archrecord2 | work | Ed Keller: Game Designer Thursday, November 16, 2006 6:00:33 PM America/New_York

http://www.architecturalrecord.com/archrecord2/work/july02/GameDesign.asp Page 1

Return to intro | Return to work | E-Mail This Article

Typically when you think of computer games, you think of alien
spacecraft, industrial wastelands, slugging your way through a
maze of wire-lined corridors with an oversized rocket launcher
cocked and ready to blow off the heads of extraterrestrial
opponents.
For architects like Ed Keller and Leslie Shih, this scenario is
beginning to sound a bit too familiar, which is, one of the reasons
why they are currently developing their own game.
The project started a little over a year ago as an expansion on
some of the ideas Keller had been exploring in his graduate studio
at Columbia University's School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation where he currently teaches. When he met up with
Shih, a professor at Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, it was a
natural match, since Shih had already been involved with several
projects investigating the connections between digital media,
content creation, and architectural film theory. "I guess we were just
two frustrated film buffs who wanted to migrate into film," says
Keller. "We wanted to do something in the realm of media, film, and
architecture, and a game seemed like the answer. In the future,
new forms of interactive media are going to slowly replace film as a
popular medium. We saw this as our opportunity to jump in."
The game itself will be set 20 years into the future, and unlike most
games today, the narrative will include seven different storylines
with seven possible endings to each story. It will be created using
the Unreal Game Engine, more commonly known to the layperson
as a first person shooter gamethe kind typically used to create
the popular seek and destroy scenarios seen in most games today.
However, the engine or game will be re-purposed and completely
revamped to include new spaces, alternative scenarios, and
increasingly sophisticated interactions between multiple players.
"The computer game engine itself has extensive possibilities that
are just not being utilized today," says Keller. "It has the ability to
control crowd behavior, to control a limited sort of artificial
intelligence, to deploy text media and streaming media, to design
fully interactive spaces with objects that you can pick up and toss
around. All the weapons can be redesigned as devices that allow
you to reach out into the world and interact with it."
Not only will players be able to interact with objects but also with
other players as well. Keller envisions the possibility of having
between 20 and 30 players in a space at one time. "The game will

archrecord2 | work | Ed Keller: Game Designer Thursday, November 16, 2006 6:00:33 PM America/New_York
http://www.architecturalrecord.com/archrecord2/work/july02/GameDesign.asp Page 2
be a really interesting balance between a first person exploration
and an episodic community experience online," Keller says, "which
basically means you can leave the game and the game will
continue without you. When you return, time will have passed and
events changed." It's like having an alter ego online.
As for the spatial design and narrative, Keller has assembled a
team comprised almost entirely of architects to carry out its
development. Since the game is set in the future, part of the
challenge of course becomes not only rendering the future but also
envisioning an entire world that functions consistently on multiple
levels. For this, Keller is working closely with architect, Ben Arand
who in addition to having his own firm, Terraswarm, is also a
scenario writer. "Our storylines have a very rigorous grounding in
classic scenario planning," Keller says, "so we are not just pulling
futures out of our hat."
In this respect, there is a close tie between architecture and the
gaming industry. Keller even admits that there is a great deal
architects can learn from a game designer's point of view, "Gamers
look at space from an interactive point of view and are primarily
concerned with program and how space becomes activated. They
also pay particular attention to time and forms of non-linear
movement through a space, which if you think about it, is exactly
the how architects look at space."
While there are certainly points of interaction between the two
fields, there are also areas of divergence. Keller describes game
design as a very fast medium and unlike architecture, one where
hundreds, if not thousands, of users participate in the creation of
space. In games like Unreal, users may download the game engine
and with programs like 3D Studio Max, they can go in, remodel the
spaces, add levels, and host their own games online. Keller
describes them as being a "completely peer-revised community."
Hundreds of people submit games, play each other's games, form
collaborations, and even have widely publicized competitions. "They
have absolutely no training in architecture," says Keller, "yet they
are probably just as proficient, if not more, with the 3D rendering
tools and in some ways, as capable of planning space as most
architects."
In fact, Keller hopes that one day the architectural community might
look to the game industry as a potential resource. "You have
hundreds of people who are not urban planners or designers but
who all they want to do is solve problems. If we could channel
some of the urban design problems we deal with in architecture into
a pipeline that would allow game developers to participate in the
design process, I think urbanism can be radically changed. The
design of our environment would be a much more democratic
process."
With architects like Keller paving the way for new lines of
communication between disciplines, we will certainly begin to see
more hybridized forms of collaborations between the different
design fields in the future. After all, are they really that different?
According to Keller, maybe not. "I really don't see a distinction
between architecture, film, pop-music, and game design," he says.
"They are all ways of understanding how people are actually
affected by time and space, and as designers, we all share a
common goal of better understanding that interaction."
archrecord2 | work | Web sites as marketing tools Thursday, November 16, 2006 6:01:01 PM America/New_York
http://www.architecturalrecord.com/archrecord2/work/july02/AltCareers.asp Page 1

Return to work | E-Mail This Article
By Christina V. Rogers
So lately you've begun to wonder about your career in architecture.
The economy has taken a turn for the worse, clients are hard to
find, and those plumbing details that you spent a good part of last
night finishing aren't exactly what you bargained for after three
years of grad school. Time for a change?
In this month's WORK section, archrecord2 searches for life beyond
the CAD station. We've found five architects who show that a
degree in architecture has far more to offer than a working
knowledge of construction drawings. They've ventured outside the
boundaries of traditional practice, engaged other disciplines, and
have resurfaced in fields of writing, animation, film, and fashion.
One architect has even found himself working in outer space.
Some have done so out of necessity. A slow economy often offers
no other alternatives and a job outside the profession is better than
no job at all. Others were simply eager to explore new territory and
delve into experiences that might, in the end, spark new ideas and
perspectives. In a world where ideas and meanings constantly
evolve, and information travels with the click of a button, it is almost
impossible to not want to peek your head around the corner see
what else is out there.
We can learn a lot from their stories. Whether their paths were
intentional or not, they all seem to demonstrate that a venture
outside the profession can provide invaluable insight and
understanding to what is within. And who knows what new ideas
their experiences might inspire. Through their discoveries we may
also find solutions, new perspectives, new challenges, andjust
maybe if we look hard enougheven a new direction for the future.
Mimi Zeiger: Loud Paper Magazine
Mimi Zeiger was still a graduate student
at the Southern California Institute of
Architecture when she printed her first
issue of Loud Paper in October of
1997. Now at print in its tenth issue,
this independent architecture zine has a
circulation of over two thousand
readers, a web presence, and is
distributed internationally in Europe,
Asia, and South America. Read more...
Ed Keller: Game Designer
Typically when you think of computer

archrecord2 | work | Web sites as marketing tools Thursday, November 16, 2006 6:01:01 PM America/New_York
http://www.architecturalrecord.com/archrecord2/work/july02/AltCareers.asp Page 2
games, you think of alien spacecraft,
industrial wastelands, slugging your
way through a maze of wire-lined
corridors with an oversized rocket
launcher cocked and ready to blow off
the heads of extraterrestrial opponents.
Read more...
Joe Day: Dayware Clothing
Joe Day, founder of Dayware Clothing,
said that he first became interested in
disciplines other than architecture by
getting involved with his own
collaborative practice. After completing
his master's degree at the Southern
California Institute of Architecture, he
and several of his fellow graduates
decided to form Hedge Design
Collaborative. Read more...
Mako the Flower Girl
"Flowers are like nature's architecture,"
says Mako Otaki, a 32-year-old
architect and designer, better known to
her clients as Mako the Flower Girl. A
graduate of the Southern California
Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Mako
now makes her living designing vivid,
yet playful, floral arrangements for
events, offices, and residences. Read
more...
Garrett Finney: Architect for NASA
One day, architects may walk in space.
Until then, it is more likely that they'll be
designing habitats for astronauts
already there, like Garrett Finney,
senior architect at NASA's Habitability
Design Center, Johnson Space Center
in Houston, Texas. Read more...
Return to work | E-Mail This Article

design | work | live | talk
archrecord2.com | Architecturalrecord.com