An absurd re-ordering of game design through the possibilities of the database

Abstract

This paper presents an alternative perspective in which to view creative generation and the practice of game design. A design research methodology incorporates sketch-based creative practice and the discussion of two theoretical frameworks: database and absurdity. The absurd is a rebellious embrace of a chaotic world, while the database is a new media structure for collecting, thinking and producing. These frameworks are competing yet complementary concepts that allow for exploration and ordering.

The creative practice described within embodies a database compulsion: the process of sketching many rough ideas instead of perfecting a single idea; the creation of a toolbox of general components, expressions and universal units; the creation of work that is non-linear, repetitive and/or random. Emerging from this structure, and yet rebelling from established order, is the notion of the absurd. Using Steve Hodges’ notion of the digital absurd, a playful, absurd sensibility is proposed with the following qualities: unconvention; frustration; purposelessness; repetition.

The practice of sketching, coupled with the frameworks of absurdity and database, demonstrates a new media and interdisciplinary approach of playful ordering and re-ordering, re-classifying and reframing of game design and idea creation.