Computer Graphics World

May 2010

Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/10832

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■ ■ ■ ■ Gaming Artists at Visceral Games take players to the depths of the nether- world in Dante’s Inferno By Karen Moltenbrey In the 14th century, Dante Alighieri set the world ablaze with his allegorical tale “T e Divine Comedy,” an imag- inative epic poem that describes his journey, as the main character, through the three realms of the dead: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. T e piece is considered one of the greatest examples of world literature, serving as an inspiration for many artists throughout the past several centuries, from Geoff rey Chaucer and John Milton, to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Karl Marx, and T.S. El- iot. And more recently, the 3D artists at Visceral Games, which used “T e Divine Comedy” as the basis for its Dante’s Inferno computer game. “Dante’s Inferno is a big, epic action/adventure game that’s loosely based upon Part One of ‘T e Divine Com- edy,’ ” says Jonathan Knight, executive producer/creative director of the title. In fact, it is Knight who is credited for the game’s conception. T e original literary work presented a spiritual jour- ney in which Dante, halfway through his life, becomes assailed by three wild beasts after becoming lost in a dark forest. He is led from the woods by the Roman poet Virgil, fi rst to Hell and then Purgatory, where 24 May 2010 Artists at Visceral Games looked to the macabre when designing Dante’s Inferno, an interactive re-imagining of “The Divine Comedy.”

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