ARTIST STATEMENT
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus concludes life is only given value by revolting against life's absurdity. Camus’ philosophy imagines the tragic Sisyphus of Greek myth must be happy because he eternally revolts against his punishment. In this one-button unwinnable game, Sisyphus Smiles, the player becomes the absurd individual. Engaging with the artwork is itself an absurd act of rebellion against an inevitable game over. At random, the game changes to juxtapose mythic grandiosity with daily triviality. The work culminates in a surreal anticlimax whereupon the true title is revealed before starting all over again – You Must Smile.
ARTWORK PROCESS
I programmed and assembled the game in Clickteam Fusion 2.5. All of the assets were either drawn on paper and then digitised, photographed, or drawn digitally. I used Piskel for the pixel art and Photoshop for various image transformations. Photos were taken through a hole in a piece of shaded-in paper to create the vignette effect. The numbers were made from splicing parts of the game’s background, a texture that is repeated throughout the game, even being used to colourise the boulder. The Sisyphus-like figure was made from rotoscoping photos of a classmate.
