by Bastien Silty and translated by Nolwenn.

If this tweet from Siobhan Thompson is sarcastic and only partially true, it makes us see that depression holds a huge spot in video games. Rightfully so, because it plays a great part in the making of a game, and for very different reasons, wether if we study a Triple A (or AAA which stands for every game made in a big production), or an indie game. So in this very article, guaranteed without any spoilers, we are going to see the links between work and video games.

Let’s begin with the independent games, which seems to have a favorite theme, grief and depression. We are going to talk about two indie games, Celeste (Jan 25th, 2018), from Matt Makes Games and Sea of Solitude (Jul 5th, 2019), from Jo-Mei Games. We will finish by talking about the burn outs caused by Epic Games and Fortnite (Nov 2017).
An indie developer, as suggested by Bounthavy Suvilay in her book « Indie Games », has too much problems to handle during the creation of their story, that they cannot think of what’s next. She insists that an indie game is a total investment. A financial investment, but also and foremost an investment of time and energy. The creators of Flappy Bird (2013), Antichamber (2013) or even Ridiculous Fishing (2013) sunk into depression at the launch of their game. For diverse reasons ; they found themselves without a goal after the launch, or they were guilt ridden when their money incomes were far more important than what they had hoped. This brutal change of situation added to the incomprehension happen with most indie games, especially in debut games, a creator’s first game. Indie games are made by groups of passionate, often 10 to 15 or less, either in a garage or small locals. For instance, in Extremely Ok (Celeste and TowerFall’s creators) there are 7 people, Jo-Mei Games are 13 and at Nomada Studio (GRIS’ creators) they are 10, with 7 for the music only.

Celeste tells the story of Madeline, depressed and trying to climb a mountain. On her track, she meets several characters who are going to help her in different ways. To rough it up, the story translates her will to get back on her feet helped by her friends. Matt Makes Games, after the success of TowerFall, went to live in a shared-flat with three other creators to create their next game. Nonetheless, he found himself surrounded by work on the development of TowerFall on other consoles. He explained that TowerFall’s loud success could crash his relation with his flatmates as most of the large money incomes would come to him. A new source of anxiety coming from creating video games, which he got over with the help of his flatmates. A similar scheme can be found in Cornelia Geppert and Boris Munser’s Sea of Solitude’s creation.
We follow Kay in her introspection who is trying to fight her demons, helped by her boat and her memories. Each phases of metaphoric depression can be seen. Cornelia Geppert had wanted to tell her own story through the art she excelled best in : video games. That is how we find ourselves lost in a sea of solitude in this depression filled work. In several interviews, Cornelia Geppert has described herself in her depression as a mere shadow of herself, and this metaphor is the game’s base design (cf. a picture taken from the game showing principal character Kay). In those same interviews, she has explained that the characters depicted are her own friends and family; the second to last being her ex boyfriend, suffering from a mental illness, who brought her to depression in 2014. Thus, when an indie game talks about depression, it often is because it is the creators’ (only) way to exteriorize everything they can feel inside, work becoming emancipatory for them.

For AAA games, what happens is the contrary, burn outs are present but for other different reasons. In big productions, there is a lot of people. I am not teaching you anything here, but it defines work as a whole, there is a LOT of people. In capitalist’s logic, a game has to be sold to the greater number, the story must therefore be marketable and watered-down, the artists’ visions and personal work being wiped out. Not only that, but with the logic of competition in the industry, games have to be released ever quicker and at their maximum quality. Employees are then forced to do as quickly as possible. This regularly leads these people to have burn outs. An investigation has been made with Fortnite’s developers after its global success in 2017 by Colin Campbell, from the website Polygon. He exposes the real necessity for the game to keep its leader position, Battle Royales being the most popular play mode of the last couple of years, and competitors beginning to make these kind of games. First observation, a vast majority of employees admit they have worked between 70 to 100 hours per week during the making of Fortnite. Quick reminder, the french legislation sets the maximum legal working hours at 35 per week. These overtime hours can be explained by two major factors. The first one being the practice of the « crunch », an efficient pressure tactic consisting of asking employees to work harder and for longer hours only until the game or one of its extension is launched. At Epic Games, these crunches have lasted for weeks, even months, and have often been renewed. The second explanation is the lack of syndicate in the video game industry. The IGDA or International Game Developers Association calls to an important unionization to stop these destructive practices over the employees’ mental health. The latter, often called to work on menial or precise tasks, are hired as temps, so that they cannot gather up and fight their employers and their ideals. This article still brought a bigger feeling of empathy towards the developers from the players, who then asked for release dates to be postponed, to allow the employees to have a personal life outside of their work. In 2019/2020, several games have seen their release dates delayed, without any outrage from the public. Some players have even asked Masahiro Sakurai to take a break from developing Super Smash Bros Ultimate as he seemed more and more exhausted in interviews. Thus, if Triple A doesn’t speak publicly and freely about depression or burn outs, it is mostly because it is experienced by employees who cannot express themselves, forced to follow strict agendas from their bosses, whose only concern is for their competitors’ sales revenues and always making better ones.

Links :

The Story Behind Celeste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gZr40T9rvY&t=0s

Celeste’s creation team
https://exok.com/team.html

Sea of Solitude’s creation team
https://www.jo-mei.com/team

Colin Campbell’s article
https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/23/18507750/fortnite-work-crunch-epic-games

Trailer Sea of Solitude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EDcrwDCYqo

Trailer Celeste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70d9irlxiB4

By Heoluz and translated by Maia

It’s hard to find a definition for the word work. In cinema but also in the world of art where it is especially difficult to associate the artist with the amount of work that goes into a piece. What I mean by the difficulty to define the word work is that we imagine the artist’s brush moving naturally across the canvas. As if, the artist manages to effortlessly control his mouvements. We only see the canvas as a summary of its beauty and as a unique product of human genius. Generally, we only see the artist’s works (whether cinematographic or in another form of art) as the final result.We ignore the process and all the work that has been accomplished, we are oblivious to the trials and to all the problems that came up and were eventually resolved.

If we were aware of the efforts made to achieve these results, if we celebrated them for their true value then Humanity would undoubtedly grow from it. However, the society in which we live places more importance on the final product than on the process.

The excessive consumption of goods due to capitalism (of which films are an essential part) has not drawn the eye of the general public to the work provided by the artists, but instead has only shown the completed and polished products.

To link the subject of work to the film that I am going to present to you, I will rely on the concept of a painter. To create his paintings and his drawings, he needs colors which are present in nature, but also knowledge, and control which is passed down through the ages.

Thus without further ado here is Gabbeh a film that shows the transmission of this eponymous traditional carpet (gabbeh), a particular heritage in Persia.

Released in 1996, it is an Iranian film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who at the time was a very popular director in Iran. He has directed numerous films but he also starred in one: C​ lose-Up (​ 1990), a work that was inspired by a news story where a young man pretended to be Mohsen Makhmalbaf himself so that he could live a more dignified lifestyle. This film was also directed by the other great Iranian director of it’stime,AbbasKiarostami(youhavetoseeT​ hetasteofcherries​-1997).Mohen Makhmalbaf wasn’t looking to be on the big screen since he was a writer. Partisan of the Islamic Republic and opposed to the Shah of Iran, when he failed he published two novels and then turned to the cinema. Although he fully embodies the regime’s values, Mohsen Makhmalbaf discovered in the national archives, the existence of different works that changed his world views. From that point on he became a critic of the regime. And he could afford it (Iran would only experience an authoritarian turn around in the years leading up to 2000) since in 1987 ​The peddler w​ as met with great success and he acquired a certain notoriety with the Iranian public. However Gabbeh​ is one of his first works that received international recognition.

And Mohsen Makhmalbaf follows it up with incredible films such as ​The Silence (1998)​ or B​ lackboards – 2000 (​ a film directed by his daughter, Samira Makhmalbaf and produced by Mohsen and his company), the latter will be rewarded at the Cannes film festival. Nevertheless the success at the end of the 90’s concealed the Iranian state’s disinterest in cinema but also the increasing amount of private investments.

The film Gabbeh refers to a Persian carpet, it is a very colorful film. By definition Persian carpets are, they have all kinds of colors but there are many different types.

Like the Ottoman carpets, they are made thanks to a developed and highly specialized craftsmanship.

They only represent forms (in Iran, religion does not allow for human representation) and are made with precious fabrics. The one we see in the film is not meant to be sold, but to be given as an inheritance gift. The carpet is an important object for the nomade Persian community that we will follow throughout the film. In addition it is a very rustic object, it is not seen as precious in the sense that it won’t be worth a lot of money. It is their tradition, they weave both human and animal forms and it represents the different stages of life of the people in the community. For example a marriage, a birth or even a death … It is twice as important since in this film it also embodies a woman who is desperately looking for a husband, she is the « Gabbeh » and first appears after an elderly couple’s discussions from the region remembering their lives.
It’s the beginning of a long love story and we quickly understand that what for us was simply a colorful carpet is in fact a representation of Persian history. These intertwined stories of these nomadic people who are one with nature celebrate a life which unfolds to the rhythm of travelling and discovery. With the uncle teaching young children what nature has to offer, and picking flowers it allows everyone to be reminded of what eternity really is. We can thus grasp that the « gabbeh » is not only a useful object but it’s also knowledge, an object that has a soul and a lifetime worth of work put into it.

To conclude, Iranian cinema is not just about Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Abbas Kiarostami, although they did and still do great works like ​The President (2015)​ or Like Someone In Love (2012)​ . And you might even have heard of Marjane Satrapi, author,designeranddirectorofP​ ersepolis(2007).​Thereisalsoacinemaforshort Iranian films and one I think that is quite interesting to watch is ​Tribute to the teachers (1977)​ by Abbas Kiarostami who wanted to show the dedication of teachers, their hard work and determination under difficult circumstances.

Which games age the best ? Does the remake of an old game or the revival of a worn out genre necessarily need to be accompanied by a change in the game play mechanics or should they be left as they were to better embrace the return to the past.

Some of Tack’s readers probably grew up with the Nintendo 64, the console that welcomed the first 3D games created by the company nippone. With the rise of 3D platform games, initiated by Super Mario 64 in 1996, Banjo-Kazooie developed by Rareware, was a striking milestone. The flawless precision of the platform, levels designed with distinct environnements, a memorable soundtrack, these were the elements remembered by the raving critics. The first one of the “Banjo” saga impacted a whole generation of players, hungry for similar experiences such as “Spyro the Dragon” or “Rayman”.

Even though 3D platform games were incredibly popular during the second half of the 90’s, the concept slowly died out due to the fact that they were quite redundant, apart from the very successful Mario Odyssey & Galaxy, the more recent productions relied on different genres. But after two decades of nothing, a group of former members of the Rareware studio decided to start a Kickstarter to fund a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. With its colorful and dreamlike universe and it’s gaming system worthy of a 3D platform game, the game Yooka-Laylee charmed it’s players. The duo (Yooka a green chameleon and Laylee a purple bat) could have been mistaken for the original protagonists of Rare’s golden age : the hero with a big heart and his flying sidekick. Released in 2017, Yooka-Laylee wasn’t as successful as they’d hoped, with fans being unpleasantly surprised: the gameplay was seen as archaic, the movements hadn’t been updated since the Nintendo 64 era, an unmoving camera and the many positioning flaws are a hindrance to the players movements. Beyond the homage that it represents, Yooka-Laylee is weighed down by the basic Game design mistakes that were already present in the 90’s.

A video game can testify to the passage of time, with the graphics and game mechanics
leaving their mark on the design models. Thus, it should be interesting to compare the
original Doom released in 1993 and the 2016 reboot. The game designed by John Carmack and the id Software Studio, was one of the first to use 3D immersive graphics, and offer the opportunity to use an array of frantic mouvements and a first-person perspective.

In the 90’s Doom became the inspiration for a new game genre : “Doom-like” is what first person shooter games were called before being replaced by FPS (first person shooter).

After a few follow ups and adaptations, Doom was rebooted, with it’s univers intact. And in 2016 players could once again find themselves on planet Mars with the demonic portals and the Cacodemons, Revenants and the other creatures risen from hell. In addition the id Software title was entirely reimagined to better conform with the design essentials of a worthy modern FPS. The inertia and the players movements underwent huge improvements and the level design was better arranged to allow for more verticality. These modifications are still consistent with the ideas introduced by the original Doom, the levels architecture already proposed battles on different levels, inclined walls, open spaces and lifts.

Doom 2016 largely reworked their battles so that it would offer a particular rhythm. To recover ammunition and life points, the hero has to fight demons in single combat. The game design forces the player to throw direct attacks, the games system doesn’t rely on the “covering” mechanism like in Gears of War, where the aim of the game is to hide behind a part of the decor before attacking. Through these combats the game-feel aims to make the player feel a certain kind of power via the avatar, by chasing and squashing these demonic creatures, in a very fast game with fluid movements to allow for better action.

Modern FPS borrow many gameplay elements from role playing games such as the skill set, grinding, the dialogues and interactions… present in Far Cry or Destiny. Doom made the choice to offer an immersive experience, with an unrestrained rhythm of action like it’s predecessor. These choices allowed it to stand out among the new releases and bring back a cool breeze of the old school.

The Doom remake succeeded in modernising a 30 year old formula by awakening the player’s nostalgia. The game design choices are a tribute to the 90’s productions with a return to the source for the genre of fast paced FPSs.

Next up you should visit the Museum of Athens where you can find out how the ancient Greeks and Atheniens lived down to the minor details of their everyday lives in a world where Greece was the birthplace of Europe’s wisdom.
Discover greek culture that holds many mysteries that even today, historians are trying to uncover. You can see the many reconstructions of the capital that happened over three thousand years ago, the preserved graves, weapons and armour, sculptures… that will give you the impressions that you had in fact lived there yourself.

Today all that is left of these places are ruins, animated solely by tourists, but they were once home to one of greatest Greek cities that ever existed, reminding us how time wipes out far more than just Mankind, because amidst all the chaos it’s life itself that’s swept away. After having discovered all these new things and the journey coming to an end, an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia will set in, memories of the journey to a land full of memories.

I would just like to warn everyone that there will be spoilers in this article and also trigger warning that there is mention of rape and assault in this article so if you are triggered by that i advise you click of this article.

The Witness(2016) is a first person point of view game with no story, barely any action and no music. Created by Jonathan Blow, a game developer known for making players question their every decision.In this game, after exiting a cave the player is sent to a desert island where they have to complete puzzles within a maze. To push the player thought process further, he has hidden audio tapes of philosophers, scholars, writers and all sorts of different artists talking about a wide range of subjects such as atheisme, borders, knowing oneself and art.

This is a very complexe game so we are going to concentrate on the two different types of puzzles that are present within this game. These riddles can be found 15 minutes into the game and are designed to make the players change their way of thinking. If the player focuses solely on the riddle itself he will never find the answer because the answer is hidden in a passageway just in front of him for example. The first maze is shaped like the trunk and branches of a tree. To answer the riddle the player has to point to the branch where an apple previously mentioned in the game had grown. The key to the second maze relies on the player tracing the contours of rocks, trees or other natural elements, so sometimes he will have to look around to find the right angle or imagine the height of a tree that has fallen. The answers to these two puzzles are quite unique, and no matter what defines the player “In real life” he will have to think like everyone else. His past, his encounters, zodiac sign and social category are of no importance in the face of the natural instinct every human being has that pushes us to think like everyone else. Does this instinct imply that there is an innate human nature? Is it conditioning us to deny our uniqueness ? I would like to set myself apart from Jonathan Blow with the analysis of Nieztsche theory that “ God is dead !” and try to further it by explaining his theory by talking about another video game: Hollow Knight (2017). First of all though I would like to mention the australian developers of the game who are known as Team Cherry. In this Metroidvania ( subgenre of action-adventure made popular by the games Metroid (1986) and Castlevania (1997) ) the player embodies a young knight arriving on the unknown lands of Hallownest. You quickly understand your role in the game: you must choose whether you kill the God named Radiance or canalise his power through you. In the bestiary Radiance is described as : “ The plague, the infection, the madness that haunts the corpses of Hallownest… the light that screams out from the eyes of this dead Kingdom. What is the source? I suppose mere mortals like myself will never understand.

Her story is a classic one, at first she was a source of life, but sadly she was imprisoned by a greedy king who wanted to become a God. She was forced to transform and take possession of the weakest people in the realm.
We can compare this to some of Nietzsche’s findings, the difference being that the god Radiance is represented by the christian God and the greedy king resembles capitalism and the alienation brought along by the industrial revolution. For the philosopher, this murder (the neglect of God that led to his death) inplies a change within the deicides minds. There are now two solutions: be weak or ascend to the rank of a God. Hollow Knight retraces this dichotomy. With the exception of one character and our knight, everyone had lost all hope of being rid of Radiance the wrongdoer. Nietzsche would qualify them as weak since they’re unable to step up and play the role that was intended for them. And what of our character? He can also choose to undo his role by deciding to limit Radiance’s powder instead of getting rid of him all together. By doing this, you accept defeat and acknowledge that the role you were given is too demanding for one person. This defeat leads us to ask the following questions: Do we all have the same role to play? If so are we capable of carrying it to fruitions ? Would we be able to do it for the rest of our lives? Do we all have the same nature?

The two games previously mentioned take place in purely fictional worlds whereas this last one is very much based on reality. Life Is Strange : Before The Storm ( August 2017) takes place in the American University of Blackwell situated in a small town called Arcadia Bay. We follow the story of Chloe Price, a young student whose life isn’t going too well. Her father recently passed away in a car crash. Her mother is dating a man who represents everything Chloe hates and her best friend has moved away. All these events lead to serious consequences in her life. In University, even though she was one of best in her class during all of her school years, she starts missing classes, her grades plummet, and she turns to drugs which leads her to owing a lot of money to her dealer. In this point and click narrative created by Deck Nine Games we are going to follow the stories of a few youngsters, uncovering all of their problems and insecurities. For example, someone who is going to become extremely important to Chloe is Rachel whose life is going to be overturned very quickly. Some are discovering their sexuality, others racisme, fatphobia, parental pressure, some students are assaulted, raped, and drugged. To be put shortly all the horrors banned by society can be found in this video game. All this is a huge weight for the students and also for the townspeople of Arcadia Bay which proves that a human nature cannot exist in the face of oppression, recurring problems, or the structural problems caused by a society that prones individualisme. Social trauma forces people to deal in their own way. All these problems rain down on us and stop us from ascending to the rank of God as Nietzsche so hoped we would. Even if video games hadn’t created a tightly knit community between people with shared characteristics that qualify as G@m3R, they have uncovered new answers and a different point of views on the questions regarding the existence of human nature. Even if video games cannot have the answers to everything, they encourage us to ask questions and develop our curiosity just like in the Croatian game; The Talos principle (december 2014) where you are an Androïde, born to a God of creation in search of your identity, free will and self consciousness, will you prove the existence of human nature by doing what everyone else does? Or will you try to evade natural laws and society like Stanley in The Stanley Parable (october 2013)

The Witness trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPMMKFX78x0
Hollow knight Trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAO2urG23S4
Life Is Strange : Before The Storm trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QD_4St79-Q
The Talos Principle Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAVh4_wnOIw
The Stanley Parable Trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1S796fXtl4