Phaidon’s survey of the art of video games evokes wonder and nostalgia
‘Game Changers: The Video Game Revolution’ chronicles the evolution of the art and style of the world’s most popular entertainment medium
![Game Changers: The Video Game Revolution, Phaidon](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UEzePYrVcZQphabNvVAmeB-415-80.jpg)
Phaidon’s survey of the art of video games is an exercise in imagination and nostalgia. A personal study of 300 of the most influential electronic game titles over the past 70 years, Game Changers: The Video Game Revolution is a colourful romp through the static frames of classics old and new.
A spread from Game Changers: The Video Game Revolution featuring Cyberpunk 2077
Arranged alphabetically – so pixel count and clarity shift wildly from page to page – the book is prefaced by essays from The New Yorker contributor Simon Parkin and India Block of Disegno, setting out the history and cultural impact of gaming. There’s also that old chestnut – can a game be considered art? (See more on the art-and-gaming relationship in the current exhibition ‘Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age’ at Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf.)
Hidden Folks, featured in Game Changers
The global video game industry is fast approaching annual revenues of $200 billion, a fair distance ahead of global cinema box office of around $26 billion (in 2022). The language and mechanisms of gaming, whether casual, social, diehard, competitive or escapist, infuses every other form of digital interaction. The world’s drug of choice is dopamine.
The video game design choices in every screenshot
Monument Valley, one of the featured games in the book
Game Changers doesn’t dwell too much on the addictive qualities of the medium, focusing instead on the characters and environments that gaming has introduced into the culture. Every screenshot represents thousands upon thousands of design choices, first from the artists and coders, then from the players themselves, who manoeuvre themselves through the rules of these worlds.
The entry dedicated to Kentucky Route Zero
Gaming in the modern era is more diverse and varied than ever before, with the tools available to represent any artistic style or era of gaming, from retro through to near photo-realism, and Game Changers does a good job of highlighting milestones of technology and gameplay.
A screenshot from Kentucky Route Zero
Whether they’re the pixel-perfect backdrops of a retro platform game or the infinite reaches of space in sprawling online multiplayer games like Eve, the endlessly pliable world of Minecraft, or the meticulous puzzles of Monument Valley, you’re likely to find a familiar place within this book.
As a form of armchair travel, without the need to fire up a console and dust the cobwebs from your reflexes, Game Changers is a welcome physical chronicle of time spent in virtual worlds.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Game Changers: The Video Game Revolution, £39.95, Phaidon.com, is released 7 September 2023
Also available from amazon.co.uk and waterstones.com
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published