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The Geometry of Islamic Art Becomes a Treasure of a Game (arstechnica.com)
Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica reviews the game Engare, describing it as a "clever, deceptively simple, and beautiful rumination on geometry and Islamic art-making traditions." The game consists of relatively simple puzzles and a freeform art toy that unlocks its puzzles' tools to allow you to make whatever patterns you please. From the report: The game, made almost entirely by 23-year-old Iranian developer Mahdi Bahrami, starts with a 2D scene of a circle repeatedly traveling along a line. Above this, an instructional card shows a curved-diagonal line. Drop a dot on the moving circle, the game says, and it will generate a bold line, like ink on a page. As the ball (and thus, your dot) rolls, the inked line unfurls; if you put the dot on a different part of the circle, then your inked line may have more curve or angle to it, based on the total motion of the moving, rotating circle. Your object is to recreate this exact curved-diagonal line. If your first ink-drop doesn't do the trick, try again. Each puzzle presents an increasingly complex array of moving and rotating shapes, lines, and dots. You have to watch the repeating patterns and rotations in a particular puzzle to understand where to drop an ink dot and draw the demanded line. At first, you'll have to recreate simple turns, curves, and zig-zags. By the end, you'll be making insane curlicues and rug-like super-patterns.
But even this jaded math wiz-kid couldn't help but drop his jaw, loose his tongue, and bulge his eyes at the first time Engare cracked open its math-rich heart. One early puzzle (shown above) ended with its seemingly simple pattern repeating over and over and over and over. Unlike other puzzles, this pattern kept drawing itself, even after I'd fulfilled a simple line-and-turn pattern. And with each pass of the drawing pattern, driven by a spinning, central circle, Engare drew and filled a new, bright color. This is what the game's creator is trying to shout, I thought. This is his unique, cultural perspective. This looks like the Persian rugs he saw his grandmother weave as a child.
But even this jaded math wiz-kid couldn't help but drop his jaw, loose his tongue, and bulge his eyes at the first time Engare cracked open its math-rich heart. One early puzzle (shown above) ended with its seemingly simple pattern repeating over and over and over and over. Unlike other puzzles, this pattern kept drawing itself, even after I'd fulfilled a simple line-and-turn pattern. And with each pass of the drawing pattern, driven by a spinning, central circle, Engare drew and filled a new, bright color. This is what the game's creator is trying to shout, I thought. This is his unique, cultural perspective. This looks like the Persian rugs he saw his grandmother weave as a child.
How much is "Islamic" and how much is stolen from cultures that they have destroyed? For example "islamic" arches can clearly be seen in pre-islamic Persia. You will fins that most things that Muslims claim to have invented turn out to be "we destroyed this library but copied this bit"
It's just geometric designs, guy. Look at the video, there's nothing about Islam itself here. It is simply inspired by a particular cultural influence.
An interesting geometrical application -yet what do the first 9 comments focus on? the word "Islamic". As I understand it (and I'm not a Muslim) creation of images is frowned upon (from the Jewish old testament commandment about graven images) so a lot of Islamic art is based on calligraphy and patterns (incl. some geometrically interesting tessellations).
Slashdot used to be a good site for technically minded people - over the past year or two it's degenerated into yet another cesspool of bigotry and hatred - whether it be based on religion, women, gun control, Brexit or US politics.
Save your bile for Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites and let Slashdot return to its roots in its anniversary year
Dude, that's like saying we should ban the color red because that's the color of commies and if we keep looking at red we'll at one day think that Communism is a fine idea.
We're talking an art style here. Frankly, if you think an art style is going to influence your children, please take them to a museum, you might end up with better kids.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I haven't seen such a fun pattern-based game since some of the early mandelbrot fractal generators. Cool concept and execution.
-a.e.mossberg
Does anyone remember the children's toy Spirograph? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....
The game's introduction reminded me of that.
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
More to the point, it's basically a digital spirograph (remember those? :) ). Which, the question it raises to me is... why did it take so long before someone thought to make a digital spirograph?
The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems.
Modern day America?
why did it take so long before someone thought to make a digital spirograph?
What exactly took so long?
Ezekiel 23:20
My son asked me to get Geometry Dash for him on his iPad. "Cool," I thought, "he wants a geometry game."
Such a disappointment. The game has no geometry whatsoever, and I have to hear the same annoying pounding electronic music repeated endlessly whenever we drive anywhere.
This is the game that Geometry Dash should have been.
No, it doesn't. I just played through the whole thing. The menu screen looks like Alhambra, the music has lots of Mideast influence, and the instructions are in Arabic as well as English, but you wouldn't know that if the only context you had was the game itself, because it explains nothing about Islamic culture. The inspiration is there, but the indoctrination is not.
The game looks about as Islamic as Tetris looks Soviet.
They were a darn site better at drawing lines than you are at placing commas.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."