My initial plan for this project was to explore different types of designed media pertaining to video games, whether it was the games themselves, packaging, advertisement, merchandise, or other items that take reference from gaming-related aesthetics. When I started on my studies (as seen above), I ended up taking a different sort of approach. There are often times when products and media that aren’t video games themselves or have nothing specific to do with video games often draw on visual motifs and mechanical contexts of video games (such as health bars, quest objectives, mini-maps, etc). I decided that it could be a potentially interesting direction to explore image-making that evokes the aesthetics of playing a video game without it actually being a video game itself.
Within video games, there are a lot of small details that add up to create a sort of visual identity that is very consistent within the space. Often including menu elements, cross-hairs, and other previously mentioned interface elements. For my studies and final application, I worked to establish a feeling reminiscent of many old point-and-click adventure games as well as many indie games. I utilized pixelation and dither techniques to establish the low-resolution graphics that many of these types of games often utilize, either due to technical limitations from the time or as a stylistic choice. My final application I then attempted to establish a similar feeling but instead of a static image I created it as a video as I felt motion and sound could further elevate the concept.