One of my first followers on Instagram and a constant source of inspiration to me in the Virtual Photography community is Gamezyscreenshotz_. Not only is he prolific and experimental, but likes to shoot games that aren't the flavour of the month or necessarily the popular choices. Passion is his focus and it shows in spades. Due to this, I decided that he deserved to be my first interview on V P Vibrancy.
Welcome to the blog Gamezy! My first question and possibly the most straightforward: What brought you to the Virtual Photography hobby?
In all honesty I never heard of virtual photography before. I was just randomly gaming on Horizon Zero Dawn and taking some photos on it, so I thought why not post them? Later on I thought: I think I will do this as a separate thing to my art as I had nothing going for me. I dropped out of college due to difficult circumstances. I then later found more people who were doing the same thing and Skydragengames put something on his story about partnering up, so I clicked yes not knowing what this was. It took me some time to understand what partners were, but slowly after that I fell in love with virtual photography.
Your journey started with Horizon Zero Dawn. Where did that take you? What did you learn and where did it lead to?
Well I was just learning the basics of taking photos. I honestly got tired of posting photos of Horizon Zero Dawn, as I felt like I was being very plain and that I wasn't challenging my creativity. I'm a big believer in pushing yourself, having fun and being creative.
Later I went on to getting several games like Jurassic World Evolution and posting here and there, which was fun, but later as time went on I went to DOOM. This isn't popular in the VP community at all, but me, I'm all about going risky with something that isn't popular at all. I set out to show my love and passion for this game. I connected to it in when I was in a negative way, angry and depressed. I would play DOOM to escape and release my anger. I was once silent and angry as a person, I found I connected with the Slayer in a deep and dark way in how I was mentally. Not wishing harm on others but due to the bleak nature of life. I decided to revisit the game that I had so much history with, I researched to see if DOOM had a photo mode and I found out that it did, so I bought it.
At first I was apprehensive about going back to something that I had such a negative connection with, but going back into it and challenging my creativity, turning that negative energy into something new and possible. It brought out something great and I pushed myself each time further, trying new things and feeling happy playing the game again.
I set out with the goal of playing the game to be creative not angry, I don't think many people have connections with violent games, but this game franchise helped me a lot in the end and I am glad I came back to it. It has made me more creative and I've inspired other people on here to join in on DOOM. I might not be very popular, but I don't really care. I want to show the ugly side of games and hopefully inspire more people to come to horror and enjoy ugly games.
I've led to creating and co-creating weekly themes, one which encourages everyone to be creative and one to show off monsters. Now it leads me to push myself and hopefully inspire and push others too.
My creativity has evolved a lot and I'm making sure to push it each time. I've learned to always try something new and to adapt and push my creative limits when I can.
DOOM is unlike most games with a photomode. As an up to date version of the hyper-violent FPS classic, it is an ugly, brutal and bloody experience. What is it about this world you love so much and what inspires you to stay shooting it?
I love that its different to the other games. Its of a much darker tone and I'm inspired to keep at it because I know there is so much I can do in the game. Its smaller than others and it has got a personal level of feeling to me, connecting with my past and playing it makes me see that something that was so negative can be a positive for me. Sharing the ugly side of virtual photography brings me joy and I hope that it inspires others to do the same and show that darker side of their photos.
Hopefully this will inspire others to give DOOM a try. The game is often on sale and with the arrival of Eternal, I am sure it will raise the games profile again. What tips would you give other VPs wanting to take photos of the game?
The tips I would give to anyone wanting to try out DOOM is to taker your time with your photos. Mess around with the settings to get a feel for them as it can be overwhelming compared to other virtual photography based games. My tip would be experiment each time you take a photo, it doesn't matter how many you take. Even if it doesn't look great, post one. For one you can see how to improve upon it and you can later look back at your journey and how you've improved. I started off and I was terrible, but I kept at it and I am still improving. Also, take photos of things that just happen that are surprising. Always challenge yourself when you take your photos, it makes taking them more fun and rewarding when you look at them. I've found with DOOM its difficult getting the photos at times but honestly its rewarding. Out of any game I have played so far it is the most difficult to get it right the first time.
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It is baby steps finding your footing. Find what theme fits for you, but always challenge what you choose to do creatively, it is left for you to do something with it. If needed, anyone new to the game can always come to me for advice.
There is no hiding that you must be hyped for DOOM Eternal, but are there any other games out there that you are looking forward to? Or perhaps there are other games that you would like to try your vp skills out on?
I am super excited for Eternal as its more lore intensive and everything has been upgraded by the looks of things. For other games Eternal would be one regardless even if it had no photo mode. It doesn't matter I like the challenge. For a game I'd like to be posting, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, I briefly posted some shots of, but it has no photo mode. It is a challenge. Also, I love Undertale, which I own and that is something I am excited to post but it also has no photo mode. I would like to show everyone that you don't need a photo mode to have good photos.
The skills I have learned I want to apply to every game I play. It could be any game, I just want to challenge myself.
Thank you for your time Gamezy and I implore readers to give DOOM a try. It is on PS Now and Game Pass, equally it can be found dirt cheap in online deals, thrift stores/second hand shops.
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