Article: Kent Sheely on WIRED

WIRED magazine published a compelling profile of Game Artist Kent Sheely. Here's an excerpt:

"Today, in-game photography is a well-explored gaming off-shoot. The latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise actually encourages players to take selfies. But in 2007, when Sheely and a few other artists were just starting to explore the idea of treating the game world as a photographic subject, it was a more radical notion. “I liked the idea of reinterpreting the goals given to the player,” Sheely says, especially in the context of the notoriously violent GTA series.

Of course, creating a virtual world amenable to that artistic vision necessitated a fairly thorough rewrite of the game’s code. “I had to edit the character behavior files so they wouldn’t attack the player and edit the firing mechanics so you were always looking through the camera lens,” he says. “I also had to make the player invulnerable to harm, just in case people using the mod accidentally wandered onto the highway when they were trying to take a photo of the moon.” (Kyle Vanhemert, WIRED)

: WIRED

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti