An Art Historian and Games?

Games are artistic and cultural forms of expression. They combine the visual, the narrative and the acoustic in an unprecedented way. Art, culture and history of the past and present have a great influence on game design and game art.

As an Art Historian, I support you in the creative process with regard to everything visual. Because an exact knowledge of the effect of art, architecture and culture in games leads to a stronger authenticity, persuasiveness and therefore immersion. Especially due to the rapidly advancing technical possibilities, this is becoming an increasingly important aspect in the gaming industry.

Narrative - Worldbuilding - Lore

One of my main focuses is the representation of architecture. It is not just a decorative background, but an integral part of worldbuilding, especially in games. It contributes significantly to immersion, interaction and mood creation.

By choosing the appropriate architectural styles, for example, historical depth can be created or regional references can be established. In connection with the associative cultural memory of the players, this contributes significantly to storytelling and worldbuilding.

The same applies to the other art genres: Painting, Sculpture and Design. Consciously and subconsciously, we associate certain times, ideas and experiences with them.

Art, culture and history are used in games to depict, represent and also characterize a place, scene, action or region.

Authenticity (which does not necessarily mean historical accuracy) leads to more immersion, the created world becomes more convincing.

Look & Feel

Mood and atmosphere: These are important aspects for a game. And difficult to grasp. They are created by the interaction of image, sound, story and interaction.

The visual aspects in video games follow compositional and phenomenological strategies from many centuries. They can be used to arouse emotions, create moods, and tell entire stories.

The right use of artistic and architectural effects sustainably promote the gaming experience and leave a deep, lasting impression.

Art, Culture, Community

Besides the services that are part of the creation of a game, I also offer support in all artistic and cultural aspects around games.

Have you ever noticed how many artists, game artists, game devs and level designers stream on Twitch outside of the Let's Play category? And how many people are excited about creating art or designing a quest?

Likewise, books with concept art, background info, and lore of an IP generate a lot of interest. Even research is increasingly looking at games, movies and other pop culture topics.

This shows: People are interested in all aspects of games, especially the artistic and cultural aspects and the background to their creation.

What does that mean?

That's why I support productions and projects in the gaming sector with:

the creation of reference materials, style guides & art bibles
input on image strategies and image effects
creating historical and cultural depth in-game
in the conception of image and spatial effects
historical advice on historical, artistic and cultural backgrounds

And for game studios, conventions, funding agencies, etc. in the areas of community management and public relations:

Content creation around artistic and cultural topics of the games for videos, streams, blogs
Talks, panels, interviews with artists, designers and developers
Conception, planning and realization of exhibitions with game art, concept art etc.
Conception, planning and realization of publications, catalogs, art books
Community formats for conventions, meetups etc.