Week 22- Game Developers Conference

Well it appears that like many others I have found myself writing this blog a bit too late and finding myself very confused about what it is I am supposed to be writing about. The Game Developers Conference has been and gone recently and an article that I came across has interested me. The article at http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6186530.html is about futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil and what he expects of the future and of what we can achieve as humans, not only as game developers.

I have found it incredible that within the course we have had the oppertunity to discuss such a range of topics that don't directly apply to just drawing and using computers, but that we have been encouraged to consider what computers will be capable of in the future. Having watched programs about "futurists" and what scientists predict that we will be capable of, I am quite honestly scared of what people want to be able to do in the future.

Kurzweil talks about using computerised blood cells to enhance our human abilities at the moment and even being able to cheat death. He beleives that the growth of computer capability is exponential and that it will continue to open new doors to us as a human race.

What does this mean morally? Do we actually want to cheat death? I remember my Grandmother saying "never grow to be old" and my Great Grandmother saying "I have lived too long". I genuinely don't want to live until Im 600 or "enhance" my body with nano technology, and I'm pretty sure it would not feel right living for such a long time.

His approach to inventing and developing ideas struck me as intreguing. He beleived that you should develop things that have the potential to do alot more in the future with the advance of technology, "develop ahead of the curve".

It seems that this idea has already been excersised with the game Crysis, which it seems cannot be run at full power on currently existing computers but has been made in a way that will push the development of greater processing power forwards. Maybe we should be looking ahead in terms of what people want to see within games, looking for emmerging trends in art and fashion to inspire the way we design.

Looking around me when I am out, I often see trends within art that echo within all other areas of visual design. At the moment the trend with graphics tends to be sillouhettes and decorative pattern, flowers and stars. This is seen on adverts and posters everywhere and has obviously become an influence within fashion aswell.

I bought The Foals album this week and the graphics work within the pages are very similar to the style of work i was looking at throughout my studies at BTEC. They include handwriting, used things, things that are left behind such as: receipts, notes, doodles. They have all been combined to make a particular asthetic style that can also be seen in many different places.

My point is that there are trends in art, and therefore there will be trends within what will sell a game based on its aesthetics. If we are to take on board what Kurzweil is saying, then we should be looking to see what is happening elsewhere in the art world.