For this week's Artist by Artist,
let's hear from Khail Campos Santia, a self taught game programmer, that will
introduce us to the mysterious world of how strings of code work together with visuals
in bringing us the virtual realities we play with through our gadgets and
consoles.
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| Khail and his Rancho Ranch |
RdP:
Please give us a background of yourself, I understand you were supposed to be a
baker, but now you are making waves in Dumaguete and beyond through game development!
How has this journey been so far?
KCS: It took six years and ten games
before I got officially published. Being a baker was my day job for a while. I
self-studied my way into becoming a game developer in between risings of bread
dough. It has not been easy. But to make games is a childhood dream. If I
regret anything at all, it is that I haven’t started sooner!
RdP: Please
describe your art to us.
KCS: Game development is a collaborative
art form. It’s like film with one crucial addition – interactivity. In games,
your audience is also your protagonist. A protagonist who makes their own
decisions. This to me is the major challenge of game-making: How do you create
a world where people can laugh, cry or fall in love and at the same time take
into account the unpredictability of player choices?
RdP: What
satisfies you in your art?
KCS: I grew up in in Bukidnon, smack in
the middle of Mindanao. I was always obsessed with wanting to build fantastic
stuff – from games to telescopes to robots. But mostly, all I could do was
dream feverishly as I did not have access to high technology. All these changed
when I learned to program computers. It gave me a sense of unlimited
possibilities. A computer is a magician’s top hat and programs are spells that
when uttered right allow you to pull out the strangest creatures. For me, some
of the hardest, most intricate and delicious spells are the ones which allow
you to pull out these creatures called games.
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| Character animation |
RdP:
Please describe to the public how game development is also considered an art.
KCS: Leo Tolstoy wrote, “art is the
transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” The game designer of Super
Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, said almost the exact thing: ”I want the players to experience kyokan – to feel about the game what the
developers felt themselves.” We usually think of games as conveying fun, but
games can also evoke regret (“Pretentious Game”), guilt (“The Company of
Myself”), mystery (“Monument Valley”), and so on. But perhaps the most striking
qualification games have in terms of emotive expression is the one mentioned
previously: In games you do not say, “My character won!” You say, “I won!” In other words, games allow you
to go beyond empathizing with the main character to becoming the main character.
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| Character studies |
RdP:
What drives/inspires you?
KCS: Games opened my eyes to the
possibility of a world where human beings study and work not out of coercion
but out of a genuine love for what they do. What is the core action of game
playing? Boring stuff like repeatedly moving pieces of wood or pressing
buttons. But game design is able to turn
these experiences into something we all love. If game design can do that, it
can surely do the same to our classrooms and workplaces. I am enamored with the
inherent challenges and expressive power of game development. Game development
is a passion but applying game development to transform the way we study and
work has become a calling for me.
RdP:
Are you able to support yourself through your art? How?
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| Indie Prize, Tel Aviv |
KCS: I just came back from a year’s break
from game development with a new studio, Moocho Brain, which I cofounded with
Aji Prasongko, Algernon van Peel and Eru Petrasanta. We are off to a good start
with our game “Rancho Ranch” being published by an American publisher. But we
are still in the start-up phase and are currently building up cash flow through
web sponsorship, profit-sharing with publishers, as well as self-publication.
RdP: How do you deal with setbacks?
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| Moocho brain logos |
KCS: Lots of sleep and pastry.
I wade through a lot of duds before I
can come up with something that’s different. When stuck in an impasse, I forget
the work for a bit. Meanwhile, the problem usually solves itself or becomes
more manageable when I come back. As Irving Stone wrote of Michelangelo, “In a
love fight, he who flees is the winner.”
RdP:
What can you say about the future of yourself and game development in
Dumaguete?
KCS: The demand for games is tremendous
and growing, with global revenues exceeding those of music and film. True, the
competition is equally tremendous. The trick is to stand out.
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| Ramon and Khail |
Dumaguete has a culture that celebrates
creativity. The required skills are here – top-notch visual artists, musicians,
writers, and information technologists. And for some time now, there has been
an intensifying interest in game development around the city. The pieces are
starting to come together. Dumaguete may very well be the next game development
hot spot.
You
can see more of Khail’s works at:
http://khailcs.tumblr.com/
http://www.kongregate.com/games/khailcs
http://kikill.newgrounds.com/games/
http://www.gamesauce.biz/author/khail-santia/
YOUTUBE:
On Puzzle Design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNoQHz7W-sM
Ludemic Transformations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WU33OUxadU
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