German Expressionism

I'm finally taking the capstone class for EAE program, where I have to create a video game with a group that will be published. Right now, I'm coming up with pitches. Part of my problem with this is that the ideas that I have for games are not appropriate for this class because of size and time. While the time is only two semesters, about 8 months, the actual time to work on the game will be closer to 5-6 months. This is due to planning and getting approval for the game to publish will take up a few of those months. I'm very interested in making large scale, RPG games that would take a AAA studio several years to make. Trying to scale down has not been easy.

Starting out thinking of pitches, my ideas have not been very good. I've been coming up with stock platformers and caper games, even going as far to rip ideas straight from movies because I'm so unoriginal. Then I started to think about old German expressionist films from the 1920's. Films like Nosferatu, Metropolis, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. All these films have a distinct style of Chiaroscuro, color scheme, and a very distorted view of reality that ventures into dreamlike.

 Still from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (source: http://www.filmsquish.com/guts/files/images/caligari12.jpg)

That me me wonder what video games that might make use of the visual style. Turns out, the style is rarely used in AAA games and seldom in indie games. I would think that the german expressionism would be more used in indie games, or student games, as film students overuse the style to show an imitation of creativity. The closest I could find was Limbo. 

Still from Limbo (source: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01683/limbo-game1_1683129c.jpg)

Limbo certainly shares an artistic style with Dr. Calibari and the other black and white expressionist films due to its lighting and color scheme. While the game certainly has a dreamlike state, it doesn't match Calibari's use of distorted perspectives and shapes. The emphasis on a distorted reality isn't the decisive factor if a film is an expressionist film; Nosferatu relied more heavily on lighting than a distored reality.

Many games are more inspired with film noir, which itself was inspired by German expressionism, which features the use of Chiaroscuro in a more sedated reality. Contrast is a game which seems to be inspired by the early film noir of the '30s and '40s, but when looking at the style, would be more reminiscent of Nosferatu. 

still from Nosferatu (source: http://www.derek-turner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/nosferatu-4.jpeg)

still from Contrast (source: http://4.images.gametrailers.com/image_root/vid_thumbs/2013/11_nov_2013/nov_11/gt_contrast_review_em_11-13_6am.jpg?)

In many respects, Contrast could be considered an expressionist film. The game is set in an alternate reality 1920's where Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is used as justification for an extremely distorted reality where the user can shift into the shadow they project and move around in that plane of existence. 

still from Contrast (source: http://cdn.destructoid.com//ul/265659-C1.jpg)

When playing the game, the game feels more similar to a film noir, like M, than by a German expressionist film, like Nosferatu. This is the problem with art styles; there are so many interpretations that it cannot easily be defined nor categorized. There are films that have elements of the style, but could not be considered that style, just like many film noirs can't be considered German expressionism. 

That is why I want to make a game that is truly based on German expressionism than film noir. I want a game that has heavy use of light and shadow, and has a heavily distorted view of reality. One of the games that I will be pitching will be based on that style. A game of hyperbolic emotion with little to no reality. A game where the player has to go through many points in time to right a lifetime of evil. Each time point will be a heavily distorted view of the reality that actually was, and how the main character saw the world. The hub where the player can traverse to the different time points would be like an M.C. Escher drawing with distorted perspectives. 

source: https://thefalloutgirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/escher-big.jpg

It'll probably turn out that I'm the only one passionate about this idea, and it won't make it past the first selection process; however, I do want to make a German expressionist game and I will have both an art style and an idea in my back pocket to when I could potentially make the game. A concrete idea is more than what most people have, even if it does suck.