Blog
Wednesday
Monday Environmental Storytelling part 2.
As a continuation on from my previous part one I’ll be looking into the GDC done by Harvey Smith again this time starting with the concept of Narrative Context. So what is Narrative Context? Well simply it is the way an environment can show the player what context it has in game, what role it is supposed to fulfill. An environment with good Narrative Context will be able to give the player visual cues as to its function in the story and in game, what type of inhabitants it may host, who build it, its history and current condition as well indications as to what may happen to the player next. It is the closest you can get to the principle of show don’t tell.
Wednesday – Visuals, Composition and Layout part 1
In this post I’m going to being exploring how composition techniques can be used to draw the player attention. Whether it is to lead a player to a specific area or object or to simply create a certain mood or atheistic.
http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/phil_straub_composition_tutorial
Monday – Environmental Storytelling part 1.
Welcome to my part 1 research post on environmental story telling.
So starting of this week’s bout of research. The first piece I found was a very comprehensive slide show on the GDC done by Harvey Smith who worked on dues ex in the early 2000s and Matthias Worch who worked on dead space 2 and mafia 3. As this slide show is quite large (around 80 slides) and contains many areas that are applicable to my project. For this post I’ll just be focusing on what is relevant to environmental storytelling and will continue it in later parts. Here are a few key aspects summarized:
Familiar visual references – This is the idea of using familiar or well know objects to give cues to the player either in terms off story or mechanics. For instance an example of this, medic packs.
Fig 1 Fig 2
Medic packs are used so often in videos games that they have almost become a trope, but this is not without good reason. Most people can identify what a first aid kit looks like or at least a red/green cross, so most people would associate these objects in the game world with health and vitality. Another example of this would be a Super Durper Mart like the one in fallout 3.
Fig 3
Again thanks to the buildings gigantic sign, the large car park, vending machines and trolleys strewn around the player can easily infer that this is a super market and may contain valuable resources. It also uses the bodies being hung around this location to imply that this area may not be safe and that their could be further dangers inside. So just by looking at this scene the player has a lot of information to go on, being presented with a kind of risk and reward scenario.
Reinforcing the player Identity – This is about using the environment to reinforce the players identify in game. In the slide show they use portal as an example with the player having to perform puzzles and being made to feel like a lab rat. Another example of this can bee shown in games like halo.
Fig 4
Through out halos game play your constantly pitted against waves of hostile aliens, the few allies you have are nowhere near as powerful as you are and your often fighting in exotic sci-fi environments. This all helps to reinforce the players image of themselves as this unstoppable super soldier in the future and the last hope for humanity.
Continued in part 2
Bibliography
Smith, Harvey and Matthias Worch. “What Happened Here? Environmental Storytelling”. Gdcvault.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Availble at: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012647/What-Happened-Here-Environmental
Image References
Fig 1
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/2c/34/31/2c343134f6e529492a04d39af6fa503c.jpg
Fig 2
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f8/ed/9d/f8ed9dcd6a25f3f730e4b0c4e0da4f95.jpg
Fig 3
Fig 4
Research and application into the creation of 3D environments
This will be the first of my blog posts concerning my final project for the third year computer games design.
In this project I will be focusing on the research and eventual application of theories, concepts and techniques related to the creation of immersive 3D environments.
The blogs I’ll be posting for the duration of this project will be posted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. These three blog post will focus on a given of research area, they are as follows:
-Monday – Theme, setting and environmental story telling.
For the first segment of research I’ll be looking at the importance of theme and setting to a 3D environment, what should be considered when choosing and/or creating one? what makes that setting believable?
This segment’s research will also include a look into environmental storytelling. What techniques do designers use when creating the environment to convey information to the player about the story
or world they are in? Does the design of the environment make sense from a narrative perspective?
-Wednesday – Visuals, Composition and layout
In this segment I’m going to be researching how composition and layout of 3D environments effect the player’s immersion. How can the environment be used to guide the player? How can the designer use it to appropriately establish and control the players mood?
What should be considered when choosing the colours and tones of the environment?
Research in this segment will also look at what should be considered from the players perspective things like camera angles and what effect that has on their perception of the environment.
-Friday – Conclusions, work update and focus for next week.
Finally on Friday I’ll be rounding up research I’ve been doing and laying out any conclusions I’ve draw. It will also be an update blog on any work I have done so far as well as detailing the focus of next weeks blogs.
This blog cycle will continue for the project duration right up until its submission date with some slight variations depending on were I am in terms of progress.
By the end of this project I should have three environments made in a 3D engine (either unity or unreal 4) demonstrating what I’ve learnt.
Robert Yearling 