Game Developers Need to Preach the Artform (Learn From Tarantino) | Patreon Podcast
Added 2025-02-14 05:18:44 +0000 UTCHi Everyone!
It's time for the monthly Patreon Exclusive Podcast! Today I think is an interesting discussion where I share my thoughts on the importance of game developers, especially indie devs, being more active and vocal in the game design conversation in terms of elevating and defending the more challenging artistic choices to general audiences, and not using consensus as a metric of quality (as so many people do, consciously or not) and instead just use general feedback as an opportunity to try to clarify communication of core design values, rather than abandoning them. I was especially inspired by this topic in seeing how Tarantino has been so effective at this over all these years, and why he now stands as a massive outlier in his ability to be an auteur artist that connects with a general audience.
I also heavily caution against social media, like Twitter (and even discord to a lesser degree), being the place for devs to seek validation, as general consensus is not what fosters great artistic movements, like the arcade scene in Japan, and instead real artistic movements tend to be very isolated from outside influences and build upon themselves internally among likeminded creatives collaborating on a shared vision -- which social media is pretty much designed to destroy.
Comments
This was a great podcast, I was impressed with the depth and clarity of your ideas. I like the concept of fostering and valuing passionate artists who are willing to defend and clarify their vision to people who may not get it. About discord servers, I almost feel like I’m the enemy/bad guy in the room in the discourse. I frequently find I go into discords and quickly get isolated and ostracized just for not having a desire to just conform to the ideas of the group, because innately and idealistically believe all discussion groups just value the importance of the free exchange of ideas. There’s always that 1-3 people who end up smearing me to the group and twisting what I say to make me seem a lot more vindictive and malicious than I am and suddenly I’m the guy who’s ruining the vibe of the group when I didn’t really do anything except defend myself as I feel I should. Perhaps I am the bad guy who “doesn’t get it”. Or perhaps I’m deep down an artist who has yet to find their niche. I guess that’s up to interpretation. To me, it’s always infinitely more important to be able to think freely than conform to the group. I notice with such groups too you can quickly be labeled as the “bad takes” guy for saying a single thing that was very unpopular, and you are forever marked with that stamp, even if you say 1,000 things they are fully in agreement with
Musashi
2025-06-02 17:04:03 +0000 UTCHi my dude want an interesting post! I'm sorry for the delay in my reply have just been a bit behind on catching up on patreon comments (have been deep in the Demon's Souls grind for the past two weeks ha). The parallel you draw between politics and art is super interesting and I know a really popular comparison. And of course historically there are tons clashing between artists and politics (banned books and so forth). Today an interesting clash that I think is most threatening to artists isn't a topic that is traditionally seen as that political, but the power of copyright law which youtubers especially are fully at the mercy of. Also it's copyright law that is really threatening video game preservation. The origins of a lot of political movements, both good and bad ha (which i know is subjective) actually have a ton of parallels with artistic movements in the beginning phases. Where there is a lot of open discussion and the crafting of theory and ideas. However, the big difference between the two is that political movements are aimed at shaping and changing the external world and society, whereas art is more of an effort to communicate some sort of vague sense of the universal human condition ha. So even though the two have similar origin points, their journeys are really different. Politics begins with universal ideas and then are supposed to be shifted and adapted to specific circumstances. Whereas art begins in specific circumstances but then grows and matures into a universal expression. And art that is crafted to specifically create external changes to the world is propaganda, in one form or another. Granted this is coming from an American where I live with a lot of freedom that isn't as available in other parts of the world which I can fully appreciate. So, if I were translated into a different external circumstance myself, I'm sure I'd probably have more specific outlooks on politics and stuff. As for now though I'm sort of aiming to be an artist as disconnected from the external political world as possible ha.
The Electric Underground
2025-03-15 01:54:19 +0000 UTCI don’t know if this is a relevant parallel, but being a political militant I have a different opinion on your view towards social media. I am not comparing art to politics, but I believe they both share something, and that is that you have to validate your ideas in the public, in the real world. For instance, look at the walled garden of AAA game development. Their only difference from small developers is that they can impose a consensus through sheer force, through legacy media, but the comment sections and steam reviews are all the rage. I have seen many political groups look inward for so long that they were surprised their opinions came out as unhinged or completely insane (not in the good, avant-garde sense). I understand the apprehension of using social media, and get your point on how people tend to be much more measured in the presence of a big audience. There are also many bots hahaha. But when you see people influenced by your ideas defending and expanding them, it is really great. I believe the artistic movement should act as a militant political party, that might provide some defence against the haters blitzkrieg. At the same time, internal, more open debate, is very important. Here in Brazil we have a distinctive artistic movement that came to public attention in Semana da Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) in 1922. The artists were brutally criticized by back in the day conservative critics and the overall public, but they stood their position through those turbulent times. I believe this kind of exposition is akin to publishing your opinion on social media in a more structured form (thank god X now supports articles). It is definitely not feasible to engage with every comment, but it is nice to get that feedback, and specially nice to see people standing by your side even if they are a minority. Anyway, thanks for your work! All the best 👍 PS: I have been nurturing this idea of putting you in touch with my friends from Joy Masher (makers of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider and Blazing Chrome). Please let me know if you’d be interested in an interview.
Fabio Picchi
2025-03-03 14:28:53 +0000 UTC
