Tuesday 15 October 2013

Environment as Character?

So, here's my thought for the day:
Are game environments characters? Are they as much of a character in a game as any other character? A lot of thought, research preparation etc goes in to the design of characters - their appearance, their abilities, their history and their future. How the player will control them, how the player will interact with them. Are environments essentially the same? Can they be?


Great environments might be stunning landscapes, interesting places, light, dark, inside outside, urban, natural.... and if all you do is look at the environment then all it has to be is an interesting or beautiful landscape.


In games, however, we interact with the environment and sometimes it interacts with us. The content of the environment adds 'character'; adds atmosphere – sometimes the obstacle to overcome isn’t another character, but the environment itself.


Can the each environment have a ‘personality’? Can great character design concepts and techniques be applied to designing an environment? Affecting how level designers plan the level, how concept artists envisage the level and how environment artists create the level be creating the ‘character’?


I’ve so far been unable to find and literature on this. My thinking is that there must be something in the theory of film sets/environments as having character if there isn’t any specifically about games.

Saturday 12 October 2013

Resurection:


res·ur·rec·tion  

/ˌrezəˈrekSHən/
Noun
  1. The action or fact of resurrecting or being resurrected.
  2. (in Christian belief) Christ's rising from the dead.

Synonyms
revival - resurgence - resuscitation


.... or something like that. I need to resurrect this blog so I can share ramblings, game related or otherwise (otherwise probably being environment/3D modelling relates ;) )  Rather than focusing on my ongoing work, it will probably be more 'musing' or thoughts... However, to see my work go to www.stefbow.com - it's all kinds of tasty!