Get a sneak peek of The Artists, our new series on the visionary creators of classic video games
Despite their massive cultural impact, game artists haven't been celebrated like others. Let's change that
From its beginnings as a bizarre electronic curio for kids in the early 70s through its ubiquitous worldwide ascent in the late 90s, video games haven't stopped inspiring and inciting an eager audience over the last 40 years.
The Artists dives into the relatively undocumented first three decades of the video game industry and tells you the stories of the designers, companies and, of course, seminal games that have transformed video game history through these eras.
Watch Episode 1: Seeing Farther
A young upstart in the gaming industry announces their intentions in an evocative ad campaign, which puts game designers front and centre, and challenges the very notions of what art can be.
Despite their massive success and cultural impact, video games haven't enjoyed the same hagiography afforded to comparable mediums. We all know Scorsese, Spielberg and Coppola, but how many will recognize the names of Crawford, Bunten or Romero? For a massive audience, video games are the films of the 21st century, and their primary source of storytelling. How did that happen?
Through exclusive interviews with the designers and programmers that had front row seats to the technological revolution that brought interactive entertainment into our homes, The Artists documents these unheralded creators — including John Romero (Doom), Trip Hawkins (founder of EA), Bill Budge (Pinball Construction Kit) and many others. These personal, engaging stories reveal what it was like to create games during this era.
Watch Episode 4: The Doom Generation
Few games have had the impact that Doom has — on both the gaming industry and pop culture. The team behind the game had been working together for several years, and it showed in Doom — a fully realized, immersive world that had a real sense of style. Internal conflicts broke the team apart, but the legacy of Doom and what it meant to gaming is evergreen.
The Artists unearths the human-scale stories and conflicts that have gone into the making of this global economy. An energetic, witty account of this stunning artistic and business success story, The Artists is the saga of how the product from a group of young designers, programmers and entrepreneurs became such an immense, transformative cultural force. Watch the first two episodes now, and come back for the rest soon.