Seamar22 What is the art for you? This is at the same time a simple and difficult question. Only one thing is clear: for everyone it is something of their own. Art is manifested in many things and is one of the forms of expression. It can be films, books, music, paintings or games. About the latter today and talk.
My game experience began with the passion for banal shooters in the first person, and over time he was reborn into something else: I wanted measuredness and immersion. And I got it in full, having familiarized myself with the projects of such an indie studio as "Thechineseroom". In this article, we will try to figure out why the Chinese room, than the projects of this studio can interest us and try to understand the message in its games. Sit down more comfortably, let’s start.
The creation of the studio itself began with one person, Dan McGuyer Pinchbek. Dan, was an avid gamer, in particular he liked the genre of jokes in the first person. Before he headed Thechineseroom, Dan had to work at the drama theater, as well as in the media field, which allowed him to find the right direction for the further development of his professional skills and gain an invaluable experience that he will apply for his future projects.
But how this indie studio formed? In 2003, Dan got a job as a teacher of interactive media and Games at the University of Portusmut, where he taught students to new trends of interactive art, and also engaged in the research of first -person games, where he tried to find features of the relationship between the gameplay of games and the environment with objects in game locations. As a result, in 2007, Dan managed to get a grant from AHRC (Arts & Humanites Research Council, they are also a research council in the field of art and humanitarian sciences) to develop 4 mods at their discretion; And this, in turn, became the impetus for the creation of The Chechineseroom studio as a university project to research computer games. In general, if it weren’t for the AHRC research grant, we would probably have never seen projects from Thechineseroom, since it was this grant and Dan’s support by the university that helped his team promote modifications at various events and international exhibitions.
So what does the name "Chinese room" mean? It was invented on the basis of the mental experiment of John Surla. In this experiment, Surna tried to refute the theory that a digital machine having artificial intelligence can have the same consciousness as a person. In other words, let’s say that the car knows Chinese hieroglyphs, a computer or program can arrange them in the correct order, but this does not give it an understanding of what meaning in these written signs is laid, it simply acts according to a given algorithm. And the hieroglyph in the company’s logo itself deciphens as a “room”, here’s a surprise. Now you know a little more.
So, the grant was received, the team was assembled. What’s next? And then the process itself begins the creation and grope of the characteristic handwriting of the studio, which will become its distinctive feature.
Already in June 2008, one of the first “feathers” of the studio was published: modification for “Doom 3” – “Concientious Objector” (where GG is a person who refuses military service for political or religious and ethical motives). Fashion developers send us to the Marsian bases of the UAC with traumatic weapons against the hordes of zombies from the first three levels of the main game. Yes, you understand everything correctly. In the shooter, you cannot kill the enemy (weapons, in fact, shoots, however, rubber bullets). Such a trunk can drop a zombie, but it will rise after a few seconds and will begin to hunt for our delicious brains again.
The actions of the modification take place in the alternative universe Doom, where there was no thought, but there was an incident with portals in hell on Mars, where the undead safely broke everyone at the Martian research complex. In 2147 (two years after the incident on the Martian base), the UAC was collecting an expedition to Mars, since the company’s valuable equipment of the valuable equipment of the company. The United States dragged a bill through the “world government” on the creation of a special detachment to return the equipment and data left on Mars. I don’t want to lose trained commandos (they are expensive), so they recruit and safely send people from prisons to slaughter. Like, you can handle it, you will be released, no – well, you, at least, tried. Our GG, as you might guess, is just among the lucky ones.
I must note that the presence of at least some plot in the modification of that time is a rarity. And then Dan tried fame: not only did he throw a good description of the tie as a whole, but also wounded up with messages in our PDA, where you can read messages of the staff of the station and other deceased characters (and the note is not a few for three levels, I must say). The best immersion in history is also facilitated by the presence of at least some description of what is happening. So for the study plus.
Let’s go to gameplay, or rather https://casinofunbet.co.uk/bonus/ an experiment on the shooting gameplay, which happened by the results? Having removed the opportunity to kill, the authors forced us to play with local zombies in the stamps. It seems to be even interesting for the first time, you try to lure the zombies to a certain point to drop them with a pack with one shot, you run out of one room to another to stretch the horde. However, this is interesting until they begin to crush us in number, and we get out of the last croply health from the level. This is especially felt at levels without oxygen. The breeds, of course, removed most of the most dangerous creatures from the bestiary doom 3, leaving only ordinary zombies and a couple of cacodemones, but this is like a dead pincere. The logging is that if you remove the ability to shoot at Doom 3, then it costs to change everything at all (gameplay, level design, opponents’ behavior, etc.e) so that everything works as it should and without stuffiness. But, at the same time, the whole meaning of the experiment disappears.
So I can be clever here to infinity, and as a result, all my tips and reproaches will break on one word – experiment. After all, as I mentioned earlier, Dan is not just cleaning the key elements from gameplay. Since Monsieur knows a lot about perversions, he pursues a certain idea. To find a new genre for the gaming industry. And then such gameplay experiments in “Conscientious Objector” begin to acquire meaning.
Soundtrak Jessica Caria was engaged in this modification, she is also a sound engineer, she is also the composer of most Dan projects and the team leader of “Thechineseroom”. Yes, there is only one track at the beginning and end of the fashion, but the music hits the right emotional points, causing a feeling of loneliness and hopelessness. Which is required for this mod.
I also want to notice, surprisingly, high -quality Voice ourhem … "partner". Meet Karl. Who is Karl? This is an asshole that is curdled by our brain by walkie -talkie, throughout the entire fashion. He pursues one goal – so that we are killed as soon as possible. Dan gave the correct installations for the actor of the dubbing, t.To. Karl infuriates incredibly. The quality of the record itself is also good, you can hear that they recorded a voice in an equipped studio, and not in the toilet room. So the money from the grant went where necessary.
However, whether the goals of this experimental fashion were achieved: what the player will do if you remove the opportunity to kill in the shooter? It seems to me that the set goals have been achieved more than. The mod pass, albeit not without whistle. Yes, you have to run a lot from the room to the room in search of the desired button or object to the music from the Benny Hill show, but this is still a research experiment. So the prank was a success!
"Antlion Soccer" – The next mod, published in September 2008. This is a multiplayer mod for 8 people, where two “resistance” and “combines” teams from Half-Life 2 should simultaneously beat off ant lions and parallely throw them into the goal with the help of gravitational guns. There are 8 cards in fashion, which, in fact, the same arena for games (only the conditions of the game and the time of day change). For example, one field is forced by mines and in contact with them, Big-Bada-Boom occurs, and on the other, along with ant lions, the “guard” also runs, along the way, invigorating you into the barrel.
The description of the fashion may sound strange, but, in fact, this thing has a tuning for fun. If there were still people here or it worked all properly. I won’t be surprised if Dan made “Antlion Soccer” for a limited number of people in his environment and released a modification only to fill out the expectation before the next mod. Or to feel the Source engine and see what thanks to it can be done.
And then 2009 comes. This year Dan defends his doctoral dissertation: “The plot as a function of the gameplay in the first -person shooters: Analysis of the dietary content of FPS from 1998 to 2007”. If briefly, in his work, Dan analyzes in detail how the game content is associated with the gameplay of the game and how they affect this bunch on each other. After reading this work, the only thing I want to do is to remove the hat in front of Dan. This is a very worthy scientific work, I recommend to familiarize (although it is in English). As a result, Dan successfully defends the dissertation and receives a scientist The degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Madam Luck was also on the side of the Thechineseroom team herself, as one of the most popular studio experiments, mod for Half-Life 2, is released and approved, “Dear Esther". However, for this modification and its remakes, I will make a separate article since I have, what to tell about. Now let’s move on to another no less important modification that came out this year on the basis of the same Source. Horror-modification, ""Korsakovia".
"Korsakovia", what is this name in general? It stems from the name of Korsakov syndrome. This is a pathology associated with the loss of short -term memory with the obvious preservation of long -term memory and existing skills. Passesia is also possible in the form of false memories that replace ordinary reality.
With such a syndrome, our main character Christopher enters the neurological clinic of St. Clement. He was hospitalized as a result of a fire in his apartment, which he, the campaign, arranged. During the fire, Christopher tried to commit suicide, but he managed to inflict only a bunch of burns throughout his body and tear out eye apples. Christopher himself exists inside his surreal fantasies, in which he is hunting “collectors”, local enemies. However, despite all the hostility of the inner world, he is calm and measured as a Buddhist monk, because, no matter how paradoxical it sounds, the invented world for him is more logical and real than the real.
However, he came to the clinic not to the resort, but for healing. For Chris, a neurologist consultant Christine Grayson is assigned. Throughout the game we will listen to their dialogs during health sessions. And at the moment when Dr. Grayson tries to get Christopher out of his fantasies into reality, the so -called “white areas” form in the man’s head. We have to travel along them, by the torment of our GG.
In my opinion, the plot part of the modification came out pretty good. Honestly, when, I launched a mod, I did not expect to see something supernatural, in terms of the narrative or waging of the actors themselves. I thought I would come in, I will see a text that pops up at the very beginning to explain the synopsis, and I will be sent to be scared of banal scrimmers in the ass. But no, "korsakovia" – a product of a completely different sense. Here, as in the case of "Conscentious Objector", we can immediately hear professional actors on voice acting The characters of this fashion. And this is very immersed in the events taking place. And in general, the narrative itself develops for the horror game at the right pace. Do not have time to move away from one event, as you throw you new information with the next changes in the variables of the gameplay.
Modification c gameplay plan It is a first-person horror, thanks to the captain Evidence. Of course, some special innovations in terms of gameplay to expect from the game it is stupid, the studio would tear off the navel. However, you can play with the conditional expectations of the player and various variables of the gaming mechanic, which the developers make throughout the entire fashion. Then they will distort the level to such an extent that it becomes very difficult to move on it. Or you need to run around the storage rooms from the “collectors” with a burning backwards, in order to finally get the treasured crowbar and go further along the location. By the way, there is no card or any interface for the player in modification, you can only navigate the visual indicators on the screen and locations. This desire for minimalism in the interface leads to an even greater immersion in the game.
Horror-elements modifications work as it should. Fear here is achieved not at the expense of typical scrimmers (they are also), but due to a good sappress and destructive of everything and everything, from levels to enemies.
If we say about Left-design, it is as good as bad. Now I will explain what I mean. Remembering the mental health of our hero, the levels completely convey his condition and also, as they move, you can see how his condition worsens, how Chris moves further and further from the real world, and this really scares. But, to move mostly locations – natural pain below the sacrum. Norpoles, illogicality, constant walking and discharge in the search for a never-notable lever to activate the script, that is, in the local location you can get lost by one to two. Also, most of the items migrated straight from Half-Life 2, so do not expect that there will be something unique in terms Visual. This is affected by a lack of budget and personnel. So the tasks in the style find a crowbar in the ass of the “collector” and the blind locations of the standard Half-Life 2 Asset, were invented due to lack of experience and through the edge of the overwhelming enthusiasm.
Speaking about enemies, not only you can never hear them, you still get on them. Directly sending to Boris a "razor" from a "big meal", no more or less. Visually enemies look like a small haze soaring above the surface. It is worth seeing them GG, as the cloud’s mode turns on the berserker mode, and it begins to extinguish GG until the pulse is lost. Dan’s visual terms wanted the view of the “collectors” to be as different as possible from anthropomorphic enemies, which we had already met in a huge number of other horror games. Technically, these are ordinary zombies or fast zombies from Half-Life 2, on which 100% transparency and smoke have been imposed for at least some kind of enemy identification. And when a collision occurs with them, it more like a fight in a very dark room, because in order to get on the enemy you need to face him lob-in-lob. Due to the lack of intelligible sound of the enemy’s “body” and visually incomprehensible display of damage, battles occur in a state of frustration.
Well, if you abstract from technical problems, then conceptual "collectors" are good opponents. The game destructs the image of the enemy, it looks and sounds not very nice. As for me, a very suitable enemy for this fashion.
Soundtrak Jessica Caria, already familiar to us, was engaged in this modification. In her compositions, she managed to well reflect the mental state of the hero. The music is filled with despair, hopelessness, as well as notes of schizophrenia. Given that these tracks were written for the bottle of whisk, the result was more than worthy. Jessica also acted as a sound engineer. However, due to her little experience in working as a sound engineer, in places there are not enough banal balance in sound: sounds layered on each other in about 70% of cases, dialogs with music-continuous cacaponia. And in general, the technical part is Achilles’s heel of this mod. The game itself can fly out for reason, as well as to lay and frill.
As a result, Korsakovia became for me one of the most curious horror modifications and horror-game in general. Due to total experiments in all directions, something really original and interesting in terms of narrative, script, music, levels of levels and their visualization turned out. Someone will twist a finger at the temple and say: “You praise a piece of crooked shit!". Perhaps, however, I can not help but share my emotions from passing this modification. It seems to me that if the intelligent levela designer in a compartment with an equally gifted programmer had passed on this fashion, the candy at the “Dear Esther” remake would have turned out, and so … we have what we have. If you manage to see in this fashion for the curvature of the technical part of the game and an obsolete look of its beauty, then you will get true pleasure from the game. For everyone else I can say: "Come by".