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When Chinese an artist Zhou Yichen saw his grandma’s Health worsened in July, he tried to mention it in an unusual way: by creating a Nintendo video game introducing her as a character.
A short game, aptly titled Grandmawas developed for Game Boy platform, which carries an added touch of nostalgia for people who grew up in the 1980s and 90s, like Mr. Zhou.
in the game players can communicate with the title character, designed after Mr. Zhou’s grandmother, who later in life became a wheelchair user after an accident.
The player can share a meal with grandma, join her in a conversation at home or even take a walk together in different stages of the game.
“My grandmother is a kind and strong woman. Always smile when you see her, no matter how long she’s been through. She raised three children alone. Her life was simple,” says the artist The Independent.
“Before she fell, every day she cooked and did housework, watched TV and went to bed. My grandparents took care of me until I was three years old,” he says.
It all started for Mr. Zhou in 2020 when he was studying art in New York.
The 31-year-old from central China’s Hubei province says he has been experimenting with designing video games as a form of deeply personal artistic expression since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
When the pandemic hit and college courses turned to online classes, he still had to continue making art for his major, despite campuses and studios being closed.
With no choice but to create art in his tiny apartment, he says he was forced to look beyond traditional tools for creation.
One evening he suddenly got the idea to explore video games as a canvas for creating art.
At first it was a challenge due to the cross-disciplinary nature of the idea, but after a few days of learning the software and drawing tools, he says he could better experiment with creating games as an artistic medium.
The Chinese artist has so far created 100 artworks using video games, including one about his life with his parents.
About six months ago, Mr. Zhou’s grandmother suffered an injury after a fall at home and spent the rest of her days in bed.
“She was already very weak. She didn’t want to eat or get up. When I noticed that my grandmother’s body and mind were not as good as before, her memory began to deteriorate, and her body became weak and powerless, I decided to use games to record my life with my grandmother,” says Mr. Zhou.
“I have many memories with my grandmother and it was always important for me to be with her,” says the artist and adds that the game was an effort to cherish the last moments spent with her.
“Thank you [for taking] take care of me during this time,” says the grandmother character in the last scene of the play as she ascends to heaven.
“I’ll miss you forever grandma,” the player replies.
The five-minute game is already getting a lot of love from the creators.
“I am surprised that my work has received so much attention and love from so many people,” says Mr. Zhou.
“In the beginning, this work was a very personal experience. I just saw it as a work in memory of my grandmother. However, I found that no matter how personal an emotion is, it is common among people,” he says.
The deeply personal connection he had with the Game Boy console and the abstract nature of its pixels made him choose Nintendo’s platform for that purpose, he says.
“I would play the Game Boy with my friends at school before going home. I think I had an unbreakable connection with it then. And as I grow older, that feeling becomes stronger because it is part of my childhood,” says Mr. Zhou The Independent in the email.
“Pixel games can be abstract, using particles to describe a particular thing. This is very important. “I think abstract, vague things have richer emotions,” explains the artist.
He believes his recent work is proof that video games can move from a means of entertainment to a deeply personal artistic practice of recording people and things.
“I believe that video games have many functions other than entertainment and competition, and expressing personal emotions is one of them,” says the Chinese artist.
“Through this kind of work, more people can remember their loved ones. I also think that this work is of great importance and can awaken true love and conscience in people’s hearts,” he adds.