Tuesday 18 October 2011

Coherent Worlds

In contextual studies this term, we are looking at creating Coherent Worlds. The narrative of a game world is as integral as the game play is. If the player does not believe the world as a character, they cannot become as immersed as they should. It was expressed that everything should have its place in the World and if something doesn't seem to fit and there is no clear understanding of why it's there, the World starts to become incoherent.

"The story worlds needs to interact with the story."

Looking back onto my own work for Project 1, my game would be incoherent if, for example, streets lights were on at night. It's a small thing that would benefit the player when moving around at night but at the same time, it would not make sense as the world is uninhabited except for the few people that have awakened from the pods. There would be no one around to maintain the lights and keep the power source running especially due to the floods and other natural disaster.

During the seminar we were asked to discuss a game set in the past and in the future. We looked at L.A Noir and Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

For both games we looked at what it is about the world that is coherent and makes the world believable.



Because the game opens with the text "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" we as the audience/player are automatically aware that the game is set in outer space but for those who know the franchise, they know this already. It then goes on to give us a back story against an image of stars. As the the scene continues, we come across a fleet of ships that embark to the planet below and start firing at beings on the surface. We know that they are there to kill a Jedi because of the intro text but if the text was not there, we'd have no idea why the battle is taking place and the reason why we are supposed to be killing the Wookies. This would leave the player aimless and the game incoherent.

Because of the spaceships and the equipment worn, the setting and theme of the game is reinforced as a space/sci-fi film. With a show/film like Firefly/Serenity, when the crew are on planets it sometimes "feels" as though it isn't an outer space set show because of the clothing and buildings have a very outback western style. It is only because of the weapons and vehicles (unless in a built up/advanced city).



Image course from wikimedia.org



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