Digital Art Live talks with veteran games
designer and entertainment artist Chuck
Carter about his new game ZED, his work
for Disney and Babylon 5, and his role in
making the all-time classic videogame Myst.
DAL: Welcome to Chuck Carter, the creative director
and founder of Eagre Games. Chuck help create the
famous videogame Myst and many other videogames
including working on the Command and Conquer and
C&C: Red Alert franchises, Marvel Ultimate Alliance
and many others. Chuck has also worked on TV
shows like Babylon 5 as a digital matte painter, and
has also contributed work on Star Trek: The
Experience motion ride and Disney's Mission to Mars.
His work has also been seen through the BBC,
National Geographic, the US Department of Defense
and Homeland Security, NASA Caltech and JPL, as
well as dozens of additional publications and
organizations. Today we're going to be talking to
Chuck about ZED, his newest videogame in
development. I've just put down a few words to try
to describe the game: explorative, adventure,
meditative, mysterious, dreamlike, and stunning
immersive graphics. Anything else to add onto those,
Chuck?
CC: That pretty much covers the gamut, I think. You
know, there may on occasion be a bit more of a
feeling of being in a “dreaded” kind of environment.
Like almost a nightmarish environment, in one or two
places. So that, if you make a choice on a puzzle, or
in going into a certain location at a certain time, you
might find yourself.... in something darker. I think
doing it like that helps to balance the game out. You
don't want it to be too light and happy. Most dreams
are never light and happy all the time.So ZED has this great value to it, because it does
have this beautiful look and feel to it.
DAL: It's also in this valuable niche of gaming which
generally goes by the name of “meditative gaming”.