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I wanted to start this blog off with a topic that I feel is one of the most critical, and overlooked game development aspects in modern game development, as opposed to retro game design.
Game Environment
What is game environment? The answer is simple, or so it looks on the surface. A game environment is the surroundings that enclose the player within the barriers of gameplay. Environments carry the theme the level is intending to convey to the player. If the game environment is not coherent then the player will be confused. If a house is floating 2 feet off the ground, there better be a reason for it.
The point of game environments is to envelop the players' consciousness within the game. In recent years, game developers have gone to great lengths to make this feat successful. If the players' consciousness is focused within the game, then the experience will be more immerse, and meaningful. For game designers, creating a meaningful experience is priority #1. No game designer wants to hear "I just didn't care".
The problem I've found to be a reoccurring trend in game design is focusing too much emphasis on coherent environments that look absolutely realistic. When this happens, there's many problems that happen. First, with more realistic environments, emphasis on key objects or items can easily be overshadowed, such as knowing that you are supposed to interact with something environment related. This frequently leaves the player feeling retarded, rather than rewarded after said objective is achieved because the answer was so simple, the objective just wasn't conveyed properly. This frequently happens in newer games simply because of the realism factor.
Another critical element that happens is limited roaming capability. Now before I mention this, I'd like to point of this isn't entirely as apparent in FPS games such as Call of Duty, but is unacceptably repetitive in recent RPG titles. -cough- FFXIII -cough-
Sorry, now where was I? Oh yes, limited roaming capability. High end 3d graphics take a significantly larger amount of time to design than simple sprite and chipset based graphics. I personally have had enough experience in both departments to know just how true this really is. As a result, in order to move production forward fast enough to meet deadlines, simple environment designs are created using what today is known as the smoke-and-mirrors trick. The smoke-and-mirrors trick, as far as game design is concerned, is a method of restricting the characters freedom to go where he or she desires. This typically happens by increasing or decreasing elevations to create walls in pathways. Another method is simply by not allowing players to enter buildings with little or no indication, even if other buildings you can because they pertain to the plot. The most common, and sloppy use of the smoke-and-mirrors trick is invisible walls. Collision barriers that stop the player from entering or exiting sections of the environment, especially when it is obvious to the player that you should be capable of proceeding forward. The critical flaw to the smoke-and-mirrors technique is it simply breaks the immersion of the player within the game, resulting in a less meaningful experience due to your incapability to interact with the game in a way you would expect.
The smoke-and-mirrors trick certainly results to some dis-satisfying results, however, on the opposite side of the spectrum. is the freedom to go anywhere, and everywhere at all times. A good example of this is Rockstar's biggest title Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto for its time was well known for its open worlds and freedom to do what you want, when you wanted, and there was some sort of feedback from the game for your actions. A problem many people had with this was the lack of direction within the game, resulting in a feeling of being lost. The environment was so open ended you frequently relied on your interface to coordinate you to your destination point. Interface interaction is a critical portion of the game but having to rely on it so heavily does not create an immersive experience. Although, that's another topic for another day.
Too much freedom within the game causes confusion, and limited freedom breaks immersion. An environment requires a delicate balance of both order, and freedom. A good level designer will be able to create an enjoyable experience with the player free to explore, without the result of invisible walls, however, at the same time, give enough clues so that the player will be able to find his way from point A to point B.
And while we're on the topic of clues. During the retro era, games frequently were designed so that the levels would have indication of where to go without completely limiting the player's freedom of exploration. Subconsciously, the human brain wants to investigate patterns. We're all born to do so even if we're not particularly interested. As a result, designers used several patterns to point the player in the right direction. These methods are still being implemented today, but not quite as frequently as in the past, here are a few examples:
-Footprints in the snow
-Patterns on the walls
-Elevations (If you enter a tower, you know the goal is to reach the top.)
-Red carpets in interiors
-Lit paths vs dark paths
While we're on the topic of retro games. Games in the past were designed with the idea of gameplay over imagery. As a result, games were built to be fun, and challenging. Game designers built environments with the idea that gameplay was designed to be challenging, not realistic. Where every scenerio could be easily beaten by doing a very specific, certain sequence of actions. Once the player understands this sequence of actions, there is no more challenge and now there is a new challenge to face. With the trend of starting at the beginning of the level (sometimes beginning of the game!) if you failed, part of the challenge was about memorization. This is still implemented frequently in modern games of all generes and it is a good thing! Repetition adds to game length and makes smaller games feel larger. From a game designer's perspective, it's more bulk of gameplay for the players' money. Challenging puzzles and exicutions are critical to keep the players' attention span. This has sparked multiple generes of gameplay early on such as platformers, action-adventure, and hack-n-slash. The trick to implimenting repetition in this manor is to either make the reward worth your time, or make the challenge curve fair.
The problem with this as it relates to environment is when such a large emphasis on how an environment should look is used, it has a tendency of taking away from the gameplay. Coherence takes over and certain elements cannot be implimented. An example; In a suburban environment, you can't put a series of garbage dumpsters floating in the air to jump up to a second floor building simply because the player will realize it doesn't make any sense, thus breaking the immersion within the game.
That's all for now. This particular plot is very thick so I will probably come back to it several times in the future.
Also, currently I have no spell-check on this computer so please excuse my grammar.
