Introduction
Throughout my life, I have always been interested in hobbies that involve expressing my creativity. Due to this, it would be inevitable that I would seek other art in all forms for inspiration such as visual art, literature and music. I have appreciated all sorts of creative media including many forms of visual art, literary works, and music. However, of all the art that I have experienced, the one that would inspire me the most would be in the form of a video game, being Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya’s solo project Cave Story (2004).
What is Cave Story? What is it to me?
Cave Story is a 2004 video game created by an independent developer named Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya in the course of five years (Amaya, 2005). In summary, Cave Story's narrative follows an amnesic robot who wakes up in a cave and decides to help rescue a race of cave-dwelling Mimiga from being kidnapped by a power-hungry doctor. Although the game's premise is simple at first glance, its elements within and its execution is the real selling point for many. I first discovered Cave Story in 2011, but it was not until my rediscovery of the game in 2016 that it started to really make an impact on me personally.
To me, Cave Story, along with Amaya himself, has been a major inspiration for me and my own creative works. Unlike Amaya, I do not aspire to develop games, however I do hope to find a future in writing and illustrating narratives that create a similar effect that Cave Story has had on me. Not only has the game inspired me to do better in my already acquired creative interests, it has also introduced me to new interests that I still hold today, like music for example. As well as the direct impact that Cave Story has had on me, its more secondary components, particularly in its fanbase, has also its fair share of impacting me and my creative projects, too. A lot of talented individuals have made themselves present in the online sphere where Cave Story content is present, some even coming together to form community-driven projects. All this action, from Amaya himself and the fans of his work, have impacted my life as an artist in many ways. But in what ways have they done that?
Visual Elements
As one of the first aspects a person would notice in a video game, Amaya in his process, along with his love for creating art, put extra care into Cave Story’s visuals (Amaya, 2005). As expected, most would agree that the art of Cave Story is aesthetically pleasing. There is a good balance in the overall visual composition of each location, which I like to take inspiration from. The art does not overwhelm the eyes with excessively bright colours and, at the same time, does not depress them with dull and muted tones. I also appreciate how each location is given its own distinct aesthetic which reflects the “character” that they have. Compare Mimiga Village’s homely small-town feel, to the island Core’s grim and bleak nature, and to the mellowness and mystery of the Outer Wall. All of this comes from the visuals alone and I desire to be able to create this sort of effect in my own work. I am also fond of the designs for each of the characters and other entities in the game. Just as the locations are, I find that all of them are characterful and dynamic. What I find interesting is how in most cases, entities (enemies included) have a cutesy or cartoon-ish appearance, and then there would come a strikingly detailed, or even terrifying, entity on occasion. I personally enjoyed this juxtaposition and I would like to implement that into my own art, too.
Musical Elements
To this day, the music of Cave Story remains as one of my personal favourite soundtracks out of all of the media that I have consumed. The variety that the collection has is very present and each track tells their part in the story. However, what makes it truly inspiring is that the composer was none other than the game developer himself. He knew barely a word of music theory and yet he had managed to craft a soundtrack that helped tell his story as if he were composing for years (Amaya, 2005). The music ranges from the mystery and curiosity found in 'Gestation' to the calming melody of 'Plant', from the adrenaline-pumping 'Oppression' and the menacing 'Tyrant' to the emptiness and dread brought by 'Quiet' - one could say that each soundtrack is their own character.
Although I appreciate every soundtrack in Cave Story, there is one piece in the collection that has remained close to my heart for years. Its title is 'Safety' and, as you would expect, it plays in almost every safe zone in the game, first appearing in the house of a dead hero. For many years, 'Safety' has been present in my list of favourite pieces of music of all time, and it still remains there. Interestingly, 'Safety' is the soundtrack that I have listened to the most when I read graphic novels. This may be specific to my experience, but I have found that it is composed in a way that makes the melody suit almost every scene that I read. Perhaps, due to how many times I have listened to it, I have found many ways to interpret it. My guess is that its bittersweetness in nature brings me to match the soundtrack with nearly every emotion that a scene in a graphic novel (of my taste) brings.
Not only was Cave Story's original soundtrack something that I found impactful for experiencing the game, it also became a major inspiration for me to start composing little chiptune soundtracks of my own. Quickly after I completed the game in 2016, I learned that the program which was used to create its music was completely free to use and I downloaded it out of curiosity. It was from then I began to compose small melodies. The program was surprisingly easy to navigate and I shortly became, for some months, obsessed with creating music for a game that would never exist. I am still composing small soundtracks on occasion, except now my musical arsenal has expanded greatly. However, even so, Organya is a program that I still use and will never forget.
Literary Elements
As its title implies, one of the lasting impressions that Cave Story has on its players is the narrative itself. The premise that the game presents is rather simple, however it is the delivery that makes the experience feel more complex. The narrative is never told directly and instead is brought to the player in small 'bits' that eventually become put together as the story progresses. In fact, the narrative does not begin at the start of the main story and instead throws the confused protagonist into the middle of a conflict. Under these circumstances, the story becomes more immersive as we can empathise with the protagonist who has no context of who he is or what he is getting into.
Like most, I began playing Cave Story expecting another classic action-adventure game, but upon entering the second half of my playthrough, my perception on the story changed drastically. At this point there was a sudden, although not obnoxious, shift in tone which would happen every now and then, and the game would only get darker from that point on. Despite how negatively I felt during those moments, I found this oddly inspiring for my own creative works. Cave Story marks the first time I experienced a story with both lighthearted elements and dark themes, and I wanted to create stories like that. After completing my first full playthrough of the game in 2016, I found a new way of expressing my creativity by attempting to write my first complex narrative. Back then, especially before I played Cave Story, I hardly read any fiction or watched many films and series at the time, so my access to creative inspiration, as an aspiring comic artist, was scarce. I was mainly writing small comedy skits at the time. It was thanks to Cave Story, and other small story-driven games like it, that I found a medium to help influence and inspire my creative works.
Creator and Fanbase
Of all of the visual artists and content creators that I have looked up to, Amaya stands as one of my top inspirational figures for my creative works. Of course, the game Cave Story and many of its elements have made a major impact on the direction that I take my projects and ideas. However, it is not only Cave Story that has influenced me - many of Amaya's other work has affected me in the same way, as well. Aside from Cave Story, Amaya's other works includes more of his games and programming projects, his music, and visual art, with my particular favourites being his neko 100 collection, Ame manga, a lot of his archived art and his personal website. Each has influenced my creative arts in some way, but it is Amaya's Ame manga and small artworks that have made the most significant impact, especially as an aspiring comic artist myself.
I have also gathered much of my inspiration from the talented individuals among the fans of Amaya's work. A number of their works can be found in Cave Story's tribute site, where links to them are made available. These individuals had crafted works of their own which range from visual art, music, and their use of Cave Story's game maker to create more narratives - each which have inspired me to improve and expand my own works and my creative arsenal. Interestingly, it is not only the website's contents that has inspired me, but it is also the website itself. Starting 2020, I discovered creating webpages as a hobby after working on a website project for an assignment. Since then, I have continued to create webpages as a hobby using HTML. When I needed a source of inspiration for the directions I wanted to take my webpage's format and design, I would often look to the tribute site for ideas, and even look into links to old third-party blogs and websites that it shares. It would be difficult to believe that I would be where I am now without having experienced Cave Story.
Conclusion
Like for many of its players, Cave Story has made a lasting impression on me and my relationship with creative media. From its visuals, its music and its narrative, the game has found itself influencing many of the creative works that I have practised within the past years. The level of importance that Cave Story has to me is to the point where I want to be able to implement the effect that the game has had on me into my own works. It makes me happy to know that Amaya has crafted a piece of, what I consider as, art that would heavily influence my work today, and I hope to see more of what he does in the future.
References:
Amaya, Daisuke. Cave Story, 2004.
Amaya, Daisuke. “Warehouse” Studio Pixel, n.d. https://studiopixel.jp/archives/index.html
Rodriguez, Tyrone and Amaya, Daisuke. Cave Story - Developer's Voice, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8XINfralSE&ab_channel=NintenDaanNC
SkyeWelse and andwhyisit. Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari), A Tribute Site, 2005 https://www.cavestory.org/
SkyeWelse and andwhyisit. “In the Making” Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari), A Tribute Site, 2005 https://www.cavestory.org/pixels-works/in-the-making.php
SkyeWelse and andwhyisit. “Music and Art Links” Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari), A Tribute Site, 2005 https://www.cavestory.org/links/music-and-art.php
Yu, Derek and Amaya, Daisuke. “Interview: PIXEL” THE INDEPENDENT GAMING SOURCE, 2005 https://web.archive.org/web/20070312051337/http://www.tigsource.com/features/interview_pixel.html
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