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Environments in games. They all seem to be, not exactly realistic, but the vast majority are relatively realistic, at least in graphical style, where you simply see the world through a normal human perspective. So, have we got any new ideas for the way that we see the world? Well, we already have some games with IR (infra red) goggles or night vision, and although these add some nice depth to the game allowing you to see an enemy in the dark while they can’t see you, it’s still taking these new views on the world from reality. IR goggles and night vision are used in reality, they are just being mimicked in game.
What about entirely new views…? Well, I was thinking of what new views could be used, and the first I thought about was when I thought how bats ‘see’. They use sonar. Obviously we can’t see hat they ‘see’ but a developer could try to recreate this using a kind of wave system, whereby the character you control constantly emits waves (which in game look like ripples in the environment) and these ripples bounce back when they hit something solid. When they have been hit back the environment is kind of built up, as the character knows what is there from the information sent back in the ripple…
That probably sounds very complex, and I doubt it will ever be used, I doubt any developer would take the kind of risk involved with that graphical style, and it could also disorient the player quite a lot… And yet again, this view is taken from reality. Obviously, we can’t see what a bat or any other creature who uses sonar actually ‘sees’ from their sonar, but it would be taking that idea, and putting it into game terms.
So how about seeing ‘auras’ in game? Like good characters give off a certain colour shine, and bad another. This would be useful in classic ‘beardy’ RPGs I reckon, but could take out some of the mystery… you’d probably know if someone was likely to stab you in the back or whatever, but it could be put in place for a limited duration by a spell or magic item etc. But I also think this perspective could be used with quite a lot of adventure style games. If you wanted to add a more fantasy style to it, you could give everything some kind of aura, like just about anything (including any inanimate objects) could have a certain aura… and these could effect people around them, including your character. Different colours and shades could represent bad, good, neutral, and the varying degrees of these. Obviously using this much of the ‘normal’ colour of the game would be obscured, but it would give a very different feel to the game, and it would mean the colour scheme means something in terms of gameplay. You could even have events effecting the aura of things. For example, if you do good deeds your aura becomes more good, and vice versa for bad deeds, and if, say a murder takes place in a house, it’s aura gets more evil. If an aura of something or someone gets too strong, it could start effecting people around it, make them go a bit mad, or even start attacking everyone around. The players actions could also effect other people’s alignment and aura, turning them to the ‘darkside’ or to the ‘lightside’ as it were.
Although new ways of seeing games are inevitably going to take some getting used to, and certainly won’t be suitable for all genres, they could add some much needed depth to gaming. Realistic graphics are all very well and good, but a graphical style where colours and graphics actually mean something in terms of the gameplay would be great in my opinion.
What about entirely new views…? Well, I was thinking of what new views could be used, and the first I thought about was when I thought how bats ‘see’. They use sonar. Obviously we can’t see hat they ‘see’ but a developer could try to recreate this using a kind of wave system, whereby the character you control constantly emits waves (which in game look like ripples in the environment) and these ripples bounce back when they hit something solid. When they have been hit back the environment is kind of built up, as the character knows what is there from the information sent back in the ripple…
That probably sounds very complex, and I doubt it will ever be used, I doubt any developer would take the kind of risk involved with that graphical style, and it could also disorient the player quite a lot… And yet again, this view is taken from reality. Obviously, we can’t see what a bat or any other creature who uses sonar actually ‘sees’ from their sonar, but it would be taking that idea, and putting it into game terms.
So how about seeing ‘auras’ in game? Like good characters give off a certain colour shine, and bad another. This would be useful in classic ‘beardy’ RPGs I reckon, but could take out some of the mystery… you’d probably know if someone was likely to stab you in the back or whatever, but it could be put in place for a limited duration by a spell or magic item etc. But I also think this perspective could be used with quite a lot of adventure style games. If you wanted to add a more fantasy style to it, you could give everything some kind of aura, like just about anything (including any inanimate objects) could have a certain aura… and these could effect people around them, including your character. Different colours and shades could represent bad, good, neutral, and the varying degrees of these. Obviously using this much of the ‘normal’ colour of the game would be obscured, but it would give a very different feel to the game, and it would mean the colour scheme means something in terms of gameplay. You could even have events effecting the aura of things. For example, if you do good deeds your aura becomes more good, and vice versa for bad deeds, and if, say a murder takes place in a house, it’s aura gets more evil. If an aura of something or someone gets too strong, it could start effecting people around it, make them go a bit mad, or even start attacking everyone around. The players actions could also effect other people’s alignment and aura, turning them to the ‘darkside’ or to the ‘lightside’ as it were.
Although new ways of seeing games are inevitably going to take some getting used to, and certainly won’t be suitable for all genres, they could add some much needed depth to gaming. Realistic graphics are all very well and good, but a graphical style where colours and graphics actually mean something in terms of the gameplay would be great in my opinion.
M@M is Might And Magic right?
Sibs wrote:
> heh, almost, but not quite ;-)
>
> Anyway, Yeah althought the ripple idea would use a lot of effects
> there is the power to implement it now... Also, the colours reflecting
> something which means something in gameplay terms would need little in
> the way of special effects, it's just many items/ characters would
> have their own 'glow' to them of a different colour depending on
> something, for example good/ evil/ neutral, but other things could be
> implemented apart from alignment to give off different colour
> auras...
>
> Anyway, thanks for the reply.
Some games do like M@M. Red if an enemy is close yellow if he is near and green if it is all clear and certailly this could be expanded on.
> heh, almost, but not quite ;-)
>
> Anyway, Yeah althought the ripple idea would use a lot of effects
> there is the power to implement it now... Also, the colours reflecting
> something which means something in gameplay terms would need little in
> the way of special effects, it's just many items/ characters would
> have their own 'glow' to them of a different colour depending on
> something, for example good/ evil/ neutral, but other things could be
> implemented apart from alignment to give off different colour
> auras...
>
> Anyway, thanks for the reply.
Some games do like M@M. Red if an enemy is close yellow if he is near and green if it is all clear and certailly this could be expanded on.
heh, almost, but not quite ;-)
Anyway, Yeah althought the ripple idea would use a lot of effects there is the power to implement it now... Also, the colours reflecting something which means something in gameplay terms would need little in the way of special effects, it's just many items/ characters would have their own 'glow' to them of a different colour depending on something, for example good/ evil/ neutral, but other things could be implemented apart from alignment to give off different colour auras...
Anyway, thanks for the reply.
Anyway, Yeah althought the ripple idea would use a lot of effects there is the power to implement it now... Also, the colours reflecting something which means something in gameplay terms would need little in the way of special effects, it's just many items/ characters would have their own 'glow' to them of a different colour depending on something, for example good/ evil/ neutral, but other things could be implemented apart from alignment to give off different colour auras...
Anyway, thanks for the reply.
I agree with you to a point that we do need something new in ganes Vr sems to be the thing in most games now consoles and pc have become that more powerfull but how long before we have TR in games?
There are some games, ball type that have used ripple type affects but the proplem is also that if you put to many affects in it can make the game confusing and even cause epilepsy. when you look over the years it has been the simple consept games that have sold well.
Other then Pikmin there has been very few origonal games of late and i begin to wonder if the games industry as a whole is becoming stagnent and running out of ideas. Most game seem to be ports.
btw your typos are almost as bad mine ;0)
There are some games, ball type that have used ripple type affects but the proplem is also that if you put to many affects in it can make the game confusing and even cause epilepsy. when you look over the years it has been the simple consept games that have sold well.
Other then Pikmin there has been very few origonal games of late and i begin to wonder if the games industry as a whole is becoming stagnent and running out of ideas. Most game seem to be ports.
btw your typos are almost as bad mine ;0)
Yeah, I won with the gaming environment, but the last one got a fair few replies... thought it might get a few replies if I kind of tried to carry it on... doesn't seem to be working so far... and a GAD would be nice, but I'm not exactly going after one... just thought about this stuff a bit over the last few days, so thought I may as well do something on it...
And Cheers :D
And Cheers :D
You won a gad on the gameing enviroment about 2 weeks ago, you after naother one with the same kind of topic? Oh yeh nice post :)
Environments in games. They all seem to be, not exactly realistic, but the vast majority are relatively realistic, at least in graphical style, where you simply see the world through a normal human perspective. So, have we got any new ideas for the way that we see the world? Well, we already have some games with IR (infra red) goggles or night vision, and although these add some nice depth to the game allowing you to see an enemy in the dark while they can’t see you, it’s still taking these new views on the world from reality. IR goggles and night vision are used in reality, they are just being mimicked in game.
What about entirely new views…? Well, I was thinking of what new views could be used, and the first I thought about was when I thought how bats ‘see’. They use sonar. Obviously we can’t see hat they ‘see’ but a developer could try to recreate this using a kind of wave system, whereby the character you control constantly emits waves (which in game look like ripples in the environment) and these ripples bounce back when they hit something solid. When they have been hit back the environment is kind of built up, as the character knows what is there from the information sent back in the ripple…
That probably sounds very complex, and I doubt it will ever be used, I doubt any developer would take the kind of risk involved with that graphical style, and it could also disorient the player quite a lot… And yet again, this view is taken from reality. Obviously, we can’t see what a bat or any other creature who uses sonar actually ‘sees’ from their sonar, but it would be taking that idea, and putting it into game terms.
So how about seeing ‘auras’ in game? Like good characters give off a certain colour shine, and bad another. This would be useful in classic ‘beardy’ RPGs I reckon, but could take out some of the mystery… you’d probably know if someone was likely to stab you in the back or whatever, but it could be put in place for a limited duration by a spell or magic item etc. But I also think this perspective could be used with quite a lot of adventure style games. If you wanted to add a more fantasy style to it, you could give everything some kind of aura, like just about anything (including any inanimate objects) could have a certain aura… and these could effect people around them, including your character. Different colours and shades could represent bad, good, neutral, and the varying degrees of these. Obviously using this much of the ‘normal’ colour of the game would be obscured, but it would give a very different feel to the game, and it would mean the colour scheme means something in terms of gameplay. You could even have events effecting the aura of things. For example, if you do good deeds your aura becomes more good, and vice versa for bad deeds, and if, say a murder takes place in a house, it’s aura gets more evil. If an aura of something or someone gets too strong, it could start effecting people around it, make them go a bit mad, or even start attacking everyone around. The players actions could also effect other people’s alignment and aura, turning them to the ‘darkside’ or to the ‘lightside’ as it were.
Although new ways of seeing games are inevitably going to take some getting used to, and certainly won’t be suitable for all genres, they could add some much needed depth to gaming. Realistic graphics are all very well and good, but a graphical style where colours and graphics actually mean something in terms of the gameplay would be great in my opinion.
What about entirely new views…? Well, I was thinking of what new views could be used, and the first I thought about was when I thought how bats ‘see’. They use sonar. Obviously we can’t see hat they ‘see’ but a developer could try to recreate this using a kind of wave system, whereby the character you control constantly emits waves (which in game look like ripples in the environment) and these ripples bounce back when they hit something solid. When they have been hit back the environment is kind of built up, as the character knows what is there from the information sent back in the ripple…
That probably sounds very complex, and I doubt it will ever be used, I doubt any developer would take the kind of risk involved with that graphical style, and it could also disorient the player quite a lot… And yet again, this view is taken from reality. Obviously, we can’t see what a bat or any other creature who uses sonar actually ‘sees’ from their sonar, but it would be taking that idea, and putting it into game terms.
So how about seeing ‘auras’ in game? Like good characters give off a certain colour shine, and bad another. This would be useful in classic ‘beardy’ RPGs I reckon, but could take out some of the mystery… you’d probably know if someone was likely to stab you in the back or whatever, but it could be put in place for a limited duration by a spell or magic item etc. But I also think this perspective could be used with quite a lot of adventure style games. If you wanted to add a more fantasy style to it, you could give everything some kind of aura, like just about anything (including any inanimate objects) could have a certain aura… and these could effect people around them, including your character. Different colours and shades could represent bad, good, neutral, and the varying degrees of these. Obviously using this much of the ‘normal’ colour of the game would be obscured, but it would give a very different feel to the game, and it would mean the colour scheme means something in terms of gameplay. You could even have events effecting the aura of things. For example, if you do good deeds your aura becomes more good, and vice versa for bad deeds, and if, say a murder takes place in a house, it’s aura gets more evil. If an aura of something or someone gets too strong, it could start effecting people around it, make them go a bit mad, or even start attacking everyone around. The players actions could also effect other people’s alignment and aura, turning them to the ‘darkside’ or to the ‘lightside’ as it were.
Although new ways of seeing games are inevitably going to take some getting used to, and certainly won’t be suitable for all genres, they could add some much needed depth to gaming. Realistic graphics are all very well and good, but a graphical style where colours and graphics actually mean something in terms of the gameplay would be great in my opinion.