Elements of game design, part four: environment

So time for the final part of this blog series; environment.

So we've talked about planning, art, story and characters so what else is needed to complete a game? Environments. Games would be pretty dull if you were just running around a black background for the whole thing. Whatever genre of game you're playing, there will be an environment  and a different type depending on what game it is you're playing.

Lets take a look at how the genre of the game can affect an environment. In first person shooters such as Call of Duty there's a very realistic environment created, mostly battlefields. This is because games like CoD are meant to feel 'real', like you're actually in a war thus the realistic environments are created.

First person shooting in CoD, a typical village warzone

The Ratchet and Clank games are adventure platformer games and their environments are completely different. They are more magical, filled with things that aren't real like floating platforms and mystical creatures and this fits in with the genre of the game they are set in, the environment helps to convey the idea of more of an adventure and not a fight for survival like that of CoD.

The futuristic Metropolis of Ratchet and Clank

Environments are so important because they really set the mood for a game. Imagine playing Call of Duty in Ratchet and Clank's environment and vice versa? It would completely change everything about the game and the characters obviously wouldn't fit into the environment at all. This is why it's so important to make sure you make the right environment when you make a game because it can disrupt gameplay if it isn't right and the emotion of the game might fade.

Because of general fps being very realistic though this doesn't mean that some fps have switched it up and made a new environment for their game for example, Halo. Halo is an fps war game but it's set in space so there's anti gravity, shuttlepads for space ships and a more fantasy feel to environment yet it's still an fps game. This is because the game is written differently, it has different characters and a different story so the environment has to fit in with this, despite it being an fps. See, we can clearly see now that planning, characters, story, art and environment all tie into each other in order to make a successful game.

The more futuristic environments of Halo

So how do level designers construct and decorate the environment to assist navigation through the level? Well picking a suitable genre is one thing but staying true to the story and character is the main thing, there's no point in trying to put characters in an environment that clearly isn't made for them as the game won't flow properly, people won't be able to connect to the characters and they will feel out of place thus making the game clunky and unenjoyable, environment plays such a huge role in the experience of a game that it has to be done right. The environment will influence the atmosphere of the game again by creating a world that the characters fit into, a good experience will be where everything links together and makes sense that those characters are in that environment. There is a balance between realism and stylisation supporting the player's beliefs in the game world but as I keep saying it will depend on the game itself and the characters, if the characters fit into their world then the player will enjoy them more.

A game I really liked with a brilliant environment was the Batman game Arkham City which was set in a massive city prison in Arkham that Batman is trapped in. It is huge and surrounded by freezing water, patrolled by thugs and Batman's most well known enemies and filled with iconic places such as Penguin's Iceberg Lounge and Poison Ivy's poisonous plants. This is what makes it so much fun to play in; it's exactly where you'd expect Batman to be.

The eeriness of Arkham City

The game took a dark turn, much like some of the darker Batman comics and the environment felt so cold and cruel, it just fitted in so perfectly with the whole storyline of the game, Batman tracking down Joker before he killed everyone on the island along with the ongoing feud between his and Penguin's factions, and Hugo Strange's cruel and calculating words to Batman:

"How does it feel Wayne, to stand on the very stones that ran with your parents blood? Do you feel sad? Full of rage? Or does that outfit help bury your feelings? Hiding your true self, you're a truly extraordinary specimen  I look forward to breaking you."

This being a recording left by Strange over the spot where Bruce's parents were shot dead in crime alley whilst Bruce mourns for their lost over a single rose.

Strange's words at Crime Alley

The darkness of the story fits in so well with the decrepit environment Batman is placed in and all the characters play into the story perfectly, everything is mapped out so well, Riddler's trophies scattered around the most grotesque parts of Arkham City and Mr Freeze trapped in the iciest ruins of it, it all weaves together so well and makes for a brilliant game, all down to how well the characters fitted into their environment.

So all in all a great game will come down to environment but also how well it will intertwine with the story, art style and characters, you need all of them working together in order to create an enjoyable, believable game.


Sources:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4413/action_adventure_level_design_.ph
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6147/the_bleeding_edge_cevat_yerli_on

Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

I realised I'd accidentally skipped out on part two of this 4-parter blog series. Whoops. I must have been excited to cry over the story and characters of Mass Effect a little too much.

Anyway lets back track a bit so we can cover the second part of this series; art direction for games.

Art direction is incredibly important when it comes to creating an original game, the style in which we play a game can really make something original and interesting to play. If an art style is overused for example, the same style used in a lot of first person shooters then games will often look a lot like each other and will fail to have a 'wow' factor when it comes to art direction but a game like Borderlands where cellshading was used for all the game makes everything look original and interesting, something new and exciting to experience as well as making it easy to differentiate between different kinds of games.

Borderland's iconic cell shading style

This is all down to art direction. The art director has an incredibly difficult job of pretty much deciding what a game will look like as a whole and they can make it as unoriginal or original as they see fit to. So when the art director of Borderlands created the art style they made it original. Borderlands is another first person shooter but it's art style makes it very easy to tell what game it is unlike a lot of other first person shooters such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, if you were shown screenshots from these three games then it'd be very easy to tell which one was Borderlands but much more difficult to decide which was Call of Duty and which was Battlefield unless you were a hardcore fan of the two. Borderlands' art style is what makes it stand out.

A little more difficult to tell which is which, right?

An art director is described as 'the captain of the ship' because they pretty much decide what a game will look like, a very difficult job indeed taking up a lot of hours. The art director decides what goes into a game, the style, the characters, the assets, everything is decided by them and art is what makes the game quite honestly, it's how the player will see it and ultimately how it is advertised. Games with brilliant art direction, stunning views during gameplay and really amazing character designs that are all memorable are down to the art director so we really have to thank art directors out there for making our favourite games possible.

Art directors have many people working under them, the 'game artists', yes what I'm aspiring to be who will help to create the art director's visions. There's also 'gurus' who are like art directors but don't manage people, instead they mentor and tutor them. It's down to all these people working together that we can have aesthetically pleasing games like the ones we play today.

So what it really comes down to is creating an original art style for your game. I've talked about Borderlands, how about some other iconic art styles? Well there's the post-apocalyptic era of the Fallout series, art direction mostly comes down to the weird and wonderful assets we see in the game, Iguana on a stick anyone? Wanna wash that down with some Nuka Cola Quantum? See, these are such memorable items from the series and are so iconic to Fallout as a whole so thank you art director of Fallout, you're the reason I have five jars of bottlecaps in my room. Yes I'm being serious.

Some tasty Nuka Cola Quantum

Pokemon is another one with a very clear anime style. Ok so actually there's a lot of games with the 'anime' art style but Pokemon is so original probably because of the battle system which has been the same in almost all main Pokemon games. It's so iconic 'fight, bag, Pokemon and run' are just something you'll expect to always see when you play a Pokemon game now.

The iconic Pokemon battle system

I'll pick one more to talk about, how about a little twist? I'm a huge fan of the Youtubers 'Smosh' and recently they created a game called 'Super Head Esploder x'. While I have yet to play this game (due to having no iPod, iPad or iPhone) you'll be able to tell it's a Smosh game in a heart beat. Anthony Padilla from Smosh did most of the coding for the game and we all know he's really big on designing as well, he's designed a variety of websites. So what makes Super Head Esploder X so original? Well it's done in an 8-bit style to commemorate the era of gaming the boys grew up with as well as featuring a number of characters iconic to the Smosh videos, you even play as Billy, one of Ian Hecox's characters. So it's very easy to spot that this is a Smosh game because of the art style it's done in and the iconic characters.

Iconic Smosh characters

So to wrap it up, I believe that being an art director is a creative role, they have to manage people and map out what they think a game should look like, they can choose whether or not to make it original or generic and typical like many previous games, it's up to them. If I was to become an art director in the future I'd really need to get my creative juices flowing a lot more than they are now, I'd need to delve into the depths of imagination, creating an art style that is original and can put a game in the best perspective possible, I think this is why games like Borderlands is so big to this day, it's art style.


Sources:
http://my.safaribooksonline.com/159200430X/ch11lev1sec2?portal=oreilly
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3115/common_methodologies_for_lead_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2402/day_in_the_life_phillip_bossant_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2960/keeping_up_with_the_sims_managing_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2352/advancing_your_game_industry_.php