It was a very good eye-opener that artists should be conscious of the potential negativity their work could have. It forced people to think about the impact of design, the choices an artist makes and how they are received. With that said, I am glad a discussion was brought up. Personally, I have a high threshold to what is “controversial,” so the design of The Sorceresses did not make a blip on the radar. It does reinforce a time-old, sad truth, that controversy sells. Which is an incredible feat for such a small game developer. How did the controversy affect the game? Well, it was the best-selling digital game on the Japanese PlayStation Network in 2013 and, as of July 2014, worldwide sales of the game reached 940,000 copies. Clearing up his intentions, and apologising to anyone who was offended by the design or caught in the crossfire. Culminating with Kamitani releasing an apology via Kotaku. This analysis obviously raised a heated debate from both sides of the fence. Schreier stated his objection, feeling that The Sorceresses was simply a sexual object to be ogled, and symbolic of a much large issue of sexism in the video game industry. However, not everyone felt it was just a simple case of artistic licence, prompting a back-and-forth between George Kamitani and Kotaku’s Jason Schreier. Kamitani intentionally used hyperbolic proportions as a means to set his characters apart from the abundance of fantasy designs already in today’s media market. That is because, upon the title’s release controversy ensued around the character’s exaggerated proportions. If the name sounds familiar to you, but you don’t know why. Highly praised for its fluid hand-drawn animation and enjoyable gameplay, earning an 8.5/10 from IGN. A 2D fantasy beat-’em-up and role-playing game. In 2013, Vanillaware released possibly their best-known title, Dragon’s Crown. Kamitani and team since released a string of cult titles including Princess Crown, Muramasa The Demon Blade and GrimGrimoire. The company’s first game, Odin Sphere, was released in 2007, published by Atlus. In 2002, he founded Vanillaware (originally named Puraguru), serving as President and Lead Artist. He has since gained a reputation for his beautiful hand-drawn characters and landscapes. He began a career in video games in 1993, with Capcom’s Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom. George Kamitani is based in Hiroshima City, Japan.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |