One interpretation of games as art, could potentially be a very short game. I notice a lot of people make jpeg art, I'm thinking of the cracked.com photoshop contests but there is a lot of single-image art online. How about a first-person shooter mod that contains a single 3D map, and that one 3D map/model is the art piece that replaces the single jpeg? The creation time wouldn't necessarily be that much more than creating a single jpeg, which is often given away free in exchange for advertising dollars, creating a new brand of artist; something in-between a hardcore pro game maker and a jpeg-website maker. This could also be done via a very short single player gaming experience, or for something more novel a very short multiplayer game. One thing I think would be a neat artsy thing to do that could be given away for advertising dollars or funded in other cheap ways due to ultralow production costs would be to make an MMO using a package like RealmCraft, to make a fun MMO that is "standard" like world of warcraft very quickly, but make it so pvp is open and you start over when you die, dropping any unbroken equipment. In a sense you can create a quick mod of a game in a similar timeframe to making any other piece of static art, and create something new and different in that way, possibly via incorporating heavier and more realistic, but unpopular, features? Also would include things like a deceptive game, where it says the game is one thing but something else happens in the game, making it almost like a short joke or short story in video-game interactive storytelling format, albeit with a shorter length, lower production values, and a lower cost-of-entry and possibly system requirements as well, maybe even the ability to run said game in a browser in a flash environment, maybe via some sort of 3D in-browser program maker. I heard microsoft silverlight was good for that with its visual studio integration (free with visual web developer express, also free), and that could be a good place to make artsy game-shorts that may or may not contain standard or alternative interactivity, also a good place to try out new styles of games or new twists on old styles, especially if source or toolkits/modkits are available. I should note modding a game and making a game have a ton of overlapping skills, including programming, modeling, design, storytelling, etc.

Since everybody is the same, if you can in fact build a game that you honestly enjoy playing, then others should enjoy it as well. I should also note it is very easy to make a game download / info web site, I personally have been using google blogger to make the web site and then mediafire for the free .zip file hosting. Note that most of the other people on the internet are about as good at interneting as you are.

I wonder if it would be art if you simply created a really beautiful level with some modest interactivity? Say, for instance, that you have a gorgeous skybox and give players the ability to paint clouds with particles. Would that be art? And if there were victory conditions and rules for drawing the clouds, but the result was typically very aesthetically pleasing, would it still qualify as a game?

I think making only a beautiful level might not be very popular...although I suppose the beauty matters? At the risk of censored, I did just think of a 3D adult scene that could be flown around with the camera - basically a still adult image except in 3D with user controls for viewing, and that ironically even grants it automatic 3D glasses support on certain computers making the beautiful level basically just a 3D painting / sculpture. I should note that not all paintings and sculptures are equally awesome; for every picasso, there's 500m kindergarten drawing assignments that are probably objectively not very high quality art. Then every once in a while someone makes some art that for one reason or another conveys an emotion, sentiment, statement, memory, or some other artistic, communicative, emotional, or human idea from the artist to the viewer. In this way a painting is like a newspaper, except while a newspaper communicates ideas via written text, a painting conveys an idea, memory, scene, etc. via brushstrokes, whereas computer gametool art would convey the art/info in the form of either a game or game portion, even one piece of a game such as a model, or even a soundtrack, although unless the music is generated dynamically by code it's sort of a more traditional format. ;p That being said, "game art" could potentially be music that is generated by code either with or without user input, for example it could non-randomly select a variety of short vocal records, and mix in other distorted or not recordings and instrument recordings and synthesis, all programatically and according to "rythmic" mathematical functions and user input, possibly with a game wrapped around it or not, or even as an API other games could use and/or with its own interface. Also I think if picasso were alive today, he could make a very nice 3D model art/sculpture that would probably be very mind-bending like his paintings were, although I think that perhaps a picasso like person might instead make a trippy game with the game tools, or even a more abstract game, like instead of having a main game loop that repeats with a bunch of varied resources, picasso might have a few main game resources that repeat with a ton of different code loops in odd or interesting dynamic sequences. So in some ways making anything is art, and making things with game sdks and game making tools doesn't have to necessarily be making games, or even regular fun games, maybe making regular games (possibly starting from kits or open source) but with some wild, wacky, experimental, or personal twist might make for a fun game, and if you personally objectively rate the quality of the game to be low perhaps make it shorter, or even if you put less effort/time into it expect the same from the user, so aim for fast installs and low play time to explore all the resources, maybe with a looping/level up/acheivement option for any who want extended play. Mixing game kits and game tools might make an artsy effect, as would attempting to convey information or ideas in a totally different format. For example, instead of watching a video and reading books to learn how to do a job, one could play a game-like simulation of a job or variety of jobs in an online multiplayer environment, and potentially earn online acheivements that are socially accepted one day as solid credentials, along with networking with other people who are either training for or practicing an already obtained career building path.

"Art" vs "Work of Art"

Quote:aersixb9:
I should note that not all paintings and sculptures are equally awesome; for every picasso, there's 500m kindergarten drawing assignments that are probably objectively not very high quality art. Then every once in a while someone makes some art that for one reason or another conveys an emotion, sentiment, statement, memory, or some other artistic, communicative, emotional, or human idea from the artist to the viewer. In this way a painting is like a newspaper, except while a newspaper communicates ideas via written text, a painting conveys an idea, memory, scene, etc.

Art is the set of knowledge used for representation and the set of skills used to do so. A work of art is the object (physical or digital) created doing art. So a painting or a game could be a work of art, but not art; because it is an object, not the knowledge itself. To create art is to create a new way to represent something.