From 8bit to Futuristic: A Journey Through Video Game Animation
There are many exciting technological advances being achieved across multiple industries. One of those is that of the world of video games. Video games have an early history dating back to 1972 with the use of vacuum tubes and heavy television units that used lead glass. Those who are involved with video games remember the grandfather consoles that were introduced into the consumer household. You have the early consoles of the late 70s early 80s that included companies such as Intellivison, ColecoVision, Atari and the Commodore 64. Unfortunately, the video game market had a major downturn, which only Nintendo managed to survive and rejuvenate the industry single handedly. Video games have gained tremendous popularity since their early days, and the animation used in video games has evolved to incredible new heights. Nostalgia Comes In 8 Bits With Nintendo’s rise to power came a whole slew of household names that any gamer will recognize. During this time period game developers and animators utilized a 2D perspective with 8bit graphic display. Despite the limited technology many prolific animated characters were brought to life. With the rebirth of gaming, Mario Brothers, Castlevania, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda gained massive followings and sold a huge amount of units. We associate 8bit graphics with good memories of our very first gaming console and we (or at least I) still get a huge smile on our faces when we hold the prolific 8-button controller the NES uses. 8bit soon grew to 16bit; Nintendo released the SNES, Sega released their Genesis console and Hudson soft/NEC released the TurboGrafx 16. With each new generation of gaming consoles comes a new leap into realistic graphics and animation. Soon 2D turned into 2.5D stereoscopic
which then morphed into 3D/64-bit graphics, as seen in Super Mario World, Tekken 1 and Sonic Adventures. The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Sunglasses With upgrades come more detail and wider digital worlds to explore. During the 2D era most companies did not have the processing power available to them to create large cut scenes or cinematics. As time progressed and cut scenes became the norm in the industry, animation studios became more involved in the creative process. Even with the early 90s consoles with their limited processing and graphic capability, animation studios were still able to create extremely memorable cut scenes. With animation taking a larger pivotal role in the gaming industry, more games have been released that create a mix of interactive and cinematic. One of the best examples is an indie game called Limbo. Limbo is a 2D sidescroller puzzle solver with a monochromatic horror/noir theme. There are points in the game that morph into the cut scenes placed throughout the game, which gives it the true horror feel. In Limbo, you’re unable to move or run when a giant spider appears and it goes into the cut scene. You can only watch and feel the sinking feeling in your stomach build. With animation, the biggest goal is to create an environment that not only builds upon the interactive aspect, but also creates an enveloping atmosphere. With cinematics cleverly intertwined into the fiber of the game, animators are able to achieve just that. It’s Not A Movie; It’s A Game With everything good there must always be a bad to keep the balance. Where there is one game that creates the perfect atmosphere there are five more that are released that have quick time cinematic events that become annoying and extremely cliché in the eyes of a gamer. Because of that cliché, gamers tend to be hesitant when they see a video game employ animation as a major part of the game. The biggest gripe that comes from the gaming masses is, “It’s not a movie; it’s a video game.” While this is a true statement, if the studio designing the game is worth its weight they will be able to fine-tune the balance between cut scene and playable material. In today’s gaming world, the reinvigoration of the action RPG genre has hugely inspired other genres in the industry on how to handle that balance. Integrating game play actions via cut scenes (not so much quick time, but dialogue) is how gamers prefer to see animation integrated into game. It pulls them further into the world of the game, and it helps create the feeling of “Oh no, I hope I did the right thing.” While some games have a hard time keeping an even balance, it is those that do that retain an enormous replay value because of the overall package it provides. There is one game on the original PlayStation called Legend of Legaia that epitomizes the perfect atmosphere. It has the graphics quality of a potato, its controls were a little weak and the load times were atrocious, but the plot and the animated cinematics combine to completely immerse players in the story line and glued to the TV screen; gamers can play it over and over again.
Level Up! As gaming consoles become more media oriented and PC gaming gains more users, the question of “What’s next?” tends to be a constant topic of discussion. Animation is here to stay and now with the development of the Oculus Rift, animation studios can take their work to the next level. One thing to truly look forward to is how games will be created to be used with this new medium of interactive gaming. Rather than seeing an animation in third-person view, you could see it through the eyes of the character and truly grip what it feels like to fight a ten-story tall giant or have a trusted character pull a gun on you and attempt to kill you. Animation will continue to grow larger and larger with the introduction of virtual reality. The prospect of 4-D gaming adds a new layer of complexity that animators can provide to gaming as a whole and possibly make it to where a person cannot tell the difference between real and fake. Animation is not a hindrance to gaming, and although the clichés can bog down the opinions of gamers, you will never hear a complaint when you place a great game (old or new) in front of them and have them watch the cut scenes all the way through. In fact, they may very well watch them twice over because the animations are just that good.