WEBVTT 00:00:05.510 --> 00:00:08.572 I think it’s time for a pop quiz. 00:00:08.572 --> 00:00:09.994 First question. 00:00:09.994 --> 00:00:11.155 What is this? 00:00:12.224 --> 00:00:13.612 No, it’s a building. 00:00:14.234 --> 00:00:15.276 Second question. 00:00:15.667 --> 00:00:16.714 What is this? 00:00:17.214 --> 00:00:23.562 That’s right. It’s the Australian Centre for Moving Images located in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. 00:00:23.562 --> 00:00:30.220 Inside these walls is a large array of objects relating to cinema, animation and video games. They’ve 00:00:30.220 --> 00:00:35.270 got a replica of the Pursuit Special from Mad Max. They’ve got old timey film cameras 00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:41.320 and television sets. They’ve even got fucking Mario Kart. And now, they have a display dedicated 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.820 entirely to Hollow Knight. 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:48.490 Of course, Hollow Knight has been a huge indie success and it’s won plenty of awards, so 00:00:48.490 --> 00:00:52.260 something like this isn’t really that big of a surprise. But it’s still really cool 00:00:52.260 --> 00:00:57.050 to see this game continue to get recognition like this. What’s cool about this display 00:00:57.050 --> 00:01:01.530 is that the museum was able to get their hands on actual development documents and drawings 00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:02.830 from Team Cherry. 00:01:02.830 --> 00:01:07.041 Now a good chunk of what is on display here is stuff we have already seen. Like these 00:01:07.041 --> 00:01:11.710 screenshots. I swear I’ve seen these exact same images about 1000 times by now. Some 00:01:11.710 --> 00:01:16.250 of these are so old, they date back to before Hollow Knight actually released when the Knight 00:01:16.250 --> 00:01:21.240 with only 4 masks. These screenshots just keep getting reused everywhere and it’s 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:22.240 kinda funny. 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:26.900 There are also some framed images of early map designs for Hallownest. These were shown 00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:31.250 off in an interview Team Cherry had with PC Gamer. It seems like these drawings are what 00:01:31.250 --> 00:01:36.380 Team Cherry had on hand to show off, and they just ended up giving it to the ACMI. Who knows 00:01:36.380 --> 00:01:40.330 what else is lying around the Team Cherry office that deserves to be in a museum? 00:01:40.330 --> 00:01:44.590 There are also some images of the Unity Asset Browser, which Team Cherry would have used 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:49.760 during development as well as two images of King’s Pass, one showing the black boxes 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:53.670 that are used for the floors and walls in the game, and one with the finished art assets 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:57.660 on top. Finally, there’s a monitor that appears to be playing the launch trailer for 00:01:57.660 --> 00:01:58.660 Hollow Knight. 00:01:58.660 --> 00:02:03.189 So yeah, nothing here really lights the world on fire. But Team Cherry did give the museum 00:02:03.189 --> 00:02:08.750 a few other things. Namely sketchbooks. Ari Gibson would meet up with other artists at 00:02:08.750 --> 00:02:13.410 coffee shops once a week and draw tons of art that would later be used for designs in 00:02:13.410 --> 00:02:18.000 the game. A few images from these sketchbooks have surfaced through an interview Team Cherry 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:22.270 had with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, but the museum has actually shared a few more images with 00:02:22.270 --> 00:02:23.709 us on their website. 00:02:23.709 --> 00:02:27.680 We got some new art for the Broken Vessel, including a sketch of it resting in what appears 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:32.150 to be Greenpath. We can even see this area depicted in an old video Team Cherry shared 00:02:32.150 --> 00:02:37.011 on their Twitter, back when they still used their Twitter that is. And from looking at 00:02:37.011 --> 00:02:41.450 an early map, we can tell that the Broken Vessel was originally located where the Hornet 00:02:41.450 --> 00:02:43.330 1 fight is in the final game. 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:47.900 We also got this nice drawing of the White Lady. We can see that over time her design 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:52.880 was changed so she is… bigger. It’s also possible that this is what the White Lady 00:02:52.880 --> 00:02:56.810 was supposed to look like before she rooted herself into the ground. Like when she was 00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.269 sitting in that chair in the White Palace. 00:02:59.269 --> 00:03:03.650 There are also some early Crossroads drawings including some of Myla, both before and after 00:03:03.650 --> 00:03:07.940 getting infected. There are also some early sketches of the promotional art that they 00:03:07.940 --> 00:03:12.610 made for the Kickstarter, as well as some sketches of Deepnest, including a few different 00:03:12.610 --> 00:03:17.670 Nosk sketches. It seems like Nosk went through a few iterations from its initial concept 00:03:17.670 --> 00:03:22.760 to what we see in the final game. Good thing Team Cherry refined it so much. And now it’s 00:03:22.760 --> 00:03:24.570 the best boss in the game. 00:03:24.570 --> 00:03:28.550 One of the more interesting pages shows off what appear to be some new Abyss creatures. 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:32.920 We can see the Shade Beast here, who is rocking that same dad bod that we see in the final 00:03:32.920 --> 00:03:38.900 game. But we can also see this weird puppa thing, and this thing that looks like a hopper, 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:43.010 and some other thing that looks like that thing in the Silksong Demo. And there’s 00:03:43.010 --> 00:03:47.970 also this, which I’m too scared to even describe to you. We know that there were more 00:03:47.970 --> 00:03:52.940 ideas for the Abyss, but Team Cherry left a lot out of the final game. Hollow Knight 00:03:52.940 --> 00:03:57.300 had to ship at some point. It’s not like Silksong where Team Cherry has millions of 00:03:57.300 --> 00:04:02.340 dollars. So if we still don’t get this puppa in Silksong, I’m gonna be pissed. 00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:06.500 On this page, we get a sketch of the Hollow Knight. There are some basic ideas written 00:04:06.500 --> 00:04:10.970 out here, like that the Hollow Knight has its own mind as well as a bunch of questions 00:04:10.970 --> 00:04:15.599 that would eventually make up the driving mystery of the game. This page also mentions 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:22.389 AVCon, which helps us date this page to around July of 2015. July 2015 is when Team Cherry 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:26.919 went to AVCon and let people try out the game for the first time ever. After the convention, 00:04:26.919 --> 00:04:31.080 they had a lot of changes to make based on feedback. It’s interesting to think about 00:04:31.080 --> 00:04:35.460 how far along the story and lore for the game was developed at this point. We can at least 00:04:35.460 --> 00:04:40.060 see that the concept of the Hollow Knight as a character was very clearly defined at 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:41.080 this point. 00:04:41.080 --> 00:04:46.479 We also get a single image of another sketchbook. This one appears to be William Pellen’s. 00:04:46.479 --> 00:04:50.120 It has more technical notes about how the camera system would work in Hollow Knight. 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:52.430 There’s also a sketch of Leg Eater. 00:04:52.430 --> 00:04:56.919 Overall, these drawings are really cool to see. At least for someone like me who can’t 00:04:56.919 --> 00:05:01.249 stop obsessing over this game. Unfortunately, it seems like there’s still a lot of pages 00:05:01.249 --> 00:05:05.860 we haven’t seen yet. I’m thinking we might need to pull a National Treasure on this bitch. 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:09.559 If you want to check out all the available images from the gallery, you can go to the 00:05:09.559 --> 00:05:14.539 ACMI website and check them out. Otherwise this video is kinda short, so I’m just gonna 00:05:14.539 --> 00:05:15.960 ramble for a bit. 00:05:15.960 --> 00:05:20.680 So now that Hollow Knight is in a museum, does that mean it has truly turned into art? 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:25.039 Can video games even be considered art? That was a question that came up a lot like 10 00:05:25.039 --> 00:05:30.499 or 15 years ago. But nowadays, I feel like everyone has kinda just agreed that they are. 00:05:30.499 --> 00:05:34.680 Which makes sense. Part of the resistance to the idea of games as art was how it was 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:40.039 seen as a waste of time and damaging to the fabric of society. That is definitely not 00:05:40.039 --> 00:05:45.210 the case anymore. Video games are mainstream now. More and more people view video games 00:05:45.210 --> 00:05:49.680 as more than just a mindless distraction. And we’ve seen an influx of well known actors 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:56.389 appearing in games such as Kevin Spacey in Call of Duty, Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077 00:05:56.389 --> 00:05:59.240 and even Steven Seagul in Doom Eternal. 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:03.880 On top of that, we have seen games that push heavy narratives and emotional stories. Big 00:06:03.880 --> 00:06:09.159 games like The Last of Us: Part 2 are discussed just as much for their story as their gameplay, 00:06:09.159 --> 00:06:14.589 perhaps even moreso. These games try to be incredibly cinematic as well. Like the amazing 00:06:14.589 --> 00:06:19.610 Geralt bathtub scene in the Witcher 3. And fuck, look at this guy eating bread in Yakuza 00:06:19.610 --> 00:06:25.379 7. Like damn. And it’s not just the big games. Even smaller indie platformers like 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:29.819 Celeste are bundled with stories that tackle topics like depression and anxiety. And they 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:34.719 elicit strong emotional responses from a lot of people. So we can see a definite trend 00:06:34.719 --> 00:06:39.440 of video games trying to be more artistic. But does this mean only games within the last 00:06:39.440 --> 00:06:41.929 10 or so years can be considered art? 00:06:41.929 --> 00:06:46.550 Of course that’s the thing about art. It’s incredibly subjective. You could ask 100 different 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:51.099 people what makes something a piece of art and get 100 different answers. Take the classic 00:06:51.099 --> 00:06:56.819 NES game Super Mario Bros for example. The lead designer on this game was Shigeru Miyamoto. 00:06:56.819 --> 00:07:01.749 Surely the man responsible for so many amazing games must view games as art, right? Well 00:07:01.749 --> 00:07:05.159 no. In an interview with Glixel, Miyamoto said the following: 00:07:05.159 --> 00:07:10.129 I’m a designer. I don’t think of myself as creating works, I really think of myself 00:07:10.129 --> 00:07:13.819 as creating products for people to enjoy. That’s why I’ve always called my games 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:16.059 products rather than works of art. 00:07:16.059 --> 00:07:20.149 But despite Miyamoto seeing his games more as products, that didn’t stop the young 00:07:20.149 --> 00:07:24.459 people playing those games from developing strong emotional bonds to them. Take Edward 00:07:24.459 --> 00:07:29.249 Snowden for example. Most well known for his cameo appearance in the long running anime 00:07:29.249 --> 00:07:34.689 series Lupin the Third, Edward Snowden also authored a memoir titled Permanent Record. 00:07:34.689 --> 00:07:37.749 In this book, Snowden shared his experience with the NES classic. 00:07:37.749 --> 00:07:42.179 Ultimately, though, it was Super Mario Bros. that taught me what remains perhaps the most 00:07:42.179 --> 00:07:47.080 important lesson of my life. ...When the game begins, Mario is standing all the way to the 00:07:47.080 --> 00:07:52.119 left of the legendary opening screen, and he can only go in one direction. ...Throughout 00:07:52.119 --> 00:07:56.620 all thirty-two levels, Mario exists in front of what in gaming parlance is called “an 00:07:56.620 --> 00:08:01.629 invisible wall,” which doesn’t allow him to go backward. There is no turning back, 00:08:01.629 --> 00:08:06.589 only going forward—for Mario and Luigi, for me, and for you. 00:08:06.589 --> 00:08:10.899 Life only scrolls in one direction, which is the direction of time, and no matter how 00:08:10.899 --> 00:08:15.719 far we might manage to go, that invisible wall will always be just behind us, cutting 00:08:15.719 --> 00:08:19.429 us off from the past, compelling us on into the unknown. 00:08:19.429 --> 00:08:24.369 So is Super Mario Bros just simply a product to entertain children or a deep allegory on 00:08:24.369 --> 00:08:28.509 the nature of mortality, the frailty of humanity, and the inevitability of death? And that’s 00:08:28.509 --> 00:08:33.860 why I don’t think it’s useful to discuss individual games when talking about games 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:39.259 as art. Sure, I may know that Garfield: Caught in the Act is an artistic masterpiece, but 00:08:39.259 --> 00:08:43.719 we don’t all have 6 hours for me to explain it. It’s not that games coming out today 00:08:43.719 --> 00:08:48.660 are objectively better pieces of art. It’s that gaming as an artform as a whole has gained 00:08:48.660 --> 00:08:51.720 legitimacy over the course of several decades. 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:56.290 This is a process that all new art mediums go through. Take film for example. In the 00:08:56.290 --> 00:09:00.990 early days of film, it was seen more as mere entertainment. Of course, those working in 00:09:00.990 --> 00:09:05.560 the medium wanted film to be viewed as art. 1927 saw the establishment of the Academy 00:09:05.560 --> 00:09:09.750 of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which among other things, attempted to paint the 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:12.290 motion picture industry in a more favorable light. 00:09:12.290 --> 00:09:17.519 In the 1950s, competitive film festivals began popping up. This whole idea of films being 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:22.329 compared to one another for how well they are made, by people who had studied film critically 00:09:22.329 --> 00:09:27.540 helped legitimize filmmaking as an art form. And in the 1960s, courses in film study began 00:09:27.540 --> 00:09:31.959 appearing in universities across the country. The sixties also saw the rise of the French 00:09:31.959 --> 00:09:36.340 concept of auteurism in the United States, where films weren’t just made to reflect 00:09:36.340 --> 00:09:40.980 the desires of the studios, but instead were reflections of a single director’s artistic 00:09:40.980 --> 00:09:41.980 vision. 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:45.730 So it wasn’t around until the 60s that films were widely considered for their artistic 00:09:45.730 --> 00:09:51.529 value, but we can look back at films like Casablanca, Citizen Kane and King Kong which 00:09:51.529 --> 00:09:54.920 are applauded today by film critics as great works of art. 00:09:54.920 --> 00:09:58.500 Switching back to video games, we can see that it has been on a similar trajectory as 00:09:58.500 --> 00:10:03.829 well. In 2004, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts began giving awards to 00:10:03.829 --> 00:10:09.829 video games. In 2012, the Smithsonian Museum ran an exhibition on the Art of Video Games. 00:10:09.829 --> 00:10:15.129 And in 2014, the Game Awards became a thing. And now they are as hated by general audiences 00:10:15.129 --> 00:10:18.300 as the Oscars are. Now that’s progress! 00:10:18.300 --> 00:10:25.199 It has now become a really bad idea to bet against the value of video games. Take for 00:10:25.199 --> 00:10:30.439 example, Andrzej Sapkowski. Andrzej Sapkowski is best known for authoring the fantasy novel 00:10:30.439 --> 00:10:35.069 series, The Witcher. These books have garnered a cult-like following in Eastern Europe and 00:10:35.069 --> 00:10:39.920 have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. But when Sapkowski gave CD Projekt Red the 00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:44.060 rights to translate the Witcher series to games, Sapkowski wanted no involvement in 00:10:44.060 --> 00:10:49.040 writing the story. To him, games were stupid, and completely incapable of providing the 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:53.940 kind of valuable storytelling found in literature. He said the following in an interview with 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:54.940 Vice: 00:10:54.940 --> 00:10:59.220 A video game serves a different purpose. It works differently. How much substance can 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:03.420 there be in the lines of text when the hero walks through the woods and talks to a squirrel? 00:11:03.420 --> 00:11:07.240 Where's the literature in that? Where's the room for depth or sophisticated language with 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:09.950 which games could elevate culture? There's none. 00:11:09.950 --> 00:11:14.839 Sapkowski had no faith in video games, and when it came to negotiating the finances, 00:11:14.839 --> 00:11:19.560 Sapkowski opted for an upfront payment instead of a percentage of the profits. He was sure 00:11:19.560 --> 00:11:25.090 CD Projekt Red would fail. Now, remember how I said the books have sold over 15 million 00:11:25.090 --> 00:11:30.490 copies? The Witcher games have sold over 50 million copies. In an interview with Eurogamer, 00:11:30.490 --> 00:11:32.339 Sapkowski said the following: 00:11:32.339 --> 00:11:36.199 I was stupid enough to sell them rights to the whole bunch. They offered me a percentage 00:11:36.199 --> 00:11:40.490 of their profits. I said, 'No, there will be no profit at all - give me all my money 00:11:40.490 --> 00:11:45.000 right now! The whole amount.' It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.760 their hands because I didn't believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? 00:11:49.760 --> 00:11:51.079 I couldn't. 00:11:51.079 --> 00:11:54.940 And not only are these games selling extremely well, but they have been praised for their 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:59.300 narratives and storytelling. George R. R. Martin has caught onto this, and teamed up 00:11:59.300 --> 00:12:03.779 with the developers behind Dark Souls, From Software, to do the world building for the 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:09.370 upcoming game Elden Ring. Just think about that. There are now world renowned authors 00:12:09.370 --> 00:12:14.899 writing the lore for item descriptions in video games. This can only lead to even more 00:12:14.899 --> 00:12:17.959 people analyzing and discussing these games. 00:12:17.959 --> 00:12:22.279 And that discussion is part of why I think games are more commonly considered art now 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:26.880 than a few decades ago. Since those early games, we have seen an artworld develop around 00:12:26.880 --> 00:12:31.310 video games. An artworld is basically when an ecosystem exists around a certain type 00:12:31.310 --> 00:12:37.060 of art. If there weren’t people interested in creating, studying, observing, purchasing 00:12:37.060 --> 00:12:41.320 and discussing paintings or sculptures or literature, they wouldn’t really be art 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:44.250 anymore, at least not the way we typically view them. 00:12:44.250 --> 00:12:49.410 In fact, the mere existence of something within an art world can turn it into art. Like when 00:12:49.410 --> 00:12:53.899 someone taped a banana to the wall at the Art Basel in Miami, Florida. Since the Art 00:12:53.899 --> 00:12:58.939 Basel itself and the people who run and visit it are a part of an art world, this banana 00:12:58.939 --> 00:13:03.620 itself became art to a lot of people simply because it was placed there. 00:13:03.620 --> 00:13:08.189 By that same token, it’s easier to argue for the artistic value of any individual game 00:13:08.189 --> 00:13:12.620 when the entire medium has been legitimized as an art form, whether that’s Hollow Knight 00:13:12.620 --> 00:13:18.800 or The Last of Us: Part 2 or Super Mario Bros. or Mario Kart. So it really comes down to 00:13:18.800 --> 00:13:23.810 time. I’m sure 50 years from now YouTube and TikTok videos will be featured in museums 00:13:23.810 --> 00:13:30.100 all around the world. And if you are watching this video in a museum in the year 2070, well, 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:32.411 I just have one question for you. 00:13:32.411 --> 00:13:33.269 Is Silksong out yet?