Shit Art Update

I've uploaded a new (better!) build of Shit Art, the game-thing I made for 7dfps jam. I wanted to take the chance to overview those changes and write out my thoughts about it.

After sitting on this prototype for a week, I went back to fix a couple of things that were bothering me, so:

Fixed:

• Wall colliders in the studio
• Canvas size is bigger
• Improved performance so it’s not as slow

Added:

• Quit screen instead of hard exit

I also wanted to provide a little context about why I made Shit Art, both the technical goals and what I was thinking while I made it. The project started out as a technical exploration, but ended up taking on a slightly more conceptual angle as I fleshed it out.

Engines???

I initially decided to join the 7dfps jam to try out Godot. Partly out of longstanding curiosity, partly due to the Unity pricing kerfuffle earlier this year.

I don’t generally use heavy lifting game engines for my own work. I’ve one publicly released solo project using Unity; everything else is made with Phaser, p5.js, Twine, Bitsy, etc. Engines like Unity and Unreal, even GameMaker, are overkill for most of the things I make. I’ve also always had a bone to pick with engine editors. Editors are this extra layer mediation on an already heavily mediated form of communication: code. Like any software with UX, a game engine editor must make use of visual metaphors for the sake of clarity and this usually has a reflexive impact on the engine itself. (I think you can really see this in Unity the past few years.) The way we chose to organize information is going to influence what we perceive as possible within the engine.

Anyway, while I don’t usually use Unity personally, I do primarily teach Unity and many game design university programs were reflecting on the tools they use. As Godot was one of the options considered, I wanted to have a more informed opinion of what was out there than my own (admittedly shallow) anti-Unity take.

That said, using a new engine to make a game-thing in a genre I’m not familiar with and working with a third dimension when I’m used to two was a lot! I’m not sure I succeeded in assessing the viability of Godot for teaching. My initial take is that documentation, support, and Google-ability is not yet strong enough to replace Unity in the classroom. But, again, I was working with a number of unfamiliar factors. Perhaps I could’ve gotten a better perspective on Godot if I had made something a little more in my lane.

Shit???

While the impetus for this game-thing was largely technical, I did think some thoughts about Shit Art’s concept! The idea started as your standard shooter-subversion, in this case a reverse Splatoon: remove color you’re pointing at, build up a color palette, shoot out art. Or, really, shit out art. You lick pixels and shit them onto your canvas. Eventually, though, I started thinking of this as a light send-up of the argument some proponents of using AI to create art will use: that all art has always been trained composites of other art. I think does a disservice to both humans and AI.

In Shit Art, The Client commissions you to consume the art in her collection and regurgitate what you consumed. Of course, deep learning models and humans must also train themselves. To flatten creation to ideas and output is weird!

This is the kind of thing I’ve mostly heard on TikToks of tech-bro podcasts, so I think some basic scatological humor is what it deserves. I’m admittedly not tuned in to AI generated art discourse, although I know I’ll eventually have to confront the issue given that I make game-things and I teach. When asked about the subject, I’ll awkwardly laugh and cobble together an opinion, because my real thoughts on AI are terminating: I don’t care. I think I’m hurtling towards a point in which I must care, so perhaps that’s why it was on my mind.

I have a kind of knee-jerk bafflement towards the subject because I take such pleasure from crafting. I like putting things together. When I write, I agonize over syntax. I make my own cruddy visuals because it’s fun! I prefer working solo because I like the intimacy of understanding my own work. This is probably related to why I dislike game engine editors - editors further alienate me from the very sinew of my game-thing. If I could make and never complete, that would be my ideal world. Like, what’s the point of fully automated luxury gay space communism if not to take pleasure from making?

Hopefully I’ll be able to spin a more nuanced opinion on AI and art in the future, but I think this game-thing solidly represents where I am right now.

Art???

A few other miscellaneous things I wanted to write out:

• I’m not sure if I’ll work on this further or if I’ll pursue another 3D game. I won’t rule it out now, because I’m not sure if I’m just frustrated with an unfamiliar format or if I genuinely prefer 2D.
• Earlier in the project, I had wanted to also incorporate claymation museum-goers inspired by real art pieces, but dropped it when it became clear that I was learning too many new things to also take on a time-intensive visual style. I did make several animations, but the only remnant of that is The Client (who was originally Mona Lisa). I’ve wanted to continue working with stop motion, especially claymation, for years now, so I’m almost certainly going to return to it in a future project.
• This is the first game-thing I’ve publicly released in a year or so.

It’s December 29th, 2023. I had a weird year.

Like many, the last few years threw a wrench in my mental health and my plans for the future. I was focusing on teaching and paying the bills. I’ve been making, but not finishing.

My goal for the next year is to release the work I’ve been sitting on. While I haven’t conceptualized what that looks like, because I don’t think it’s as it was in 2019, I want to define that new path for myself.

Happy New Year