The Final Showdown: Creating Coherent Worlds: Light and Video Games

With the increase of technological advancements, video games are evolving to create new innovate ways to immerse players. Over the years with my studies, I have come to the conclusion that effective game immersion derives from all in game aspects complimenting each other correctly. With the development of video game design, there are many crucial roles which need to be met in order for the game to generate atmosphere for the player. Any hole in the design can result into failure of immersion, making the game almost pointless. A video game is a medium generated to entertain players and captivate them in a world with dynamic qualities. These qualities are anything from characters, environments, narratives, music, assets and game play mechanics. It is crucial for each aspect of game design to compliment each other in a correct manner, failure in doing so makes flaws within the design and can break the immersion for the player. Everything has to connect in some fashion, or it cannot be believable or worse, understood.

For my conducted study, I want to focus at how Lighting is used in game design to create coherence within a game world. The correct study and application of light can make or break an environment Lighting generates mood, theme and atmosphere, without it a game environment or experience cannot be truly immersive. Light acts a primary tool for expression, whether it from an environment, particular scene or emotion of a character. Lighting, when used correctly can produce the most dynamic and atmospheric worlds imaginable. With the development of gaming engines and software, the techniques of lighting are rapidly improving resulting in our video games to visibly become more coherent and realistic. Also, video games are becoming more attentive to realism, so the representation of light has to be just as accurate, if not it can disturb the realistic intention.

Light is more of subconscious asset in video game design. It is not something we necessarily notice on purpose as it is more so something you 'experience' with other aspects of the game. Sound is also a similar asset, as although we are aware of sound when we hear it, we don't purposefully listen to it. It naturally generates atmosphere and emotion within other aspects of your experience that you're focused on. Light has exactly the same technique and although it isn't noticed directly at all times, is easily one of the most important elements for generating atmosphere. A good example is that of the Horror game genre where lighting is used to your advantage or disadvantage. When we think of light and dark, we associate both to represent safety or fear. Shadows conceal the unknown, leaving us as the player at a disadvantage of what could 'be' which naturally generates fear or panic. Whereas, light we are able to actively acknowledge the area around us, reassuring ourselves of any potential threats. A good horror game focuses on these prospects and utilizes them to tell their story, creating a coherent and atmospheric world.

Slender:

One perfect example is from a recently produced game called 'Slender' which cleverly utilizes the power of lighting for immersion. Slender is one of the most popular horror games to date, simply because of it's effective way to 'conceal' the player into a state of the unknown. The game objective forces you to explore an incredibly dark environment, where you must locate pieces of paper in order to complete the game. Your only asset is that of a flashlight, which in time can gradually lose battery resulting in your surroundings to further darken. You must act in haste to prevent your flashlight from dying to soon, or else you won't be able to locate the pieces of paper and succeed. However, every time you collect a piece of paper, you are gradually being followed by a terrifying antagonist which appears at regular intervals of your objective. The more pieces you collect, the closer he comes towards you. Without a map or sense of direction, you are left in a state of complete terror, unaware when your foe will appear next and how you hope to evade him. Although the game isn't visually appealing and there is no real 'story', the total game play experience is incredibly immersive, primarily due to the application of light. How you as the player accept light and dark throughout your experience is the most brilliantly produced mechanic.

Here are some images and an entertaining reaction video to the game 'Slender'. This is evidence of a well considered game and how it represents it's theme correctly: