Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Building Game Worlds
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U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N
For many game developers, having the time to do aggressive previsualization is a
luxury. Yet, those who scramble together the time to do some previsualization often
save substantial amounts of time over the course of development. If a team is forced
in midproduction to determine many of the visual formatting details that might have
been resolved in a previsualization sequence, progress may be stalled and precious resources
may be wasted.
In what follows, we’ll walk through the process of completing a basic
previsualization sequence, culminating in the construction of a “cursed cathedral” as
our example.
Utilizing Environmental References and Sketches
Every game has an environmental setting—a physical location created to “host”
gameplay. We’re not just creating floor plans for a retirement village (that’s a side
project). We’re hosting gameplay! Whether you’re trying to simulate the atmosphere
of a Western casino, a colorful and sugary cartoon world, or the burned-out remnants
of a mining tunnel system on a distant star (or maybe all three at once—yikes!),
the environment will in large part help define and dictate the mood. Mood forms a
part of the player’s emotional connection to the game. Gameplay mechanics and
gameplay devices are what keep the player engaged, active, and excited, which supports
a mood-driven or emotional experience. If you don’t engage a player’s emotions,
the player will have a flat, nondynamic experience. Most of the games that we
all love to play seem to blend mood and game mechanics seamlessly. You can’t tell
where one stops and the other begins. If you’re not screaming at the monitor or television,
whoever created that game might not get to make another game.
Simply put, the environment should support and complement gameplay—not detract
from it. Environments, by their very visual style, can shift or alter the mood substantially.
Warm and happy might describe the mood generated by a well-crafted
Sugar World. Dark, anxious, and brooding might be the mood generated by your
own private Apocalypse World. Thus, when trying to set the visual style for an environment,
it’s often very helpful to use plenty of reference material, such as photographs,
drawings, illustrations, and pictures that help influence a visual or stylistic
direction. This point may seem obvious, but it’s sometimes forgotten in the fray of
development. Reference material gives a team something concrete to talk about. Suggesting
that a game should look like Blade Runner is useful at a conceptual level, and
suggests a certain style, but really doesn’t help lock down the messy details. What
does a pay phone/telecom unit look like in the Blade Runner world? Inquiring minds
want to know—especially when it’s due on tomorrow’s schedule.
The basic point is that providing adequate visual reference is always helpful to artists
and designers and is usually very helpful to the development team when establishing
a reference point. Many aspects of game development begin with useful and