Elements of Game Design: Environments

In this entry I will be talking about Environment Design within games and why a games environment can make or brake the experience for a player. Environment Design and Art Direction go hand in hand when creating a game world, as I mentioned in my Art Direction blog, good Art Direction is key to creating a cohesive world and from that a more fluid game experience for the player, a few key points that should be addressed when creating a game world are how its linked to the underlying storyline of the game and its relevance to the characters and enemies it holds, a good example of this being done well is in the original Dead Space by Visceral games, from the environment, characters, weapons and enemies everything feels like it belongs, even if it is set in a Science Fiction universe, the reason it works so well is everything you see in the game from the initial concepts to the final works have their ideas and structure based within reality.
For example the Zombie-like Necromorph enemies have twisted and broken bodies that seem very alien at a glance but if you examine them more closely you can see how they are designed through manipulating human anatomy.

I hope these images help to illustrate my point.

The last two images bring up an important point about design in games and how a simple visual stimulants in games are a great way to convey purpose, i'm referring to Isaac's RIG which serves as the players health bar throughout the game, using his suit in this way rather than the usual Heads up display not only creates functionality within the world but also provides a more visceral ( poor choice of words )  representation for the player, as the player you always dread seeing your rig turn red as your trying to survive.
The theme of functionality runs deep through Dead Space's design and this is what helps to create a realistic game world for the player to explore, everything aboard the Ishimura feels like its part of a once living environment where people went about their daily lives and jobs, from the inclusion of mess halls, lavatories, dorm rooms and so on, to even a huge air farm to provide oxygen for the ship.

Another good example of environment design is the city of Rapture from Bioshock which right from the start draws the player in with a sense of mystery and wonder as the events of the game unfold, the combination of the destroyed beauty of the city plays off so well against its stark raving mad inhabitants.

Here are some links too the developers speaking about there work.

Art: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYdsdBFPHAc
Audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBD-oMI5w7U
Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN8MoRSZhUg

Elements of game design: Character

I personally feel that characters in games are clearly high on the list of priorities of what is important to a good game, I believe good game mechanics are most definitely top of this list but character design and personalities are a very close second, some of my favourite characters from video-games include, Garrus Vakarian from the Mass Effect series, Glados from the Portal series and Sander Cohen from Bioshock.
I find these characters stand out for me because they have interesting writing or backstory, I believe good writing for a character is crucial for games that don't revolve solely around shooting peoples faces. Character writing and backgrounds are especially important in games like Mass Effect because of the games nature, where you are actively encouraged to interact with other characters within the world to progress and enrich the experience. Whereas in Portal Glados serves as a passive antagonist in the way she goads and taunts you while you progress through the game, this side-line approach of villain interaction is fairly rare in games and was a unique part of portal that was highly praised upon its release.
Sander Cohen from Bioshock is one of my favourites purely because he's eccentric to the point of madness, as the player you always feel on edge around him as you cant quite be sure what he's going to do next.

A few examples of bad characters in video-games in my opinion include most first person shooter game characters as they are usually very two dimensional and have poor cliche writing or no writing at all most of the time, a good example of this point is the new Aliens: Colonial Marines game, the marine characters in that game are so poorly written and just downright annoying at times that you couldn't care less when they get torn in half, and I love the Alien universe and its mythos. In the case of characters like Halo's Master Chief this actually works to the characters favor because it adds to his characters portrayal of being inhuman and heartless, but in most cases it usually doesn't work in that way, some people would argue that the reason characters in shooter games have fairly average or bad writing is that its not key to games overall experience, which in a way is true and a decent point but I still believe that it would further enhance the experience if the writing was good.

An example of this are the Films of Quintin Tarantino, or more specifically Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction because these films feature Gangster style characters and criminals but the writing is brilliant, Samuel L Jackson's character, Jules from Pulp Fiction in particular is especially well written, It pretty much launched his career as an actor. If you haven't seen these films you wont get my point but do yourself a favor and watch them because they are great movies.

Elements of Game Design: Art Direction

In this entry I will be talking about art direction in games in general, the Art Directors role within the company and what their job requires of them.

So what is an Art Director, well to put it simply the he or she is the person responsible for the level of quality and the style of art included in the game they are involved with, they have to be highly creative and able to visualise how an entire scene or area would look within the game, this is so as the job title suggests they are able to give direction to the art team. An art Director will have a team of artist they lead throughout game production, the size and skill-sets of these teams can vary quite a lot due to new staff, different studios and projects etc, this means the Art Director must also be adaptable and able to convey ideas to all their team regardless of their prior experience.

The Directors art background will usually consist of a Bachelor of fine art degree as they need great understanding of lighting and shadow, tone and texture, scale, perspective and proportion, construction of a scene and depth of field I find are especially important for for games as you need to be able to imagine how the player will move through the space and how they are going to view this space from pretty much every angle, this is different in a movie where the director can control exactly where the audience will view the scene from at all times, this I feel is what makes making good game world much harder than making a good set for a movie.

The main reason I feel why an Art Director is important for games is so that the world the game takes place in always cohesive and levels and areas complement one another, this enables the game to feel like a real place even if it is fantasy or science fiction.

Lighting in games I feel can vary in importance based on the style of game,  for example in a real time strategy game use of lighting and placement of it is less important than it would be in a horror game that's trying to emote a specific response from the player. I find that in First person games especially, lighting is extremely important, as well as my earlier point about how a scene will be constructed, because there is nothing worse than making a world that the player finds frustrating to navigate, a good example of using lighting for me is in the Left4Dead games and Resident Evil games, more so the old Resident Evil games as opposed to the new action styled ones.

In Left4Dead lighting is used to lead the player through the levels in an almost subconscious way, as a human player you feel less vulnerable to attack in the light and are therefor naturally drawn toward it, here's an screenshot to backup my point.

 As a Player the moment I entered this scene I was immediately drawn toward that orange glow off in the distance that is also highlighted by a beam of light from the nearby van.

Here are a few more.

Castlevania Review

Anyone who considers themselves a gamer should know what the Castlevania series of games are, but nowadays Castlevania isn't what it once was, now they consist of running around, back an forth collecting items to uprgade, they've become more of a 2D button masher with RPG elements, now these games are good but they just are not what I think of when I remember back to Castlevania, I remember something a little different... and that's what i am going to talk about in this review.

                         Even the Cartridge art had more atmosphere than most NES games.

Castlevania was released for NES way back in 1987 and at the time all you really had in the way of games was Mario Bros and many clones of its platforming gameplay, there was Metroid but that wasn't technically a traditional platformer so doesn't count in my opinion for this comparison.

So what is it that made Castlevania such a resounding success, its because it was so groundbreaking for the time, the horror theme made for a great setting and the game has a genuinely eerie feel to it, and that was hard to employ in a 8-bit game, i mean how do you make this look scary?

You cant really can you? So the Game developers had to actually use the structure of the game and its mechanics to set the theme, also that combined with its immense soundtrack, even for 8-bit it was great.
Another thing that set Castlevania aside from other NES games, especially platformers was that its insanely hard, but not in cheap ways like most old games were, It had tight, precise controls, all the enemies were placed in specific places so the player would have to learn the level and adapt to each stage as they encounter new enemy types, if you died in Castlevania it was your fault because you had been to hasty or you haven't learnt the bosses attack pattern yet.
I find this method of gameplay much more rewarding than in the new games where you just mash enemies until you level up to buy a new weapon and then your stronger so can beat the boss easier, this essentially means you as the player don't actually improve as a gamer and whats actually happening is your gaining something known as Avatar strength, your in-game character improves which makes the game easier to beat and then you enter a new harder area and the process repeats.



The overall Game design of Castlevania just feels right, an yes that is the best way to describe it, everyone has experienced that moment when your playing a game or watching a movie and so on, when you just think yes, yes this is just perfect. The reason Castlevania achieves this in my opinion is because, each level has its own unique feel and colour palettes, as well as its own soundtrack and new enemies, the bosses also impact heavily on this as they are all recognisable figures from the horror genre, from Frankenstein to Medusa, Mummy's and Giant bats, an of course Dracula himself, the Grim Reaper even makes an appearance. All this combined really makes you feel like your on an adventure, and every time you complete a stage you do get a sense of achievement most games cant usually ascertain.

The only thing wrong with Castlevania in my opinion are the stairs, they are just plain stupid and do sometimes cause you to inadvertently die, for example if you jump off a high ledge down onto some stairs below you, you will fall straight through them, now once you learn this its fine, but it will catch you off guard when you forget because in most other games this would be something you can do.


Castlevania isn't a long game but it will take you a long time to complete, I remember playing as a child and I could only get as far as the halfway point of Stage 4. I finally beat the game completely only last year, and it felt great, the moment of great satisfaction you feel when you finally defeat the stage boss after a long period of frustration and heart pounding throughout the stage, this is short lived though as you realise there's more to come an it's going to test you even more. I did it properly by the way, no emulation with saves states to let me re-try because that is pointless and defeats the point of a game all together.


So in conclusion Castlevania is a intensely hard platformer with a horror theme, that will bend you over and kick your arse repeatedly until it has you throwing down your NES pad in furious anger, but  you will keep going back for more because its all worth the punishment for that sense of adrenaline and accomplishment you feel when you finally conquer this masterpiece of a game.

The Score: 9/10
+ Ingenious level design and enemy placements.       
+ Looks and sounds great for NES standards.
+ Insane amount of challenge, but always fair.
 - It's going to piss you off.

 Thanks For Reading.

Elesh Norn

Just a quick photoshop sketch I did for fun, took about an hour in total, the design is from magic the gathering and does not belong to me.