Avant Garde

The term avant garde means in the literal sense; “new and experimental ideas and methods in art, music, or literature.” In short, something ahead of its time. In the sense of games design, avant garde could possible be used to describe a game’s art style, mechanics or all round presentation. Two good examples of “avant-garde” in video games would be The Last Night and Ashen. These two games are considered to be ahead of their time based upon their presentation and art style as well as game play mechanics, vanguarding a number of gameplay or aesthetic choices which have since been used to inspire a number of other similar games.

Personally, I believe that the ability to be truly “unique” within the games industry is impossible. To be truly unique within the world itself is a challenging task, for everything comes from something and nothing comes from nothing. So it may be possible to be so out there to truly be   “avant garde”, but in my experience everything can be traced back to somewhere, especially within games design; either it be a previous games that has influenced the mechanics of your own, or a piece of media or literature that has influenced the aesthetic style or the nature and themes of the story you are trying to tell.

Oddtales. (). The Last Night. Available: http://oddtales.net. Last accessed 7/12/17.

Aurora44. (). Ashen. Available: http://www.ashen-game.com/. Last accessed 7/12/17.