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Atmosphere in Games

I've been trying to write an article about atmosphere in video games, but the more I try the more I try the more I realise how difficult it is to put a mood into words and keeping the magic in the transition. I wanted to talk about the church in lower Midgar in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, but I think it'd be best to find as many common elements as possible instead of being so specific.

Music

I remember watching a video with Rowan Atkinson describing how important music was to establishing tone, and how dramatically it can change a scene in films. We've been echoing the same sentiments in games for a long time, and so we should, music has an amazing ability to communicate atmosphere in an incredibly succinct way.

Actually I came across a music-related quote not too long ago that pretty much sums up how I look at games:

I start with the subject matter I want to write about. Then I make a musical base for that and create an atmosphere with the music. Once I've done that, the lyrics come last.

- Midge Ure

In the same way a designer can decide on their subject matter; the story they want to tell, feeling they want to emote or a moral. Then they can create a world that elicits it and give it an atmosphere. And the world and atmosphere aren't so different, so it's important that they're done together. After that characters can come if one didn't pop their head up as step 1, as well as other world elements. This would also be where you implement gameplay.

Like Mario. The subject matter might be that anyone can be a hero. Then the world and atmosphere grow from that. In this case a light-hearted hero's tale in a fantasy world with an out of place plumber. After all if a plumber who finds himself in a fantasy world can be a hero, anyone can.

Allegory & Fiction

Allegory can be used really well. It's usually panned because more often than not it's sort of stupidly obvious and in your face. When it's done well though it can make a world feel like it has direction, or like your character's story's not like anyone elses.

Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

And fiction can really make or break atmosphere as well. There's an ambience to good writer's work, they don't just say something the way an ordinary person would. And that goes beyond character as well, because every character exists within this fiction that they've always existed in.

Architecture

The kind of architecture's important in creating a cohesive world and for the little things that maybe we don't notice. The usual example would be an evil character's lair. They're almost always spires and have other prominent pointy bits and tentacle-like things that make you feel uncomfortable. This sort of shape design's foundational to silhouette in character design, but we can apply the same principles here.

Architecture is a art when one consciously or unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere and when this environment produces well being. - Luis Barragan

Palette

Another thing we can borrow from character design. Palette can be tricky because you want the world to be cohesive but also the area to feel different. Depending on its purpose it can be a pretty dramatic jump too. Zelda games are great with this though. Their palettes feel cohesive but hues are insular enough to a particular area to really punch it through, and when you're dealing with disparate themes like fire and ice it can get tricky.

I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around. - Ann Beattie

Silence

Games are loud now. That's an obvious generalisation, but the more modern day or near future action games we get the more Michael Bay comes through. But silence is important. Have you ever watched a move and afterwards just sort of ruminated over it in silence for a few minutes? Or maybe the director included it right in the film, like Schindler's List or Grave of the Fireflies.

All I try to do is create an atmosphere that seems comfortable enough, that it removes tension and everyone feels free. If they feel free then behaviour happens, small moments happen and that's what ultimately works the best for me. - Barry Levinson

I hope this has been useful, but I can't say for sure that it will be. Like I said at the beginning, I've been antagonising over this post for a long time now. Hopefully you liked it though.

Our regular Disengage! schedule will be back in a couple of weeks, until then I'll be posting again next week. This is a little premature but I think we'll be taking a little break over Christmas and the New Year. Busy times and all that. But we have a pretty chunky back catalogue now. You can catch it here.

- Shaun

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Minecraft: The End

With the 1.9 update Minecraft will be getting an ending. It's a long conversation between two extraterrestrials that... well, it's pretty stupid actually. It sounds like something you'd find in a series or movie that was trying to be psychologically deep or have an 'amazing' twist ending that pulls everything together but just comes off as ridiculous. A lot like the 2006 film Silent Hill. You can see the full ending with commentary here.

Even if the ending wasn't goofy that there is an ending at all seems just bizarre, like it goes against what's at the core of what drives people to play Minecraft at all, and that is creation.

Starting a new world you have nothing – you harvest your own materials with your bare hands, create the most rudimentary wooden tools and use them to collect more materials, create better tools and build whatever you see fit. And this is Minecraft's first important strength, that this happens cyclically. You can practically always harvest more materials to build better items and structures and terraform the land as you see fit. There are such a variety of items, some extraordinarily rare like Golden Apples, that you could find yourself dozens of hours in and not have everything. But the compulsion to find them and 'catch 'em all' can be a really strong sensation, and one that will drive you to go searching for another stronghold to raid, or gorge to mine the mats out of. And this leads to more exploration, more places to create.

And this is Minecraft's second important strength. You can make anything. Want an epic sculpture of Dustin Hoffman? You can do it. A giant model of a solid gold pinball machine? You can do it. A steampunk mad scientist lair? Grab a texture pack and you're on your way. And these things, these meticulously hand-crafted things that we've collected, designed and built towards, are important to us. We're so invested in the things that we create that when a creeper blows a gaping hole in it it can be genuinely painful just because we're so emotionally invested in it, even if it has no practical value.

But now Minecraft has an end. The goal presented to you isn't a self-imposed one to mine and craft, but one that has you do these things to reach 'The End'. And it's a shame. Minecraft was a game about creating your own tools, furnishings, armour, buildings, wang statues and goals. But now that it's given you one to shoot for it takes a lot of the joy out of creating something and knowing that it just by doing it you were fulfilling your goals. Now it's just a stepping stone.

  Image by seanprodi

I don't want to sound overly critical of Minecraft because it's a fantastic game, but along the way to release I thought the game might turn out to be a commentary on human impact on a landscape, or about getting up and dusting yourself off after being spidered to death to keep going, but not once did I think that the already convoluted (if I were Steve there's no way I'd bother with dying my bed spread) fantasy world of Minecraft was going to be muddied with gossipy aliens.

- Shaun