Image via Complex Original
There are a lot of talented artists working in the video game industry and another good many outside the business working on fantastic projects inspired by video games. Various painters, musicians, authors, and abstract artists have been creating fantastic works that use video games as inspiration, creating something new and beautiful that connects with our inner kid and often tickles our nostalgia bone.
With so many awesome projects on the move right now, it would have been impossible to feature all the best ones, but this is our personal compilation of some projects worth checking out if you've got an interest in seeing your favorite games interpreted through an artistic lens.
Thorildsplan Train Station
Thorildsplan Train Station
Creator: Lars Arrhenius
Link: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorildsplans_tunnelbanestation
Stockholm's subway system (Tunnelbana) has often been refered to as the world's longest art exhibition with each station featuring unique art from local artists since the 1950's. Back in 2008 the Thorildsplan station recieved a sweeping makeover that took a lot of inspiration from video games. Using colored tiles to recreate familiar pixelart characters, walking through the station feels like walking through an 8-bit dreamland.
Stockholm has had a long history of celebrating video games in the past and with the recent success of locally brewed Minecraft, you can probably expect another revamp in coming years inspired by the nation's most popular development.
Portraits of People Playing Video Games
Portraits of People Playing Video Games
Creator: Phillip Toledano
Link: http://www.mrtoledano.com/gamers
Stock photo models have a history of making video games look as cheesily fun as possible, but for those of us who play, we know the reality of the matter. With contortet expressions, clenched teeth, and blink-deprived eyes, the faces we make while playing games aren't always the prettiest.
That's why photographer Phillip Toledano decided to create a series of portraits of people actually playing video games and put them on display. The authenticity of the anguish, wonder, surprise, and frustration perfectly encapsulate why we all love playing as much as we do.
Green Invaders
Green Invaders
Creator: Yves Caizergues
Link: http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/project.html?project_id=1168
Designed for Toronto's annual all-night art festival, Nuit Blanche, Green Invaders is a fresh tribute to the classic arcade game from which its name originates. Using a series of strategically layered flourescant greet lights, the Space Invader-esque creatures flicker in familiar patterns that recall feelings of nostalgia for anyone who played the game as a kid.
The project quickly became a fan favorite of the evening, but tragically - and as with all Nuit Blanche exhibits - it was torn down the next day, never to be seen again. Thankfully though, folks have posted plenty of videos highlighting the project. Just try and imagine how great it'd look all sleep-deprived and a little drunk.
Street Fight! Round One
Street Fight! Round One
Creator: Man Factory
Link: http://manfactory.bandcamp.com/
Based out of Fort Worth, Texas, the band Man Factory, previously known for its general alt. rock music decided to pay homage to their favorite game by recording an entire album based on the alternate storyline they made up to explain Street Fighter II. Part rock opera, part fan service, the seven track album was released for free online to so much fanfare that a few years later they revisited the theme and released Street Fight!! Round Two with an additional seven songs highlighting the back-stories of SFII favorites.
Their live shows consist of a lot of costume changes, but they're always at Blanka-level high voltage. For a sample of what their playstyle is like, check out their music video for Balrog 24/7 or just go grab the album (it's pay-what-you-want for the digital version).
Pac-Manhattan
Pac-Manhattan
Creator: Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
Link: http://pacmanhattan.com/
Using open-source software, cellphones, and a mess of different wireless interenet tech, the students at Tisch School of the Arts made a real-life version of Pac-Man that was playable on the streets of Manhattan. With four players acting as ghosts and one as the pill-chomping champ himself, a group of off-site controller players would keep the players informed of each others' location via cell phone by tracking their location through custom software.
Pac-Man's goal was to flee as long as possible, but he had an edge thanks to his controller's bird's eye view of the whole game, including the coordinates of the ghost players. It kind of worked like a massive IRL version of Nintendo Land's minigame, Mario Chase.
EXP. Book 1
EXP. Book 1
Creator: Cory Schmitz
Link: http://cargocollective.com/coryschmitz/EXP-Video-Game-Art-Culture
It's rare to see something as fresh and invigorating as the video game art and culture book, EXP. when most print publications are either vying for more advertising revenue by pandering to as wide of an audience as possible, or are simply not existing at all anymore. Applying his unique sense of design to several video game illustrations inside the book, it's the ultimate collection of high-brow fan art that highlights the themes of each of its games through brilliant minimalism.
Since working on the book, Cory has gone on to work for a variety on a variety of other projects with some awesome partners including Indie Game: The Movie, Anamanaguchi, and the Indie MEGA Booth.
Portal: No Escape
Portal: No Escape
Creator: Dan Trachtenberg
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk
High quality short films based on various video games are nothing new to the internet, but Portal: No Escape is particularly special because of its powerful cinematography and clever blend of action and special-effects in the latter half. Despite being a dialog-free film, it's so easy to understand the mental torment of our heroine and the rush of liberation that comes when she frees herself from Aperture Science' cold grip.
We're not the only ones with an appreciation for the flick either as director Dan Trachtenberg has recently been tapped to direct the film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man. Given the tone of Portal: No Escape, it's pretty easy to imagine him handling the grim source material of the comic adaptation well.
Pokemon from Memory
Pokémon From Memory
Creator: Laura Bifano
Link: http://pokemonfromemory.tumblr.com/
Laura Bifano hasn't played a Pokémon game since she was 12 years old, but she remembers it fondly... sort of... Her project, Pokémon From Memory has her drawing portraits of various fan-requested pocket monsters exclusively using a basic description of the creature and her own memory to give shape to her art.
The illustrations are sometimes accurate, sometimes not, dometimes adorable, and sometimes down-right disturbing. It just goes to show that a lot of the time when we're kids, our imaginations can do a lot of the heavy lifting and a great many things warp in memory over time.
Super Street Fire
Super Street Fire
Creator: Seth Hardy and Site 3 coLaboratory
Link: http://site3firearts.ca/super-street-fire
The easiest way to explain Super Street Fire is to say it is a massive art installation that takes the basics of a classic Ken vs Ryu Street Fighter match and ups the ante by adding real-people and a whole mess of projectile flames. Shown off at last year's Burning Man celebration, the game uses a series of gas-powered fire fountains and some motion-sensing gloves to make it look like each player is literally throwing fireballs at each other.
It's a beautiful mix of all the nerdy gameness, a little high-technology, and the absolute insanity one expects to find at a festival like Burning Man. Unfortunately the nature of the project makes it near impossible to bring to more people, but for those who did get the experience, it was brilliant.
Lunar Trails
Lunar Trails
Creator: Seb Lee-Delisle and the Dublin Science Gallery
Link: http://seb.ly/work/lunar-trails/
For the Dublin Science Gallery's unique GAME exhibition, Seb Lee-Delisle was comissioned to create an interactive art installation based off the classic arcade game, Lunar Lander. As guests approach the game and play the surprisingly difficult spacecraft-landing game, a remote machine tracks their movements in-game and draws their ships' paths on a black board behind the machine.
The intent was to show the brilliance of the game's physics and possibly also how despite having complete free will regarding how and where players could go, many of them chose similar paths. You can take a look at the charts progress from when the gallery opened to when it had hundreds of lines all over it in their video over here.