Environment Research – Creating Engaging Landscapes

In my previous research post I decided to explore characters and character development. In this post my aim is to evaluate the significance of landscapes and environment structure for games.

Depending on the game, environments can play a huge role. Environments create the world for players to become engaged with, poor landscape design and unrealistic choices artists make can drag the player from the world they want to become invested in, and so like many other elements to video game design, environments play a huge role in the game.

As mentioned in my previous post I compared the games The Last of Us and Skyrim, these two games are different in genre and aren’t a great point for comparison with regards to environment.

Skyrim is an open world adventure which pays close attention to the detail in geography to a real planet, despite the setting being fantasy it’s important to note how even considering the smallest details like the location of the imagined continent effects what you’d expect from the game.

Skyrim – Landscape Art

 

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Understanding the imagined setting for my own world allows me to make informed decisions on significant details like: In game Day & night Cycle, Weather Patterns, Scenery, Architecture and even character design.

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