Gameplay Journal Entry #9

Mary Flanagan’s Critical Play Radical Game Design breaks down Critical Play as “games carrying beliefs within their representation systems and mechanics”. (Flanagan 14) She then goes to further add the idea that artists using games as a medium of expression is transforming popular culture around the globe. At a first glance, this type of documentation may seem hard to find in a game as art is only a small picture when it comes to what a game is trying to say. I honestly would agree with that sentiment, but on rare occasions there are “hidden gems” that are perfect examples of Mary’s concept.

Ōkami (now Ōkami HD) is a 2006 action-adventure game that has it’s entire gameplay built around the idea of art making. If you bring this name up to anyone who has played they may some story concepts, but without a doubt they will remember the celestial brush. This brush mechanic allows players to create Sumi-e ink art on a canvas during gameplay. What they created would then impact what is happening in the game’s scene. Along with a Cel-shading lighting system, this game encourages the player to create and interact with their environment as an animator would with a paper. It may not be super abstract, but like Mary Flanagan’s mentions, the game does make a player rethink how they would interact with the screen. Both in a figurative and in a literal sense, as the screen has now become the player’s canvas. (Depending on the system the brush can even be a part of the player’s hand closing the bridge even further! )

This trailer gives a great example of the Celestial brush and just how much it can impact gameplay.

Works cited

I., Flanagan, Mary (sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor. Critical Play — Radical Game Design. Mit Press Ltd, 2013.