Before this class started, I had troubles figuring out what would go into world building and how to build a scene. This course really helped my understanding of how a world can be made from the ground up. I did not understand how deep game developers go into researching about architectural styles to create a convincing world for the player to run around in. There is also a large connection between this and the level design aspect as there needs to be someone to control both aspects.
The lectures throughout the course were probably the most entertaining part about the course as I never found myself not learning something in them. The rate at what we were taught was really well paced and I never found myself confused, although there could be a break in the middle to stretch. I didn’t really understand how much of world building is architectural design and it really open my eyes to the world of architecture and the different types of architectural styles that exist. Knowing this really changed my approach to creating scenes and helped me think about keeping the art direction of the scene consistent by having good reference. The contrast to these lectures was filled up with level design orientated parts. I really enjoyed these but I felt as though they were too focused on a certain game that maybe some people did not quite enjoy or understand. Creating a scene is a big task that can be daunting to start, as there is many 3D assets that are involved. The greybox tutorials really helped me overcome this aspect, as I would meticulously create finish props that would not be to scale and sometimes would be in the right art style when I am finished. The tutorials also showed me that there many ways you can approach the creation of materials and how easy it was to apply them as well as setup material blending within those engines. This was a really important tutorial for me as there was a lot of speculation that material blending was actually quite difficult which did initially put me off attempting. However, with a working file that I had created from the tutorial, made it easier for me to set up in my personal scenes. All these aspects of scene building that I had no attempted were all sorted out in the tutorials that I am now very grateful for. I do not really see myself as a 3D environment artist but I really enjoyed creating small scenes all focused on all of the aspects of world building. One of the biggest things that I did take away was that the environmental design is made up of many different parts and is closely related to modern architectural studies and that most environmental artists are actually unqualified architects. As the previous post about this beautifully made game, ‘Life is Strange’ is an episodic interactive game which many label as an “interactive” film. This could be down to the atmosphere that the game creates because the visual techniques used are similar to those which are used by filmmakers. The overall atmosphere of the game is quite gentle and melancholic, the portrayal of Arcadia Bay is very reminiscent of a small run-down community that harbours secrets and angst. There are a number of qualities such as the use of lighting and colour, use of camera and the music, that contribute to this. Since this game is heavily reliant on a narrative and having a story-arc, the game play is closely related to that of a three-act structure used in films as the techniques used throughout are developed and manipulated through the episodes creating a different atmosphere for the player to become immersed in. This means that the atmosphere of the first episode will differ to the 4th episode where there is high tension and a climactic build up and these will then differ to the atmosphere at the end where the conflict becomes resolved and the game winds down. In saying that, we’ll take the atmosphere in the first episode as an example of the previously mentioned development. The beginning is very autumnal, quite warm in colour yet with an underlying coldness to it. This is seen through the use of lighting. Many of these scenes to begin with are reflective of natural lighting when the sun is quite warm and soft. The contrast between light and dark is also softened and there are longer gradients between transitions in colours. The camera techniques used are still quite calmly paced, following the characters steadily and in the short sequences, cuts are slow and montages are faded. This is pared with quite calm music, usually instrumentals. This can be seen when Blackwell Academy is introduced and Max is still introducing the story, the characters and the places that the player will explore. As the game progresses this atmosphere shifts. By episode four, the mood becomes darker, more tense and sinister as the storyline builds to a climax. The colours are reflective of the story and events playing out. The colour pallette is a lot less diverse and becomes more grey and sterile in comparison to the “lived-in” town vibe of the prior episodes. Shadows are more stark and there is almost a monochrome feel to the environment. Lighting becomes more “artificial” as the settings are based more indoors with lighting imitating that of white fluorescents as seen in the bunker scenes. There is also the use of dim street-lights as scenes tend to be set in wet stormy weather. The atmosphere becomes tense and stormy not just literally but also in terms of the emotions evoked, this is also carried by the use of camera where angles are more tilted and there is more use of low angles to suggest intimidation as well as use of faster cuts through sequences and moving characters through environments becomes more jerky, slow and difficult.. This then shifts towards the end of the final sequence where things become resolved. The lighting is restored almost similar to the beginning, except is a bit more crisp as there is no longer any more foreshadowing left to be played out. Lighting is not contrasted nor soft, it is clear and calm. Reminiscent of a wind-down in the story, a resolution to the “film”.
Over the past year of studying and practising my ideas on world design with thought processes that lectures and sessions of study have given me a new understanding of world design. It has taught me to think about the critical elements in games which may sometimes be shoved under the rug. My personal favourite post was the camera perspective about player unknowns battle grounds because of how much I love that game and the design methods that went into it.
I can say now that I know more than what I did at the beginning of this year and I will continue to improve on my understanding of how game worlds are created. I have always been fascinated about how things work in games, I even like to deconstruct small elements from games and create my own swing on things. For example with our third year project “Klepto” I have found myself generating ideas from other games which I may not have been able to do otherwise if not for these blog assignments. I would have liked to learn some more things, which are not covered in the blogs that I have done such as narrative between characters and their situated environments or Creature designs and how they connect to the geological creation in landscapes. A few things that are nice about the entire year of lectures and blogs I have sought new insight into things, which I would not otherwise. Learning what goes into creating these vast and elaborate environments from the backstories the meanings and how much thought goes into every aspect of design is far greater than what I have ever imagined. In addition, with that comes a great responsibility for the environment artists, they hold the keys to the imagination in way. They create the bridge between player and immersion. Because without immersion players would be left wondering aimlessly through the worlds that are created for them, we as designers must guide the players through the world at an effective rate. Without that we would never be able to create things that the player can easily navigate and for me I think that’s is what matters in a game. I think the greatest thing I can take away from this whole exsperiance is peobably my mind. Think about it for a second, without knowing the words or pictures from this year’s lecture my mind would never be able to expand through the foresight of the unknown. It would be like me saying to you “we have an extra toe when we are born, you can still feel the nub of where it was” not knowing that that was there and now knowing that it is something in on itself. An arbitrary example I know but I hope you get what I’m going for, and for that I thank you the reader to be humbled by my blogs and my thoughts and processes I made to create the amazing and perhaps not so amazing work of my past and present. For this week’s blog I created a map using Photoshop, I used a combination of layers, embossing and color maps to combine elements together. I created a heavily rocky mountaineer with a coat line with a small island off in the water. These islands are a representation of what is ahead of exploration. For example if this is in a game you would see the island in the distance and want to explore more to see if you could reach it. The map also has snow, with the second layer not being overly example of this but once you know you can depict it from the rest.
Over this past year, my definitions and ideas of what world design, and worldbuilding are have evolved a lot. Going into Pat and Adam’s classes, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what we were going to be covering, but week after week I was surprised by the depth and specificity of the different things covered.
I’ve always loved fantasy, and especially loved the history behind why a place is the way it is and the things that live there. I always loved history in school, and have continued to seek out and absorb as much history as I can. Thinking about worlds as real, tangible places that have always existed, not just appeared as the games starts, has been a really fulfilling experience. Thinking about the people, their religions, their ideologies, the environments they live in, the language they speak, the maps they write has been so much fun, and I feel like I can really create and flesh out new worlds far better than before. There should always be a reason for everything. This is a piece of advice that I learned in my jaunt at a fine arts school, and i think this is really important to bear in mind when designing games. I like the idea that if someone asked me about absolutely any detail about my world, however minute, that I could tell them exactly why that thing is the way it is. Thinking about approaches like the inside out, outside in approach has also helped me scope my projects a lot better, and helped me figure out how to start designing a new world. Thinking about how mechanics and game designs can be interwoven with the world design has been hugely beneficial as well, and I think this is evident in the current project I’m working on with my team Contrary Scholars. I’ve tried to apply everything i’ve learned in world building to this project, and to this end, I’ve tried to make sure that every design decision is justified and explainable. Being able to have a lecture every week, and then try to implement the new things learned into a constantly evolving project has been a really good way to reinforce the things i’ve learned. Games like Dark Souls, The Witness and Braid have been really great examples that I’ve taken a lot away from. Redesigning theme parks and analysing maps has given me a greater appreciation for the design of spaces, and how things relate to each other in space. Things like lighting, composition, the time it takes to traverse different areas and scale are all puzzles that I now feel equipped to deal and experiment with. One of my biggest takeaways from these world building classes has been the emphasis on architecture. Architecture has always been something i’ve been interested in, but that has always seemed so daunting and alien. I’d never quite taken the step to actually learning about it, and when I found out that architecture would have an emphasis in the world building classes, I was really excited. I now feel like I have a really good, stable understanding of the basics of architecture, and a solid launching point for my own investigations. I look at buildings, and cities, and how spaces are designed differently now, and I’m sure this will have a huge impact on my work as I move forward. Always answering the question of ‘why’ has always been important to me, and I now feel like I have the tools I need to build solid, believable and exciting worlds going forward. Huge thanks to Pat Dunal and Adam Thompson, I’ve learned a lot this year, and I only hope you guys keep up the good work, because I know a lot more people would really appreciate the things I’ve learned over the past year. - Conrad Making an open world map of an island that would be found in Scandinavian areas of the world. This is a quick draft put together using Terrain party for the outline of the shape as well satellite imagery for the terrain texture. This technique is easy for making quick generated world maps. This photo bashing style gives it a realistic look whilst being effective for getting a general idea of what world maps in story driven games.
Baked lighting is something that I haven't done in unreal engine before, so this week's blogpost has been really helpful. Learning how to set up reflection probes, bounced ambient lighting, and the use of textured planes to create sun-shafts has been really insightful. I feel like I know what I need to know to create larger, more complicated baked lighting for large scenes. I tried to get the lighting to come through the window at just the right angle to create some interesting lighting on the leaves of the pot plant, whilst also casting a nice shadow on the back wall. I was never really into lighting in games, but have always had an interesting in the lighting of films, so this has been a cool experiment in achieving a certain mood.
Spec OPs: The Line is one of the best games I’ve played in the last decade. While the gameplay is predominantly standard cover-based shooting, what really made this game stand out to me were the ethical decisions the game asks you to weigh up - could you, or should you cross ‘the line’ - and the stunning visuals of a post-catastrophe Dubai. The architecture of modern day Dubai is widely considered some of the most impressive and beautiful in the world today. The neo-futurist cityscapes of Dubai make the city appear prosperous, modern, innovative and gives it a sense of power and stature. This is why Dubai set the perfect stage for an experience revisiting ideas from Joseph Conrad’s classic novella, Heart of Darkness, as well as elements from the more modern filmic adaptation, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. After the worst recorded sandstorms in history, Dubai is buried, with the rich escaping and millions of migrant workers and resident left behind. Spec Ops: The Line follows Captain Martin Walker as he descends into a hostile and buried Dubai, in search for Colonel John Konrad, a decorated war hero who stayed behind in Dubai with the 33rd battalion of the U.S army against orders, to help the evacuate the locals. Konrad, suffering from PTSD from his time serving in Afghanistan, begins committing atrocities against the people he was initially trying to help, and it’s captain Walker’s job to find him. Sand is a primary mechanic within the world of Spec Ops: The Line, and it’s presence is constant. The world itself seems to be swimming in a sea of sand, and the primary gameplay takes place within partially and sometimes entirely buried skyscrapers. Parts of the world can be strategically destroyed by the player, allowing sand to pour into spaces, burying enemies alive, or creating new ways to traverse levels. The sand is also thematically important, representing the smothering and constantly present morally ambiguous decisions the player must make during their journey through Dubai. The world itself bleeds into the game’s mechanics and theming, and this unity creates a really powerful world that feels alive and real. The skyscrapers of Dubai make for very interesting level and world design. Because of their tall nature, the player often finds themselves in extremely high places, often having to repel to other buildings to proceed. In contrast to this, because of Dubai’s constant sandstorms, players will also find themselves in submerged portions of neo-futurist architecture. This contrast produces nice variation in gameplay, and again seems to represent the player’s journey with rises, and subsequent falls. Lighting is also very powerful in the game, and broken sections of building, or gaps in the skyscrapers constantly provide sunlight pathways for the player to follow. The way the sun glints off the sparkling sands is also a really nice touch, and really helps to catch the players eye and draw them forward. Spec Ops: The Line feels like a really thoughtful and lovingly made game. Questions of ethics and morals are often avoided in games, as these decisions have a tendency to make players feel uncomfortable, or confused. But the way the game’s world, it’s setting and the way these things are intertwined guide the player through the experience, really makes the decisions feel real, and impactful. The architecture offers level layouts that are refreshing and original, and the cityscapes of Dubai are faithfully reproduced and reinterpreted. The aesthetic of the game is much more than than just a visual aspect, as it is intrinsically tied into the game’s mechanics and themes. Metroid has always been one of my favourite games. Metroid has also always been quite confusing. The layouts of levels is confusing, the mechanics can be confusing, and the sheer size of the levels compounds all of this confusion. The maps have always been really, really important in these games, and are usually pretty useful and well thought out. A game that’s space is so confusing in 2D is even more confusing when translated to 3D, and this is why Nintendo put so much thought, time and effort into the maps in the Metroid Prime trilogy. Metroid games often have you visiting areas, leaving areas, revisiting areas and discovering hidden areas. Metroid Prime is no different, except that now, you’re exploring the world on a whole other axes. The traditional 2D maps of Metroid were not going to work in Metroid Prime, even though 2D maps often work well in 3D games. In order for the complicated hives that are the worlds of Metroid Prime to be legible, the team at Nintendo had to come up with a whole new way to show their maps. In order to help you understand your location in 3D space, they used the 3D space to create the map. Instead of a static plan of the area you’re in, the map is a dynamic 3D model of the gameworld itself. It updates in the same way that the traditional maps of Metroid do, through finding map files or by exploring, but it’s the way that the map can be rotated, zoomed into and twisted around that really helps players understand the spaces they’re in. You can pan and zoom the map right into separate rooms, or all the way out to get a good sense of the bigger picture, and see where you are in relation to the rest of the game. The sheer size of the map can give the player a feeling of claustrophobia, as you’re buried right in the middle of it. Seeing the beehive like structure of the map can really drive home Samus’ isolation as she digs through, what can feel like, a massive labyrinthine structure. As you pan and scroll the map , perhaps in a particularly confusing section of the game, you really have eureka moments as you begin to figure out how all the rooms and tunnels join together. The interface of the map is made really easy to use with the 3D controls, and this tactile experience makes the map not just work and look cool, but feel really good too. The map in Metroid adds a lot to the game, and even pushes the game's themes and feelings further. This is a great example of a map that has been thoughtfully hand crafted for the experience, and one that is weaved into the game's mechanics and themes, and isn’t just a generic map to be begrudgingly glanced at. The map is integral to the experience, you really want to use the map, and this is a sign that it’s simply a really good map. The indie game industry has gotten some major hits over the past 10 years such as Super Meat boy, Braid and Limbo, but there is one game that was often forgotten and was at the forefront of the indie game industry. The simple platform-adventure game, Cave Story, released in 2004 for PC, was a throwback to the classic NES style games such as Metroid and Megaman. Like its predecessors, the game was quite difficult and required a lot of skill that put off many players initially. Many years after its release the game started to pick up popularity again with its rerelease for the Wii and Nintendo Ds and was a staple in Nintendo’s list of IPs with another release of a 3D version in 2011 and eventually another release for the recent Switch on 20 June 2017. Although a simple game in terms of mechanics, the game shines in its well-developed characters and world design. The atmosphere that runs through the games narrative really relies on the game’s story and dialogue choices and outcomes. The characters throughout Cave Story were developed in a way that make you care for them and the dialogue choices that you give them feel like they have an effect on the games narrative. When it is either at the start of the mission or even in the middle of it, the game presents the player with a side quest. Some of the side quests are usually optional and some of them leave an impact on the games narrative when progressing. These quests and dialogue lines will often question the player’s morals. This type of game design often leaves the player wondering if they had made the right choice even though there were only two dialogue choices (often being yes or no). The more impactful side quests are usually done by exploring the areas around that level and can be easily missed. The uncertainty of completing a level and skipping some of the content is always a foreboding experience. The player is also often rewarded with a piece of story when taking a detrimental choice to your load out. If the player wants to get the good ending, the player would assume that the best ending was achieved by taking all the side quests and taking all the best upgrades to their arsenal. This isn’t the case in Cave Story as a the good ending is hidden away within very quick moments of decision making and some weird decision making. The mystery behind the games moral choices adds to the worrying nature of the games atmosphere.
I would personally relate this games decision making and world building similarly to Dark Souls but easier to follow. Many of the quests you are given have a very distinct outcome and you are able to continue through the main story without much hassle. The secret pieces of lore that is spread out throughout the game that it slowly reveals to the player, makes them want to go for another play through and read every bit of dialogue to them. |
World design theory (WDT)DevelopersThe goal of this blog is to relate current and past attempts at world design to further improve our understanding. Archives
October 2017
Categories |