"The Art in Video Games - French inspiration" in Musée d'Art Ludique

Exhibition review

The exhibition "The Art in video games - French Inspiration" opened on 25 September 2015 at the Musée d'Art Ludique. This small museum opened in 2013 to promote art that influences our generation: cinema and animated films, superheroes, manga, video games. It hosted a Pixar exhibition, Marvel superheroes and films, Ghibli Studios, Aardman, and now video games!

As I was walking along the Quai d'Austerlitz in Paris from the Métro towards the Musée d'Art Ludique, I was wondering what the exhibit would be like. I have to admit I am not a gamer and I do not know much about video games (to be perfectly honest, I know nothing at all about it). But the exhibit is stunning! You don't need to be a video game specialist to fully appreciate it.

I did not realise how much work was put into the design, the graphics, the drawings, the sketches, the paintings, the sculptures, the environment of the game. Through approximately 800 captivating works of art, you will discover the techniques and the inspirations behind these fascinating creations.

The exhibit presents various surprising elements. Video games are the result of a very complex process: the artists have to carefully reflect upon every single detail. For example, for a historical video game like Assassin's Creed, the creators have to find the perfect balance between real historical events and the fictional storyline of the game. If this balance is not right, the video game will not be credible to the player.

Another example is the video game Remember Me. The setting, Paris in 2084, needs to be a perfect balance between real Parisian environment and futuristic elements. Indeed, if this balance is not perfect, this version of the future Paris will not seem plausible: the developers of the game need to find the right combination of futuristic elements like flying cars and huge screen across the city and of real Parisian monuments like the Haussmann buildings, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame de Paris. This balance is crucial for the players to dive completely into the game.

Another surprising aspect of video games is the design of the environment and the inspirations behind it. For Heavy Rain, a game taking place in a city on the East Coast of the US, the creators went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, simply to get the exact appreciation of the environment. There, they explained in a video, they had a feeling of depression, of sadness. They re-created these feelings in the game by using dark shades throughout the game and rain all the time (though the degree of rain varies and changes the effect produced. For example, when there is heavy rain, the scenes will be darker and more depressing, the characters in the streets will walk faster, stare at the ground instead of in front of them and try to protect themselves from the rain.) The more details are included, the more the game will reflect reality and the more the game's quest will be real.

In another video game, set in Nepal, the creators drew sketches of the environment and then travelled to Nepal. However, as soon as they landed, they realised they had to start all over again because their sketches were based on the stereotypical version of Nepal, of the Himalayas and of the Nepalis. So the artists always have to make it as realistic as possible, which requires a huge amount of work, of traveling, of observation and of sketching. Thus, the environment of the video game is very important to the artists, and to re-create the exact surroundings, they have a lot of preparatory work to do before they can start their artwork.

There is so much more gripping explanations throughout the exhibit than what I have mentioned here. So, my advice would be: don't forget to check it out when you go to Paris! You have until 6 March 2016, so there's no rush (make sure not to miss it though, it would be such a shame!)

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