Rough Template

The format of this piece will be something like this:

There will be great variation of character heights, of course, but this is the basic idea. Flying characters will of course be given their spot in the sky, and Dig Dug ought to be popping out of the ground. :)

The Pantheon

In creating a narrative piece put together in three images, I am going to create a "class photo"-ish sequence which displays a TON of video game characters, the oldest at the left and the most modern on the right. I am going to use screen in-game snapshots (in .png format ("pings" henceforth) that I will take myself) so that each character's composition will be their original in-game image. At the bottom of the page I will list names from left to right and year introduced as most people won't know many of the characters from early in game history, from the arcade era. The story that will be told will me multifarious; it will simultaneously detail technological advancement in the game industry (and therefore advanced artistic capabilities) and the maturing of game philosophy as the industry moved from infancy to its current state of adolescence.

I plan to accomplish this piece by editing pings so that each player character is isolated (either standing or in action, depending on the nature of the game) and I will then paste each character in place in the proper frame. I will increase the brightness of the characters in the front and dim the characters in the back to provide a sense of depth in the piece. I am not yet sure what I will do with the background. It will not be plain white, but it may be plain black or some other scene. I don't want to distract an observer's eye from the central focus of the piece (it will be busy enough) with a cluttered background. Whatever the case, I will figure it out.

I am really excited about this assignment, mainly because I love video games so much. Is that so wrong?