Most of us play video games in our spare time to relax. What makes you decide to buy a game? Because of the thrilling experience or the mesmerising graphics? Very few of us take the time to think about what are behind and beyond a game.

Nowadays, game design is recognised as a form of art. Digital art shares similar design elements with traditional art while being interactive. In fact, video games are arguably one of the most interactive form of art. Impressive visuals almost becomes a must for games now, but the mechanics should be considered too, because they have made titles successful without fascinating graphics.

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Behind a game, there are artists, designers, illustrators, animators, programmers and music composers who work so hard to perfect your experience. While a team creates a game, the staff want us to be a part of the story. Details are important. For example, all characters and objects you see, all maps and levels that you explore are carefully designed and planned. Illustrators and animators are keys to the good visuals. However, 3D graphics are a lot more than just aesthetics because they create worlds that give us realistic gaming experiences. More than often, gaming creates emotional impacts that resonate within us, such as joy, sadness, anger, excitement, satisfaction and more. As the game progresses, the character grows with you when you explore this artificial world. The interactions with other characters can reflect our society in real life.

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Beyond gaming itself, games can be designed for other reasons, conveying messages from the developers. Sometimes they can be reflections or questions on how we behave in our society. For example, “SimCity” was originally designed to train architects, but it also reminded us about environmental issues when we developed our cities. Another example would be “Death Stranding” by Hideo Kojima. He wants the players to understand why connection is important to humanity. Modern technologies make communication so convenient, but they can be beneficial and harmful at the same time. This can depend on how we apply various technologies.

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We have come a long way in game design since the first video game was introduced. Hardware and technologies are developing quickly and will keep on inspiring artists and designers. Today’s best graphics will look ancient in a few decades. One thing is for sure though, is the gaming experience will improve continuously, because innovation is what Art & Design do.