people may say, video games are becoming a true cultural force. The changes we will see in the next few years should be interesting. Whenever something becomes too mainstream, it will lose some of it’s edge. I am hoping that with video games, we will not see too much of that. If you are interested in video games and art, this book is something you really need to pick up. It was originally published in 2006, but definitely ahead of it’s time and still applicable today.

VIDEO GAME ART
by Nic Kelman

By 2008 most analysts predict that the video game industry will be larger than the film and music industries combined. Games today already command Hollywood budgets and teams of dozens of artists, writers, musicians, and designers…and yet almost nothing has been written about their art and design from a non-technical viewpoint. Video Game Art is a first look from an art history and post-modern cultural perspective at the influences behind, and achievements of today’s genre-defining video games. Examining themes such as character, environment, and the growing place of video games among more traditional art forms, and including commentary from luminaries of the field and often unpublished behind-the-scene art of both past and upcoming games, Video Game Art is a pioneering foray into what promises to be the dominant art form of the coming century.

Published in over 20 countries, Nic Kelman’s first novel Girls was a highly acclaimed international bestseller in 2004. His writing and photography have appeared, among other places, in The Village Voice, Black Book, Glamour, as well as various anthologies including Gamers: Writers and Artists on Video Games. He lives in New York where he also occasionally works as a creative consultant in branded game development.

Henry Jenkins is the director of the Comparative Media Studies department at MIT. He is the author of numerous books on cinema, computer games and the media.

2843237297
VIDEO GAME ART
300 pages, 250 bw and color photographs