Keeping it real

So, the last couple of posts I've dedicated to narrative game design, inspired by David O'Reilly, 3D animator, who made The Mountain game. He has a great, if somewhat academic, theory of what makes games appealing:

http://files.davidoreilly.com/downloads/BasicAnimationAesthetics.pdf

In short, he's dedicated to moving away from commercial animation that increasingly looks the same (we'll talk about why this is during my 3D animation SEP class), seeking desperate realness that ultimately makes it untrue. Rather than mimic realness, he instead believes animation should "own" it's artfulness, and the creator dedicate design to "aesthetic coherence", not trying to make something look real, but something that feels real because it's design is simple and consistent, and therefore authentic, in a way that conveys emotional "aha" when you experience a story unfolding.

He goes into quite a bit more detail about his process, so the link above is a fascinating read. He ties it up with a nice wrap up about simplicity:

"Everything is a simple as possible, but not simpler" - Albert Einstein

"Create original worlds ... forget everything about the idea of right or wrong, of beauty or ugliness, and focus on the idea of coherence"  - David O'Reilly