I have a pretty broad definition of art. This is mainly a mentality thing - I think that if you make a thing, and you've created it, that's art. Drawing? Art. Music? Art. Board game? Art. Written article? Art. Level design? Art. Edited video? Art. Unedited video? Art. Hell, the act of living life is art within itself, and there's a whole article on that to write once I watch the 1,000+ videos I have left on the subject. But that's for a different time.
This mentality is two-fold. First, it helps me appreciate the effort people put into the less "traditionally artistic" things. Second, it helps escape the ever growing corporate terminology of "content creation". Everything is "content" nowadays. No room for appreciation and analysis, just consumption. I'm guilty of this, but it's also kinda the style of the time as well, so y'know.
This article is the application of the first point here. I'm dealing with things Konami and Sega make here, this isn't a non-corporate venture in any capacity. That doesn't mean individuals and indie teams can't pull off the scope of this, they can and do (hi vivid/stasis, hello EX-XDRiVER), but it's easier to accentuate the point of it when you consider big business in the game as well.
Video games are art, yes, but to make a video game you've got to have a collection of other types of art as well. Let's go back to 2005 and take a look at beatmaniaIIDX HAPPY SKY, shall we?
beatmaniaIIDX HAPPY SKY is the 12th (13th if you're a substream kinda guy) game in the beatmaniaIIDX series. It's got a ton of original visual assets (probably at least a couple hundred) and animations, 47 new original playable songs with at least 5 charts for each song, and incredibly strong theming. This isn't mentioning the beautiful cabinet design (which isn't technically original to HAPPY SKY), non-playable original music, or the development required to make everything work seamlessly.
Think about how much is here. Imagine if you were at a museum, with each song, chart, and art asset separated individually, and you went to do that art museum thing of standing in front of each one and considering it with your hand on your chin for 10-60 seconds. That'd take you a long ass time!
There are 32 beatmaniaIIDX games as of writing this. Since HAPPY SKY, each release has almost only gotten larger.
Konami has 6 rhythm games they treat this way right now, and another 16 rhythm games they either treat differently or used to treat like this but no longer do. Just think of how much art there is here.
That's a giant fucking museum, dude. You'd get lost in the REFLEC BEAT wing immediately and there'd be 21 other wings to look through, some of them ending in a "construction zone" sign rather than an actual ending of the exhibit.
You're probably on your brain cells thinking "yeah, but that's a company doing all that, how much does it actually count?" And that's a valid thought to have. Companies aren't people, they shouldn't be treated like such. But with art, it's a little different.
Companies aren't people, but they are made of people. People make the things that companies are selling, and that includes any art. If you take a look at what any long-standing Konami employee that works with these rhythm games has contributed, you'll find an impressive portfolio.
That's the point I'm making here. You've got all these people who work on projects like this and really get to show their skills and it's just out there to enjoy. Konami isn't the only company who lets this happen, of course.
Sega has 5 rhythm games, Taito has 2 rhythm games, Andamiro has 2 games, Rayark has 3, Step Revolution has 3, Pigeon Games has 2, Harmonix has 4, and that's only including the companies I can think of that have multiple rhythm games. Some companies (Nex Team, XD Network, Noxy Games, SQUARE PIXELS, ect) run just one game, and this also isn't considering the indie teams doing things for free, individuals making something for the fun of it, and collective projects like BMS, modern ITG, and modern Guitar Hero.
Two things stand out here. First, Konami's in a bit of a Spiders Georg situation. How the fuck do you have 22 rhythm games. (And that number is actually missing a few, such as unreleased games and things that they don't count as BEMANI internally.)
Second, the pure scale and capacity of the games here is completely unappreciatable. It's so much, you have to split it into groups or platforms or sometimes you just pick one and stick with it. And even when you do that, it's hard or even downright impossible to look at every facet and say "damn that's cool" or something.
I don't really have a point beyond that second part. I've poured some time into appreciating just the general art of these projects, and there's so many of them. You could spend years looking at and listening to them without even actually playing the games. And then you can also play them!
All video games are like this, but rhythm games are the easiest to quantify if you're the kind of person into quantifying art. Song and chart counts are just that, counts, and they're very sectioned off. Level design in some games merges together, because everything can be considered one huge level.
But other video games also haven't had a yearly release schedule since 1999 that not only continues to go strong without missing a year, but also gets larger and more impressive every time it happens. It's an absolutely massive amount of creative effort for the ability to pretend you're a DJ, and that oddly does deserve respect despite the way I just phrased it.
And, again, this is just one game. Arguably the most impressive, but there's dozens of others that have or used to have similar output. The scope of it all is absolutely massive.
I already said this but I don't have a point to make here. I just think it's neat. End of article.