Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Game Design Theory / Increasng Immersion

Author
Message
Dared1111
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2006
Location:
Posted: 14th Oct 2009 21:19
Link
Anyway. I thought we should discuss how tricks (especially cheap fixes or minor changes) can be used to enhance an experience. Thus the player is more attached to the world, feeling like the character (instead of a camera which magically represents a head), without resorting to creating annoyance, frustration or headaches.

There are the things which you should be doing anyway, such as researching (what makes X scary/fun/realistic/otherwise enjoyable), but there are obviously other things. Sometimes it's hard to understand why my eyes morphed to the monitor while playing Half-Life 2: Episode Two that one day.

For example: You could enhance a game with the new Nvidia goggles or other true-3D enhancement application. This combined with a Mirror's Edge sort of further body sight could give the illusion that the body is the players.

Let us discuss.

Signature? There is no signature!
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Bugsy
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Nov 2008
Location: another place in time
Posted: 14th Oct 2009 22:33
Link
developing characters well increases immersion- when writing the story, perhaps make the main enemy in the game kill off the closest friend to the player- make your friends seem more precious and enemies hateable. If players like the story, than they wont really notice too much if the gameplay is sub-par, as long as they get revenge, or complete the main goal. this will make players feel complete.
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Apr 2005
Location: The Fifth Plane of Oblivion
Posted: 15th Oct 2009 01:55
Link
A bit of camera shake at speed. This was introduced by accident due to low-accuracy integer math used in the PlayStation era of consoles but a little bit of random bouncing on the camera make the difference between things slipping past and things rushing past.

Back to top
Profile PM Website
greenlig
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Aug 2003
Location: Melbourne
Posted: 20th Oct 2009 00:35
Link
Half-life did a few things really well that increased immersion. Some of the easily identifiable ones are the HUD, which is completely non-invasive, and never removes the player from the experience. Compare that to Bioshock, which had a rather clunky HUD, and you will see what I mean. At no point did you leave Gordon, visally or thematically, and this really kept us in the experience.

Another thing they achieved, and this would have been through a LOT of testing and tweaking, is immersion in a state of flow. We all play games that we get lost in, but combining the brilliance of the game experience in HL2 with the flow that is achieved while playing it, makes it a really rewarding experience. I know I finished it, sat back, blinked a few times, and honestly felt like I had achieved something. If we get to the stage where we have put effort into something, and are rewarded for it, as with HL2, we enjoy it. During that experience we lose self-consciousness (I rarely thought about "Zac Duff" when playing...I WAS The Freeman), but we also gain, at the same time, a heightened sense of self. So, when we are playing, we wont think about ourselves, or check on a high level why we make decisions, but at the same time, we are being built up AS ourselves, and the low level decision making that occurs always affirms our experience.

I personally think HL2 is the best example to date of a digital flow inducing experience. Engaging, effortless, grand without being pretentious...the list goes on.

Greenlig

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Libervurto
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Jun 2006
Location: On Toast
Posted: 20th Oct 2009 04:21
Link
Wow I want to play HL2 now

Controls and camera are important; if they don't respond well or the camera goes in a stupid place it pulls you right out of the game. You should be able to play the game without even thinking about them.

A more artistic form of immersion is how levels are designed and the story planned out. A road stretching off into the distance makes you think "oooh I wonder what's over there", a wall makes you think "that's a very flat looking wall... texturing is a bit rubbish too..."
The point being, you have to keep some things hidden from the player in both level design and story to make it interesting.

Turning that point inside out, what we show the player is just as important. If it's a real world game then you want it to feel like there's an element of freedom, even if there isn't: say you have a street scene that you want the player to walk through. One option is to have a solid wall down each side of the road, or we could let the player roam around the back of the buildings too.

TGC Forum - converting error messages into sarcasm since 2002.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Plotinus
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Mar 2009
Location:
Posted: 20th Oct 2009 10:25
Link
Having as wide a range of actions as possible is important. If you feel like all you can do is climb on things and shoot other things, it's not very realistic. This is why text games are often more immersive than other kinds - because you are not limited to "this key for this action, that key for that action" - instead you type in what you want to do, and you don't know what commands the game will understand. In theory, you could type in anything and your character will do it (well, ideally). If it is done well, that creates an enormous sense of freedom and realism that isn't possible in other kinds of games.
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Libervurto
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Jun 2006
Location: On Toast
Posted: 22nd Oct 2009 02:20
Link
Expanding on what plotinus said, I don't like how games restrict your actions. There could be an axe on the table "nope not allowed to pick that up", you might see a path you want to go down "nope can't go there". There's always going to have to be limitations but I think some developers aren't very smart in the way they implement them; the things you can't do are as important as the things you can.
Fahrenheit has a nice example: in the police office you are concealed by a wall that goes all around the office, there are several offices that border the main room but you can't enter them. What's good is you can try each door knob, they are all locked but it makes you think of them as real doors with real offices behind them, not just a texture on a wall.

TGC Forum - converting error messages into sarcasm since 2002.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Dared1111
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2006
Location:
Posted: 22nd Oct 2009 09:45
Link
Quote: ""nope can't go there""


Just like Lara Croft in Angel Of Darkness. *Opens a closet* "I feel much stronger now."

Signature? There is no signature!
Back to top
Profile PM Website
borngamer
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Sep 2009
Location: London, Ontario
Posted: 28th Oct 2009 19:25
Link
Along with what has been said already, I think having a world with a "lived in" look is important.

I don't know how many RPG's leave me down because there are no people around. If you are in a capital city, you should have to push your way through crowds. Assassins Creed was incredible with this.

Also, your environments should feel lived in as well. People tend to make everything shiny and new or grunge to be grungy. When making your sets look worn, think about how something would get worn. Throwing a dirty look on a floor or wall isn't enough. Make it real.

I'll use a hospital for an example. The doors, walls and floors will have have scuff marks from beds being wheeled around. The rubber edges of the bed are banged on walls and doors leaving ugly black streaks. Same goes with the floors, peoples shoes and all those wheels leave black marks.

Now, take that same hospital setting for a game. Maybe there are zombies in the hospital and it has been abandoned for years. Don't just cover the floor in dust to make it look abandoned. Add footprints to scare your player into knowing something is coming.

John
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Libervurto
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 30th Jun 2006
Location: On Toast
Posted: 29th Oct 2009 15:40
Link
Rockstar always do good "lived in" textures and models, they're not the most detailed but I like their style.
I hate the trend of making everything shiny, Resistance is a good example of that, everything shiny, even the rusty stuff!

TGC Forum - converting error messages into sarcasm since 2002.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
hmm
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Oct 2003
Location:
Posted: 2nd Nov 2009 14:40
Link
Dont think this has been addressed yet...

SOUND - Tremendously important. Sound conveys so much about the environment and adds so much with so little effort. It also adds weight to the character's actions.

Examples: A city scene. If all you have is a player walking around some streets, one or two pedestrians, one or two vehicles with no sound it is like a ghost world. Add some footsteps, engine noises for the cars and a background loop of ambient city sounds and all of a sudden it is a living breathing city.

Shooting guns. Shooting a gun with no sound is wierd, it doesnt feel right. Add a meaty sound and all of a sudden the player relishes the power at their disposal.

The list goes on and on. Bird noises, running streams, rain, thunder, all go to add a sense of 'being there' to a game.
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Daarknes
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 12th Nov 2009
Location: Dothan, Al
Posted: 13th Nov 2009 03:45
Link
One thing I have not seen covered much is the power of choice. Choices don't all have to be major. A good example is in Fallout 3 where you can choose to drink and eat irradiated food, or sell them off to a vendor and buy cleaner food. Perhaps choices as to the style of clothing the character wears, an apartment or home that they are free to design. Any choice, regardless of whether it affects game play mechanically, affects the player mentally and emotionally. Typically, the bigger the choice the bigger the impact, and the more serious the mechanical consequences.

And, to add on to what was said about sounds, don't forget ambient music. Sound impacts people emotionally and subconsciously. A low, dark track while crawling deeper and deeper into the dungeon can add a palpable feeling of suspense. SquareEnix has always been a good example of good music. I am pretty sure that the final fantasy intro is one of the most memorable pieces of music in our generation, right up there with mario and zelda.

Without Truth there can be no lies, without darkness, no light.
Back to top
Profile PM
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2026-06-12 07:21:34
Your offset time is: 2026-06-12 07:21:34