Ballet-themed videogame research

[michailnenkov]

Hello forum,

 

I'm new to the site, and not affiliated with dance directly, but I am an appreciator of ballet. I'm also a game design student from Copenhagen, and I'm researching a concept for a ballet-themed game I had in mind, and I thought this forum would be a good crowd to present it to.

 

Firstly, to avoid confusion, I need to state that represent a side of the gaming community that finds pleasure in alternative forms of digital play to the ones usually attributed to videogames—the shooters, action games, sports games. I, and most of my co-students, design and play quiet, personal, artistic games with deep narratives and educational ambitions. 

 

Coming from that perspective, I'd like to develop a game that captures the movement and expressivity of ballet and uses them to tell the story of a strong historical female character on a journey across the world.

 

My very simple initial question to the forum is: "How does that sound to you?". I'm uninitiated to the practical intricacies of ballet, so if there is a healthy response and interest, more questions will follow in order to expand my research

 

Thank you very much!

 

Michail Nenkov

 

 

 

To the curious, a more technical description:

Players would control a ballerina on a virtual stage that would change sets and scenes in a fluent manner not possible on a real world stage, but the relation of the dancer to the side of the audience would be preserved—the player would be watching and interacting with a performance. There wouldn't be a set choreography, the control over the direction and the expressive movements of the ballerina would be given to the player, while the animation, rhythm, beats and steps would be handled by the computer. The story would be told exclusively through the expressive language of ballet.

 

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Michail and welcome to the Forum.  There is a game available from the Apple Apps store called Passe-Partout that features 2 NYCB dancers that you can "choreograph".  It's good fun but I would like to see something more complex.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/passe-partout/id884213102?mt=8

[alison]

Hello Michail, and welcome. I must admit that as far as video games go I really tend to stick to basic things that involve lining things up and then batch-deleting them, if you see what I mean, so I doubt I shall be of much use to you, but I hope others will.

[michailnenkov]

Thank you, Janet, that's a useful link, I haven't heard of that app. On one side, it has the advantage of the authenticity of live action, but on the other, it is limited in what people can do with it, for the same reason. I wonder how much of the "live feel" can be preserved using computer graphics, I haven't found a previous attempt at it...

 

If anything it is a validation, that people can play around with dancers and choreographies:)

[Huddsballetmum]

There are a number of computer games for the Wii which are ballerina themed, mainly about learning positions and teaching dance skills though.  You can Google Computer games Ballet and they all come up.  

 

I can see that there would be a market for some version of creating a performance type game as many little ballerinas spend their free time choreographing new dances.

 

Good luck with your task.