Environments - Video Game: Storytelling - page 171

Architecture
Architecture and urban/city/town planning are among the most basic ele-
ments of an inhabited (or formerly inhabited) environment, and in many
games they have a direct impact on the player with regard to where she
can and cannot explore. Beyond containing the player within a prescribed
play space and restricting sight lines, though, the layout and architecture
should also be designed to intentionally evoke the history, values, and cul-
ture of its fictional designers and/or denizens.
Even early computer text-adventure games like the Zork series from the
early 1980s, with no graphics support whatsoever, used words to paint a
picture of a world that seemed alive and to have a history. The description
of an aqueduct in Zork III (1982), for example, included “mighty stone pil-
lars, some of which are starting to crumble from age,” encouraging the
player to ponder a “once-proud structure and the failure of the Empire
which created this and other engineering marvels.”
Of course, in today's games the technology exists to create huge and
nearly photorealistic 3D architectural spaces for the player to explore.
Some questions that should be answered by simply looking around at the
buildings and their arrangements include:
▪ What kind of people live here (or used to live here)?
▪ What are/were their lives like?
▪ How affluent are/were they?
▪ What do/did they seem to love? To hate?
▪ Which do/did they value more, form or function?
▪ Were they at peace or at war when this was built?
▪ How densely are/were they populated?
▪ Are/were they especially focused on comfort?
As the player moves from the macro to the micro, perhaps entering a
building and exploring its interior, the design motif should carry through
and illuminate more specifics:
▪ Who lives (or used to live) here? Substitute “work” if a workplace, etc.