Bringing Architecture Drawings and Models to Life through Video Games

Computer-generated graphics have gotten sophisticated beyond our wildest dreams and video games are almost completely realistic at this point. However, a new crop of games takes a different approach, opting instead for an overtly graphic approach. It might have something to do with the fact that we have now all but mastered the technology to create hyper-realistic architecture and environments. As in architecture itself, there is no longer a challenge in verisimilitude — thus, cartoonish graphic design becomes a more compelling option.

Figments. Image via oleomingus.tumblr.com

A recent example is edifying precisely because it is still in process: Screenshots of Figments are available on the development blog, and it looks promising. The imagery depicts colorful, playful buildings that incorporate just a splash of historic styles, such as Victorian and Moorish, to evoke a fantastic world of architecture. They haven’t finished the grass, however, as it is still “its miserable old self.” The game looks like it was created at the RCA, or by one of England’s other acronymic finest: AOC, MUF, or FAT.

Figments. Image via oleomingus.tumblr.com

It also has resemblances of Lumino City, a game generated by creating in real life a setting composed entirely of paper, card, wood, miniature lights, and electric motors; art director Catrina Stewart of Office S&M is unsurprisingly a cohort of AOC/FAT/RCA/Peter Cook (Archigram). (The Brits sure know how to name firms, huh?) The architecture is similarly cobbled together from a mixture of styles, both regal and quotidian. Ornate detailing can be seen alongside cor-ten roofing, giving the architecture a nuanced but unfamiliar vibe, to the effect that this game-in-a-model has a particularly tactile quality.

Meanwhile, in Monument Valley, the relationship of architecture and video games takes off in a new direction, using beautiful, challenging architecture as the main protagonist of its 3D adventure. The game is about discovering a world of beauty and fantastic geometry, and rather than simply using the built environment to deliver an experience, the environment itself is the experience. It is a dynamic, animated version of the drawings of M.C. Escher mixed with the axonometric experience of Marble Madness. Character manipulation causes the architecture to shift and move in impossible ways.

In all of these games, the surroundings are essentially architectural drawings and models. Not realistic 3D models, which are relegated to the backgrounds, but graphic and cartoon-like environments. Based on A.J. Artemel’s overview on how architecture is used in video games, this particular type of game fits the bill for “Surrealist Mindbending.” They operate outside of the laws of the real built environment — even outside the laws of physics — and allude to architecture even as they subvert their architectural medium. While Monument Valley is clearly inspired by Escher (like Myst referenced Gaudí), the other games do not make such explicit gestures. They all, however have taken the architectural drawing and brought it to life, for us to explore with new eyes.