World Design Exercise: Game #5 (Fallout 4)

Interplay Entertainment’s Fallout (Interplay Entertainment, 1997) helped pioneer and pave way for the popular Fallout franchise, notably popular for its depiction of an anachronistic setting that is historically divergent of our own, reminiscent of the Atomic Age and the Googie architectural movement, frozen in the 1950's thanks to the Great War that both started and ended in 2077.

Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios, 2015) is set a couple of centuries after the Great War in the Commonwealth of Massachussets, in that sense and true to tradition set by previous Fallout titles, there is certainly a sense of grounded realism due to the depiction of twisted versions real-life settings such as the aforementioned state (mainly in the capital of Boston), as well as the Mojave Desert and the state of Washington, D.C (renamed and reshaped as the Mojave Wasteland and the Capital Wasteland, respectively). Fallout 4, like its predecessors, certainly uphold the harsh dichotomy between the cheery and endearing optimism of the 50’s and the violent reality of Cold War induced nuclear paranoia.

The introductory portion of Fallout 4 is memorable in the sense that it embodies these two juxtaposed aspects of the 50’s, as the player begins by meandering about in their overtly art-deco inspired household within an assuming blue-collared neighbourhood. The player is then able to engage in playful banter with the beloved spouse in the character creation, spend some time with their newborn son, read the morning paper and other sorts of displays of a Sunday morning domesticity. 

Fig 1. The player's house in the beginning of the game, note the furnishings and its colours which are all heavily inspired by architectural movements such as art deco and the Space Age.

Fig 2. Straight off the bat, the player's nanny bot, Codsworth, is a walking talking example of Fallout's amalgamation between the retro and the futuristic technology of science fiction.

That is until a Vault-Tec representative comes knocking on your front door and the player and their family are then forced to run for their lives as the first nuke of the Great War (the entire catalyst of the Fallout series) drops just a stone’s throw away.

One of the big questions asked in regards to the aesthetic and setting of Fallout is “Why the 50’s?” as The Inquisitr’s Tony Smejek once pointed out that despite the understandable contrast between the whimsical optimism and nuclear horror of the 50’s found within the opening sequence of Fallout 4, “There is no real justification for the game’s cultural environment of the mid-20th century era to even be frozen in this time slot.”

One could argue however that the mid-20^th century is the prime period, considering the resurgence of science fiction and the aesthetics of its futuristic technology reflected in architectural movements such as Googie, Populuxe and the Space Age in a melting pot of retrofuturistic design. More importantly however is the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a period in time where nuclear threats were imminent and a primary source of tangible tension and unease for both nations at the time.

Fig 3 & 4. Comparison between a Fallout Shelter Handbook by Chuck West and a marketing poster for Vault-Tec's many Vaults in the Fallout series.

In Fallout 4 the player can modify and repair their Power Armour in their Googie inspired Red Rocket Truck Stop garage while Nat King Cole’s Orange Coloured Sky blares from a nearby radio in all of its lo-fi glory, or go toe-to-toe with mutant bears armed with a Space Age alien blaster pistol in a post-apocalyptic world where a nuclear holocaust signalled both the beginning and the end of a bygone era. 

It is this conscious aesthetic decision, the combination of the retro and futuristic science fiction, creating a visual bridge that had helped captivated generations of players, allowing them to immerse and feel a wave of 1950’s induced nostalgia despite realistically not growing up in such an era.


REFERENCES:

New Super Best Friends Play Fallout 4. (2015). Player's Living Room. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhhHcQliT4E.

New Super Best Friends Play Fallout 4. (2015). Codsworth. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhhHcQliT4E.

Source Unknown. (Date Unknown). Fallout Shelter Handbook by Chuck West. Retrieved from http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/infogram-particles-700/davida1366311193.jpg.

Interplay Entertainment. (1997). Vault-Tec advert and in-game town map of Vault 13. Retrieved from http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/05/Votf.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110116001328.

World Design Exercise: Game #4 (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time)

As a reboot and re-imagining of Jordan Mechner's original Prince of Persia series, The Sands of Time had received critical claim due to its numerous platforming innovations, pioneering many mechanics for later platforming titles to date and even producing a film of the same name despite initial fairly lacklustre sales.

Right from the beginning the game had always contextualized the architectural style of ancient Persia even with the original Prince of Persia title (Brøderbund, 1989), as its cinematics depict the more opulent aspect of Iranian architecture, as opposed to the more muted representations of Achaemenid architecture perpetuated by recent popular media in the West.

In the Sands of Time demo, very early on in the game we can see that there are clear inspirations from Achaemenid style (Persepolis) architecture, and while it does contrast from the aforementioned more opulent aesthetics that inspired the original Prince of Persia, players can still make out the Persian inspired architecture due to other universal imagery such as the game’s use of the Iranian date palms and Islamic domes on the buildings established at the very beginning of the game.

Fig 1 & 2. A comparison between the very opulent architecture found in the original Prince of Persia game and a Persian hallway.

Fig 3. The establishing shot of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Another thing to note however is that almost straight away players will also note inspiration from other middle-eastern cultures such as Indian (due to the murals and paintings found inside the Maharajah’s Treasure Vaults). For the nitpicky this is perhaps a warning flag considering that Indo-Persian influence happened much later in history (Sands of Time was said to take place during 9^th century AD whereas cross-cultural Indo-Persian interaction did not come to a head until the peak of the Delhi Sultanate during the 13^th century).

Shortly after the courtroom ambush sequence (which in itself is lavishly decorated with Persian rugs of sorts, a Persian aesthetic staple), the player will encounter a courtyard which is seemingly inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. At this point, you can argue that the hodge podge of different architectural styles is primarily strong evidence that Ubisoft had swayed towards gameplay over accurate cultural representation by creating a cultural Frankenstein monster of sorts.

 

Fig 4 & 5. The courtyard level that is most probably inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Nonetheless, it does go to show that designing these worlds within the game as such are all conscious aesthetic decisions as it allows both the gameplay and world design work from one another in a back and forth manner, where gameplay mechanics are contextualized by the theme and architecture of the game world. Even if The Sands of Time’s Persian-inspired world is more or less an amalgamation of numerous middle-eastern cultures (ranging from Turkish, Indian to Mesopotamian), the sort of iconography used within the game does allow the player to make cultural connections between the game and its intended thematic game world.

SCREENSHOT REFERENCES:

(all Sands of Time screenshots in this blog post were taken by the author of the post)

Author Unknown. (Date Unknown). In Game. Retrieved from http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Atari_ST/Snap/big/Prince_of_Persia_-_1990_-_Br%C3%B8derbund_Software.jpg

anavia. (2012). Persian Architecture. Retrieved from http://pre11.deviantart.net/87a5/th/pre/i/2012/036/6/3/persian_architecture_by_anavian-d4osn2d.jpg

World Design Exercise: Game #3 (Kairo)

Richard Perrin’s Kairo is a strong example of emotive environmental narrative, wherein the story of the game unfolds as the player explores a world devoid of representative imagery and dialogue, but primarily represented through brutalist inspired architecture. 

Right from the beginning the player appears to awaken from and within a white void, before a floating throne room of sorts. It becomes clear that the player is forced to move onward towards the only visible structure in the distance, and as they near the structure, audio cue chimes in, signalling to the player that they are on the right track and prompting them to proceed.

Fig. 1. The starting zone, straight away the player will notice a vague structure in the far distant that they can approach and explore.

When inside, the player will encounter a glowing rune (resembling a tree) engraved into a stone wall, and yet another throne with the same rune etched into it. Grooves in the ground will provide clue for the player to interact with the throne, pushing the two runes together. The fact that these runes are the only illustrated visual iconography the player will encounter in Kairo emphasizes the central role these symbols or runes have in aiding the player in solving the game's puzzles.

Fig. 2. Grooves on the floor is an intuitive visual cue for the player in this particular puzzle.

As the player walks, arches (reminiscent of Japanese Shinto gates, known as toriis) will appear, perhaps insinuating that as the player moves onward, they are transitioning into an area that is considered sacred, or even profane. These sort of imagery, while not blatant and explicit, helps add flavour to the game and allows for the player to connect and ground themselves within an already very alien space.

Which consequently, after a simple bridge puzzle, the player will encounter an area which seems to be a crude representation of what appears to be a park. Is this perhaps a breather for the player in the form of an abstracted oasis? This is probably befitting considering that the next area is a hub of some sort, with a central fixture surrounded by portals.

Fig. 3 & 4. The 'park' level as well as the centralized hub area that soon follows.

Every single portal leads to individually themed areas with corresponding puzzles, and what is interesting to note that despite the consistently brutalist (almost minimalist) architectural aesthetic, all of these separate rooms are still distinctively unique and different from one another, not only because of the fact that the rooms are clearly colour coded for the player’s convenience, but that structures come in forms and shapes that players can universally associate. Such as a generator, structures resembling a network of treehouses, and even a hallway resembling a mausoleum.

 

 
 

Fig. 5, 6, 7 & 8. The many different 'themed' rooms that the player will encounter, notice that despite the simplistic aesthetic of the architecture, they are all represented in ways where the player can recognize universal form and imagery.

Throughout the demo as well, the aforementioned rune appears in places, landmarks and crucial components of room puzzles as visual guide to assist the player in progressing. Completion of these puzzles will take the player back to the hub area, completing a full circle back to where the player started while simultaneously ultimately ending the demo.

Kairo's aesthetic choice is clearly communicated as a means for the player to focus on the gameplay and puzzles rather than having literal depictions of objects and contextualization to detract the player from the isolated and puzzle-heavy element of the game.

REFERENCES:

(all screenshots were provided by the author of the post)

World Design Exercise: Game #2 (BioShock)

A spiritual successor to the System Shock series, Irrational Games’ BioShock (2K Games, 2007) was critically acclaimed for its storyline, immersive biopunk environments as well as its unique representation of its fictional Orwellian underwater city, Rapture. To help immerse the players, clever and efficient world design is key to allow such players to experience the world of BioShock, by playing the demo, we will be able to analyse just how even the first half an hour or so of the game can convey so much.

The game begins straight after the player experiences a cutscene depicting a plane crash into the Atlantic Ocean, causing them to resurface to find themselves surrounded by fire, which serves as a contextual visual guide, urging the player onward to find a hard-to-miss landmark, complete with flickering lights at the bottom of the stairs as a visual cue for the player to boot.

Fig 1. The aforementioned unmissable landmark, not conveyed in this screenshot, but a light is broken at the bottom right, drawing the player's eyes to the flight of stairs there.

As soon as the player enters the building and into complete darkness, only for the room to light up, revealing a statue of Andrew Ryan, a banner proclaiming “No Gods or Kings. Only Man.”, providing an emergent narrative and clues to the player on the secular and objectivist nature of Rapture. As the player continue onwards, they are guided primarily by music towards the bathysphere (with the music growing increasingly louder the closer the player is). Entering the bathysphere will trigger a cutscene that will introduce the player to the splendour of Rapture with panning establishing shots.

Fig 2. An introduction to Rapture and its creator's ideology.

The player will then witness the demise of Johnny at the hands of a splicer, before leaving the bathysphere in order to progress. Despite the darkness of the level, again there are visual cues that will aid the player, such as a single flickering static monitor, as well as a singular spotlight on a conveniently placed wrench. 

Fig 3. The singular lonely wrench, ready for the taking.

Since the player can now combat enemies, they will encounter some splicers later on, before coming across a plasmid vendor, causing the player to black out and wake up in front of a previously inaccessible door with a “fistful of lightning” (a simple puzzle which comes in the form of a broken control panel with the same coloured bolts as the ones in the player’s hands). Once the player is able to move on, they will then come across a rather memorable part with a splicer talking to her ‘baby’, the player will of course naturally peek inside the stroller, discovering their first firearm, a revolver.

Fig 4. One of BioShock's more memorable scenes, providing one of many insights of how far Rapture has fallen.

Inside the Kashmir Restaurant a distant couple of voices can be heard, prompting the player to seek out the source and discovering two splicers arguing, which is also visually framed in such a way that the player can witness the exchange without being noticed, and strategize their approach accordingly. Taking care of the splicers will allow the player to move on into the Footlight Theatre, where Atlas will introduce the player to the backstory and explanation for the Little Sisters. A broken flight of stairs that the player will have to drop from can inform them that it is a point of no return, and that usually such cues are evident of the end of a chapter, or perhaps a significant encounter of sorts shortly after, which comes in the form of an indirect confrontation with Andrew Ryan himself. 

Fig 5. The player's first proper interaction with Andrew Ryan, Rapture's creator and founder.

During this timed and scripted event, splicers being to attempt to break into the room which the player is trapped inside, heightening the already tense situation, which ends only when Atlas finally opens the locked door for the player to flee through.

SCREENSHOT REFERENCES:

(all screenshots in this blog post were taken from Mike Mangold’s Visual Walkthrough website)

Mangold, M. (2008). More flames block your path, but you can see this building to the right of the plane's tail section. Retrieved from http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/bioshock/welcome/5.jpg

Mangold, M. (2008). This statue and slogan are your first introduction to the philosophy of Andrew Ryan. Retrieved from http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/bioshock/welcome/8.jpg

Mangold, M. (2008). Grab this wrench and use it to smash the debris blocking the door. Crouch to squeeze through, then avoid the flaming furniture as you ascend the stairs to the lounge. Retrieved from http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/bioshock/welcome/19.jpg

Mangold, M. (2008). Turn right to witness this disturbing scene. Finish off the Thuggish Splicer and grab the revolver in the baby carriage. Retrieved from http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/bioshock/welcome/35.jpg

Mangold, M. (2008). Watch this message from Andrew Ryan. More Splicers attempt to get to you, but are held back. Retrieved from http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/bioshock/welcome/53.jpg

World Design Exercise: Game #1 (DOOM Map)

I was one of the many students who struggled initially with getting the hang of the Doom Builder, which was a primary factor in my designing the level to be incredibly simplistic and fairly easy to finish. I have attempted to achieve this by creating the numerous sectors of the maps in loops as well as ‘horse-shoe’ shapes.

Fig 1. A topography of the entire custom Doom Map.

The player starts off in a small ritualistic room a dead demon with only one exit, pushing the player to move forward in a linear fashion as well as introducing them to one of Doom’s basic enemy, the Imp; later on, the slightly larger circular room that follows helps introduce the player to handle multiple enemies at once.

Fig 2. In the starting room, the player is introduced to the concept of coloured keys and doors right from the beginning.

When the player continues onwards towards the central hub, they will encounter the much harder enemy, the Chaingunner, who drop his chaingun for the player to pick up (this will then be the player’s primary weapon for a good portion of the remaining level).

As previously mentioned, the next couple of sections the player will encounter will take the form of loops, that way the player will return to the central hub multiple times to take a breather before moving on to collect the next coloured key. The two curved yellow arrows shown the map above for example emphasizes the 'U' shape for two sections of the map to show how the player is able to return to the hub section of the level without needing to backtrack where they came from and to prevent repetition.

Once all of the coloured keys are collected, the player will then make move on forward towards the final ‘boss’ room, with an optional room for them to explore and collect a huge armour bonus for the final room (again, it is optional, the armour will only make the final room a much easier encounter, therefore the player is more than welcome to move on instead). In typical Doom fashion the boss level is structured as an ambush with areas where the player can hide and restock on ammo and med packs.

Fig 3. The numerous coloured doors that players are directed to unlock in order to unlock sectors and move on.

Overall the doom level itself is incredibly simple, but I have hoped that many of the fundamental level design aspects I have learned were shown in some ways, such as utilizing a looping (or ‘horse-show’) so the player will return to the hub multiple times, strategically placing items and enemies and ramping difficulty accordingly. Another aspect of the level that I wish I had executed better would be set-dressing, because while I have tried to theme sections of the map accordingly, I feel like my limited knowledge of Doom and the level builder in general hindered my process.


REFERENCES:

(all screenshots were provided by the author of the post)