Is game art art?

Christopher Totten
MAGFest MAGES 2015

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Introductions
Game Artist in Residence – American
University
Author: An Architectural Approach to
Level Design (CRC Press 2014) and
Game Character Creation in Blender and
Unity (Wiley 2012)
Chair – International Game Developers
Association (IGDA DC)
Founder – Pie For Breakfast Studios

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 genre
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genre
History painting – Religious, historic, or allegorical topics
Portrait painting
Genre painting – scenes of everyday life
Landscape
Animal painting
Still life

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genre
History painting –
Religious, historic, or
allegorical topics

Karl Bryullov, The Last Day of Pompeii, 1827-1833, State

Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
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 Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850, Musée
d'Orsay, Paris, France
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CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - Diablo III wallpaper, Found on diablo3sanctuary.com
CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - Jesse van Dijk, Concept art for Destiny, 2014, Found on
Kotaku Australia “Fine Art”
CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - Left: Andy Park Concept art for God of War III, 2010
Right: Screenshot from God of War III
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 Left: Gomez sprite from Fez, 2012
Right: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by William Morris’s
CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - Kelmscott press, 1896
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 1985 2012
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 Dominique Pamplemousse, Dierdre “Squinky” Kai, 2014.
Steam and mobile game created with clay, paper, and
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 The Empty Kingdom, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, 2013.
CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - “Hypercomic” game on Kongregate
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 Left: Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, El Lissitzky,
1920 – lithographic propaganda poster

Right: Lissitzky’s Revenge, Chris Totten, 2015 – paper

CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - cutouts in the Construct 2 game engine
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 Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure, Ryan Creighton (age
33) and Cassie Creighton (age 5), 2011, Flash game with
CHRISTOPHER TOTTEN - scanned crayon art
Thank you!
Twitter: @totter87
ChrisTotten3D.com
PFBStudios.com
american.edu/gamelab

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