This Blog Will focus on My section of what i present in terms of Creating a Coherent world. As the game i'm designing is a Survival Horror i will be exploring all the different uses and techniques of making a game world complete, and how that translates into the horror genre.
Narrative:
Needless to say every game needs to have some sort of a narrative to keep the story or plot going. There always has to be some sort of objective set or goal to be achieved and the best way to get that message across to a player is via narrative. However all Genres achieve this in different ways to keep the game consistent. For example in a shooting game for the most part an objective will be set via a radio etc. From my own personal experience the horror genre uses narrative in many different ways. Especially as some games have you with someone throughout, some games have you completely on your own, Some games have you on your own with the assistance of another character in cutscenes etc. So each individual game has to use narrative in a different way to keep the game consistent.
A game like resident evil for example uses the player as the main body of the narrative. Although this sounds strange at first the player is constantly involved with the environment they're in. As resident evil focuses so much on examining items or rooms to find clues or keys nearly everything is read in the players head. Especially as many objects in the game are selectable to read about. It is arguable for this reason that because the player reads so many of these journals or diaries in their own mind that they themselves are the driving narrative. the story unfolds based on their own decisions based on the information they've been given.
However games like deadspace are more simplistic with narrative. Whenever something important happens the player is essentially instructed to go there by one of the characters in the story. As you're part of a team this makes sense, matching keeping the game consistent as stated before.
A game like resident evil does a superb job of making the player have the chance to make their own decisions yet at the same time making them follow the flow the developers intended. By this i mean that the mansion seems vast but due to the large amount of locked doors within the mansion the player still has to follow the games set of rules. Journals and notes can be read to help the player figure out where to go but none of them are as simple as "the key is here, go there" they merely hint where to go and the player decides to go from there. Following the flow of the game as intended yet at the same time the player feels like they found this area themselves.
Making a believable world
The most important thing in a horror game is to immerse the player, Once they feel involved in their environment they can then proceed to feel the fear or whatever other feeling you desire. the best way to achieve this is to make sure that the player believes that the world they are taking part in is genuine.
For example a game such as grand theft auto can snare the player in easily due to how complete the environment is. The entire game has it's own system, people go about their daily business. You have homeless people, people selling hotdogs on the side of the road, people directing traffic. Everything works so realistically the player feels like this world is genuine. For this reason the game itself can be made a lot more enjoyable. However the repercussions of this can cause a lot of controversy with other forms of media. Due to the sheer realism games like grand theft auto try to replicate mean that people can single them out and slam them as being bad for you morally. That doing these events in game can cause you to do these actions in the real world. They argue that these games are so real that if there were to be a case when a child or teenager went on a crime spree and it turned out they were a fan of the franchise that the game would instantly be to blame.
In terms of the Horror genre making a believable world is extremely important. Moving back to resident evil, this is a game that manages to really capture what a horror environment needs to have. I personally feel like the world is so believable because you are fully aware of the mansions history, before the viral outbreak that took place, normal scientists lived there. The player finds diaries and other forms of notes that simply state what workers had done with their day. The player eventually finds a set of journals that begin as the doings of a regular man and his friends until a few pages later he becomes infected more and more as the pages go on. Eventually the spelling is slurred, the punctuation is unclear and the entire thing ends abruptly. Little details like this really help to make the player feel immersed.
The game has it's own set of rules to disposing with the zombies. To either set them on fire or to destroy the head. At first the player doesn't feel that's the case because if you damage them enough they fall down. However if you fail to follow the advice the game gives you the enemies proceed to stand up again later, being more powerful than they originally were. This is quite reminiscent of many zombie films i feel. which is another reason the player may feel more involved with the environment, because scenarios like that had been seen before the player can instantly identify with it.
Character
This is a subject i am torn between in games. I would say this is dependent on genre however i don't think this is the case. Characters are absolutely vital to creating a game world. Without characters the world is stale and not believable at all. The characters must also be believable in terms of design, who they are, what their history is, even down to the voice acting. If a character has a really bad voice actor (such as the infamous voice acting in the original resident evil) the game becomes hard to relate with. I personally found this as a child, because the voices the characters had were so bad i found it hard to like these characters, in turn i also found it hard to get into the mindset of the character i was playing as.
On the flip side, Not every game needs to have a preset character to play as to make a world work. Certain games like The elder scrolls Skyrim that allow you to completely create your own character and then the story is based around what you choose to do makes for an equally immersive experience. Being given the opportunity to make your ideal character based on what your mindset for what you want to do in a game like skyrim is what makes it so popular. In many ways the game unfolds the way you want it to. You never need to do a single task you don't want to do. Being given the freedom to do completely what you want also helps to make a game immersive.
Vladimir Propp (1895-1970)
His work is very influential to the world of narrative. Publishing a book named "Morphology of the folktale" which was first published in 1928 but was made famous and even more influential in 1958 when it was translated into English.
He makes a very interesting point that simply changing the slightest of details can change or alter an individuals view on a story, whether this is theme or context. The statement goes as follows.
1. A tsar gives an eagle to a hero. The eagle carries the hero away to another
kingdom.
2. An old man gives Sucenko a horse. The horse carries Sucenko away to
another kingdom.
3. A sorcerer gives Ivan a little boat. The boat takes Ivan to another kingdom.
4. A princess gives Ivan a ring. Young men appearing from out of the ring
carry
Ivan away into another kingdom
The action nor the function change, Ivan is still being given an object, and he is still being taken to another kingdom. However by slightly changing the names and the objects the reader or viewer is more likely to relate to something in particular.
Conclusion
To conclude on the matter. I feel that making a world that is believable is the most important thing to have with your game or film. So long as the viewer/player can believe or relate to the world they are engaged in they can then move on to feel what you want them to feel.
Making a successful Horror game is very similar. Although in my opinion depending on what style of horror the game is the narrative or the world itself may need to be altered slightly in terms of details. Environments or characters have to be tweaked to keep the game scary but don't change so much it feels like a different style of game altogether.
