Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
is meant to be real-life accurate, then R&D is swayed in that direction. If the
game is an RPG, then whole civilizations will need to be fleshed out and made
believable so players can fully immerse themselves in the illusion you're trying
to create.
If your goal is to make an immersive game, then you need to throw yourself
into as much research as you can so you understand the nuances of the world
you're creating. Thorough research helps you achieve the level of detail required
to create a believable world.
One way to make your world believable is to avoid “drawing from memory,”
or drawing or designing the same things over and over again based on what
you
think
they look like (as discussed at greater length in Chapter 4, “Visual
Design”). Instead, do some research when you start your design so you under-
stand better what things and places
actually
look like.
Imagine for a moment that part of your game takes place in a cave. Do you
have an image in your mind of what a cave should look like? Do all caves actu-
ally look alike?
Figure 7.2 shows three different images of caves and demonstrates how
remarkably different they can be in our own home world. At far left is a shot
showing narrow confines in the Shasta Caverns of California. In the middle is
an image of a glacier cave in Alaska, with slit-like passages. On the far right, the
massive Deer Cave in the Mulu National Park of Borneo, Malaysia, could house a
small city.
immersive worlds
include not only
visuals, but audio
components as
well. We'll examine
the use of sound in
Chapter 8.
FiGuRe 7.2
The differences in these caves illustrate the importance of research in
creating environments.
What do you know about caves? How are caves formed? How was the cave
formed in the world you're creating? Is it manmade (like an abandoned mine),
was it created by water or a lava tube, or did an earthquake cause the earth to
