As much as animation is used as a medium for just visual entertainment, the art form has left its mark in several different industries. One industry in particular has its roots deeply connected with animation, marking the birth and rapid growth of previously unremarkable companies in both the public eye and among the animation world. Its rise as an admired art-form with an impressive blend of art and technology sparked a frenzy of interest and investment, spurring now-iconic companies to break ground and start developing an entirely unknown area of animation. Of course, I’m talking about the video game industry. Video games are now a major player in today’s economy, with millions of consumers, a solid reputation for excellence and ingenuity, and the steady ability to acquire healthy doses of respect from both entertainment and technological industries each year. While the advancement in computer technology has allowed animation to branch into new styles and techniques for audiences to enjoy, the video game industry has benefited the most from its growth and continues to use animation to its fullest potential in landmark franchises.
Video games have almost always been exclusively animated, using the latest technology to not only bring characters to life, but to put their movements and actions in control of the audience. From the early successes of Atari’s Pong to the latest and greatest franchises available on Playstation 4 or Xbox One, animation drives animators to push the limits of existing technologies to create new styles and stories for audiences to enjoy. Since the early 1970s, video games have become more detailed, first evolving from simple concepts like Space Invaders (1978, Midway Games), Pac-Man (1980, Namco), and Battlezone (1980, Atari) into more complex two-dimensional platforms available in arcades across the world. While the styles of these games were basic and held simplicity in terms of color and structure, they did what no other animation had done before – given complete control over to their audiences. With the immediate rise in game popularity and the subsequent rise of arcade culture in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, audiences prompted companies to create more detailed characters and dynamic environments. In response, company leaders produced games with increased capacity for higher graphics and more fleshed-out characters, introducing the first three-dimensional elements as well as digital audio technology during this time. With the dying arcade culture in the mid-80s giving way to the era of home console ownership, the ideas of animators flowed seamlessly into the next revolution of video games – 3D animation.
While favorites like the Street Fighter series and Super Mario Brothers made huge strides in both game development and art style during this transition, the rise of CGI technology prompted video games studios to change their approach to the way people thought about games. Around the turn of the 20th century, video games paralleled the transition from 2D to 3D animation, introducing three-dimensional characters moving through detailed environments created with the growth and accessibility of computer animation technology. Soon enough, characters were no longer limited to cardinal directions and gamers actively immersed themselves into three-dimensional landscapes capturing echos of familiar life and fantasy worlds alike. Notable series like Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series were given new life and endless replay value as thousands of consumers jumped to buy the latest consoles and games to explore this brand new style of interactive animation. From the 90s to the present, the advancement of 3D animation had exceeded the expectations of its predecessors, continuing to break barriers and create hyper-realistic characters and environments with endless ranges of motion.
Today, the industry is marked by three gaming powerhouses – Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft – with each competing to commission successful gaming studios to provide more interactive experiences for their wide variety of audiences. Each company attempts to target different audiences with the stories and animation styles of their games. Animated characters like Mario or Kirby (staples of the Nintendo industry) have become softer and more rounded, fitting the trope of their genre while appealing to younger players and family oriented audiences. Nintendo generally produces stories for more casual gamers and incorporates a more simplistic style of commands for gamers to use. The sharp angles of characters and the harsh violent landscapes in the Halo, Call of Duty, and Assassins Creed franchises are stereotypical games of both Sony and Microsoft, geared to the more experienced, mature gamer. These games tend to be more complex with intricate plots and a wide variety of controls for players to utilize. The current video game market appeals to every kind of gamer from every age group, but is a continued success thanks to the dedicated efforts of game designers who breathe life into traditional animation and create an entirely new experience for gamers to enjoy. While many now categorize video games as its own genre of entertainment, the roots of this industry giant will always be firmly planted in the animation industry, which reflects the amazing adaptability and perseverance this art style continues to breath into the world today.
Thoughts On Animation 
Games entering the 3d era certainly transformed the medium. For the first few years it was very arguable whether or not it was really progress. Also, despite the major games all being 3d now, some developers will purposefully use retro style graphics for artistic reasons. The old graphic styles bring feelings of nostalgia for many gamers myself included. Animators are struggling with this 3d vs 2d art in mainstream films as well. Pixar pushed animated films into the 3d realm. Yet, many traditional art styles continue. They continue simply because they work.
Hey I really like how you specifically talked about interactive animations such as video games. I personally never liked mario, but I love third and first person shooter games. The high graphic animation really pleases my eyes. And I also thought that the description you gave about the CGI animation was very well organized.
I really liked how informative this post is. Having an older brother, video games are a world I know a lot about playing (although it was more like watching, he did all the playing because I wasn’t very good at it ). I have rarely put much thought into the animation part of video games. I agree that the video game industry has the great opportunity to promote animation while it benefits them to utilize it. I really like the part were you point out that video games that not only brings to life animation but also give the audiences the control. If you add up the number of consumers for video games to the number of people who watch animated TV shows and animated films, there is an enormous fan group for animation.