Made in Canada: Video Games as National Art

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen many arguments advocating video games as a unique art form that should be taken seriously. As well they should. The more video games develop and evolve, the more they establish a uniquely creative experience that cannot be seen in other art forms. And for the most part, those arguments are gaining traction. We’ve even seen art exhibits celebrating the importance of video games to culture.

But even though we’re starting to accept video games as art, another question arises: What about video games as national art?

Last night I attended “Made in Canada: Video Games as National Art”, a lecture hosted by the International Game Developer’s Association and featuring game developer Raphael van Lierop of Hinterland Games. As well as unveiling footage of his upcoming game, The Long Dark (which the Globe and Mail says “could possibly be the most Canadian video game ever put into production.”), he focused on the need to imbue more of our Canadian identity into the games we develop, rather than stamping it out in an attempt to make it more appealing to a mainstream market.

The Long Dark

It was honestly an issue that I had not even considered until I saw the name of the event. Then it occurred to me that when thinking of video games in a national sense, my categories were pretty much “Japan, and then the rest of the world” (well, okay, Europe as well but that’s because I’m an adventure gamer and many, many adventure games come out of Europe). And suddenly it seemed like an obvious question: why aren’t there more Canadian games out there?

Van Lierop is no stranger to the issue. In his years of working for Triple A companies, part of his job often involved erasing cultural indicators in imported video games to make them more American. This is what in part led him and a handful of others in the Triple A industry to break off and form Hinterland Games with the express purpose of putting their own uniquely Canadian voices to a game without fear of being watered down.

He likened this experience to that of Canadian literature in the 1960’s, which was all but non-existent save for commercial successes such as Anne of Green Gables. It took authors like Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro to change this outlook by unapologetically embracing their Canadian heritage in their works. Now it’s studios such as Hinterland who are trying to do the same for video games in Canada, a country that has absolutely no mid-level studio that isn’t owned by the US or Japan (although there is a very large indie community).

So how do we do this? For van Lierop, it was simply about using his own experiences as a Canadian to inform his games. In the case of The Long Dark, this involves the vast and gorgeous landscape that the Pacific Northwest hast offer, the sense of isolation that we might feel in a largely empty country, and the will to survive those bitterly long winters. From what I saw of the footage, this is going to be one spectacular game.

Honestly, I would play this game just for the pretty alone

Is it everyone’s experience as a Canadian? Of course not, and unfortunately I feel that a few of the attendees missed the point of the lecture who questioned the lack of representation of other social groups and experiences within the game. Of course there is no way to properly represent absolutely every social group of a country in a single game. But then that’s not the point. The point is to be able to tell your own story from your own Canadian perspective and to contribute to the overall Canadian identity.

Contrary to what many might think, there seems to be no qualms from the international market, at least as far as The Long Dark is concerned. About 85% of the backers on the Kickstarter campaign were international, mostly consisting of Americans. Perhaps part of the issue is that we as Canadians are simply a bit too afraid to embrace that part of our identity.

Game of survival? Or just an artist’s representation of last winter? Or BOTH?!

It’s an attitude that needs to change. As van Lierop finished, he challenged the developers within the room to try it for themselves. Set games in Toronto or the prairies. Hire Canadian voice actors. Don’t be afraid to use the word “tuque”. Then perhaps, as we continue down that path, we can finally have a canon of Canadian video games.