Brief: Develop an iterative experiment that ‘hacks’ it to do something that it is not intended to do. Consider how you can subvert its primary function, use, or context.
Function– What is does?
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs.
Use- How it does it?
Like most game engines, Unity has five components. The primary component is a program that contains the game logic, a rendering engine that generates 3D animated graphics. An audio engine component provides algorithms to create and manipulate sounds. For physical laws, a physics engine handles movement and collisions. For non-player actions and decisions, there is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) component.
Designing a game on Unity: Your game is composed by Scenes (Levels). Each scene contains GameObjects, which are the “things” that populate your level. – such as your player, your enemy, your terrain. Each GameObject contains Objects, also called components. These components are scripts that were programmed in order to do something specific, and then attached to a GameObject.
Context- What it does for?
Unity lets artists, designers, and developers collaborate to create immersive and interactive experiences that can work on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
The software does a great job in creating game experiences that the players/ audience can interact with for an engaging outcome.
Unity game engine is intended to create an immersive experience with the user’s input. I tried to hack it by creating an experience where the user has no control over the input.
Draft 02
I was fascinated by how changing variables like speed and time of the GameObjects affect the experience of the players. The interaction of the GameObjects with other GameObjects can make the game engaging for the player and elicit emotions like boredom, excitement or frustration which led me to wonder how can I put this in GCD context?
What if we add similar variables to graphic design elements to influence the user’s experience?
What if we give physics or audio variables to graphic design (visual) components- shape, size, colour, position, orientation, texture? How would these variables interact with each other in a 2D space?
While working on the iterations, various questions came up which were mostly about the form than the content. The iterations pretty soon came to be an experimentation of how we can reimagine the visual components of a page or even how can we reimagine and form a page itself. Unity game engine is intended to create an immersive experience with the user’s input. I tried to hack it by creating an experience where the user has no control over the input.
In his article “Fuck Content”, Michael Rock challenges the idea that content is the primary concern of graphic design, and argues that form is the essence of the discipline. He writes: “There is no such thing as bad content, only bad form,” quoting Paul Rand, and explains that the designer’s role is to shape, not to write, the content. He also claims that form is not a neutral or transparent medium, but a profoundly affecting one, that can convey meaning, emotion, and narrative. He states: “Designers also trade in storytelling. The elements we must master are not the content narratives but the devices of the telling: typography, line, form, colour, contrast, scale, weight. We speak through our assignment, literally between the lines.”
After applying Rock’s perspective to my project, I can analyse how the variables that I introduce to the graphic design elements affect the form and the meaning of the project. I can also evaluate how the form of my project reshapes the relationship between the content and the graphic elements of the page, as Rock suggests, and how it negotiates a new mode of communication and exchange.
By using Unity game engine, I am able to introduce variables that are not typically associated with graphic design, such as physics and audio, and see how they affect the form and the user’s perception of it. I am also able to create a dynamic and interactive environment, where the form is constantly changing.
In conclusion, Rock’s article provides a theoretical framework to understand the importance and impact of form in graphic design, and how it can be manipulated and experimented with to create new possibilities and experiences. It also helps me to situate my project within the broader context of systems that govern graphic design and language.
References
Rock, M. (2009). Fuck Content — 2×4. [online] 2×4. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/2009/fuck-content/.