Archinect - News

'An astonishing place to explore': Oliver Wainwright previews the trippy Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood

2023-01-25T13:00:00-05:00

Welcome to Super Nintendo World, the closest thing you can get to diving head-first inside a video game and experiencing the likely effects of swallowing one of Mario’s magic mushrooms. For Universal, it represents the first expansion beyond film- and TV-themed rides, and a step up in designing a total environment – with the opening timed to capitalise on the release of an animated Super Mario Bros movie this spring.

The park expansion officially opens on February 17th. Visitors will find attractions like the overpriced Toadstool Cafe, a “sedate crawl” signature race experience (sans shortcuts), cuter small details, and Bowser’s Castle, which apparently includes a self-help library and bomb-making workshop.

Previously on Archinect: Super Nintendo World Hollywood sets an opening date for 2023

Wainwright compared the latter to Kim Jong-Il’s palatial abode, a space he documented somewhat controversially for a 2018 investigation published by Taschen. A Universal Studios executive described its design as being geared to encourage profligate repetition, not unlike a casino's. The Hollywood location follows another that opened in Osaka in 2021 and will be joined by two others in Orlando and Singapore, due to open by the end of 2025.

For Unreal Engine-savvy architects, a multimedia company offers the opportunity to collaborate with big-name brands and promoters

2022-12-07T13:23:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Senior Associate of Design for the Obama Presidential Center, we are using our Job Highlights series this week to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for an Unreal Engine Rendering Artist at PHNTM.

The position, situated in Los Angeles, calls for an individual with a degree in architecture or game and entertainment design with at least one year’s experience in Unreal Engine. Responsibilities will include developing "detailed 3D scenes and cinematic photo realistic images and videos," as well as "optimize assets for virtual tours" of PHNTM’s experiential projects.

Related on Archinect: Epic Games unleashes Unreal with the Academy

Why the role interests us

The PHNTM role’s emphasis on proficiency in Unreal Engine marks the latest example of an architectural career’s intersection with immersive multimedia and gaming. Last month, the topic was also the focus on a MoMA exhibition showcasing its own video game collection. Last year, meanwh...

Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design finally gives MoMA the chance to showcase its growing video game collection

2022-11-04T11:54:00-04:00

MoMA’s acquisition of games is the responsibility of the Architecture and Design Department, which is focused on objects that are celebrated for their function. Paul Galloway, who has served as the point person for the museum’s video game acquisition efforts, says these multimedia objects are a natural fit for the most omnivorous section of the museum.

The show is open now and runs until July of next year in MoMA's first-floor gallery. Galloway and his co-organizers Paola Antonelli, Anna Burckhardt, and Amanda Forment say their department collects along four central criteria — esthetics, space, time, and behavior — though curatorial efforts to acquire "museum-ready" media are sometimes limited by intellectual property restraints concerning the game maker's original source code.

"It’s a show about interaction design, and video games are some of the purest, clearest examples of interaction design," Antonelli said in a preview. "Games are such complex acquisitions because when you acquire video games, you don’t just go ahead and buy them, you acquire a relationship because you want to make sure that… 50 years from now, curators will still be able to show these games without being bogged by intellec...

A VR game allows users to 'save' a digital model of the Notre Dame Cathedral

2022-06-21T14:03:00-04:00

Assassin’s Creed Unity is a 2014 video game set in Paris in 1789 that includes a surprisingly detailed digital model of the cathedral [...] The video game version of the cathedral wasn’t detailed enough for that kind of forensic research, but the makers of the game did find a way to put their version of Notre-Dame back to work. Today, Ubisoft is releasing Save Notre-Dame on Fire, a virtual reality game set inside the cathedral on the day of the fire.

"We’re using real elements from the architecture to create something that’s interesting for the player. We have all the immensity of the real Notre-Dame," shares Ubisoft's SVP Deborah Papiernik with Fast Company. The game was released in unison with a new movie directed by Enemy at the Gates director Jean-Jacques Annaud that depicts the real-life heroism of the Paris Fire Brigade, which managed to salvage an incredible amount of church relics, bells, and other artifacts in process of preventing a nearly total loss of the structure.

In an effort to help people understand the value and importance of the Cathedral's rebuilding efforts the game acts as a form of "edu-tainment' reports Nate Berg of Fast Company. Ubisoft's VR game release follows their $565,000 donation to the rebuilding effort back in 2019.

Minecraft's crowdsourced NYC design is insane

2022-03-11T13:03:00-05:00

Two years into the project, they construct the city in short and mobile sprints. “We circle around different districts,” explained Minefact. “We work one week in Chinatown, then one week in Tribeca, one week on Bowery and then come back to Chinatown. We always work on multiple districts at the same time to keep things interesting.”

The crowdsourced design-build was begun by a German user named MineFact who had attempted a similar project the year before for his hometown of Frankfurt using rendering software that incorporated data taken from Google Maps.

Incorporating a replacement for the obsolete Mercator projection maps they call Airocean, an impressive workforce of over 2,700 Minecraft users started at the 9/11 Memorial Site and has to date completed mostly exterior versions of different New York area landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Brooklyn Bridge.

Related on Archinect: An army of gamers is building a Minecraft version of New York's state capital. (Image via Reddit User GeoffHenderson.)

The New York City group is a spinoff of a larger consortium called Build the Earth, which has recently completed digital versions of other important sites across the Tri-State Area. Users don’t have an exact anticipated date of completion just yet (the city has approximately 1 million build...

What can video games teach us about urban planning?

2021-11-15T19:41:00-05:00

It’s a subject with broader relevance than one might initially assume: Perhaps 3 billion people around the world play video games; many millions are spending large amounts of their lives exploring the streets of these virtual cities. Game city design also sheds some light on real-life planning — and not just because designers of successful game cities need to think carefully about the scale, interconnection and visual appeal of what they create.

The expansion of architecture into the metaverse is inevitable, with designers like Kazys Varnelis and others creating virtual worlds with the expressed intent of taking lessons learned from the digital sphere and applying them to the real built environment.

Urban planners, as well as architects, have long looked to the genre to better their own hand in any further attempts to create the ideal environment.

“Every city has to be internally cohesive — realism leads to believability,” Konstantinos Dimopoulos, a game designer and urban planning academic, told Bloomberg. “And that believability can lead to the sort of spatial immersion we crave, this sense of being in this new digital realm as an entity yourself.”

Super Nintendo World theme park opening now scheduled for February 4

2020-12-01T14:04:00-05:00

Universal Studios Japan plans to open its $580 million Nintendo attraction on Feb. 4, finally debuting a long-delayed effort to introduce Mario and other beloved characters to real-world theme park visitors. Super Nintendo World, built on the existing Universal Studios Japan site, is envisioned as a life-sized replica of Nintendo Co.’s most popular games with rides, shops and walk-through activities.

Bloomberg reports that a Mario Kart ride inside a recreation of Bowser's Castle would be one of Super Nintendo World's first attractions.

Image courtesy of Nintendo.

The ambitious half-billion dollar theme park was originally scheduled to open last summer, but the global coronavirus outbreak forced the launch to be pushed back by several months. With the vaccine rollout likely to take well into next spring and summer, it remains to be seen if the February opening is achievable.

If you can't wait that long but are dying to dissect Nintendo worlds and environments, check out Ryan Scavnicky's architectural review of Super Mario Bros.

"Let's talk about the architecture of Super Mario Bros"

2020-05-11T20:07:00-04:00

Ryan Scavnicky, who you may recognize from his meme-laden Instagram, or from his Extra Extra feature series here on Archinect, has launched his YouTube channel featuring reviews on the architecture of video games.

Ryan Scavnicky at work

Ryan's comparison of Super Mario's repeating castle level with Palladio's Villa Rotonda

This review of Super Mario Bros. seriously brings back some memories of my childhood. He's also reviewed Doom, so check that out too.

Hudson Yards now has its own video game starring comedian Conner O'Malley

2020-01-30T08:41:00-05:00

Hudson Yards has received its share of mockery. Be it Archinect's April Fools' day joke, Vessel's Shawarma like appearance or the Luxury Real Estate Dildo Experience, there has been a fair share of criticism and poking fun of the new development.

Well now, there is a Hudson Yards "video game," and it stars comedian Conner O'Malley. Check it out below!

Atari has announced its first video game-themed hotel

2020-01-28T17:47:00-05:00

The legendary video game company, Atari has just announced a deal it's made with GSD Group, an innovation and strategy agency, and producer Napoleon Smith III, "to acquire the rights to build video game-themed Atari Hotels in the United States, with the first location breaking ground in Pheonix, AZ later this year." The new hotels will provide guests with immersive experiences using technologies such as Virtual and Augmented Reality. Some of the planned locations will also include venues to host e-sporting events.

Phoenix-based real estate developer True North Studio is currently collaborating with Apple co founder Steve Woznaik's Woz Innovation Foundation to develop the first hotel, due to break grown later this year. According to Atari Hotels, additional developments are planned in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose.

"We are thrilled to partner with GSD Group and True North Studio to build the first-ever Atari branded hotels across the United ...

Mobile games help employers teach potential recruits about construction safety and building protocols

2019-12-24T09:00:00-05:00

While finding the right employee hires is a key concern for any business, less attention has been paid, until recently, to streamlined training and workforce development initiatives. Yet, with the growing sophistication and proliferation of online training services and mobile apps that can assist with employee development, it's no surprise one company has found a way to help the construction industry with their onboarding processes.

The Pittsburgh-based educational app developer, Simcoach, has created an app that helps potential construction hires with basic safety and equipment usage. Zachary Phillips of ConstructionDive reports, "Mobile games encourage continued usage by promising prizes, levels, and rewards for advancing through challenges. Construction managers are capitalizing on younger generations' interest in these types of games, especially on mobile platforms, to recruit and promote safety through educational construction apps."

Image © Simcoach Games

Games such as Harnes...

Parametric design, Escheresque geometries, and architectural narrative all wrapped into a video game

2019-10-22T13:05:00-04:00

Architecture's influence in video game design has reached new heights over the years, providing architects and video game designers the ability to blend digital computation, mesmerizing graphics, and unforgettable worlds gamers can explore and get lost within.

Manifold Garden is one such example. The video game is the result of a seven-year effort by its designer William Chyr. This visually tasteful and mesmerizing puzzle game was released on October 18th and explores complex geometries, "unusual physics," and mind-bending architecture.

Manifold Garden game place screenshot. Image courtesy of Manifold Garden

Although Chyr doesn't have a background in architecture, his passion and interest in the field helped him create the geometric worlds in the game. In a press interview with Thomas McMullan of Alphr, Chyr shared, "Ando was the original inspiration. I can't have curved surfaces in the game – they all have to be 90-degree corners – because you can only fit along six gravity planes. ...

Landscape architect uses video game development software to rethink digital landscapes

2019-08-23T21:08:00-04:00

The digital world of video games has changed over time thanks to architects and their expertise in spatial design and designing 3D environments. Digital model building are skillsets architects use everyday, so who better to help design these digital worlds? For landscape architect David Fletcher, the opportunity to help create the landscape for the video game "The Witness" was another way his San Francisco-based, Fletcher Studio, to create new digital infrastructures and explore 3-D modeling platforms.

Image still from video game "The Witness" © Jonathan Blow, Thekla Inc.

According to Erin Hudson of Narratively "David Fletcher had to reverse-engineer the past to create an island where its present-day environment would give players enough clues to piece together what happened. It was an infinitely harder task and the reason its developer, Blow, decided to hire architects like Fletcher."

Image still from video game "The Witness" © Jonathan Blow, Thekla Inc.

The game was released in 2016...

Graphics update for Minecraft has been canned...

2019-08-16T14:00:00-04:00

Minecraft has come a long way since its introduction a decade ago. It remains one of the top paid mobile games in Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store, while Minecraft: Education Edition has become a popular way to teach kids things like computer coding, engineering, architecture, urban planning and math.

The popular sandbox video game, Minecraft, known for enabling players to craft worlds, structures, objects, and pretty much anything one can imagine within its framework, has been due for "a major update since 2017."

The "Super Duper Graphics Pack was expected to bring more lighting effects like shadows and fog, new motion for some game elements like leaves, and new textures...," but Microsoft deemed the endeavor to be "too technically demanding."

It looks like players will have to enjoy the game in its current state for the time being.

Faculty members from Cornell's architecture department develop virtual reality program for popular video game company Epic Games

2019-06-27T13:56:00-04:00

Faculty in the Department of Architecture have received a cash gift from Epic Games Inc. in support of their work on Virtual Places, a project that is adapting the company's virtual reality (VR) gaming engine, Unreal Engine 4 (UE4), for architectural and urban design.

Three Cornell professors used virtual reality to create and expand on their research project Virtual Places. The study of architecture and video games is a growing focus. Within academia and practice, VR is a tool which helps unpack architectural ideas for learning as well as creating visualization possibilities for clients. Epic Games Inc., a video game and software development company known for creating the popular online game Fortnite, selected Professor Henry Richardson, Assistant Professor Timur Dogan, and Assistant Professor of the Practice Martin Miller as winners of a cash prize out of a pool of invited finalists for the international competition.

Image of Rockerfeller Center - taken from Virtual Places: Real Time Experiential Design and Visualization of Urban Spaces. Image courtesy of Cornell AAP

According to Richardson, "Virtual Places was launched this spring with a research seminar called Gaming Architecture. Both upper-class undergraduates and graduate students 'stress t...

Do architects make better video games? Cue Shedwork's Sable, 2019's beautifully anticipated video game

2019-01-11T19:20:00-05:00

Captivating audiences with their brief presentation at last year's 2018 E3 Expo, the game's development team Shedworks featured a strikingly captivating trailer that showed a world filled with beautiful desert landscapes, eye-catching color palettes, and of course beautiful renditions of towering architecture. Taking much inspiration from classic graphic artists like Jean “Moebius” Giraud and games such as 80 Days and Sunless Sea, the overall plot of the game revolves around a young character named Sable and her exploration of a world whose history is unknown. Sable's lead designer uses his architectural education to create a world that expressed a way for gamers and enthusiasts to understand architecture through exploration.

When developing the game's overall concept lead designer Greg Kythreotis explains it was important to build something artistically evocative. Much of the game c...

New computer game 'Occupy White Walls' gives players the chance to build and curate their own galleries

2018-12-18T15:49:00-05:00

A new video game is giving players the chance to be their own curator and gallery designer. Called 'Occupy White Walls,' the upcoming massively multiplayer online game—which is currently in free public alpha—allows you to build your own art space using modular architectural blocks.

Developed by London-based start-up StikiPixels, the game provides 1,462 architectural assets (with many more on the way) for you to create your own ambitious gallery. Players can pull from the vast catalogues of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC to fill their walls. And, for emerging artists, you can even upload your own work to put on display.

In an interview, CEO Yarden Yaroshevski described the game as a new type of MMO centered around creativity and self-expression."Different players will aim for different things; some will be all about in-game creativity – through building, designing and decorating their spaces – others will focus on discover...

Disappear Here: architecture and video games

2018-11-13T13:24:00-05:00

North London video game developer, Shedworks, have developed a specially commissioned film for our exhibition Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space, in collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio. We spoke to Greg Kythreotis, co-founder of Shedworks, to find out more about how the video came about and the processes behind it.

RIBA interviews Greg Kythreotis, co-founder of video game studio Shedworks; talking about his involvement in the current Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space exhibition at the RIBA Architecture Gallery in London, the collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio, and potential overlaps between architecture and video games in respect of the 'perspective' theme.

"Whilst the history of perspective and architecture are incredibly intertwined," Kythreotis explains, "I also think that, by virtue of historically being rendered on a screen, video games also have an incredibly rich history of exploring perspective. Whether orthographic, more realistic renderings or complete distortions and warpings of perspective, I would love to see the overlaps between mediums be explored in even more depth."

Gamespace Urbanism: understanding reality through simulation

2017-12-29T12:18:00-05:00

The following examples show how gamespace can become the stage for a social, political and ethical critique: from a nondescript city under the effect of gentrification, to a barren luxury estate and a set of playful and absurd buildings for London. These examples suggest that, rather than allowing architects to indulge Piranesi’s power-hungry ideal, games could work as a means of showing how dysfunctional reality really is.

In her essay Gamespace Urbanism: City-Building Games and Radical Simulations for Failed Architecture, Federica Buzzi looks at a new crop of indie city-planning computer games that promise fresh potential for simulation and exploration of radical urban scenarios — and subsequent social, political, and ethical critique: "Beyond critique and virtual entertainment, the question they open up is whether games can be used as reliable systems to study and solve actual and theoretical conflicts."

Play "Arkinoid" arcade on BIG's website

2016-09-15T12:54:00-04:00

In a throwback to arcade games, Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG has created an Arkanoid version of their website called Arkinoid, where you can earn points by hitting the firm's projects with a black paddle ball:

Don't think it will be easy to claim the top score, however: "Ben Devine!" is currently in the lead with 9223372036854775807 points, making one wonder about his employment status.

For more on architecturally-related games:

What architects (and not just parametricists) can learn from 'No Man's Sky' – an astronomical, procedurally generating video game

2016-08-19T16:45:00-04:00

Hello Games has created its own periodic table of elements for the universe of No Man’s Sky ... This allows them to generate 1.8 quintillion planets that are all different from one another and built governing the inherent logic set forth. [...] “It is no longer about designing a final object or a product, but about designing or configuring the system or the process of their formation—the underlying code, algorithm, or procedure that can generate not just one but multiple outcomes.”

Defy gravity in the works of FLW, Tadao Ando, Louis Kahn in this upcoming video game

2016-06-27T20:44:00-04:00

Frank Lloyd Wright, level designer? That’s what artist William Chyr was thinking, from the moment he crossed the threshold at the Robie House...It was a rare IRL architectural excursion, as Chyr has been immersed in building the digital levels of Manifold Garden, his first-person 3D exploration game in which you defy gravity in order to walk up walls, fall through windows, and launch yourself from one side to the other of an infinite stepwell, [while] solving increasingly difficult puzzles.

Alexandra Lange interviews video game designer William Chyr on his upcoming game, “Manifold Garden”, which is due for a January 2017 release on PlayStation 4. “Chyr has slowly incorporated more architectural references,” Lange writes, ”stretching back through the centuries and including built works by Frank Lloyd Wright and Tadao Ando, and unbuilt works by Louis Kahn, Anne Tyng, and Arata Isozaki.”

You can also watch a 16-minute gameplay demo right below. (Just be careful if you have motion-sickness.)

Interdependent city design video game Block'hood launches Thursday

2016-03-09T20:03:00-05:00

The complexities of designing at the scale of a city could take years to enumerate, but with Block'hood, a game where players design neighborhoods in various modes of complexity with over 80 pre-set blocks, it takes only minutes to start encountering these challenges first hand. Developed and designed by Jose Sanchez and Gentaro Makinoda, Block'hood's players are encouraged to think "ecologically," which is to say, designing an environment that not only sustains itself but can work interdependently with other neighborhood designs. If a design does not have enough resources, it can become victim to decay.

The perpetually evolving game, which has its public launch March 10th, has five modes: "Sandbox," which allows players to build a resources-constrained neighborhood without any particular goal in mind, "Challenge" which limits the number of blocks and resources a player can use to construct a neighborhood, "Education" which focuses on real-world city problems, "Research" which incor...