Week 8: Final Proposal + Project Idea
LIFE OF A RETRO GAMER
Goal
To reveal what it means to be a retro gamer in the modern United States and to preserve the culture’s current state of social interactions. It is also meant to attract younger, modern gamers and persuade them to learn about the retro gaming community. It will allow them to receive a better understanding of who the Retro Gamers are, how they socialize, what influences them, and the history of retro gaming.
Statement
Retro Gaming is considered any arcade game, console, or computer game that is 20+ years old and is either obsolete or discontinued. To clarify, most people think of the gaming consoles from the 1970s through 1990s such as Pong, Atari, and Nintendo 64 or even classic arcade games such as Pacman and Space Invaders. Today, retro gaming is basically the preservation of a nostalgic era that only the people who lived in the 1970s through 1990s have a pure memory of. I feel it is important to preserve their current state because this subculture of gaming in the United States has become very popular once again these past few years and younger gamers have sparked interest. Retro gaming may not be the same 20 years from now due to the newer generations growing up with next gen consoles and games. In addition, the younger generations, such as myself,
don’t and will never have the same nostalgic experience as the people who grew up during this era.
Being someone who did not get to experience this era of gaming wonders,
I feel it would be great if the retro gaming culture of the United States had something that captured the life of one gamer
visually to share with younger generations. Through research and design, I hope to reveal their current behaviors, language, and social interactions through the internet and physical world to provide a documentation of what it means to be a retro gamer in the contemporary United States. I hope through a visual representation of this, I can provide younger and future generations an informative and playfully designed story that not only captures the personality of retro nostalgia, but also connects the modern gamers to the current retro gaming community.
Final Project
A short comic book about a day in the life of a new retro gamer discovering the community and it’s meaning of retro gaming in the modern day United States. It is a series of playful images that tell a story from start to finish, merging modern reality with the nostalgia of retro gaming. These images will take form as a comic book to allow the interested gamer to physically be a part of this experience and witness a day in the life of a real modern retro gamer.
The final will be one comic book from a series of three to give a taste of what the visuals and content this short series of comic books would have.
Questions To Be Answered
What platforms do retro gamers use to communicate with? What kind of language do they use? How do they behave? How do they keep the memory of retro gaming alive? Where do they socialize? Who are
the gamers? How can I capture the nostalgic personality of retro gaming?
How can I relate this to modern day?
Areas of Focus:
Sociology, Print Design, Retro Gaming Nostalgia, Comic Book Design
Key Terms:
Retro Gaming, Modern Gaming, Social,
Visual, Nostalgia