Berzerk, After Frankenthaler

Play Berzerk. Create Art.

WASD or Arrow Keys to move, mouse-click to fire

A game made alongside students given the brief of remaking the 1980 Stern Electronics arcade game Berzerk in the style of an assigned visual artist. The intent is not simply to re-skin the game, but to reflect something of the artist's style in the way the game plays.

I was assigned Helen Frankenthaler "an American abstract expressionist painter". Frankenthaler's style is heavily based in her practice, using oils thinned to the point of resembling watercolour, painting large areas of bold colour, and focused on exposing latent forms, with an emphasis on spontaneity.

Based on this, I chose to create a game focused on exposing the latent forms emerging from the act of playing Berzerk. Game entities generate a flow of paint that is retained between rooms, building up in layers to produce a final image when the player dies that represents the movement of those entities throughout the game. This is then contextualised as a gallery work with an accompanying exhibit label.