Then today I suddenly remembered a game that I had made during high school. It was called “Tower of Heaven” (not to be confused with the released game Tower of Heaven). It was a slower-paced platformer in the vein of old Castlevania games, and the maps were strictly linear. The premise was that every child, as a rite of passage, needs to ascend the Tower of Heaven alone and discover what lies at the top. It took a month to make and had something like 12 levels, several bosses, an intro montage, and a proper ending. It was quite self-contained.

All in all, it was a game I was proud of. However, I never did show the game to acquaintances. The reason was simple and interesting in retrospect: I took materials from other games. I took characters from Luna: The Last Hope, enemies from Mother 3 and Zelda Minish Cap, and music from Etrian Odyssey 2. Despite the genre differences for these games, the end result felt cohesive. However, in the Western tradition that's not something one would properly release even on their own sites. So besides maybe the 4 or 5 people who played it back then, the game sat in my harddrive and was gradually forgotten.

Remembering that game this morning, I came to realize a lot of things.

First, I think that mainstream creators' perception (note: not law) of copyright are probably unnecessarily restrictive in terms of material reuse. I think that using existing art assets from other copyrighted works to create new works is in itself undervalued as an artistic challenge. I think that Jazz, Zines, and Doujin Games follow a tradition of material reuse that is much more fluid and as a result generate many more stellar works. Furthermore, I think the strict perception of copyright reduces educational opportunities for up-and-coming creators by creating a higher barrier to entry.

Secondly, I found myself surprised by the satisfaction that came from making something under the mindset “let me do the best thing I can from what I have” rather than “let me improve so that I can make the things I imagined.” There is a lack of anxiety in the former mindset that encourages play and exploration, and while the latter mindset is important for making quick improvements, I think now I wouldn't mind letting go of that thought every now and then.

Finally, thinking about the game, I understand better now the Japanese Doujin mindset of “making something just for fun”. I remember debating with a friend about whether art has value if it was never seen by others, and now that I thought about Tower of Heaven, my response shall be “100%, no doubt”. Even though I barely showed the game to anyone, it was something that I had fun designing and executing on, and captured my perceptions at a certain stage in life. For some reason, just that was enough to make me happy whenever I think about it.

I think that at some point in the near future, I will be making my way to the top of Tower of Heaven again.

— Categorized under: #gaming, #at