The Smithsonian American Art Museum just announced that flOw PC and Flower (Pictured) will be part of the exhibit taking place next year called The Art of Video Games!

Flower was up against Super Stardust HD (one game I have played many, many, many times) and PixelJunk Shooter, and flOw was up against Shatter and Everyday Shooter (one game I have played many, many, many times).  All awesome games and really fun, and congratulations for Q Games, Jonathan Mak/Queasy Games, Sidhe Interactive, and Housemarque for being nominated!  And congratulations to every other game developer who has had their game nominated or chosen to be part of this amazing exhibit!

Here are some links:

Art of Video Games website:
http://www.artofvideogames.org
PDF of all the winners:
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/winninggames.pdf
The exhibit page at the American Art Museum’s website:
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/#games

Again, all of these games nominated and voted in are showing everyone that games can be so much more and have impacted millions of lives.  We would like to sincerely thank each of you for playing our games, supporting us in your emails and comments, and sharing our games with your friends and family.  You truly do inspire us.

This week, we bring you another interview, this time of Michael Peddicord:

What do you do on a day-to-day basis for thatgamecompany?

Michael Peddicord: I’m a tools engineer here at thatgamecompany. I’ve been here about a year. Basically, I’ve been working pretty closely to tools, the artists, and the designers, trying to create a workflow that is quick and effective, so they can get their stuff done!

Bryan Singh:  I’m a technical game designer here at thatgamecompany and what that means is I do a lot of mechanics design and implementation, level design and implementation, and programming and engineering. I’m part of that bridge between the engineering and design disciplines.

Bryan: I’ve worked here for almost two years now. I started here June of 2009, at the beginning of Journey.

Bryan:  I’ve actually asked myself this a lot of times. I like doing a lot of stuff and I don’t know if I do consider myself restricted to games. Growing up, games have always been around and they’ve had an impact on me, so that’s what I’ve grabbed onto.

I think thatgamecompany chose games because we’re one of the first generations to have grown up with digital games and we are seeing how much they can affect people. We want to help make games that affect people in the right way.

Bryan:  Everyone has the same hours.  Our core hours are about 10:30-7. We start a little bit late – that’s kind of the norm for the games industry.   As far as pushing nonstop until it’s done, we try very consciously not to do that. We really strongly believe that if something’s not done on time, killing yourself to try to get it done just won’t produce quality work.

That’s right, you can submit your games to IndieCade, the first stand-alone independent video game festival!

But what exactly is IndieCade?  Well, it’s a yearly, three-day long festival hosted in Los Angeles.  Every year, a jury of industry leaders select a bunch of submitted games as finalists, and displays them at IndieCade.  (And even if your game isn’t selected, it might still be on display at IndieCade!)  And finally, there are a number of awards that are given to some of the finalists, such as Aesthetics, Fun/Compelling, Gameplay Innovation, Sublime Experience, and World/Story.

This year, IndieCade will be hosted between October 6-9, and again in galleries, cafes, and theaters throughout downtown Culver City (Los Angeles), California, U.S.A.  If you live in or around Los Angeles, you can stop by and check out these games, or go to the conference itself.

On to the subject of submitting your games, you have until March 31st to get the best deal on the submission fee.  Here’s the fee schedule:

• March 1st-31st: Early Submissions, $35
• April 1st-May 31st: Regular Submissions, $45
• June 1st-15th: Late Submissions, $70

If you are a finalist, you’ll be contacted by August 15th.

You can also donate to IndieCade to help them help independent video game developers.  And you can even get discounts on merchandise or the conference with some membership options.

Anyways, 2011 is looking like it’s going to be a great year for indie games at IndieCade again!

And click here for more information, to read eligibility requirements, or to submit your game

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Michael Samyn of Tale of Tales (The Path, The Graveyard, The Endless Forest) wrote an article last month for Escapist Magazine about video games as art.  He presents his view on why video game developers have strayed away from advancing video games as an art form.  In essence, everyone is looking at how to create video games the wrong way.  When most game ideas are created, the developers look for ways to use the technology in new ways or to make something that is fun.  Art, Michael says, is derived from wanting to explore a certain theme or convey a message that cannot be said in any other way.

“We’re not looking for a spot in the museum; we’re looking for a place in the heart of the public at large. And for that we will need to work as artists.”

At thatgamecompany, ideas for video games essentially come from a want to convey an emotion or message, which is probably why we, as well as Tale of Tales, are so understood and misunderstood at the same time.

All other entertainment industries give overwhelming artistic control over their projects to a couple people, though the people giving the money still have a large amount of say for what the final product ends up being.  Michael finishes the article by stating how the search for efficiency has, in effect, destroyed the chances for the industry to, en masse, move towards creating art.  That is, unless they give full creative control to the creator of the idea.

“Almost Art by Michael Samyn at The Escapist”