miku hinasaki

Transcription

miku hinasaki

Ivana Müller
MMA | 2009
GAMING AFTER DARK –
VISUAL PATTERNS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR
ATMOSPHERE AND
EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
IN VIDEO GAMES
GAMING AFTER DARK –
VISUAL PATTERNS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR ATMOSPHERE AND EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE IN VIDEO GAMES
Master Thesis for Obtainment of the Academic Degree
“Master of Arts in Arts and Design”
Author:
Ivana Müller, BA
MultiMediaArt, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Refereed by:
DI Felix Hummel BBakk. (Contentual Consultant 1)
Josef Schinwald, MSc (Contentual Consultant 2)
Salzburg, the 1st of August 2011
THANKS TO
As this thesis became the center of my thoughts and actions for several weeks, I
sincerely want to express my gratitude to following people who supported me all
the way and helped me to finish this extensive work:
First of all, I want to thank my fiancé, Stefan Randelshofer, for your endless
support, patience and your help with managing the final sprint. Besides, thank
you for sharing moments of horror with me while play-testing some of the most
creepy games I’ve ever seen. I know it’s not very manly to admit, but I was glad
not being alone in the dark.
I want to express my utmost gratitude to my dear friend Daniel Schwaiger,
without your support and good advice I would have never been able to come
up with such a great topic. Thank you for encouraging me and helping me all
the way. Also, many thanks for being such a great sparring partner; I feel now I
would stand a chance against an attacking horde of zombies… at least as long as
it were a small horde.
Many thanks to Daniela Wurhofer from the ICTS, for sharing your knowledge
about patterns with me and encouraging me to realize the importance of this
topic.
I also want to thank my beloved cousin Nina Rozdobudkova for being my
competent proof-reader and for supplying me with a never-ending amount of
sophisticated terms. I also feel honored that my thesis beat its other proof-reading
contestants (a dryer manual and a collection of bank certificates) you had to work
on simultaneously in being an interesting read.
Met by a lucky accident, I want to thank Flurina Doser, for your support with
the psychological part this thesis and her helpful literature hints.
Many thanks to Felix Hummel and Josef Schinwald, my contentual consultants.
Thank you for your time, your great suggestions and helpful hints and especially
for your interest in this rather unconventional topic.
I am also very grateful to Michael Manfé for your patience and advice as well
as providing me with some interesting literature. In order to express my sincere
gratitude I included Jacques Derrida into this thesis. The Hauntology chapter is
dedicated to you.
I especially want to thank Mr. Hans Bacher, who provided me with significant
feedback during the pre-production of my master project and encouraging me to
follow my visual style as he considered it to be on the right track.
Jana and Roland Müller, thank you, mum and dad, for your support from the
almost 350km distance. I guess I should also thank our telecom provider for its
moderate tariff, as our talks where rather extensive.
I want to thank my brother, Robin Müller, who informed me in detail about the
horrors of Amnesia’s monster design. I was really happy that you were in such
talkative mood for once.
Stefanie Eilenberger – thank you for enduring my endless rants. Having to face
that horde of zombies, I’d prefer you on my side.
And finally, I want to thank TOSHIYA for your endurance and loyalty. You
didn’t let me down, even after almost four years of not having your system
reinstalled at all. I’ll fix that next week for sure… I promise.
DECLARATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
I declare that I, Ivana Müller, born on 10. 06 1987 in Bratislava, have followed
the principles of academic workflow to the best of my knowledge and belief and
that I am the sole author of the present work. No external sources beside those
listed were used for its composition.
I assure that I have not submitted this master thesis, neither nationally nor
internationally, in any form as an examination paper and that this thesis
matches to the copies submitted to the contentual consultants.
Salzburg, the 1st of August 2011
Ivana Müller
0610429031
Matriculation Number
OVERVIEW
Name and Surname: Ivana Müller
Institution: Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
Study Course:
MultiMediaArt
Title of the Thesis:
Gaming after Dark –
Visual Patterns and Their Significance for Atmosphere and Emotional Experience in Video Games
Contentual Consultant 1: DI Felix Hummel BBakk.
Contentual Consultant 2: Josef Schinwald, MSc
Keywords: 1. Visual Pattern
2. Video Game
3. Atmosphere
4. Experience
5. Fear
6. Survival
ABSTRACT
The following thesis deals with the issue of style definition that is essential for
atmosphere and immersion in video games. Since the graphics of the games have
evolved drastically in the past years, next gen consoles provide an almost cinematic
experience. And as an emotional experience is doubtless all about the ambiance,
the choice fell on the genre that, as almost no other, has the requirements for
evoking intense feelings – the survival horror games. As today’s games are known
for creating tension and fear with the help of intriguing aesthetics, the focus lies
on artistic factors of over-arching light-and-dark contrasts, improved with eerily
luminous visual accents introduced in almost realistic but uncanny desaturated
game worlds. After analyzing essential aspects of fear itself and discussing all
relevant components that play a role in succeeding with an emotional experience,
the paper further deals with the principles of patterns. Originally introduced
for solving architectural design problems, patterns soon proved their popularity
among other fields too, becoming useful even for game design. Taking this matter
a step further, this thesis pursues the concept of introducing the novel idea of
visual patterns into the artistic field of expertise. Taking advantage of some
groundbreaking representatives from the survival horror genre, six games are
carefully analyzed from the point of view of their aesthetic features. In the final
iteration, results from theses analyses are evaluated and resumed in an attempt
to create a collection of visual patterns. Such patterns should, in further extent,
present a visual guidance and well inspiration for artistic concepts. This work will
introduce the concept of such visual patterns, adapted to artistic terms, establish
their relevance and illustrate the advantages of putting them in use.
KURZBESCHREIBUNG
Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Problematik der Stilfindung, die
essenziell für Atmosphäre und Immersion bei Video Spielen ist. Während sich in
den letzten Jahren die Qualität der Grafik um ein Vielfaches gesteigert hat, bieten
Next Gen Konsolen dem/der SpielerIn bereits nahezu kinoreife Erlebnisse. Weil
eine gefühlsnahe Erfahrung auf ein gekonnt inszeniertes Ambiente zurück zu führen
ist, fiel die Wahl auf ein Genre, das zweifelsohne gute Voraussetzungen besitzt,
intensive Emotionen und Ängste hervor zu rufen – die Survival Horror Games.
Da die modernen Spiele die Spannung durch faszinierende Ästhetik unterstützen,
wird der Fokus dieser Arbeit zunächst auf die allgegenwärtigen Kontraste von hell
und dunkel gelegt, hervorgehoben durch die Unbehagen hervorrufenden visuellen
Akzente in einer nahezu realistisch erscheinenden, jedoch zur Gänze entsättigten,
feindseligen Umgebung. Um sich solch einer klassischen Horror-Stimmung
anzunähern, werden zunächst die essenziellen Bestandteile analysiert, die dazu
beitragen, dass der/die SpielerIn in eine homogene und authentische Spielwelt
eintauchen kann. Diese basieren nicht nur auf ästhetischen Komponenten, sondern
sind ebenso Ergebnisse gekonnt angewandten Gamedesigns und Storytellings. Da
der Fokus jedoch weitgehend auf der Etablierung Visueller Patterns liegt, befassen
sich die darauf folgenden Analysen zunächst mit einer Übersicht des Themas
Patterns im Allgemeinen. In weiterer Folge wird zur Eingrenzung der Thematik
die Anwendung der Patterns im Game Design beschrieben und anschließend
das Konzept einer innovativen Idee der Visuellen Patterns vorgestellt. Im letzten
Teil der Arbeit werden sechs Spiele, die als repräsentativ für das Survival Horror
Genre gelten an Hand ihrer ästhetischen Merkmale analysiert. In der folgenden
Iteration werden die Ergebnisse ihrer Analyse ausgewertet, praktisch angewandt
und resultieren in einer Sammlung von Visuellen Patterns. In ihrer ausgereiften
Version sollten solche Patterns visuelle Orientierungshilfe leisten und Inspirationen
für den kreativen Prozess liefern. Diese Thesis wird nun das Konzept solcher
Visuellen Patterns vorstellen, ihre Relevanz für den Art Bereich definieren und
die Vorteile hervorheben, die durch ihren gezielten Einsatz entstehen können.
INDEX
Introduction
1. Emotions and Fear in Video Games
1.1 A Short Overview of the Psychology of Emotions
1.1.1 Overview of Emotion Theories
1.1.2 Transfer of Emotions through Media
1.1.3 Sensation-seeking, thrill and suspense
1.2 The Attractions of Gaming After Dark
1.2.1 The Basics of Suspense
1.2.2 The Pleasures of Limitation
1.2.3 Emotions of Horror
1.2.4 Jacques Derrida’s Hauntology
1.2.5 The Pleasures of Fear
1.2.5.1 Theory of Sensation-seeking
1.2.5.2 Theory of the After-Horror-High
1.2.5.3 Theory of Social Benefits
1.3 Mechanics of atmosphere and mood in games with
the focus of the survival horror genre
1.3.1 The Four Basic Elements in Games
1.3.1.1 Aesthetics
1.3.1.2 Mechanics
1.3.1.3 Story
1.3.1.4 Technology
1.3.2 Approaching the Immersive Experience
1.3.2.1 Components of Immersion
1.3.2.2 Asymmetrical Gameplay
1.3.2.3 Flow
1.3.2.4 The Two Factor Theory in Terms
of the Difficulty of Gameplay
1.3.2.5 The Art of Telling a Creepy Story »You killed Mary again?«
1
6
7
8
10
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26
26
26
26
27
28
33
34
37
41
1.3.2.6 Sound Content
1.3.2.7 Visual Content
44
47
2. Patterns
49
2.1 Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
2.2 Patterns in Game Design
2.2.1 Characteristics of Game Design Patterns
2.2.1.1 Semiformal Descriptions
2.2.1.2 Interrelated Descriptions
2.2.1.3 Hierarchies of Patterns
2.2.1.4 Intentional or Emergent Presence
2.2.2 Analysis and Validation of Game Design Patterns
2.2.2.1 Structural Analysis
2.2.2.2 Play Testing
2.2.3 The Nameless Quality a.k.a.
The Properties of Living Things
50
56
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60
60
61
61
62
63
2.3 Visual Patterns
2.3.1 Deduction of Visual Patterns by Analyzing Games
2.3.2 Relevance of Visual Patterns
2.3.3 Distinction of Features for Visual Patterns
2.3.3.1 Style
2.3.3.2 Colour-Look and Scene Temperature
2.3.3.3 Light
2.3.3.4 Environment Art and Architectural Geometry
2.3.3.5 Character- and Monsterdesign
2.3.3.6 Visual Contrasts during Encounter
2.3.3.7 Visual Semantics
2.3.4 Visual Pattern Template
66
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3. Applying Visual Patterns
75
3.1. Analysis of Survival Horror Games based on Visual Features
3.1.1 Dead Space I
76
77
3.1.2 Silent Hill 2
3.1.3 Alan Wake
3.1.4 Amnesia: The Dark Descent
3.1.5 Project Zero
3.1.6 Haunting Ground
3.2 Construction of Visual Patterns
3.2.1 Visual Pattern for Style of the Survival Horror Genre
3.2.2 Visual Pattern for Colour-Look and Scene Temperature
3.2.3 Visual Pattern for Light
3.2.4 Visual Pattern for Environment Art and
Architectural Geometry
3.2.5 Visual Pattern for Monsterdesign
3.2.6 Visual Pattern for Visual Contrasts during Encounter
3.2.7 Visual Pattern for Visual Semantics
80
83
86
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95
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97
101
4. Conclusion
112
Bibliography – Literature
119
Bibliography – Online
122
Bibliography – Figures
124
Bibliography - Games
128
103
105
107
110
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BS
cf.
DIS
ES
ff. FMX
ib. n/a
TAS
UDK
boredom susceptibility
compare
disinhibition
experience seeking
following lines or pages
Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Interactive Media
ibidem
not available
Thrill and adventure
Unreal Development Kit
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
2
Nowadays is an important time for video games, as they slowly mature in
terms of technology, design extent and sophisticated aesthetics. While their
predecessors, consisting of a limited amount of almost countable pixels, had
a hard time invoking the players’ emotional responses, modern games provide
multiple approaches create already intense, cinematic experiences. Playing video
games is an emotional experience. This should be nothing new to anybody who
spent some time with a gamepad or a joystick in his/her hand. But what are the
reasons that cause emotional responses and how does a visual style influence
what emotions the player is likely to experience? My motivation for dealing with
aspects of atmosphere and experience resulted in the master project that was
developed within the two years of my master studies. It was a game, featuring a
mix of the adventure, 3rd person shooter and survival horror genre.
»In the utopian futuristic city Taion, where people consider sleep a malfunction
of the body and an unacceptable imperfection, a giant competition, The Sidelives
Tournament is held for 100 civilians, with only one rule to follow: You must not
sleep. During the contest, the city is suddenly hit by a huge tremor, when a dark
mass called Void, which is the source of energy in the urban area, breaks free
from its pipes and tubes and floods huge parts of the city, devouring everything
and everybody touched by it…«1
The game entitled Sidelives followed a very unique visual style, trying to break
norms and conventions of classic games, such as those produced for the mass
market that are under pressure of success and mostly falling back to established
visual language. As it was the final university project, Sidelives provided the
freedom of experiencing with various approaches. The final decision of the art
direction was to pursue a highly illustrative style, based on water colour and ink.
Provided with mood art rather than real concept art, it was a very challenging
time, trying to figure out the appropriate ways of implementation that would
meet the artistic requirements. One of the main goals of the game was to immerse
the player within an atmospheric experience, mainly based on intriguing visuals
and present an eerie environment, deserted and filled with evil presence.
I was mainly responsible for texturing and shading and many times, I found
myself rather clueless and wondering how to translate certain visual aspects into
the shading networks of the engine. Even though we were developing with the
Unreal Engine3, which is with no doubt a powerful tool, one was often limited by
the visual trademarks, automatically suggesting to follow the well-known, specific
UDK-style. It took a big deal of research to figure out how to proceed and it
puzzled me again and again, as I was re-changing textures for the fifth time in
1) Sidelives Team (2011): Sidelives: Synopsis. In: http://www.sidelives.at/game, as of August 1st 2011.
Introduction
3
the same level, trying to follow the art style and preserve the flat and planar style
in a three dimension environment. During the months of experimenting, I often
wished for some artistic guidance that would support certain decisions and suggest
different techniques of approach. This is where the idea of visual patterns was
born. Patterns are very efficient templates for problem-solving issues and present
a handy, reusable model, applicable in various situations within a certain context.
Even though the pattern language was introduced in architectural design first,
soon it became very popular and was adopted in different fields of expertise, such
as software engineering or user experience of human-computer interaction. Lately
they have also become important for video game design, providing many effective
problem-solving approaches. So having programmers and game designers using
patterns, I wondered, why artist were apparently the only ones left without the
possibility of using them. One might argue that art is not something that could be
limited by pre-defined parameters or that using them might decrease creativity and
an individual approach and artists might falling into plain stereotypes, following
all the same principles. But those fears are unsubstantiated as patterns are by no
means something repetitive. They should be mainly considered as hypotheses and
collections of ideas in order to inspire different applications. As certainly every
artist agrees – it is much easier being creative if one knows the tools and masters
various methods of expertise. Being familiar with the wide range of possibilities
might only increase creativity, safe plenty of time and occasionally even lead to
novel approaches and styles.
Following these assumptions, there is one central question the whole thesis
revolves around:
Introduction
4
What are the factors
that contribute to the
creation of atmosphere
and immersive
experience in video
games and is it
possible to construct
visual patterns which
would support these
factors if introduced
into games, such as the
survival horror genre?
Introduction
5
As exploring this topic in terms of atmosphere as such would definitely break
the mould of this thesis, I decided to focus on the genre of survival horror games
for three reasons. First, they provide a significant and distinguishable palette of
visual characteristics, second this genre played an important role in the content of
Sidelives and its aesthetic appearance and finally, survival horror games contribute
much to the player’s experience, succeeding to evoke emotions to an extent, as
no other genre does.
Within the three main chapters, this work tries to find answers and present
various solutions and approaches for this issue. The first part »Emotions and Fears
in Video Games« deals with numerous aspects concerning emotional experiences
during play. Starting with a short psychological overview of the key-features
about emotions and fear, it continues with social aspects in regard of attractions
and pleasures provided by experiencing horror in media. The final part analyzes
atmosphere in games and the factors that are crucial for succeeding in creating
an emotional experience.
The second chapter »Patterns« comments on patterns in their basic field of
expertise, as they were introduced to architectural design in the first place. In
order to narrow the context, the further part deals with pattern, as used in game
design, showing their modified approach in a novel field. Taking this idea up,
the following chapter introduces the concept of visual patterns, adapting them to
artistic terms and also trying to establish their relevance and properly illustrating
their advantages. Finally, a template for visual patterns is constructed and put
in use in the third chapter »Applying Visual Patterns«. This section consists of
two parts. First of all, the famous and trend-setting survival horror games Dead
Space I, Silent Hill 2, Alan Wake, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Project Zero
and Haunted Ground are going to be analyzed in regards of their visual means,
responsible for contributing to atmosphere and emotional experience. Afterwards,
the results of the analysis will be evaluated and implemented to the template
and resulting in the creation of several visual patterns. The final pages of the
conclusion will provide a critic discussion about creating emotional experiences
in games, the possible success or fail of such visual patterns in terms of artistic
approach and further suggestions of additional use as well as future prospects.
Finally, it is important to note that this thesis does not raise a claim to create
a completeness of new patterns, as that would go beyond the scope of a master
thesis, rather this work tries to introduce the basic idea of applying patterns in
graphical fields of expertise as well. Visual patterns, conducted by the analysis of
this paper are meant to be seen as the main outline of this idea.
1
EMOTIONS
AND FEAR
IN VIDEO
GAMES
Emotions and Fear in Video Games
7
1.1 SHORT OVERVIEW ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTIONS
This first chapter will provide a short and basic overview of the main components of
emotions and moods based on psychological foundations. As a detailed description
of this topic would certainly go beyond the scope of this media-oriented thesis,
this part will only list aspects that are relevant for further understanding of the
subject.
As human beings, people have an innate understanding about the principles of
emotions. One important thought deals with the question on how are emotions
produced and why one has them. By attempting to simulate natural systems, the
very first thing to resolve is the nature of a certain system and its purpose and
reason for being, because very few, if any systems at all in the natural world seem
to exist for no reason. »Emotions are an integral part of our decision-making
systems. Emotions tune our decisions according to our personalities, moods, and
momentary emotions to give us unique responses to situations presented by our
environment.2« According to psychologists Meyer, Reisenzein and Schützwohl,
there is a difference between the terms emotion and mood. Emotions are temporally
limited, unique and specific occurrences like happiness, fear or rage. They are
current, object-oriented mental conditions of a certain quality, intensity and
duration, consisting of three aspects: the aspect of experience, the psychological
aspect and the aspect of behaviour. Mood on the contrary, is characterized
by lesser but longer lasting level of arousal, significant for the absence of the
object-oriented feature. This means that the causes for moods are often not
directly obvious. These definitions are based on the assumption that emotions
are triggered by specific events and can be distinguished in terms of their quality
(as happiness is experienced on a completely different emotional level than rage
or fear). The three aspects of emotions mentioned above are also foundations
for various emotional theories. Some of those theories focus on daily experiences
and look for so-called basic emotions. Rudimentary approaches to evolutionary
biology are also part of these theories, as they assume that elemental emotions can
be also found within the animal world. Exponents of such evolutionary biologicalbased theories assume that emotions are inherited, adaptive forms of behaviour
that evolved in order to support the individual to survive and to adapt a variety
of different, situational behaviour-structures.3
2) Cook, Daniel (2007): Constructing Artificial Emotions: A Design Experiment. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1992/constructing_
artificial_emotions_.php?page=2, as of July 17th 2011.
3) cf. Batinic, Bernad / Appel, Markus (2008): Medienpsychologie. Heidelberg: Springer Medizin Verlag. p.150 ff.
1.1.1
8
Overview of Emotion Theories
The reason why there is need for unique responses to situations instead of
uniform ones lies beyond the individual at humanity as a group of society.
Basically, personality has evolved as a problem-solving mechanism, to enable
human beings to achieve a highly effective potential of dealing with various
situations. Furthemore, emotion could be regarded as an emergent system in
terms of its ability to interact with the society rather than acting in isolation.4
According to Izard, there are ten fundamental emotions that define the main
motivational system of human beings:
»Interest – Excitement
Pleasure – Happiness
Astonishment – Shock
Grief – Pain
Anger – Rage
Disgust – Revulsion
Disdain – Contempt
Fear – Horror
Timidity – Humiliation
Feelings of guilt – Regret«5
Izard assumes that each of those fundamental emotions has a unique feature. He
claims that emotions interact with each other, intensifying some and weakening
others. They also have impact on various procedures of homeostatic, drive,
perception, cognitive and motoric actions. According to Plutchik, emotions
are based on cooperation between cognitive situational impressions, subjective
feelings, psychological arousal and behavioral impulses. Emotions merge with
other constructs such as personality characteristics and can be classified as primary
or secondary emotions. Plutchik’s theory also deals with the intensity of emotions
and their resemblance.
The second line of theories about emotions is known as dimensional emotion
theories. It states that emotion is a result of one or multiple characteristics of
various dimensions. Currently there are still some discords about the issues of
those dimensions, as Wundt suggests that they are among the three foundations of
tension – solution, passion – aversion and excitement – calming. But according
to Schlosberg, they are represented trough two dimensions of pleasantness –
unpleasantness and orientation – avoidance. This theory is based on various
4) Cook, Daniel (2007) ib. as of July 17th 2011.
5) cf. Batinic, Bernad / Appel, Markus (2008) ib. p.151.
9
experiments using photographs showing different scenarios and the resulting
mimic responses of the test objects.
Other approaches can be found among cognitive-evaluation theories with
a strong focus on various appraisal-theories. The fundamental appraisal theory
was introduced by Scherer in 1990 and describes the occurrence of emotions as
cortical and sub-cortical processing mechanisms of intern and extern stimulation,
neurophysiologic patterns, motoric expression, motivations and feelings. According
to Scherer, emotions are conditions of different organismic sub-systems. He claims
that not every mood-change might be described as emotion, as emotions occur
only if correlating changes of positing sub-systems emerge, which means that the
result is a subjective change of a stable baseline condition. This theory suggests
that emotions are always a sign of a balanced organism – even if they are positive,
such as strong happiness – they automatically mobilize all vital resources to a
synchronized action. Summed up the references, the procedure of experiencing
emotions starts with information processing on a cortical or sub-cortical level and
leads to changes of the balanced state of all five sub-systems. Such changes are
responsible for complex correlations and synchronizations of system-states. The
whole processing capacity is focused on the trigger. The emotional experience
ends as soon as the synchronization and the interaction of the sub-systems relieve
and they take over their usual specific tasks again. The intensity of an emotional
experience depends on the novelty of an irritant, the intrinsic pleasantness, the
goal significance, the coping potential and the compatibility standards.
The final approach is the so-called three-factor theory by Zillman, introduced in
2004 and describes three essential parts of emotion as a dispositional component,
an arousing component and the experience component. This theory differs
from the others based on its assumption about automatic emotional reactivity.
Zillman argues that some strong emotions, e.g. shock are hard-wired. While other
emotions are results of complex biological procedures, some other do not need
planning or thinking and are beyond conscious control. Aspects of automatic
emotional reactivity are also supported by various recent studies. This theory also
states that even though such reactions are subconscious, a cognitive validation
still takes place afterwards, which leads to an instant change of reactions related
to the trigger event. This leads to an affective disposition to look for or avoid
such triggers in future.6
There is also one last interesting theory that was introduced at the beginning
of the 20th century, claiming that emotions are psychological malfunctions and
should not occur at all. The foundation of this theory was the idea that emotions
6) cf. Batinic, Bernad / Appel, Markus (2008) ib. p.151 ff.
10
just reflect situations that the human being cannot cope with. E.g. fear emerges
only if one is not able to run, anger exists only if one is not able to defeat his/her
opponent. The supporters of this theory claimed that emotions are unnecessary
and even harmful for a healthy personality as they weaken the attention and
reasoning and are responsible for actions that people regret afterwards. This bold
theory was soon disproved through two essential aspects. First of all, happiness
does not result from unsolved problems and second, emotions have adaptive
functions and are vital for survival of the individual: the fearful person runs,
the aggressive person fights back. Charles Darwin briefly states that the role of
emotions is surviving.7
1.1.2 Transfer of Emotions through Media
As human beings are not only exposed passively to emotions, there are also
possibilities of creating emotions artificially. A rather easy way is the construction
with the help of media. Two main theories are going to be described in this
section, trying to explain, why it is possible to experience emotions without the
trigger that is usually essential. One attempt deals with the construct of presence
in order to compare virtually mediated reality to the experienced reality and the
second one describes neuronal representations of specific triggers that are able to
evoke emotional responses.
The first concept of presence is also called tele-presence and defines the
psychological predominance of virtual experiences over immediate, real ones.
Basically, tele-presence is simply the condition that appears during a reception
of contents processed by the media. The interesting point is that the media itself
fades into the background while the subjective experience becomes the primary
thing, people are focused on, even if they are physically somewhere else. This
means, if one watches the protagonist crying in pain, s/he emotionally gets
attached to the character and experiences empathy, even though one is not at the
same place as the protagonist and strictly speaking even does not have anything
to do with that situation. According to Lombard and Ditton, there are at least six
correlating conceptions of such constructs of presence:
- Social comprehensiveness of information
- Perceptual and fictive contact with reality
- Tele-presence that conveys the feeling of sharing
the same space with virtual protagonists
7) cf. Zimbardo, Phillip G. (19957): Psychologie. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. p.442.
11
- Construct that supports immersion
- Construct that refers on social interaction with the medium
- Social reaction towards the medium itself8
Those aspects refer to the phenomenon of emotional changes that get triggered
by media reception and affect the level of reality one experiences even with
completely fictional content. This connection can also be reversed by intentionally
seeking distance to the medium which occurs mostly during too horrific events
that one is not willing to experience to such extent any longer.
Another approach is based on the three-factor theory by Zillmann and refers
to the importance of emotional memory that is essential for experience and one
of the main reasons why fictional triggers work that well. Even iconic or symbolic
representations of triggers can evoke the same emotional reactions, and such
reactions can be reinforced through considerations about arguments with the
trigger-media as well. This means that an image or a clip of a snake can trigger
the same emotional responses of threat as a real snake might evoke. Such reactions
can even arise when one has never really experienced a threat by a snake in real
life before. As emotions need a certain time to release, it is possible to strengthen
upcoming emotions as they do not occur on neutral ground, but already on a
triggered post-emotion. Many emotions triggered shortly after each other leads
to a more intense experience and is called excitation transfer. The media have
evolved this trend skillful as they introduced more emotionally touching and
evoking topics, combined with short cuts, shock effects, close-ups on the actors
in full emotion and odd cinematography to assure a constantly high level of
excitation.
1.1.3 Sensation Seeking, Thrill and Suspense
It is obvious that some people seem to prefer experiencing fear and horror rather
than others. Psychologists think that is has mainly to do with emotional specific
application motives and personal characteristics. The term suspense describes
the emotional condition that builds up slowly with a certain involvement within
the received process. It is tightly linked to the feature of sensation seeking. It is
assumed that people, suffering from the sensation seeking drive are constantly
under-stimulated and therefore look for an appropriate level of excitement.
Zuckermann does not hesitate to profile such people in a rather controversial way:
8) cf. Batinic, Bernad / Appel, Markus (2008) ib. p.155 ff.
12
They love risks and exciting situations, prefer dangerous sports, look for sexual
adventures, have a low inhibition threshold towards psychoactive substances and
attract attention through their risky behaviour in road traffic. This personality
trait is also portrayed with the feature of curiosity that is known to be important
for infants in the first place. In terms of evolutionary biology, sensation seeking
characteristics might even be regarded as a positive trait. Beauducell and Brocke
introduced the sensation seeking scale in 2003 that deals with the different
elements of this characteristic.
- thrill and adventure seeking
(TAS – the search for unusual irritants trough physical actions,
such as adventures)
- experience seeking
(ES – search for sensorial experience through cognitive stimulation)
- disinhibition
(DIS – search for stimulation through social encounter)
- boredom susceptibility
(BS – intolerance against boredom)9
The feature of thrill and sensation seeking is a common characteristic of fans
of the horror genre, as presented by the media. This feeling is based on the
awareness of an immediate danger and the resulting hope of the individual that
s/he will survive the situation and fear, resulting from a certain horrific event. It
is the trust that afterwards, one can return home unharmed, to a safe location.
This context is essential for media and the reason why people with sensation
seeking traits tend to regard fearful and horrific experiences as pleasurable within
the setting of a movie or a game, etc. Zillmann pointed out the slight obvious that
the content of a medium has direct connections to the degree of arousal for the
recipient, as watching nature documentaries cannot compare to the excitement
experienced while watching action or horror movies.
9) cf. Batinic, Bernad / Appel, Markus (2008) ib. p.160.
13
1.2 THE ATTRACTIONS OF GAMING AFTER DARK
In this upcoming chapter, various approaches to the success of survival games
and their techniques will be discussed, as well as some philosophical aspects
that outline the appeal of the so-called Hauntology, and finally the ambivalent
pleasure that emerges from voluntarily empathizing with the horror.
Almost the very beginning, video games became an established entertainment, they
seized on the idea of the horror genre. Starting with plain, text-based adventures,
people had the chance to experience fear in a rather interactive way through a
medium for the first time. Stumbling around dark caves, hiding from ambiguous
creatures and running for their lives – it was a new type of horror, one that did
not only involve watching another person try to survive, or eventually die, but to
experience it oneself, as the player of the game. Any chance of redemption, failure
or possible success would require facing death, again and again in order to gain
victory in the end. Since the straightforward games based on textual interaction
such as Zork (Mark Blank and Dave Lebing, 1980), the genre has evolved in
many ways. From the first graphical adventures like Mystery House (Roberta
and Ken Williams, 1980) to a more finely crafted horror in The Lurking Horror
(Dave Lebing, 1987), the genre finally achieved the level of suspense with games
that remain important representatives to this day, such as Resident Evil (Shinji
Mikami, 1996), Silent Hill (Keiichiro Toyama, 1999), The Suffering (Richard
Rouse, 2004), F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon (Craig Hubbard, 2005)
and Dead Space (Brett Robbins, 2008).10
1.2.1 The Basics of Suspense
Taking a step back in order to analyze another immensely successful medium
– films – such suspense-horror-driven themes have mainly focused on life-anddeath struggles within an insane world, and protagonists who have to face pure,
inhuman evil. One quick look at some famous examples like Nosferatu (F.W.
Murnau, 1922), Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968), Alien
(Ridley Scott, 1951) or Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998) shows one common trait that
apparently ensures a high quality horror experience: The evil portrayed in those
films is far from explained extensively, if at all. That the antagonist is deadly
dangerous and possesses inhuman powers is much more shown through his/
10) cf. Rouse, Richard (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers. p. 15.
14
her actions, so the audience would never blame the hero for killing it in an act
of obvious self-defense. This very approach in games can be traced back even to
the Space Invaders, where the player is thrown into a pretty blank environment,
exposed to enemies and forced to overcome the dangerous situation with a clear
kill-or-survive motivation11: »The evil forces are numerous and all deserve to
die.«12
In the genre of survival games, this device works in a similar manner, even
though a bit more subtly. Combined with a rather fair plot that is easily to
understand, at least in its basics, the nuances of the horror are mainly worked into
the environment and the characters. And since suspense works the better the less
is explained, the more things are left to the player’s imagination, the more it maps
to the storytelling and ensures a successfully frightening experience. »In horror,
the way the audience fills in the blanks will be far more disturbing than anything
a writer could possibly come up with.«13 Horror is a convenient genre for video
games as it creates a fairly familiar world, but then offers the possibility to add
disturbing twists to change it into something special and fantastic. Following this
rule, most of the horror stories are placed in highly recognizable environments
the player can easily identify with, in order to make slight and unusual changes
likely to be noticed. Once facing the danger that invaded such familiar locations,
the player does not question the different rules and unique game play elements,
as it appears to be clear that they are a result of an altered reality.
1.2.2 The Pleasures of Limitation
»Survival horror games unfold in static game spaces. They do not so much ‘create
an environment for experimentation’ as present a world where the single solution
to individual puzzles must be discovered. Survival horror is closer to ludus than
paidia, characterized by closed systems, limited participation, dichotomized worlds
divided between good and evil, a sense of centralized authorship, and moral
certainties.«14
The term ludic might be best explained by the simple rule: you have to do X
in order to achieve Y and become the winner. The gaming principles of survival
games strongly contrast with simulation-oriented games, as they are binary rather
than dynamic systems and work with information instead of rules. »The player
of a survival horror video game is internal-exploratory, rather than external11) cf. Rouse, Richard (2009) ib. p. 16.
12) Rouse, Richard (2009) ib. p. 16.
13) Rouse, Richard (2009) ib. p. 17.
14) Kirkland, Ewan (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers. p. 63 ff.
15
ontological.«15 His/her main task is to guide a rather helpless, fragile character
through the game world, inhabited by much more powerful foes that usually
attempt on the protagonist’s life. As opposed to this setting, in other genres
the player is given a strong character and more importantly the chance to craft
his/her powers to surpass the enemies’ in the long run. While the player in
these genres is also privileged to influence the game world around him or her,
there is no such possibility within the survival game. Those games contain only
»prefabricated scriptons« that occur from the combination of player and game
and can be characterized by static interpretation, not only manipulation, and are
mainly »ready-made relations not to be tampered with.«16 This means there is no
possibility of modding the game in this genre, as maybe the extremely limited
possibility of changing the outfit of the protagonist from times to times. There is
neither re-decorating, nor redesigning of the location and certainly no leveling up
the skills of the protagonist. And this is actually the masochistic appeal survival
horror games provide to the player: The feeling of helplessness, entrapment and
pre-determination, caused by the tight limitations of the game freedom.
»Players move around the game space, but their actions cannot change the shape
of the game-world history, past or future, or impact in any significant way upon
their surroundings.«17
Despite such limitations, it is an undeniable fact that survival horror games
provide their players with pleasure, even, just as stated above, a masochistic one
and in exchange of focusing on any interactive possibilities along a defined route,
the game guarantees one single pathway, filled with excitement, thrill and a
shaking experience in varying pleasurable and un-pleasurable measures.
»All induce the vertiginous sensation of not really being in control, no matter
how expertly one might manipulate the controller. The ultimate horror of survival
horror is the suggestion that, despite our strongest feelings to the contrary, we are
not the masters of our own fate.«18
1.2.3 Emotions of Horror
Playing video games is an emotional experience. The following section considers
how games engage the emotional system. Still, it is important to keep in mind
that the presence of game structures of representational qualities for causing
emotions is no certain guarantee that the player will experience just those exact
emotions the game designers wanted to achieve. The whole process is also based
15) Kirkland, Ewan (2009): ib. p. 64.
16
on individual attitudes of the player, as well as his or her experiences, skills or
memories.
Various scholars already tried to explain the emotionality of gameplay. According
to Perron (2005), gameplay emotions are caused by the evaluations of the player
made during the game. Based on this theory, Lankoski (2007) and Ravaja (2006)
suggest that emotions are directly linked to the structural content of the game.
According to their thesis, the common evaluative context of emotions in games
is the relation between the player and his or her goal set. That means that
during the play, no decision is made in isolation from the game background
or its content. Just as movies evolve around their plots, games also can be seen
as a string of events, one following the other. Such sequences of actions enable
deeper emotional boundaries to the game. According to Bura (2008), each minute
spent on playing a game deepens the emotional attraction of the player and
all combined sequential actions help to build more complex feelings, such as
commitment, care or loss.19 While playing a horror-themed game or watching a
horror-movie, a certain part of the emotions are just plain reactions to this virtual
experience. Still, it affects a wide range of emotional experiences and in further
consequence, such emotional experiences might even fully change the evaluations
at higher levels of processing. In fact, overly strong emotions can even override
all logical reasoning. Such behaviour can be found among people who suffer from
phobias. Even knowing rationally that a mere picture of a huge spider cannot
harm them, they can not possibly stop feeling frightened or disgusted by it.20 So
generally, every single perceived element of a game arouses emotions as well.
The player is constantly moved emotionally, even though most of this feeling
takes place on subtle or unconscious levels. Nevertheless, one never stops to
automatically evaluate the encountered events.
»However, most if the time, we will be too busy focusing on a very small subset
of events to notice the vast number of other events that influence how we feel at
a given moment.«21 Usually, in terms of representations and visual primacy, the
player pays attention to the visual part and the sound the most. Such evaluations
can be seen as a result of the cognitive process, caused by different low-level
responses to the environment. There are also emotional responses that are
triggered by the story elements of the game and rely on representation enhancing
narrative comprehension.22 In order to understand the emotional design of games,
there are two remarkable elements that influence the representations.
»In terms of representation, key videoludic elements are game characters on
the one hand (both, the player character and non-player characters), and the
19) Ekman, Inger / Lankoski, Petri (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company,
Inc., Publishers. p. 185.
20) cf. Ekman, Inger / Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p 187.
17
environment on the other.«23 The hostilely portrayed environment punishes every
failure of the player with the death of the character. In order to guide his or her
character out safely, the player is in constant state of worry to keep the character
alive and in good health. The player has to emphasize and to evolve feelings of
care for the character in order to succeed in the game.
The best way of creating such emotional effects is by maintaining the feeling of
vulnerability of the player. This is best achieved through imbalance and inequality
of distributed resources. The player has to feel strongly underpowered and left
alone with limited supplies. This definition is kind of obvious as the name of
the genre survival horror already suggest such measures and describes the goal
(survival) and the emotional state (horror) the player has to deal with. One
significant feature is the impossibility of victory, as the term survival does not
stand for any victorious outcomes of events. Therefore, the primary activity the
player executes during the game is self-defense, as s/he is never powerful enough
to act offensive and attack the enemies on his or her own. Instead, the player is
thrown into a dark and obscure environment, mostly alone, trying to figure out
how to survive with very limited supplies and blunt weapons, if given at any.
That is why even the process of self-defense is sometimes limited and the only
chance to escape death is to run or to hid. Such features of the genre underscore
the limited powers of the player and force him or her to carefully evaluate every
single of the strongly limited resources. In combination with game resources
and cognitive challenges, this sense of vulnerability adds a great deal to the
psychological effect of survival horror games. Basically, fear is the main emotion
players of this genre are looking for, but even fear can be analyzed and broken
down to various nuances of its essential core-emotion. The Gothic novelist Anna
Radcliffe even tried to distinguish between the feelings of terror and horror:
»Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and
awakens the faculties to a higher degree of life; the other contracts, freezes and
nearly annihilates them … and where lies the great difference between horror and
terror, but in … uncertainty and obscurity.24
Perhaps it is obscurity that enhances the sense of vulnerability even better, as
it projects the thrilling tension of an unclear and uncertain situation that could
eventually arise into terror. »Now, if obscurity has so much affect on fiction, what
must it have in real life, when to ascertain the object of our terror, is frequently
in acquire the means of escaping it?«25
23) Ekman, Inger / Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p 189.
24) Niedenthal, Simon (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers. p. 171.
25) Niedenthal, Simon (2009) ib. p 171.
18
Indeed, emotion can be seen as the main component in apprehension of horrific
events. But the physical reaction might be still different in experiencing the
feeling of fear. On the one hand, being scared drives people away from the
source of their fear; on the other hand, one can be so much in shock that moving
further seems to be impossible and completely seizes both the body and mind.
In Radcliffe’s theory, the active part of escaping might be seen as a result of
experiencing terror, the passive part of shock as a consequence of horror. Both
emotional states are anticipated and strongly associated with the survival horror
genre.
1.2.4 Jacques Derrida’s Hauntology
The survival horror is one of those genres with the ability to overwhelm its
audience, to increase the heartbeat and to make them break out in sweat.
»Disbelief is not so much ‘suspended’ as ‘bound up tightly’; the navigation of
both, physical and intellectual registers have to dovetail, one folding over the
other, in order to affect us fully. We want to feel fear in its absolute, and yet
posses everything we need to conquer it.«26
The primary fascination of the survival horror genre and its formal properties
through which the game is shifting and changing layers of other media can
be described as the process of Hauntology. This process focuses on the traces
between various media and the figures that the player faces in survival horror
games, interpreting them as »central embodiments of both, our player experience,
and the experience of the machines we play with.«27 According to this theory,
such virtual creatures have a completely different impact on the person when
encountered inside a game than if merely watched as parts of a movie, as it is the
certain medium of a game that changes the perception.
Many scholars already dealt with the topics of survival horror games and human
senses in regard of this continual paradox. Pursuing Noel Carroll’s concept of
audience-victim synchronicity, Bernard Perron wrote about the survival horror
genre’s mechanics of forewarning and examined the relationship between the
player and the victim. He claimed that while »emotional responses run parallel
to those of the characters, their way of feeling fear is different.«28 Despite these
variations in experiencing fear, there is still the fascinating problem: the »ability
of the player and the inability of the protagonists cross over and manifest at the
worst (and best) possible moments.«29
26) Nitsche, Michael (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers. p. 220.
27)McCrea, Christian (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers. p. 221.
28) McCrea, Christian (2009) ib. p 221.
19
Hauntology is also directly connected to the Apparatus Theory introduced by JeanLouis Baudry. Friedrich Kittler took this subject further in his work Gramophone,
Film, Typewriter in 1999, stating that there is no concept of the dead without
one of the trappings of memory. The dead themselves are mostly the apparatus
of the memory:
»Once memories and dreams, the dead and ghosts become technically reproducible,
readers and writers are no longer in need of the powers of hallucination. Our
realm of the dead has withdrawn from books, in which it resided for so long. As
Diodor of Sicily once wrote, ‘it is no longer only through writing that the dead
remain in the memory of the living.’«30
Kittler states that with each technological step forward – such as the introduction
of the telegraph, the camera and finally the animated image – appears a new
fascinating possibility of representing the dead. Because they are, after all,
disconnected by our time and distance, and because those two great barriers were
finally brought down by the wire, the broadcast and the filmstrip. And the more
the media machinery makes sensible what we already know to be real, the more
the opposite, as a doubtful and ever-present danger of the risen corpse or spirit,
becomes provable. In Kittler’s opinion »the more we advance into modernity’s
apparatuses of capture and display, the more fascinated we are with the dead and
their imprints.«31
This is the phenomenon described as hauntology by Jacques Derrida. An
insistence more than a neologism, hauntology encapsulated the »paradoxical
state of the specter, which is neither being nor non-being.«32 This describes
hauntology’s ability of changes in a form that might occur in one-off echoes and
nuances, mutant evolutions and further also in anachronistic reflections. It is a
possibility to come to grips with the muddying of traditions, a ways for figures
to permeate across virtual boundaries and finally the impact of the audio-visual
archives of memory and oblivion.33 Derrida describes hauntology as »historical,
to be sure… but it is not dated, it is never docilely given a date in the chain of
presents, day after day, according to the instituted order of the calendar.«34
Hauntology interpreted for the gaming genre is describing the technologies of
representation finding themselves arrayed to fight the dead, or to maneuver
around them. In this case, hauntology is not necessarily limited to the un-dead,
but rather to the images of the past, more generally, the media’s own ghosts.
»So, that the gaming hauntological is most visible along genre borders speaks
to the centrality of horror to game culture and design, rather than to a literal
20
connection between the specters of media and the specters of the dead. This
natural, deep media historicity and the multiple ways in which it seeks to represent
the dead are, above all, traces.«35
1.2.5 The Pleasures of Fear
One certainly interesting topic deals with the question why people have such
strong appeal with horror media, as it is a bedrock assumption in theories that
human behaviour is based on a motivation to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.
Therefore it seems rather counterintuitive that people willingly immerse themselves
in fictional events of terror, fear and disgust, as such experiences definitely elicit
negative feelings and noxious emotions of fear. Dr. Andrew Weaver, an assistant
professor at Indiana University whose research focuses on media consumption
and the effects of media violence, claims that being horrified to such extent
is nothing people generally want to experience and the aftereffects of viewing
particularly frightening media are definitely not something that anyone wants.36
Even though most of the studies that extensively dealt with the issue of attraction
to horror, focused on the film medium, it is not that problematic to apply these
theories to games as well, even though it is necessary to extend them to the
degree of interactivity that is a game-exclusive trait.
Of course, every single person has his or her own private phobias beyond the
obvious fears of death and injury. But there are also other proven sources of fear
that expand beyond the boundaries of society. The fear of extreme abnormality
and disfigurement is a strong factor that affects various interpretations of horror.
On the one hand it includes graphic disfigurement which results in the deepest
fears of weird physical appearances and movements and is the basic for bodyhorror, as found in various monsters. And on the second hand, it is the panic
that arises when confronted with the destruction of familiar forms. This feelings
of fear tend to be even more intense if the distorted or supernatural form is
being recognized for what it used to be in the first place. Many survival-horrorthemed games and movies emphasize this idea in showing horribly mutilated and
disfigured creatures, still recognizable as former human beings. It also underlines
the abnormal movements, not only of evident monsters, but also of naturally
appearing beings – at least at first sight, such as the jerky, scuttling movements
of the little girl Alma in the F.E.A.R. series. Fear of darkness can be also seen
as one of the primal fears, as biologically the human being is a visual oriented
36) cf. Madigan, Jamie (2011): The Psychology of Horror Games. http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/217945/the-psychology-ofhorror-games/, as of July 12th 2011.
21
creature and this kind of fear is a result of natural selection. As the audible senses
are developed below the visual, it reduces the feeling of security if the received
information is taken in limited. The darkness hides various forms of potential
danger and decreases the human capability of adequate reaction.37
While consuming horrific content from media, the excitation transfer shows
that ambient noises and creepy soundtracks improve the feelings of excitement
and anticipation. Another relevant aspect is the similarity of shown scenes on
screen in regard to the experiences in real life. One is hardly going to get excited
watching one single pixel slaughtering another single pixel. But especially in
video games, graphics have rapidly improved and the shown visuals are rather
accepted as appearing real to the player. The more identifiable the content, the
more realistic and frightening the game seems to be. But the question remains,
why people find attraction in horror in the first place and why are they willing
to endure unpleasant experiences voluntarily. Generally there are three current
theories that try to explain this phenomenon.
»Those arguing that it’s inherently appealing to be in the clutches of the horror
genre, those that frame the experience as leading to worthwhile payoffs, and those
that say society makes us want to do it.«38
1.2.5.1 Theory of Sensation-seeking
Many researchers tend to think that certain people possess a sensation-seeking
personality and because of being in search for a constant emotional high, they are
attracted to the horror genre and appreciate getting scared. While such personal
traits might be satisfied from sky diving or shark-punching, horror movies and
games are a similar catalyst for such needs. Other forms of this kind of personalities
are even drawn to situations showing disruptions of social norms in extreme
ways that might not be found in real life as such. Linked to this theory, there is
the approach of mastering the fear, which is an important matter, especially for
young adults. They turn to scary media as an ultimately safe possibility to act
out their emotional chops and deal with scary experiences of real-life situations.
Weaver explains this need as a search for control in difficult situations:
»Watching a horror film gives us back some control. We can experience an
adverse event through film, and we know that it will end. We’ll survive it. We’ll
go on with our lives.«39
The significant point about this theory of co-opting with horror lies in the fact that
the viewers know that what they see is fake. According to a famous experiment,
37) cf. Madigan, Jamie (2011) ib. as of July 12th 2011.
38) Madigan, Jamie (2011) ib. as of July 12th 2011.
22
researchers asked subjects to watch a movie featuring authentic scenes of animals
having their brains scooped out and children who got their facial skin peeled of
as a preparation for a surgery. Despite the fact that many splatter and horror
media offers much more disturbing visual imaginary, the vast majority of the
study’s participants refused to finish watching the movies. Hence, it seems to be
important for people to know that something scary and disturbing is simply fake
in order to be able to enjoy what they are seeing.40
1.2.5.2 Theory of the After-Horror-High
The second theory deals with the idea that people dislike scary situations and
the horror as such, but enjoy the relief that comes with the end of the fearful
moment. They even endure highly disturbing scenes in order to experience a kind
of a thank-god-it’s-finally-over high.
»People become physiologically aroused due to the fear they experience during
the media event – and then when the media event ends, that arousal transfers
to the experience of relief and intensifies it. They don’t so much enjoy the
experience of being afraid – rather, they enjoy the intense positive emotion that
may directly follows.«41
A new study by Eduardo Andrade from the University of California and Joel B.
Cohen from the University of Florida, appearing in the issue of the Journal of
Consumer Research, argues that the real kick does not come from enduring the
unpleasant experience and feeling the joy afterward, but they assume that people
have the ability of experiencing positive and negative affects at the same time.
This theory implies that the audience literally enjoys being unhappy – so as
happiness and unhappiness can be experienced simultaneously, it may not only
be the relief of theultimate threat removal that causes the pleasure of horror, but
also the sensation of being scared during the uncanny moments. Therefore, the
idea that the most pleasant moments can not simultaneously be the most fearful
ones is not a general principle.42 Apart from that, there is the theory of the socalled »dispositional alignment«43. It is very satisfying for the audience to see
villains getting what they deserve in the end, even if it means one has to endure
hours of stirring imaginary in the first place, but all that makes the payoff worth
it. In video games, the player can even execute the punishment of the villain him/
herself, which is even more enhancing.
42) cf. ScienceDaily (2007): Why Do People Love Horror Movie? They Enjoy Being Scared.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm, as of July, 18th 2011.
23
1.2.5.3 Theory of Social Benefits
The third theory describes the social benefits of enduring terrific situations.
According to this theory, it is an important act of self-affirmation, especially
for males, as it proves they are cunning and manly enough to handle fear. To a
certain extent, this theory even goes so far as saying that media filled with horror
give people the chance to demonstrate their adherence to ancient social norms
about male protectors and female protectees. Despite some approaches that might
appear rather sexist nowadays, the famous study widely known as the »snuggletheory of horror«44 supports this point of view. In this study, male audience was
paired with female audience in order to watch the horror movie Friday the 13th,
part III. Men who were paired with women acting rather scared claimed to have
enjoyed the movie much more than those whose female partners acted tough,
displaying mastery of their fear. Likewise, the female audience said they preferred
a male partner that acted cool rather than afraid. Surely, individual results may
vary from the experiences the person has had in real life as well as the need to
conform to social norms to a certain extend.
These theories, when applied to the medium of video games, help to understand
the effect of scary topics and strongly relate to the issues of control. While movies
are a completely passive form of entertainment, games add the principles of
interactivity to the genre and create an effective illusion of choice while stumbling
through the horrific events. Therefore the common audiences’ Don’t open that
door!-scream gets a completely new meaning within the interactive entertainment,
where it is oneself who is opening the door and springing the trap. Those more
immediate and intense feelings get even tightened up, because besides control,
the player experiences empathy for the character, especially if the protagonist is
chosen by the player who can – to a certain extent – identify with him or her.
Compared to the amount of hours players spend in front of their screens to
play games, the short experiences of movies are not a match. And if the players
develop the feeling of empathy for their character, it is likely they re-experience
his or her emotions of fear when the character is afraid in the first place.45
24
1.3 MECHANICS OF ATMOSPHERE AND MOOD IN GAMES WITH THE
FOCUS ON THE SURVIVAL HORROR GENRE
»Long before the introduction of the gothic novel, the playful evocation of fear
and dread in the audience had been a central component in a great variety of
legends and folklores. Succubus, incubus, imps, and harpies populate medieval
imaginary; an impressive bestiary permeates literature, the visual arts, and
reality to a large extent. As reason theoretically superseded those ‘dark ages’, the
Enlightenment saw the rise of the phantasmagoria show, delighting audiences
with a variety of effects (building on magic lantern expertise) that sought to
represent otherworldly apparitions. Cultural facts associated with horror fiction,
from the gothic masterpieces of Shelley and Stoker, the stories of Maupassant, to
the contemporary slasher movie series, have received a lot if academic attention.
Still lacking from these accounts, however, it is the contribution of a medium
that, like the horror genre itself, has been seen mostly as popular fare: video
games.«46
Different moods and atmospheres can be translated throughout a video game as
this medium grew really powerful during the last decade. It developed in many
ways, not only the visual style thanks to faster and better graphic cards, APIs and
processors but also in regard of gameplay, the use of sound and music and of
course new technologies, so the game takes its players another step further in the
experience. While this thesis focuses basically on aesthetic aspects of a game as it
tries to create patterns for artists, it will also deal with the issues of the survival
horror genre and its look and feel. Although patterns could be created for any
other genre as well, this one is especially significant as it provides the artists with
a sophisticated palette of expressive tools and methods to achieve the thrilling
atmosphere that is required to the vision of a successful gaming experience.
The reason and importance is not far to seek - playing video games in general
is about the experience, about fun and entertainment. Of course those factors
include a huge amount of other the player’s personal motivations, like achieving,
exploring, socializing or interacting, etc., but the main appeal they provide is the
experience of interaction and the possibility of immersion during the time they
are in use, and some even afterwards. That is why they create such a different way
of entertainment compared with other mediums - interaction is the key.
46) Therrien, Carl (2009): Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
p. 26.
25
»The only reality we know is the reality of experience. And we know that what
we experience is ‘not really reality’, We filter reality through our senses, and
through our minds, and the consciousness we actually experience is a kind of
illusion - not really reality at all. But this illusion is all that can ever be real for
us, because it is us. This is a headache for philosophers, but a wonderful thing for
game designers, because it means that the designed experiences that are created
through our games have a chance of feeling as real and as meaningful (and
sometimes more so) that our everyday experiences.«47
The focus of this thesis is to establish patterns for atmosphere-creation in games
and despite its artistic approach, the most important elements that are pertinent
for the game mood are going to be listed and discussed in the first place to ensure
a proper overview of essential issues.
1.3.1 The Four Basic Elements in Games
A really useful figure for the main categories of a game is the so-called elemental
tetrad that shows a good way to break down and classify the core elements. The
tetrad’s most important feature is the equality of all four parts - none of the
elements below is more important than the others.
»The tetrad is arranged here in a diamond shape not to show any relative
importance, but only to help illustrate the ‘visibility gradient’; that is, the fact that
technological elements tend to be the least visible to the players, aesthetics are
the most visible, and mechanics and story are somewhere in between. (...) None
is more important than the others, and each one powerfully influences each of
the others.«48
Fig. 1: Elemental Tetrad
47) Shell, Jesse (2009): The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Burlington: Elsevier, Ltd. p. 21 ff.
48) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 43.
26
1.3.1.1 Aesthetics
Aesthetics are directly connected to the visual experience of the player, therefore
they must be considered as an extremely important part of the game design. They
define the look, style, sound and feeling of the game and directly let the player
be immersed in the environment. In order to amplify and reinforce the power
of aesthetics at its full range, it is necessary to choose the right technology for
the desired look and feel that will allow the aesthetics to come through properly.
Much the same way, the game design itself has to be persuasive enough to give
the player the feeling of really fitting into the visually defined environment. The
story with a set of events on top of all that provides the aesthetics with the right
pace and most remarkable impact in order to create a truly memorable gaming
experience.49
1.3.1.2 Mechanics
The best way to describe mechanics is to see them as rules and procedures
of the game. They define the goals, achievements, the ways and possibilities
to succeed or fail, etc. Compared to other mediums that also provide their
audience with remarkable experiences, while they all consist of aesthetics, story
and technology, none of them but games have the element of mechanics included,
for it is the mechanics that make a game a game. To ensure a properly working
set of mechanics that appeals and supports the gaming experience and more
importantly make sense to the player, aspects of technology, aesthetics and story
are crucial as well.50
1.3.1.3 Story
A story could be described as a sequence of events unfolding in the game.
Depending on various factors like genre, gameplay, etc. it may be pre-scripted or
linear, but also branching and emergent.51 The story and the way it is translated
within the game has a big impact on the experience, as it is the key to the gamer’s
freedom of choice. Whether it wants to let the player live through a huge epic
myth full of thrilling events and twists or just create a basic setting and let the
player evolve on his own it always needs support from appropriate visual- and
sound-based elements, as well as a suitable technology and useful mechanics.
1.3.1.4 Technology
Basically, it can be said that technology is what enables one to do certain things
and prohibits others. Even though it is likable to talk about engines within
49) cf. Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 42.
27
the context of video games, technology as such doesn’t exclusively refer to just
high technology.52 It is essentially the medium in which mechanics will occur,
aesthetics are placed and through which a story can be told.
The most challenging part is to keep in mind the equality of the four elements
and »simultaneously feel the experience of your game while understanding which
elements and elemental interactions are causing that experience and why.«53 Those
ambivalent parts could be described as skin and skeleton54. Focusing on the skin
only enables a vivid experience, but it’s the experience only, without understanding
how the process works, of what it consists and how it is improvable. On the
other hand, skeleton only will assure a precise game structure with perfect theory,
but potentially pain in the practice. The challenge is to combine and balance
both, stay focused on skin and skeleton at the right time. This required skill that
provides the ability to observe one’s own experience while thinking about the
underlying causes of that experience is called holographic design55 and deals with
questions about detracting a game from its experience in order to analyze and
then improve it.
1.3.2 Approaching the Immersive Experience
As discussed before, those four elements are the core basics of video game creation.
In the following chapter, the main factors for successful atmospheric issues will
be described. Before turning to the visual patterns, it is important to know other
significant elements that have to be regarded as crucial for establishing a proper
mood in games. Introduced in general first and touched briefly with the subject
of the survival horror genre, the factors of a successful gaming immersion will
be listed and described below, as immersion is the main factor for experiencing
atmosphere. Even though technical aspects as listed in the previous chapter are
important for any game to make it work in general, immersion appears to be
based on elements of aesthetics and mechanics – sound and vision combined with
a challenging gameplay and a thrilling story. And those components are going to
be analyzed in the first place, before focusing on visual patterns in atmosphere
creation only.
52) cf. Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 42 ff.
53) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 45.
28
1.3.2.1 Components of Immersion
The best way to create a profound understanding for atmosphere and mood in
games might be a basic overview about the principles of immersion, the link
between psychology and play. First of all, one has to realize that immersion is
a psychological effect of specific senses that trigger specific effects in the brain.
»When the reds, greens, and blues of television images careen in through your
retinas, and then bang back and forth between your amygdale and your prefrontal
cortex, you’re having a certain type of experience. When sounds, smells, or even
tastes hit varied sensory receptors, you’re having other types of experience.«56
It is essential for game developers to understand the wide range of factors how
people sense and perceive such input, and further make use of both virtual and
traditional methods for creating such media experiences, because »the nature
of such input, as well as how it’s processed, has an effect on the final product.
(…) What follows, then, is a mega-abbreviated exploration of how the game
experience slaps together a patchwork of elements, in the senses and in the
mind, thereby forging something desirable. Something that the brain takes as a
convincing-enough pastiche. Something that’s still a medium, but which, while in
its clutches, the mind might be forgiven for mistaking as real.«57 The main feature
of visual media is its duality – it has to be both immediate and convincing at
the same time. Anne Marie Barry, Ph. D. of Communication at Boston College,
described the visual learning as prewired by evolution to detect and respond
danger. Even though the wiring itself has remained the same for millions of years,
the visual media has changed.
»For the brain’s perceptual system, visual experience in the form of the fine arts,
mass media, virtual reality, or even video games is merely a new stimulus we
have inherited as part of our brain potential and is processed in the same way.« 58
The truly interesting fact is that those areas of the brain do not have the physical
ability to distinguish plain daily experiences from fictional ones, as consumed
from e.g. the TV screen. Regarding those facts, it may be obvious that visual
media are not just some kind of event.
»A kid playing violent games, let alone an adult, won’t have some Mysterious
Black Switch of Menace flipped in their brains. Rather, the brain’s visual system
files it as one apparently real experience among the many that we might have as
we learn and grow.«59
56) Clark, Neils (2010): The Sensible Side of Immersion. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4265/the_sensible_side_of_immersion.
php?page=1n, as of June 25th 2011.
57) Clark, Neils (2010) ib. as of June 25th 2011.
29
And yet, visual media might have a different kind of switch that gets flipped when
in use. Usually that switch suggests that such convincing visuals coming from
a TV screen or intriguing gaming experiences still are to be classified as being
simply a visual matter. Even before one is able to think about sight, s/he feels and
responds in the apparently appropriate way. In the amygdale, optical impulses
are quickly matched against low-resolution images from the emotional center.
Immediately afterwards, an already full image is sent down the cortical pathway,
to achieve a response as the first sign of a conscious awareness. Therefore such
visual experience can keep players truly engaged without requiring their full mental
awareness.60 On the other hand, the physical awareness of the real environment
is lowered by such distractions while gaming. Gaming also provides a wide range
of different experience-designs: mating/social games have to be regarded from a
different angle than e.g. survival horror games, as they provide a wholly different
experience. As the gamer finds the most interesting part in the stimuli within
the virtual world, provided by the game, s/he may even completely block out the
outside stimuli, such as the real environment or, more often, the amount of time
spent during a game.
»The human brain has no inborn mechanism separating photorealistic visuals
on a screen from the visuals in reality. Sound and vision hold human attention
within that frame of experience. In neither case has our fundamental processing
changed simply because we’ve sat down for a little gaming. Physiologically, our
Stone Age brains seem helpless but to fall into worlds.«61
What gamers consider Immersion, is widely known as Spatial Presence among the
researchers and is often defined as existing when »media contents are perceived
as ‘real’ in the sense that media users experience a sensation of being spatially
located in the mediated environment.«62 The concept behind Spatial Presence is
the idea that the user gets the feeling of really experiencing something within
the virtual environment. Usually, video games tend to be more successful and
enjoyable if the aspect of immersion is included. A couple of years ago, Werner
Wirth and his research team established the theory behind the Spatial Presence
and defined the reasons why gamers might get the feeling of diving inside an
artificially created world.
60) cf. Clark, Neils (2010) ib. as of June 25th 2011.
62) Wilson, Ian (1999): Artificial Emotion: Simulation Mood and Personality. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3336/artificial_
emotion_simulating_.php?page=2, as of July 14th 2011.
30
(T
Fig. 2: The Theory of
Spatial Presence
In general, the theory of Spatial Presence is based upon three main steps:
»- Players form a representation in their mind of the space or world with
which the game is presenting them.
- Players begin to favor the media-based space (I.e., the game world) as
their point of reference for where they ‘are’ (or to put it in psychological
gobbledy-gook, their ‘primary ego reference frame’)
- Profit!«63
The whole process starts with the player’s mental model based on images,
movements, sounds etc., as well as various hints given about the virtual world.
Afterwards the player has to make the decision whether s/he is willing to accept
the imagined world as a real one. This decision may be made unconsciously
as well. According to the theory, gaming immersion is based on two general
categories – those based on a rich metal creation of a gaming environment model
and those that are responsible for consistency between the things within that
environment.
63) Wilson, Ian (1999) ib. as of July 14th 2011.
31
The concept of richness relates to:
»- Multiple channels of sensory information
- Completeness of sensory information
- Cognitively demanding environments
- A strong and interesting narrative, plot, or story«64
Now, let us take a quick look at those aspects before discussing the second part
of the theory dealing with issues of consistency. The first point about multiple
channels of sensory information suggests the benefits of extended use of senses
during gaming. The more senses involved, the better for the experience – it is as
simple as that. Too much abstraction and contrivances can be considered as the
enemy of immersion. Therefore, completeness of sensory information stands for
the appeal to reduce unnecessary blanks within the mental model of the game.
It is always more convenient for the atmosphere if the player is confronted with
a convincing environment s/he is willing to believe in. Basically, environmental
stereotypes help to increase the familiarity and comfort of the virtual world.
Cognitively demanding environments stand for an attempt of helping the player
to focus on the essential matters going on in the game, helping him/her to
navigate properly through the game world and tying up his/her mental resources
to achieve the defined goals, without being distracted by possible shortcomings.
This aspect deals with the attempt to strengthen and prolong the immersive
experience through a compact and solid gameplay, without reminding the gamer
that s/he is ‘only’ playing some sort of a video game. Finally, there is the narrative
aspect of immersion, which basically works for other mediums as well. Well told
stories and plots attract attention and increase the believable gaming experience,
while they tie up mental resources.
Having discussed the richness model of the theory of Spatial Presence first,
we will have a look at the second part, including game traits that are related to
consistency. Within this aspect, there are four different traits:
»- Lack of incongruous visual cues in the game world
- Consistent behaviour from things in the game world
- An unbroken presentation of the game world
- Interactivity with items in the game world«65
32
The lack of incongruous visual cues within the game world could be seen as one
of the most interesting parts of the theory about Spatial Presence. Anything that
will interrupt the player and bring him back from the fantastic world to his own
living room with the TV screen s/he is staring at should be avoided as much as
possible. The best negative examples include annoying tutorial messages, pop-up
displays, friend-list notifications, and the like. Believable behaviour from things
the player encounters in the game world describes the need for authenticity of
characters, objects and other creatures. It is important to make them act the way
the player expects them to, at least to a certain extent, so their actions are at
least somehow comprehensible. The next aspect that literally kills any immersion
is the breaking of presentation within the game world through things that pop
up, interrupt and ruin the scene and then just vanish. Best examples are loading
screens, tutorials or too extensive game menus.
The last point to discuss from the list above is the interactivity with items within
the game world. Although this aspect could also be considered as a matter of
richness, it is crucial to preserving the consistency of a game, because it is directly
linked to the feedback to actions that is essential for every player and his/her
game environment. The player must be able to interact with the world by picking
up and using various items, operating machines or talking to NPCs. Even if it is
just an illusion of interactivity, this illusion is crucial, as the player has to get the
feeling of being able to move something in the game world and leave his/her trace
there. Finally, players themselves have some kind of power in how immersive
they are willing their game experience to be. Some have better attributes for a
successful spatial ability than others and can build those mental models of virtual
environments more readily and vibrant. Those people apparently have some kind
of an absorption trait66 that enables them to get quicker fascinated and drawn
into the game world.
After discussing the issues of immersion, there is going to be a short overview
of the essential aspects forming the immersive atmosphere in games, based on
the insights of the Spatial Presence, mainly focused on the horror survival genre
again. In the upcoming paragraphs, we are going to deal with relevant aspects of
game design, sound and storytelling, before finally moving to visual patterns only.
66) cf. Wilson, Ian (1999) ib. as of July 14th 2011.
33
1.3.2.2 Asymmetrical Gameplay
Especially in the horror survival game genre, it is pretty desirable to create the
illusion of unfairness, based on the distribution of different resources and abilities.
Compared to the aspects of symmetrical gameplay, where all players have equal
forces for direct competition, the asymmetrical gameplay creates a somehow dense
and more complex gaming situation. There are various scenarios where this kind
of gameplay is convenient:
1. Simulating a real-world situation. The best example could be a game
simulating the battle situations of WW II between the Axis and the Allies – a
symmetrical game would not make much sense, as the real conflict was everything
but symmetrical. In survival games this point is obvious, as usually the player is
fighting or running alone from a horde of monsters much more powerful than
him/herself.
2. Players should have the possibility to explore the game space in a different
way. As exploration is one of the most pleasurable features of video games, it
should not be restricted to a pre-defined system only. This is mostly important for
having the freedom of choosing and mixing the preferred items, creating different
player-character pairings or battling combats with strategies, the way one decides
to. This ability is very important for survival games, as the player often is not in
possession of weapons of any kind, but has to make use of a clever combination
of various items and devices.
3. Personalization. Different players bring different skills to a game. It is
necessary to give them the ability to choose the powers that match their own
skills the best and make them feel in control.
4. Leveling the playing field. In many games, the opponents have radically
different levels of skills, especially if they are computer controlled. Having e.g.
four-times the amount of characters to control, the computer has a fair chance to
defeat the player who is usually much wittier than the computer A.I. This creates
a certain balance and can decide whether the game is meant to be a standard
measure of player’s skills or a real challenge with a higher possibility of failure.
In general, survival games tend to introduce a rather tough situation to the player,
as it is part of the thrill to be aware of the ever-present possibility of failure.
5. Creating interesting situations. Pitting asymmetrical powers against each other
can be truly interesting and intriguing for players, since it is not always obvious
what the right strategy is for succeeding in the game anymore. In consequence,
they become interested in the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents, trying
34
to figure out how to get advantages, determining the best strategies and planning
counter strategies. Survival games have very strongly developed parts in examining
the foes; as it is often not even possible to defeat the enemy, the player has to find
strategies on how to survive each of them. 67
Basically, challenge is the core of all gameplay. It is certainly desirable to keep the
balance between challenge and success to avoid frustration to a higher extent. If
the game gets too difficult and the challenge seems unaccomplishable, the player
loses motivation. But on the other hand, if success is achieved too easily, the
player gets bored soon. Keeping the middle path between success and challenge
is the key to a proper balance and an enjoyable gaming experience.
1.3.2.3 Flow
An essential aspect for experiencing an atmosphere and immerging with it is
definitely also a question of flow. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described
this interesting state of mind when something captures one’s mind, complete
attention and imagination for a longer period of time. It is flow that can be
defined as state of sustained focus, pleasure and enjoyment during an activity.
In game design, four components are regarded as essential for achieving the
experience of flow.
1. Clear goals. It is much easier to focus on the given task when the goals
are clear than in situations where one does not know what to do next and feels
somehow lost in the game world without proper responses to his/her actions.
2. No distractions. Distractions minimize the player’s focus. No flow can be
achieved if there is no focus on the task.
3. Direct feedback. For being able to experience flow, it is necessary to receive
immediate feedback and responses to the player’s actions. Those are important to
point the player in the right direction and show him or her the effect of his or
hers action within the game.
4. Continuously challenging. Everyone loves challenges. But people prefer
challenges that seem to appear achievable with their skills. If the challenge seems
too complicated, frustration rises and the person is starting to think about other
activities that could provide him/her with easier rewards. On the other hand,
if the challenge is too easy, one feels bored and again, starts looking for more
appropriate challenges that would match his skills.68
67) cf.Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p.175 ff.
68) cf.Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p.118 ff.
35
Therefore, activities must hit the narrow margin between frustration and boredom
in order to be experienced as flow. To demonstrate the principles of the so-called
flow channel, Csikszentmihalyi uses the example of a game:
»Let us assume that the figure below represents a specific activity – for example,
the game of tennis. The two theoretically most important dimensions of the
experience, challenges and skills, are represented on the two axes of the diagram.
The letter A represents Alex, a boy who is learning to play tennis. The diagram
shows Alex at four different points in time. When he first starts playing (A1), Alex
has practically no skills, and the only challenge he faces is hitting the ball over
the net. This is not a very difficult feat, but Alex is likely to enjoy it because the
difficulty is just right for his rudimentary skills. So at this point he will probably
be in flow. But he cannot stay there long. After a while, if he keeps practicing, his
skills are bound to improve, and then he will grow bored just by hitting the ball
over the net (A2). Or it might happen that he meets a more practiced opponent,
in which case he will realize that there are much harder challenges for him than
just lobbing the ball – at that point, he will feel some anxiety (A3) concerning
his poor performance. Neither boredom nor anxiety are positive experiences, so
Alex will be motivated to return to the flow state. How is he to do it? Glancing
again at the diagram, we see that if he is bored (A2) and wishes to be in flow
again, Alex has essentially only one choice: to increase the challenges he is facing.
(He also has a second choice, which is to give up tennis altogether – in which
case A would simply disappear from the diagram.) By setting himself a new and
more difficult goal that matches his skills – for instance, to beat an opponent just
a little more advanced than he is – Alex would be back in flow (A4).
If Alex is anxious (A3), the way back to flow requires that he increase his
skills. Theoretically he could also reduce the challenges he is facing, and thus
return to the flow where he started (in A1), but in practice it is difficult to ignore
challenges once one is aware they exist.
The diagram shows that both A1 and A4 represent situations in which Alex
is in flow. Although both are equally enjoyable, the two states are quite different
in that A4 is a more complex experience than A1. It is more complex because it
involves greater challenges, and demands greater skill from the player.
But A4, although complex and enjoyable, does not represent a stable situation
either. As Alex keeps playing, either he will become bored by the stale opportunities
he finds at that level, or he will become anxious and frustrated by his relatively
low ability. So the motivation to enjoy himself again will push him to get back
36
into the flow channel, but now at a level of complexity even higher than A4.
It is this dynamic feature that explains why flow activities lead to growth and
discovery. Once cannot doing the same thing at the same level for long. We grow
either bored or frustrated; and then the desire to enjoy ourselves again pushes us
to stretch our skills, or to discover new opportunities for using them.«69
This extract from Csikszentmihalyi’s theory shows a good example of the delicate
balance between boredom and anxiety that is necessary to achieve the desirable
flow channel. It is also essential knowledge for gaming, as the gamer’s experience
never stays in the same state throughout the whole game but evolves, slower or
quicker depending on the skills and experiences of every individual person. While
traditionally one sought one’s flow by seeking more challenging opponents, in
video game there is usually a sequence of parts with gradually increasing level
of difficulty. A pretty solid way to achieve this balance is a link between skill
and speed: More skilled players are able to finish easier levels pretty fast until
they reach a point where even they meet challenging approaches. It is the fine
difference between finishing a game and mastering it, because only persistent
gamers will go all the way through to the very end. Others eventually reach a
level where they spend too much time without noticeable progress, get frustrated
and give up on the game for good. It is a matter of discussion whether it is
convenient for a game to provide a higher level of frustration to its players or not,
but many survival games have to deal with this issue. As they often try to create
an ambitious link between complicated gameplay and thrilling atmosphere, many
gamers find themselves at limit to properly enjoy the game.
There are many theories on how to apply the rules of flow to game design
for best results, and many game designers point out some ways of staying in
the flow channel as more effective than others. One possibility is to move up,
with a straight-forward chamfer in order to prevent a game ending in anxiety or
boredom.
Fig. 3: Challenge and Skill in the
Flow Theory
~GRAFIK S. 121 - 1~
69) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p.199 ff.
37
Still, such straight chamfer is not realistic in terms of gaining experience. Therefore,
the ideal flow gaming experience would look like illustrated in the image below:
Fig. 4: Challenge and Skill in the
Flow Theory
This repetition of increased challenge followed by a reward, most often more
power and skills, and a short period of less challenging events to enjoy the
recently earned rewards is most likely the more enjoyable way. Playing further,
the enemies get tougher, taking the challenge to new heights.
»This circle of ‘tense and release, tense and release’ comes up again and again
in design. It seems to be inherent to human enjoyment. Too much tension,
and we wear out. Too much relaxation, and we grow bored. When we fluctuate
between the two, we enjoy both excitement and relaxation, and this oscillation
also provides both, the pleasure of variety, and the pleasure of anticipation.«70
1.3.2.4 The Two Factor Theory in Terms of Difficulty of Gameplay
Another interesting aspect is to consider the difficulty of gameplay as an important
feature for experiencing a dense, intense mood while playing games; therefore,
this chapter will discuss the atmosphere as it directly relates to difficulty of
(horror) games. Basically, most of the popular horror games share the trait of an
above-average difficulty and beside difficult controls, some designers force their
players to almost aggressively ration the resources throughout the game. Many
gamers even agree that they »can’t think of any games outside the horror genre
that effectively punish the player for saving their progress. (…) Horror games are
a lot less forgiving about he degree of challenge that they apply to the player;
there’s often no option to continue, safe points are few and far between, and most
protagonists can only withstand a few enemy attacks before they are killed.«71
No doubt that such difficulty of gameplay is a neat way to increase the amount
of stress-experience for the player. If an almost certain death is a quite probable
69) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p.122.
70) Chris (2009): Ingredients of Horror: Atmosphere and Difficulty. http://www.dreamdawn.com/sh/post_view.php?index=7216, as of July
15th 2011.
38
option as the outcome of an unsuccessful encounter with enemies, it prompts
the player to think carefully of his/her actions and to avoid mistakes as much as
possible. Of course, such unforgiving strategy helps to create a dense and scary
atmosphere; if it not for the eeriness of the game itself, it is at least for the fear
of making mistakes and getting punished for it that the game is scary. But this
assessment is not necessarily the only reason for experiencing fear when playing
survival games. Dan Cook, a famous game designer, previously working for Epic
Games and Microsoft, introduced a cognitive science theory called the Two Factor
Theory of Emotion to game design, in which he argued that difficulty is directly
tied to feelings of fear, regardless of the stressful threat of death that survival
games provide to their consumers.
The Two Factor Theory of Emotion was originally created by the psychologists
Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer. They theory states that two factors are
essential in order to be capable of feeling an emotion:
»- Psychological change: The person feels elevated heart rate,
sweaty skin and other elements of physiological arousal.
- Cognitive label of the physiological change: Based off the
context of the situation, the person assigns a label to the
physiological change.«72
In other words, as soon as the body reacts physically to stimuli while the mind
assigns meaning to the physical state, an emotional response is synthesized. This
theory introduces some really intriguing aspects, especially to game design and
especially in terms of artificial emotions.
Researchers spent many time on dealing with the dissecting some of the component
aspects concerning emotion and trying to reassemble them into new, artificially
created emotions. In effect, they figured out how to reconstitute the principles of
emotions within their subjects.
The results of the theory show that physiological changes, accompanied by strong
emotions like lust or fear are pretty similar. Triggered by various stimuli such as
memories of events, loud sounds or primal fears, e.g. fear of heights or the fear of
darkness, they lead to the activation of the human sympathetic nervous system.
The body gets instantly ready for action or facing conflicts and stress situations,
while the heart rate elevates, palms become sweaty and alertness increases. Finally
it is up to the brain to break down the ambiguity of the physical responses and
determine the cause of this activity. In a heartbeat, the brain instinctively makes
39
the decision of synthesizing the correct response – should one run, fight, hide,
or is the matter slight enough to be ignored. And this is also exactly the moment
when the brain’s careful calculations can be artificially tricked.73 This theory
was confirmed with the help of various experiments, where test subjects were
convinced to feel a specific emotion caused by physiological changes that occurred
for unrelated reasons. The most important part of this theory is the fact that if
a body in an elevated state is suddenly confronted with some unrelated context,
the brain may misread the experienced physical reaction and synthesize emotions
that one would have not otherwise felt at all.
Upon validating various experiments, several studies suggested the following
recipe below for concocting artificial emotions.
»1. Inducing the appropriate physiological response: Put the player’s bodies in
the appropriate physical state associated with the desired emotion through any
means necessary.
2. Setting the desired cognitive label: Provide strong contextual clues that make
the user misinterpret the physical sensation as the designed emotion.
By evoking both states in the player, the mental and the physical, designers can
greatly increase the likelihood that players will experience the desired emotional
response to a game.«74
This is a very important approach for creating atmosphere in games and has
obvious implications for the survival genre.
»If we assume that difficult, unforgiving game play causes the player physical
stress, we can assume that playing these games causes a ‘physiological change’ to
occur. Did you jump in your seat a little the first time those zombie dogs came
crashing through the window? Your heart rate was probably up, the adrenaline
was pumping; your body reacted physically to the game. At the same time, the
game is piping horrific images, characters, and sounds into your brain at sixty
frames per second. The atmosphere of a good horror game is one designed to
be scary, and based on our (admittedly rudimentary) understanding of the Two
Factor Theory, this may be enough for your mind to label the physical stress you
are experiencing as fear. The physical effects of the difficult game play and the
scary context provided by the game click and suddenly you are ready to turn all
the lights in your house on.«75
The credibility of this theory can best be proved by taking a good look at games
that failed at creating an appealing mood even though they probably tried hard. If
73) cf. Cook, Daniel (2007) ib. as of July 17th 2011.
75) Chris (2009) ib. as of July 15th 2011.
40
a game doesn’t provide the player with the right atmosphere trough other aspects,
such as the aesthetics, the difficulty can seem overdone and boring because it
evokes frustration rather than the required stress of anticipation. But if put in
use properly, an ambitious gameplay could add great potential to an exciting
atmosphere. A good example are the horror game series of Dead Space that are
considerably more frightening if played on hard difficulty than on normal, or the
very tough survival game Siren which is considered as having one of the most
sophisticated gameplay controls.
Further accordance with this theory comes from a pretty different but practical
direction. The game developer and publisher Valve monitored the gamingbehaviour of its players throughout a certain period of time and published its
famous Dead Maps as result of those studies. Below is the map for one of their
most critically acclaimed game, Half Life 2, Episode 1 with a average completion
time of five hours and thirty-nine minutes.
Fig. 5: Valve’s Dead Maps
for Half Life 2
Each of the line indicates the increasing difficulty setting for the game.
»It can certainly be argued that the number of times a player dies is a good
indicator of challenge, which is connected to how interesting the experience is.«76
Taking the discussed aspects into account, it is pretty safe to assume that there
is a direct link between atmosphere and gameplay difficulty, primary traced back
to the Two Factor Theory. Still it cannot be reduced to that theory only, as there
are always exceptions among games, considering e.g. a really scary atmosphere
– Silent Hill 2 or Hell Night can be the best examples for some of probably the
41
scariest games at all, without relying on overly difficult gameplay. They are, on
the other hand, invincible in regard of staging the atmosphere with the help of
visual, acoustic and story-driven elements.
1.3.2.5 The Art of Telling a Creepy Story –
»You killed Mary again?«
77
With the advent of video games, two old enterprises with a huge variety of
different sets have to face each other in one medium: story and gameplay. There
are never-ending debates about the relationship of story and gameplay, and many
gamers argue that story is the death of gameplay while others, on the other hand,
feel that adding a gameplay is the best guarantee to ruin a good story. Game
designer Bob Bates describes the ideal proportion of both:
»Story and gameplay are like oil and vinegar. Theoretically they don’t mix, but
if you put them in a bottle and shake them up real good, they’re pretty good on
a salad.«78
Besides this nice theory, one definitely cannot argue that taking famous and
enjoyable game titles into consideration, it is without doubt that story must
have had something to do with their success. Of course, this is not limited to
outstanding epic tails some games provide, but can also mean light plots or
authentic settings. Indeed, it is still a dream to let the player experience a truly
interactive storytelling, but if worked up properly, players already enjoy a less
interactive story as well. Generally, there are two basic methods for creating story
in games. The most dominant of these two is called the string of pearls, also
known as rivers and lakes.
»The idea is that a completely non-interactive story (the string) is presented in the
form of text, a slideshow, or an animated sequence and then the player is given a
period of free movement and control (the pearl) with a fixed goal in mind When
the goal is achieved, the player travels down the string via another non-interactive
sequence, to the next pearl, etc. In other words, cut scene, game level, cut scene,
game level…«79
Fig. 6: Basics of the Stringof-Pearls Method
77) Konami (2001): Silent Hill 2. Konami.
78) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 262.
79) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 265.
42
Even though this method might be criticized for not being interactive at all, it
is undeniable that players still enjoy it very much, as it provides a good balance
between story and gameplay. The player is shown the direction, the parameters of
his/her quest; within this environment, s/he is free to act, without worry of losing
the track of things and the focus. With the use of the string of pearls, the player
can enjoy a well crafted story punctuated with periods of interactive experience
and challenging quests. And as reward for completing the given tasks, new story
parts and quests are added to the game.
Fig. 7: The more sophisticated
Approach to the
String-of-Pearls Theory
The other method of storytelling is called the story machine80. Basically it could
be considered being more game design than storytelling, as this option provides
the player with a system that s/he can interact with in order to create his/her
own story, based on as few predefined story elements as possible. Best examples
for this kind of mechanics are games like The Sims or Roller Coaster Tycoon,
where the player is introduced merely to a setting and it is up to his/her own
imagination to create individually interesting plots that work for him or her to
increase an entertaining experience.
Among other genres, survival games, too, make use of the string of pearls method
and tend to have an intrinsic relationship with story and storytelling media.
»From the opening cut-scene, gameplay is invested with a strong, even overwhelming,
sense of narrative. Reduced to their basic formal of ludological bones, these tests
in maze navigation, puzzle solution, evasion, and target practice, are devoted of
either horror or any notable sense of survival. It is through aspects of narrative,
representation, and characterization that gameplay acquires the ‘edge, meaning
and motivation’ which constituted the ‘definition and substance’ of the genre.«81
81) Kirkland, Ewan (2009) ib. p. 63.
43
While survival games can be seen as one of the less interactive genres, the really
interesting part is the way in which narrative structures are integrated into texts
and influence the game design functions, as well as their impact on experience
and player control. The narration takes places not only in terms of dialogues, or
more often inner monologues of the protagonists, but also provides the player
with cinematic plot-experiences.
»The prominence of cut-scenes in survival horror is notable, frequently punctuating
gameplay, fleshing out moments of playable character movement, actions, and
interaction with non-playable characters.«82
In their psychoanalytical reading of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, Santos and
White present the theory of hermeneutical pleasure of horror video games. The
player is described as a »champion of the symbolic order« and tasked with
imposing narrative structures onto files and texts throughout the game, »thereby
giving ontological meaning to the movements of the avatar, psychoanalyzing their
fractured, false and repressed memories, ‘ordering an infinite amount of events
into a seemingly coherent unity, or in simplest terms, supplying the story with a
plot’.«83 So basically, constructing a consistent linear narrative structure from the
potential chaotic game can be described as hermeneutic pleasure and with the use
of various remediations, both the player and the protagonist are trapped in a story
over which they have no control. The story can also be retrieved by the player
in a different way that is significant for the survival genre. Besides the linear,
obvious plot, many story-parts are spread around the levels, containing important
background information. It is up to the player to examine that old cupboard or
investigate the dark basement-room in order to find out what really happened
that lead to such an awkward situation of the protagonist.
This exploration part is a significant aspect of the survival genre and as
suggested by Santos and White, the player of such games mostly takes on the role
of a detective, sifting through fragments of diaries, old photographs and messages
carved in shabby walls to find the answer and the reason for the town’s (house’s,
school’s…) misery. Therefore storytelling in survival games tends to be more
a process of uncovering than of narrating, solution rather than creation, often
featuring protagonists suffering from amnesia and therefore are little help to the
player on his or hers journey.84
84) cf. Kirkland, Ewan (2009) ib. p. 75.
44
»Survival horror, which depends for its generic operation and effect upon various
narrative and representational elements, illustrates ways in which the video game
medium is developing new forms of storytelling, by combining modes and media,
through mise-en-scène and spatial design, and in the structuring of the player’s
pathway through the game maze.«85
1.3.2.6 Sound Content
Audio in games is a very powerful tool to control player experience. It provides
the player with almost as much visceral feedback as visual art does and it easily
stimulates the touch of the game. It is important to consider the functions of
sound in creating and contributing emotions and emotional responses.
According to Inger Ekman, there are three aspects that contribute to the
emotionality of games through sound. Cognitive evaluations can be seen as a
result of emotions arisen during the play, being either directly related to (1)
narrative comprehension or(2) goal-related evaluations. Such evaluations can be
underlined by sound that serves as a factor for providing or withholding necessary
information. Additionally, the sound triggers (3) low-level emotional responses
and therefore is involved in automatic processes. Low-level responses adjust the
perception of the player and combine the experience with the suitable emotion,
while the process through which they work itself remains beyond conscious
attention.86
Empathetic emotions can be experienced with the help of apparent realism87
within a game. In order to be able to empathetically relate to events, the sound
plays a key role in supporting the narrative structures and to make both aspects,
the characters as well as the events that happen around them, authentically
enough. Therefore, it is logical that event sounds like a crush of impacts add
a feeling of physical body to plain images displayed on the screen. The most
important trait of apparent realism is the fact that it is not heightened by realistic
sound, but by sounds that fit into the narrative structure – that makes them
seem realistic in a certain context of the established story, style and environment.
The best examples are audible explosions in space, even though in reality, sound
is not possible in vacuum. But making the events appear real in a setting is not
the only task of sound design in games. Another very important feature is to
support the story comprehension by selectively attracting attention to key events.
The constructed reality of games may leave non-significant events unnoticed
without any sound, while relevant events, objects or characters receive their own
audible importance. Besides, the way sound is displayed can signal shifts between
86) cf. Ekman, Inger (2008): Psychologically Motivated Techniques for Emotional Sound in Computer Games. Sweden: Pitea. p. 20 ff.
87) cf. Tan,Ed S. (1994): Film-inducted Affect as a Witness Emotion, poetics. Vol. 23, No. 2. p. 7 ff.
45
subjective and objective view of the player. Another essential feature of sound
is its representation of time and the structures of larger narrative aspects by
influencing perception of pace and direction. Sound can develop smoothly over
cuts and scenes and provide the necessary continuation that is important for the
player to experience a coherent and tight atmosphere during the play.88
Generally, the function of sound in games with goal-related evaluations is
tightly linked to action. As decision-making is an important part of the interaction
process, the sound provides the player with enough relevant information and thus
has an essential role in achieving goals. Basically, most games are not really trying
to create a fully realistic game environment, therefore it is up to the sound to
match the actions properly to make believable what game designers want to be
experienced. That is the reason why the way sounds portray events in games is
purposefully unrealistic. But despite such apparent inconsistencies, it becomes
logical when considered in terms of function. The simplicity and clarity of sound
design is crucial in order to be helpful and guiding. It enables the player to
distinguish main events, signalizing changes or warning from upcoming dangers.
Sound in games is free to challenge or to enhance the functional fit as its main
purpose lies in helping the player to make meaningful decisions throughout the
game.89 Such functional role of sound design opens new possibilities for creating
emotional effects. Related to Ekman’s term emotional fit, it refers to the release
of tension by acquiring information linked to the player’s performed actions
during the play. The emotional fit refers to the accessibility of gameplay-relevant
information, necessary for goal-related evaluations.
The design process determines the balance of the contradictory relationship
between sound with a high functional fit and sound that serves for providing a
high narrative fit to the game. The term contradictory does not mean that within
one game, the one excludes the other, but rather that the sound that is used to
strengthen functional fits is likely not going to be narrative at the same time,
and vice versa. Therefore, in one game, there will be sounds that serve narrative
purposes, while other sounds are placed to ensure functional fit. Still, player
experience and emotional purpose are influenced by both aspects. Actually, it
is even possible to create a heightened sense of uncertainty and confusion by
providing the player with mixed signals that evoke the maximum of contradictory
evaluations by purpose. Instead of simplified realistic sounds, one could chose
sounds that are completely out of narrative context to support gameplay elements.90
In case goal-related decisions require an understanding of the player’s character,
like knowledge about the character’s skills, feelings or thoughts, the sound design
88) cf. Tan,Ed S. (1994) ib. p. 7 ff.
89) cf. Joergensen, Kristine (2007): What are those Grunts and Growls over there?: Computer Game Audio and Player Action, Ph. D.
dissertation, Copenhagen University. p. n/a.
90) cf. Ekman, Inger / Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p.186.
46
of character expressions can make use of both narrative and functional parts at
the same time. If the approach is evoking empathy or signalizing matters of an
event to the player, a good solution lies in a proper vocalization and expression of
the protagonist. The continuity created by the sound is an efficient way to confuse
the borders between reality and convincing fiction.
Another important aspect of sound design is its contribution to player feedback
of action and response that allows the player to perceive actions performed at the
physical interface as actions performed within the game. This feedback system
serves as some kind of action-control between the player and the character. The
definition of ergo audition91 refers to the experience of taking notice of one’s
actions within the game world. This term was defined by Chion in his paper
Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen and emphasizes the »importance, even pleasure,
of this feedback, and the subjective experience of having access to and impact
the world.«92 Various sounds in a game can be regarded as ergo audition – such
as walking, panting, hitting – anything that comes from the character as audible
response to the player’s actions. It is the player’s link to a symbolically accessible
world, his/her presence within and the illusion of a control of actions. It is a
typical trait of unconscious emotions, to have the feeling of being (or not being)
in control of one’s own actions, and it shapes cognitive evaluations in terms of
goal structure and story progression.
»Interfering with the sonic feedback of actions decouples action from effect,
removing the sensation of control within the game and replacing it with an
experience of fiddling with the controller.«93
In the survival genre, unpredictable and arrhythmic environment sounds will
resist listener adaption. Such soundscape designs demand full attention and careful
listening by the player (even if there are no audible clues at first appearance).
This low level affective ‘trick’94is an efficient possibility to create emotional effects.
Good examples for various approaches of this matter can be found in the games
Project Zero and Silent Hill 2, as both games make use of sudden, piercingly
loud sounds in order to startle the player. Especially Project Zero exploits abrupt,
cut sounds and bursts of noise, fragmentarily mixed with cut-scenes. Similar
fragmented soundscapes, combined with disturbing visual effects, appear during
unexpected encounters with dangerous ghosts. Silent Hill 2, on the other hand,
relies more on culturally imprinted danger symbols.
92) Ekman, Inger / Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p.188.
47
In regards to audible triggers, it merges »archetypal rising and sinking tones of
sirens with the environmental ambiance to create strong associations to danger,
panic, and imminent threat. Here again, unconscious emotion is recruited to add
to the scariness of the environment.«95
In conclusion of this chapter, it is obvious that sounds are essential for creating
angst through goal-related evaluations. Shaping of the fear is made possible by
employing the functional aspect of game sound. Besides, sounds also serve as a
major medium for communication of information and feelings of the protagonist
and provide the player with the necessary audible feedback to his actions.
Especially in the survival genre, a particular sense of unease can be evoked with
sounds that cause contradictory evaluations – loud sounds played during events
that normally would be expected to happen in silence, combined with unpleasant
noises for vital clues. Based on the subsistence of such contradictions, sounds are
simultaneously subjected to multiple evaluating strategies both on the conscious
and the unconscious levels.
1.3.2.7 Visual Content
»Pleasures of sensation involve using your senses. Seeing something beautiful,
hearing music, touching silk, and smelling or tasting delicious food are all
pleasures of sensations. It is primarily the aesthetics of your game that will deliver
these pleasures.«96
As this thesis focuses on visual patterns anyway, this final chapter will give
just a short basic overview about the values of visual art in order to preserve
completeness of aspects that are essential for experiencing an intense, immersive
atmosphere during the game. Visual considerations are a crucial part of making
such experiences much more enjoyable. Visual content is the key for understanding
the virtual environment, as, since human beings are visually oriented creatures,
the medium that speaks the most to them, albeit on superficial terms in the very
first place, is certainly the image. Graphics make the game world appear as solid,
believable, real and magnificent. They trigger the player’s imagination, create a
setting for the upcoming adventure and increase the endogenous value of the
game. In many games, beautiful artwork is a commonly accepted reward for the
player, trying to overwhelm its audience with breath-taking or shaking images,
followed by direct emotional response. To a certain extent, players may even
forgive small gameplay-related or technical imperfections if the visual part seems
96) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 109.
48
to be genuine and authentic, as it is the most visible part after all. Graphical
mistakes are, on the other hand, the very first ones the player notices.
As discussed in the following chapters of this thesis in detail, visual art also
affects interactive experience, since it guides the player’s notion and look to
certain spots on the screen and controls attention. And once it is possible to
control where players look, one can also control what they are going to do. It is
said that designers of quilts thought a great deal about the possibilities of drawing
the eye, as a good quilt design makes the eye flit continuously around the quilt,
without letting it focus on one single image.97 Artists, set designers, illustrators,
architects and cinematographers made use of those principles of guiding the eye
of their audiences and indirectly control their focus. Walt Disney used this tactic
extensively, not only in his movies but also inside Disneyland, in order to guide
his guests through places without the need of telling them or having them read
instructions. As it was a pretty successful method, he proclaimed this to be a
visual weenie98, referring to the ways dogs are usually controlled on a movie set.
If properly set up, visual content will guide the player through the levels
effortlessly and create the basics for an intense immersion with the game world.
In order to achieve this, the whole visual art process has to be set up carefully,
with a significant art direction that makes choices about the overall style, the
architectural design and forms, as well as the use references from other visual
media, e.g. paintings or movies, in order to analyze efficient ways of determining
the input of colours, saturation or contrasts between light and dark. An immersive,
cinematic look depends on various visual factors that frame the right experience
of the game.
As much as any other genre, survival horror games are defined by an aesthetic
sensibility that must form a tight and ambient environment for experiencing
the atmosphere. Visual traits of the survival horror genre are the topic of the
upcoming chapters and will be described in various approaches in order to define
the best results for a horrific atmosphere, by only using visual content.
2
PATTERNS
Patterns
50
The famous term of pattern language was introduced by the architect Christopher
Alexander and describes design practices within a field of expertise. The system
of patterns was created in order to enable people to solve very large, complex
design problems in various issue areas. The following chapter deals with the
topic of patterns, starting with the basic overview, followed by patterns applied to
game design and finally focusing on the definition of new visual patterns that are
relevant for the continuation of this thesis.
2.1 PATTERN LANGUAGE BY CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
In the late 1960’s, the famous architect and mathematician Christopher Alexander
introduced a groundbreaking theory of architectonic patterns. In his probably
most famous book, A Pattern Language which Generates Multi-service Centers,
he describes 253 of such patterns that deal with problem-solving aspects of urban
planning and extended human needs.
»A pattern is a careful description of a perennial solution to a recurring problem
within a building context, describing one of the configurations which brings life
to a building. Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again
in our environment, and then describes the core solution to that problem, in such
a way that you can use the solution a million times over, without ever doing the
same thing twice.«99
According to that definition, a pattern language is a network of patterns, one
calling upon another. Patterns maintain the information about the subject matter
and used in various combinations, help to create appropriate solutions for different
problems. Despite the fact that the original publication by Alexander dealt with
architectonic issues, pattern language is suitable for other fields as well, including
software design, game design, user interfaces or even social design. Alexander did
not frame the exact definition for patters, rather shared his ideas of this subject
in his book Notes of the synthesis of form describing them as sets of forces in
the world and relations among them. He also interprets common, sometimes
even universal patterns of space, of events, of human existence, ranging across all
levels of granularity. According to this piece of work, patterns are independent
assemblies of physical parts, sorted in an appropriate way to deal with a problem
(that might be technical, aesthetical or even social). Basically, patterns result from
the concept of relations according to their architectonic background: a building
99) Public Sphere Project (2003): A Pattern Language of Living Communication: Why focus on PATTERNS?. http://www.publicsphereproject.
org/patterns/about-patterns.php, as of July 21th 2011.
Patterns
51
consist of physical parts just as an urban area consists of buildings, churches,
streets, etc. Buildings are sums of various components such as walls, stairs, roofs,
etc. But still, there are many different houses; in fact, no two houses are the same.
So, Alexander examines the common trait all houses share and calls it instance as
it describes the main elements in their basic performance, without dealing with
exchangeable details that differ from case to case. In his work A Pattern Language,
published in 1977, Alexander pursues the concept of patterns and architecture and
tries to describe complex urban systems through his 253 patterns, including entire
regional areas, as well as the urban center, neighborhoods, different buildings
and gardens and even furnishing features. A pattern is based on the principles of
problem, solution and consequences.100
»...each pattern represents our current best guess as to what arrangement of the
physical environment will work to solve the problem presented. The empirical
questions center on the problem -does it occur and is it felt in the way we have
described it? -and the solution- does the arrangement we propose in fact resolve
the problem? And the asterisks represent our degree of faith in these hypotheses.
But of course, no matter what the asterisks say, the patterns are still hypotheses,
all 253 of them -and are therefore all tentative, all free to evolve under the impact
of new experience and observation.«101
In the same way that words are in grammatical and semantic relationships in
order to form a correct language, design patterns have to be related to each other
in position and utility in a proper way to form the so-called pattern language. In
general, Alexander’s set of patterns assumes a process of decomposition, in which
a designer encounters a certain problem, selects a solution for it and then discovers
other new, smaller problems as a result of his chosen solution. Sometimes, the
smaller problems do not have appropriate solutions, so an overarching bigger
solution must be chosen. During this problem-solving process, it is up to the
designer if s/he prefers a hierarchical or an iterative, etc. organizational structure.
This freedom allows the designer to properly exploring a design, starting from
smaller parts of observation. Usually, throughout this process, the designer
realizes that his or her problem is just a part of a larger solution. At this point,
the design tends to improve. Taking this into consideration, each pattern has to
indicate its relationship to other patterns in order to see the pattern language as
a whole subject. For the designer, it means a great deal of guidance about related
problems and the possibilities of solution-seeking.
100) cf. N/A (n/a): Christopher Alexander, seine Theorien und Bauten. http://webuser.uni-weimar.de/~donath/c-alexander98/ca98-html.
htm, as of July 21th 2011.
101) Alexander, Christopher / Ishikawa, S / Silverstein, M (1977): A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Constructions (Center for
Environmental Structure Series). Oxford: University Press. p. XV.
Patterns
52
A common feature of experienced designers is their knowledge that it is not
necessary to solve each problem with new principles. It is rather efficient to
reuse approved solutions that have worked in the past already. As soon as a
good solution is found for a certain problem, it is reused again and again, as
the problems seem to have similar aspects.102 Consequently, one finds recurring
patterns or classes and communicating objects in various object-oriented systems.
»These patterns solve specific design problems and help designers reuse successful
designs by basing new designs on prior experience. A designer who is familiar
with such patterns can apply them immediately to design problems without
having to rediscover them.«103
Every single design pattern systematically describes names, explains, and evaluates
the essential and recurring design in object-oriented systems. Generally, patterns
can be analyzed in four essential parts:
1. The Pattern Name - The pattern name gives the designer the possibility to
describe a design problem, its solutions and consequences in one single world or
one phrase without dealing with details. Naming the pattern leads to an increased
intelligibility of the matter and allows for designing at a much higher level of
abstraction. Having one’s own vocabulary for a certain problem gives a designer
the chance to communicate directly about the subject on a sophisticated level.
2. The Problem - The matter of the problem describes when to apply the
pattern, as it deals with the problem within its context. It also describes exact
design problems, such as representations of algorithms or collaborations. The
problem are also might include a list of conditions that must be dealt with in the
first place, before one can apply the pattern.
3. The Solution - The solution is the combination of various elements essential
to the design, their relationships, responsibilities and collaborations. Instead of
giving an exact, concrete design, the pattern provides a template that can be
applied in many different ways and suggests abstract design solutions of general
arrangements in order to deal with the problem.
4. The Consequences - The consequences result from applying the pattern to
a certain problem. They are an important part as they are critical for evaluating
design alternatives and for estimating the costs and benefits of applying special
patterns.104
102) Gamma, Erich / Helm, Richard / Johnson, Ralph / Vlissides, John (1995): Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented
Software. Indianapolis: Pearson Education Corporate Sales Devision. p. 1.
103) Gamma, Erich / Helm, Richard / Johnson, Ralph / Vlissides, John (1995) ib. p. 1.
104) cf. Gamma, Erich / Helm, Richard / Johnson, Ralph / Vlissides, John (1995) ib. p. 3.
Patterns
53
Basically, it depends on one’s point of view to decide what a pattern is and what
it is not. For one person, it can be a mere building block, while another person
needs lists and classes. It is essential to see patterns as customized classes for
solving general design problems in a particular context. In his work where all 253
patterns are listed, Alexander subordinated entries to each pattern. Every single
of those entries links a set of forces, configurations or a family of artifacts as well
as a process for constructing particular realizations. The entry issues are broken
down to problem spaces, solution spaces and construction spaces and may evolve
concurrently if patterns are used during the development. In a short overview
those entry issues will be described.
1. Name - The name of the entry suggests more the solution than the problem
itself and consists of a short familiar and descriptive name or a phrase.
2. Example - The example includes several pictures, diagrams and descriptions
in order to describe prototypical applications.
3. Context - The context implies delineations of various situations under which
the patterns apply. It may also include background information or reasons for
certain patterns and evidence of generality.
4. Problem - The entry-part of the problem contains relevant forces and
constraints and their interactions. Sometimes design and construction issues form
parts of the constraints themselves and are a part of the problem description.105
5. Solution - Solutions are best characterized as »static relationships and
dynamic rules (micoprocess) describing artifacts in accord with the pattern, often
listing several variants and/or way to adjust to circumstances. Solutions reference
and relate other higher- and lower-level patterns.«106
105) cf. Lea, Doug (1997): Christopher Alexander: An Introduction for Object-Oriented Designers. http://g.oswego.edu/dl/ca/ca/ca.html,
as of July 23th 2011.
106) Lea, Doug (1997) ib. as of July 23th 2011.
Patterns
54
Still, not everything having this form can be considered as pattern. Generally,
pattern entries tend to have the following properties:
1. Encapsulation - Each pattern must encapsulate an exactly defined problem
and a suggested solution. Patterns have to be independent, specific and precisely
formulated in order to make it clear in which situations they are best applied to
capture certain problems and issues. They also have to ensure every single step
of the synthesis that results in constructing recognizable and meaningful entities.
2. Generativity - In order to construct realizations, each entry needs a local, selfstanding process prescription, as it is important that patterns can be used by all
development participants and not only by experienced designers. One might see
patterns as a kind of recipes, focusing on procedures characteristics of traditional
method-less constructions. Following the idea of the pattern as a recipe, it helps
to create personal visions of particular realizations, while it still preserves critical
ingredients and proportions.107
3. Equilibrium - »Each pattern identifies a solution space containing an invariant
that minimizes conflict among forces and constraints.«108 This means that if a
pattern is used in an application, the equilibrium describes each design step in
logical consequences. »The rationale that the solution meets this equilibrium may
be a formal, theoretical derivation, an abstraction from empirical data, observations
of the pattern in naturally occurring or traditional artifacts, a convincing series
of examples, analysis of poor or failed solutions, or any mixture of these.«109 The
issue with equilibrium is that it may be hard to find a basis for its structural
side. Alexander himself relied to it as a quality without a name, especially in
surroundings ruled by aesthetic, personal or social factors.
4. Abstraction - Patterns consist of abstractions of empirical experience, combined
with everyday knowledge. Even though they are general with stated context,
they do not have to be universal by all means. They are constructed within an
iterative process that consists of collecting, sharing and amplifying knowledge
and information. Having a structural basis with natural and traditionally shaped
artifacts, patterns deploy well adapted partitioning of the world.110 While some of
them prefer the mechanical approach by merging with others and transforming
them within various domains, other patterns are rather universal as they »emerge
from introspection and intuition uncontaminated by formalism. Heuristics based
107) cf. Lea, Doug (1997) ib. as of July 23th 2011.
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on participatory design, introspection, linkage to existing artifacts, and social
consequences all increase the likelihood of identifying central fixed and variable
features, and play role even when that environment is purely internal and/or
artificial, but where each part helps generate a context for others.«111
5. Openness - It is possible to extend patterns down to smaller levels of details,
as they have no top or bottom. By finding collections of various entries addressing
the required features of a project, patterns are used in development and often
require specific sub-patterns. In order to define those, one needs to examine
relationships among patterns and to add constraints, adjustments, refinements
and situation-specific specializations. Looking at this aspect from the angle of
architecture, it would require a certain set of patterns for a special housing
community, but then each single house would be unique thanks to micro-patternvariations.
6. Composibility - It is necessary to know that patterns have hierarchical
relations. Schematic grained patterns can be found on top in relation with fine
grained ones that they constrain. Nevertheless, these relations are not restricted
to simple whole-part relations, as it is possible to arrange most patterns in both
directions, upwards as well as downwards, by minimizing interaction with other
hierarchically displayed patterns and by adding variations as sub-patterns. In this
context, pattern entries are to be seen as language that is conceptually arranged
in order to express and support the layering.112
»Because the forms of patterns and their relations to others are only loosely
constrained and written entirely in natural language, the pattern language is
merely analogous to a formal production system language, but has about the same
properties, including infinite nondeterministic generativity.«113
Summing up all the discussed aspects of patters above, one can proclaim patterns
to include recipe-like solution-suggestions for a wide range of different design
issues in different fields. They tend to be grouping at different levels of hierarchies
and based upon distinct levels of concerns. While coarser-grained patterns are
hierarchically above the finer-grained ones, they are also less constraining but
lack the amount of detail. Based on this assumptions, one should postpone exact
commitments until the consequences of both, high- and low-level constructions
and experiments can be assured. As relations between larger and smaller patterns
do not necessarily represent strict containment, interactions among sub-patterns
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and a variety of other high-level-interactions is possible, requiring experimentation
and resolution. In order to describe how to deal with certain kinds of interactions,
patterns include entries with different features that have been designed using
other patterns that counterbalance needs of the parts versus the needs of the
whole.114
2.2 PATTERNS IN GAME DESIGN
»Since their emergence in architecture, patterns have been developed for a variety
of application areas, ranging from patterns for successful software engineering
concepts to pedagogical patterns for documenting good practices in teaching.«115
This chapter will discuss patterns applied in the field of game design, as it is
necessary to create a game-themed link in order to introduce the idea of visual
patterns afterwards. The analysis of the game medium in regards to patterns
includes some complications caused by the component of interaction that is a
constant part of games. This activity might be predictable and assessable to a
certain extent but it might be also impossible to formalize in other aspects.
»Interactivity is a widely used term with an intuitive appeal, but it is an
underdefined concept.«116 Therefore, it seems inevitable to dig a bit into the field
of interaction design as well, even though in general, patterns for game design
ought to provide the designers with possible solutions for various challenges that
occur from the very start of planning a game. While patterns are no crucial must
for game designers, as many work without them, focusing their solid knowledge
on other methods, they certainly represent helpful structured approaches to
different issues.
Once patterns left the field of their primary use in architecture and transferred
to other fields as well, they quickly found approval in software engineering, where
they got adapted by Gamma et al. and in interaction design by Borchers. It was
Bernd Kreimeier who suggested combining the pattern theories with game design
in the first place, introducing this idea in his paper The Case for Game Design
Patterns. However, game design is not the ideal subject for applying patterns,
as they are a problem-solving tool. In order to be able to use this method
nonetheless, three observations were necessary to create further understanding
for combining the media. First of all, the problem that arises for using patterns
in game design as problem-solving features brings out the risk that they would
115) Obrist, Marianna / Wurhofer, Daniela / Beck, Elke / Karahasanovic, Amela / Tscheligi, Manfred (2010): User Experience (UX) Patterns
for Audio-Visual Networked Applications: Inspirations for Design. Reykjavik: Christian Doppler Laboratory for “Contextual Interfaces” / HCI &
Usability Unit, ICT&S Center / University Salzburg / University of Oslo. p.344.
116) Bieber, Christoph / Leggewie, Claus (2004): Interaktivität: Ein transdisziplinärer Schlüsselbegriff. Frankfurt/Main:
Campus Verlag GmbH. p. 97.
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be needed just for removing existing problems and unwanted effects rather than
as a handy tool for supporting the creative process. Second, many of the patterns
used included certain characteristics that almost automatically guaranteed other
characteristics within the game. Therefore, a problem that occurred in the game
could be easily described to his roots by applying appropriate patterns. Thirdly,
patterns in game design were in high relations and coherences, which means that
by removing one pattern, other patterns were immediately affected and that left
many of the remaining patterns as imprecise tools for a mechanical approach to
problem-solving.117 On the other hand, they provide a very good opportunity for
structuring knowledge about gameplay and processing valuable information in a
efficient model.
2.2.1 Characteristics of Game Design Patterns
This section describes various characteristics of patterns for game design and
focuses on both internal patterns as well as patterns that depend on relations with
other patterns and their sub-patterns.
2.2.1.1 Semiformal Descriptions
Patterns in game design are based on general descriptions of particular fields of
gameplay, avoiding the use of quantitative measures. The nature of game design
is the reason for abandoning such quantitative measures, as such measures define
a too precise structure of gameplay specifications and are not suitable for solving
ill-formulated design problems in the first place. Due to this fact, the presence
or the effects of game design patterns cannot be measured properly which makes
the automating of their use almost impossible. On the other hand, game design
patterns possess a fine structure and can be distinguished from each other, which
makes it possible to describe complex relationships between various patterns in
a game design. Depending on the context of their intended use, game design
patterns are semi-formalized concepts that can be applied in many different
ways.118
2.2.1.2 Interrelated Descriptions
Basically all patterns that occur in any game design concept, are in relation to
each other. While some have just very subtle connections, other pattern-relations
are more common and are much likely to be identified and constructed. In the
117) cf. Björk, Staffan / Holopainen, Jussi (2005): Patterns in Game Design. Hingham, Massachusetts: CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC. p. 34.
118) cf. Björk, Staffan / Holopainen, Jussi (2005) ib. p. 35.
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following section, three such approaches, generally useful for analytic design
purposes, will be shortly described.119 While two of those relationship-pairs of
patterns have asymmetric features, one has a symmetric one, which results in five
types of relationship among game design patterns:
1. Instantiates - In case one pattern is described by this relation to another
pattern, the presence of the initial pattern requires the presence of the second
pattern as well. This means that once a certain pattern is applied to the design
with all its possibilities and limits, these features automatically suggest a suitable
pattern to follow, according to the properties of the first pattern. The only
variation of this procedure occurs when the combined effect of two or more
patterns limits the gameplay in ways that the following pattern, resulting from
that combination emerges automatically. »The patterns identified through this
relation have the instantiated by relationship back to the original pattern.«120 A
good example for this feature is the relationship between Dice and Randomness.
Once Dice is introduced to the design concept, the effect of Randomness emerges
as an automatically required feature.
2. Modulates - The idea of modulating patterns lies in fine tuning another
pattern. The first pattern changes different aspects and features of the second
pattern in gameplay. As the modulating pattern acts within a limited design
space it is bounded by other restrictions regarding gameplay elements. Besides,
modulating relationships are far from instantiates, since they do not provide
limitations for the game designer and the modulating pattern rather than aiding
to tweak the original pattern. The logical consequence of this relationship-type is
that the first pattern has to exist first, before a modulating pattern can be added to
the top of it. An example for this relationship is the feature Privileged Movement
in addition to Movement. The term Privileged Movement has direct influences on
Movement, as it changes its characteristics within certain boundaries.121
3. Instantiated by - »The pattern can be instantiated by ensuring the presence of
the related pattern, either because the related pattern is a more specific instance of
the pattern or because the related pattern has consequences on gameplay similar
to the pattern.«122 This means that pattern relations may not be binary: sometimes
the combination of two patterns automatically requires the presence of a third
pattern. Therefore patterns with this feature, influencing other patterns, often
have the instantiating relation from exactly those patterns. A good example is
120) Björk, Staffan / Holopainen, Jussi (2005) ib. p. 35.
121) cf. Björk, Staffan / Holopainen, Jussi (2005) ib. p. 35 ff.
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provided by the relationship between Race, Traverse and Symmetric goals123 – a
common way of describing the game of race is the set one goal for all players to
be the first to reach a certain position, defined by the game design.
4. Modulated by - This feature shows the effects of applying additional patterns
on core patterns in order to tune their effect on gameplay. Those patterns are
used for modulating other patterns within a limited space. An example for such
modulated by relationship can be found in Investment and Diminishing Returns,
as the latter provides a direct influence on how Investment affects gameplay.124
5. Potentially conflicting with - Sometimes, a certain pattern within its context
makes the use of another pattern impossible. Of course, particular areas of
gameplay are affected by such incompatibility, even though such contradicting
pattern still can be found in one game, but applied on different levels. For
example, a competitive team-based game requires both aspects, Competition and
Cooperation, but not at the same time.125 This issue is symmetric, which means
if one pattern has this quality towards another pattern that other pattern also has
the same relationship to the first pattern.
Just as the structure of an individual semi-formal pattern, the relation between two
or more patterns is not necessarily quantitative. Even though a relation between
patterns is likely to exist, it is not guaranteed that the use of a certain pattern
or its combination with another pattern automatically emerges the existence of
a coherent pattern. Still, there are some exceptions where the use of one pattern
always includes the presence of another pattern. Such exceptions can be found
among instantiates-instantiated by relations. The relations described above are the
common ones that appear in game design, although such absences and variations
of non-existing pattern-relations might occur when game design patterns are
applied to specific game design decisions. It is also possible that one game design
pattern might have several options for different relationships with other patterns,
as it is used in different ways in the same gaming situation. Usually this happens
when a pattern is reviewed from divergent perspectives. A good example for this
theory is the appearance of goals and sub-goals in the game that differ as the
point of view changes. Obtaining a unique artifact can be the goal of the game,
connected to the sub-goal of defeating a boss monster in the first place. Despite
this clear definition of goals and sub-goals, the positions might change if from the
player’s point of view, the battle against the boss seems to be the main goal and
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getting the artifact is only seen as a consequence, a sub-goal of the accomplished
task, a mere reward for the victory. Both views are definitely correct, but it
changes the field of use when using patterns within game design.
2.2.1.3 Hierarchies of Patterns
As the result of instantiates and instantiated by relations, hierarchies among
patterns are created. While not all patterns are subjected to hierarchies, there are
other hierarchies that might even co-exist.
»The more concrete design patterns are closely linked to the categories within
the component framework, often describing a specific instantiation of a game
component. The more abstract design patterns are those that modulate other
patterns of solely appear as consequences of the presence o other, more concrete
patterns. However, the different abstraction levels in the component framework
affect this distinction.«126
This obvious concept is explained best in practical examples concerned where
to use an abstract pattern rather than a specific one. As a gameplay session is
something that cannot be exactly planned, since every player acts differently while
playing the same game, patterns for describing such modes of play tend to be
more abstract than patterns that are used for dealing with specific elements within
the game. In the pattern language the term that provides information about the
degree of abstraction among patterns is known as higher-level and lower-level
patterns.
2.2.1.4 Intentional or Emergent Presence
Applying a pattern to game design can result from an intentional decision of the
designer, or also an unplanned consequence of configurations and components in
the game. Those unintentional decisions are called emergent patterns, and mostly
refer to higher-level patterns as they are more difficult to being explicitly designed
than lower-level patterns. In many cases, it is difficult to figure out which patterns
were created intentionally and which were not, as it would be necessary to know
the designer’s own answer . Nevertheless, the origin of intentionality does not
affect the use of game design patterns and their influences. The more complex
the game, the more likely is also the presence of several emergent patterns, as it is
almost impossible for the game designer to overview the whole amount of various
patterns within such game.
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Emergent patterns can be detected by proper play testing. Once uncovered,
emergent patterns can become intentional patterns for the game designer and by
evolving through manipulation, they can affect the game further in a controlled
way.127
2.2.2 Analysis and Validation of Game Design Patterns
Game design pattern can be used in many different ways. In order to identify
game design patterns one has two possibilities of procedure – on the one hand by
play testing the game and on the other hand by analyzing it though observations,
without playing it at all. Design documents alone do not offer enough information
for identifying patterns, but it is possible by analyzing various descriptions of the
game. Even though structural analysis’ do not work always well for all kinds of
patterns, still this method provides a much faster way to detect patterns than play
testing. The logical conclusion lies in the conflict of interests between playing
the game and trying to analyze and study it at the same time. And even if not
playing oneself, the vast amount of data produced by observing others play is also
a feature that evokes complications. One good possibility for analyzing patterns in
games more efficiently is a combination of these two strategies.128 One could make
a quick structural analysis first in order to detect rather easily identifiable game
patterns and afterwards observe people playing for confirming the determined
patterns and eventually identifying new ones. In a second iteration of structural
analysis, the relations between patterns can be tried to understand.
2.2.2.1 Structural Analysis
Structural analysis describes the process of understanding why patterns exist in
game design without playing the actual game in the first place. This analysis
might be based on the game, a mere prototype of the game or even just the
game design document. Many game design patterns are formed upon concepts of
already published games and game design communities.129
»Making a quick sweep through a game design to find these well known concepts
and matching them against game design patterns is an efficient way of getting an
initial understanding of the game.«130
Two of the rather structured ways of such analysis use either the component
network or the relationship lists of the initial game set. When using the component
network, a tree-like structure is the base for the initial set of identified patterns.
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»By focusing on each branch of the tree in turn, the analysis will have considered
holistic, boundary, temporal, and structural game components and the different
subcategories of these.«131
On the contrary, the relationship list is an efficient tool for identifying additional
patterns by comparing patterns that occur in the game to those mentioned on
the list and trying to match them. Once no new patterns can be discovered
in a design, the analysis of the patterns can be considered as concluded. The
appearance of similar patterns in other parts of gameplay might also be examined
in order to figure out potential design decisions above the average game design
level.132 The basics of this analysis can be also revised at this stage by looking for
isolated groups if patterns that have no connections to other patterns.
2.2.2.2 Play Testing
Play testing is a good alternative for identifying game design patterns as they can
be found in gameplay. While the structural analysis has problems detecting any
forms of emergent patterns, this method provides an efficient option for such
detections. The less positive aspect of play testing is mainly the risk of missing
whole pattern structures as it is rather difficult to focus on particular areas of
gameplay only. This issue occurs in first place when the player is the person who
has to do the play testing analysis him/herself, as such divided intentions often
prevent attention fully paid to pattern-detection, ruin the gameplay experience
and minimize the immersion. The best way to work with a play testing approach
is having additional tools and materials in use and also having the play session
recorded during testing. The players have to get the chance to test in a fully
normal environment and the observers should mind not to disturb the players.
Ideally, observers would be completely unobservant or ignorable by the players.
This method is also a good approach of understanding user behaviour in humancomputer interaction design. An additional disadvantage of this option is the
considerably longer time that needs to be invested into play testing, as evaluating
the collected data goes significantly beyond the time spent on the testing. Also it
involves the challenge of understanding and interpreting the reactions, reasoning
and the behaviour of players correctly, as well as their social interactions. Even
though it would be possible to interview players after play testing sessions in order
to get a better insight on their motivations, their answers are reliable only to a
certain extent, as their answers are basically interpretations on the perceivability
of their own actions.133 Despite the drawbacks mentioned above, play testing is
an indispensable tool for determining aspects such as player balance or emotional
responses.
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2.2.3 The Nameless Quality a.k.a. The Properties of Living Things
Besides patterns, game design also includes aspects of The Nameless Quality
introduced by Christopher Alexander in his book The Timeless Way of Building
in 1979. It is a theory about experiencing various elements and spaces, therefore
extraordinarily important also for game design. In order to learn about quality,
different aspects of objects need to be taken into consideration, just as listed
below:
»They feel alive, as if they hold energy.
They feel whole, like nothing is missing.
They feel comfortable, it is pleasing to be around them.
They feel free, not constrained naturally.
They feel exact, as if they are just how they are supposed to be.
They feel egoless, connected to the universe.
They feel eternal, as I they have always been, and always will be.
They are free from inner contradictions.«134
Even though sounding a bit feng-shuish, those aspects are the core to good design,
thus also game design. Following this concept, many successful games were
already designed, including the famous Sim City series by Will Wright. In his later
works, Alexander finally found the fitting term for idea of The Nameless Quality,
while cataloging thousands of different things and analyzing their similarities.
The Properties of Living Structures is a collection of fifteen essential aspects that
ensure the connection to places and things that have qualities of living things.
The upcoming analyses of these fifteen properties are already adjusted to terms of
game design in order to provide further context to this thesis’ topic:
»1. Level of Scale - We see levels of scale in ‘telescoping goals’, where the player
has to satisfy short-term goals to reach mid-term ones and to eventually reach
long-term goals. We see it in fractal interest curves. We also see it in nested game
world structures. Spore is a symphony of levels of scale.
2. Strong Centers - We see this in visual layout, certainly, but also in our
story structure. The avatar is at the center of our game universe – and generally
we prefer strong avatars over weak ones. Also, we prefer strong centers when it
comes to our purpose in the game – the goal.
134) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 334.
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3. Boundaries - Many games are primarily about boundaries! Certainly any
game about territory is an exploration of boundaries. But rules are another kind
of boundary, and a game with no rules is not game at all.
4. Alternating Repetition - We see this on the pleasing shape of the chessboard,
and we see it too in the cycle of level/boss/level/boss that comes up in so many
games. Even tense/release/tense/release is an example if pleasing alternating
repetition.
5. Positive Space - What Alexander means here is that the foreground and
background elements both have beautiful, complementary shapes, like Yin and
Yang. In a sense a well-balanced game has this quality – allowing multiple
strategies to have an interlocked beauty.
6. Good Shape - This is as simple as it sounds – a shape that is pleasing. We
certainly look for this in the visual elements of our games. But we can see and
feel it, too, in level design. A good level feels ‘solid’ and has a ‘good curve’.
7. Local Symmetries - This is different from an overall symmetry, like a mirror
image; instead of referring to multiple small, internal symmetries in a design.
Zelda: The Wind Waker has this feeling throughout its architecture – when you
are within a room or area, it seems to have a symmetry, but it is connected to
other places in a way that feels organic. Rule systems and game balance can have
this property as well.
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity - This is when two things are so tightly
intertwined that they define each other – if you took one away, the other wouldn’t
be itself any longer. We see this in many board games, such as Go. The position
of the pieces on the board is only meaningful relative to the opponent’s pieces.
9. Contrast - In games we have many kinds of contrast. The contrast between
opponents, between what is controllable and what is not, and between reward and
punishment. When opposites in our game are strongly contrasted, the game feels
more meaningful and more powerful.
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10. Gradients - This refers to qualities that change gradually. The gradually
increasing challenge curve is an example of this, but so are appropriate designed
probability curves.
11. Roughness - When a game is too perfect, it has no character. The handmade
feeling of ‘house rules’ often makes a game seem more alive.
12. Echoes - Echoes are a kind of pleasing, unifying repetition. When the boss
monster has something in common with its minions, we are experiencing echoes.
Good interest curves have this property, especially fractal ones.
13. The Void - As Alexander says, ‘In the most profound centers which have
perfect wholeness, there is at the heart a void which is like water, infinite in
depth, surrounded by and contrasted with the clutter of the stuff and fabric all
around it.’ Think of a church, of the human heart. When boss monsters tend to
be in large, hollow spaces, we are experiencing the void.
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm - Designers talk endlessly about how important
it is for a game to be simple – usually with a small number of rules that have
emergent properties. Of course, these rules must be well-balanced, which gives
them the inner calm that Alexander describes.
15. Non-Separateness - This refers to something being well-connected to its
surroundings – as if it was part of them. Each rule of our game should have this
property, but so should every element of our game. If everything in our game
has this quality, a certain wholeness results that makes the game feel very alive
indeed.«135
Even though those aspects were described in the context of game design, they are
perfectly applicable to game aesthetics as well. In the upcoming chapter, some of
them will be adjusted for creating measures for visual patterns.
135) Shell, Jesse (2009) ib. p. 336 ff.
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2.3 VISUAL PATTERNS
»An artist’s input into the game design process begins as early as the concept
stage. Visual cues are often as important as anything else in the fight to get a
game signed (…) and can prove crucial to providing everyone involved with the
‘feel’ for the game.«136
The idea of implementing patterns in game creation is a good possibility for the
designer to control what will occur in the game. Unlike patterns used in other
fields of expertise, patterns for games are not primarily a method for solving
problems, but rather an efficient framework of generic tools.
»Game design patterns are useful for several potential user groups who have
inherently different working methods. Not only can the patterns be used more
often if more groups can use them, but communication between those groups
becomes easier and thereby cross-disciplinary work.«137
This is the point where the concept of visual patterns begins in the first place.
As patterns proved their effective support in so many areas, especially in game
production (programming, game design), it is rather surprising not seeing them
applied in the field of art as well. One might come up with the argument that the
use of patterns decreases creativity and turns designers in mere pattern cranking
machines138 that automatically churn out similar games with no unique features.
Another objection might be the fear that by using patterns, all games would
follow same principles and fall into plain stereotypes.
»Such potential objections stem from confusing the everyday meaning of patterns
as something repetitive with the main idea of design patterns as introduced by
Alexander et al., in which design patterns can be considered hypotheses, and
collections of patterns can be considered a language that can, and should, evolve
in time.«139
Taking these aspects into consideration, art presents a good field for application
of patterns, as artists have a much better chance of creating something of high
quality and even something novel when they are familiar with the wide range
of tools and methods and, more importantly, they possess the knowledge that
enables them to choose the appropriate approach for a certain type of work. Even
within the field of art, game design patterns unfold all their features as tools
for idea generation, structured development, communication and solving design
problems.
136) McCarthy, David / Curran, Ste / Byron, Simon (2006): The Art of Game Production. Boston: The Ilex Press Limited. p. 100.
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This thesis tries to introduce patterns into game art, as they offer an amount
of helpful approaches that are essential for artistic work-pipeline as well. Once
a game concept is finished and the art direction defines the intended style of
the game, patterns could be a very helpful alternative for the artist to figure out
how to translate the content of concept and mood art to its digital representative
within the game. It is no secret that many games cannot pull off the balancing
act between intriguing pre-production of concept art and the final result is a
game that often appears uniform and engine-subjected rather than unique and
individual. Patterns in this context would introduce an advanced concept of ideacreation of visuals as it would not necessarily force the artist to start from scratch
or to search for obvious visual references among other games. It would also be
helpful in suggesting various techniques that are relevant aspects of succeeding in
preserving the predefined style of genre.
2.3.1 Deduction of Visual Patterns by Analyzing Games
In order to gather the material that is essential as a basis collection of information
for establishing patterns, several different techniques are possible. While a
theoretical foundation is based upon studying games and their concepts in an
academic approach, there is also the possibility of transforming mechanics into
game design patterns. But this second method of merging mechanics into patterns
is truly suitable for game design patterns, rather than visual patterns. Other
approaches are ensured through interviews with professionals and their way of
working and finally creating pattern collections by analyzing games. This last
approach is the one chosen for deducting visual patterns.
This method conducts an analysis of already existing games, their concepts
and design approaches in other fields, such as architecture, interaction design,
evolutionary biology, etc. in the case of the visual aspects, fields of traditional
art, visual semantics and psychology. This procedure consists of five iterative
steps – recognition, analysis, description, testing and evaluating. In the first
step, the recognition phase, a rough pattern-structure is created around a certain
idea or an aspect. The next step analyzes that pattern-approach by describing
the pattern’s positions within few illustrative games. Afterwards, the pattern is
properly formulated by using the pattern template.
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Usually, the testing part is proven by using the pattern to a prototype and finally
the evaluation applies the usefulness and sufficiency of the pattern as criteria for
further analysis.140 This five-step technique was transformed to a dynamic and
recursive method that allowed patterns to be fused and re-created at almost every
stage.
2.3.2 Relevance of Visual Patterns
It is probably relevant to ask whether it is possible or even meaningful to create
visual patterns in order to describe the atmosphere of a game, because as described
in the first chapter, atmospheric experience requires many different factors
and is based on far more attributes than just the aesthetics. The approach to
distinct the visual aspects form the other ones has a simple, practical motivation:
Within game development, various departments work together, but every single
department is responsible for its field of expertise. Besides some exceptions (such
as e.g. technical art director, etc.), there are no intersections of competences,
which is also very important because this division-based labor ensures en effective
workflow of departments. Of course, communication between departments is of
crucial importance, one should never suggest the contrary, but it is also necessary
that departments can focus on their main areas. This means nothing more than
that designers should be responsible for the design and gameplay and eventually
the story of the game in the first place, just as programmers for programming,
sound designers for sound design and artist for creating art and content for the
game. Just as said before, the ideal connection between those sections is based on a
competent management and the communication and overarching comprehension
of lead-employees. Few people would probably argue that programmers tampering
with art or artists taking over game design, etc. would assure a satisfying outcome
of the game.
This is the main reason for an approach of separating visual art from the other
disciplines. Visual patterns should give artists the same possibility of relying
on structured systems for creating certain assignments as is already available
to other departments. Most specifications for games involve participation of all
departments, so it is only natural that artists have their own ways and possibilities
of meeting the requirements. And if the topic deals with atmosphere-creation
in games, it is not only possible, but also relevant to have a close look at the
components of art, separated from the other features listed above.
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One may come up with the objection that visual art alone is not sufficient for
describing something as complex as atmosphere, without focusing on sound,
interaction, story, etc. as well. But the history of art simply proves the opposite.
Long before the medium of games was established, art was expressed within two
forms only: the visual art of paintings and the audible art of compositions. (The
exception might be found in opera and play, but despite its combination and
additional storytelling, it had nothing to do with the component of interactivity
so far.) The former art mostly consisted of either the image or the sound, as their
fusion was introduced in the mid 1930’s, outdistanced even by the cinematic
experience of a moving picture in 1895. It is the photography that becomes the
concurrent of the traditional painting and represented by the philosophical toys,
the illusion of reality is constructed with the help of apparatuses and technical
media, focusing on the visual component.141 Therefore, for more than two
thousand years paintings have been conveying the representations of various ideas,
working perfectly without interaction, obvious storytelling or audible background.
Everybody is familiar with expressions like An atmospheric image, and each Ism
also carried the flare of a certain mood, it was characteristic for. Impressionism is
well-known for its approaches to portraying atmospheres in certain situations, just
as surrealism is famous for creating an distant, dreamlike mood that somehow
crouches with an eerie feeling upon the observer. Without needing the support of
other factors, visual art always was one of the masters of mood.
It is no secret that many games have their visual idols in traditional paintings.
Some of the featured artists whose works were of great inspiration for survival
horror themed games were Pierre Bonnard, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Edvard Munch,
Paul Signac, Félix Vallotton, Edward Hopper and Edouard Vuillard. Game artists
gave them credit for being important for the look of games like Dead to Rights:
Retribution’s Grand City.
»The game artists drew on techniques used by traditional artists for hundreds of
years: compositional theory and tools like the Fibonacci sequence, positive and
negative space, the balance of light and dark, vertical and horizontal intersections
and colour were all used to express mood, direct the player’s attention and
support the story and the characters. Strong geometric shapes combined with
dramatic lighting, such as those found in Edward Hopper’s paintings, can be used
to create powerful emotional currents.«142
Based on traditional analysis of paintings, the upcoming part will introduced visual
features relevant for efficiently describing atmosphere in games as a foundation
for visual patterns.
141) cf. Hartmann, Frank (2003): Mediologie: Ansätze einer Medientheorie der Kulturwissenschaften. Wien: Facultas Verlags- und
Buchhandels AG. p. 35.
142) Staff (2010): Feature: Creating Atmosphere And Meaning Through In-Game Art. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28261/
Feature_Creating_Atmosphere_And_Meaning_Through_InGame_Art.php, as of July 12th 2011.
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2.3.3 Distinction of Features for Visual Patterns
The main focus of visual patterns established throughout this thesis deals with the
question how to influence atmosphere and mood within a certain framework. The
first chapter gives a detailed overview on the variety of aspects that are responsible
for creating atmosphere for games, so the player can experience immersive play.
This section will distinct the visual components, based on the Properties of
Living Things to a certain extent and separate them from the whole context of
an atmospheric experience. Afterwards, the seven most important visual aspects
will be discussed and explained in order to be applied to the game analysis in the
upcoming chapter as measurements for visual pattern-relevant information.
Factors that influence the atmosphere, experienced in games:
Fig. 8: Distinction of Features
for Visual Patterns
2.3.3.1 Style
The question of style is probably the very first decision of the art direction. It
determines basic parameters for all upcoming factors and decides on the degree
of abstraction of the look. Some of the most significant game styles vary from
fantastical settings, to abstract, photorealistic, caricatured or cel-shaded. If the
style is well defined and also seamlessly pursued throughout the game, it helps
the player dive into a believable and authentic world. An important task of style
is to keep the overall appearance and visual communication together as well as to
leading the way for further visual element.
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2.3.3.2 Colour-Look and Scene Temperature
Even in ordinary life, a human being decodes at least forty percent of all received
information though colours. Colours help to orientate, to estimate distances and
spaces and with nuances of colour, one is even able to tell the temperature of
images.143 It is also up to various colours to evoke feelings of ease or unease,
pleasure or even disgust if applied on particular objects in a certain context.
2.3.3.3 Light
The aspect of lighting is considered as crucial for achieving a meaningful
mood image. The counterpart of light, just as significant is shadow, as it can
subconsciously suggest and reinforce themes within the game. Light and shadow
are inevitable components of atmosphere. Low-key scenarios or strong, dramatic
light-effects build tension and expression to the environment. They also can
support motion and use as visual guidelines.
»Many people will be familiar with the use of a strong, bright or intense light
source to indicate to the player the location of the exit from a given scene or
level -- this is a basic game design tool. Different benefits can be gained by using
multiple sources, for example to entertain them by giving them lots to look at
and to make the player examine the scene more closely.«144
2.3.3.4 Environment Art and Architectural Geometry
An appropriate research of buildings and environment structures provides the
game with a feel of cinematic reality or a special, required look intended instead
of reality. In many games, the environments are based on iconic buildings and
structures found in well-known cities to ensure the recognizability of familiar
structures. Adding negative space is also a good possibility to draw dense, strong
silhouettes. Another aspect can be found among the principles of geometry.
According to the preferred style, different forms are suitable for providing
information about the environment. Cozy and safe rooms are portrayed in
completely different shapes than hostile spaces where danger lurks beneath the
surface.
2.3.3.5 Character- and Monster Design
Defining the look of the protagonist, as well as various monster designs is to
a major extent the task of the art department. This is essential, as the player
is usually left with the main character throughout the whole game, and the
protagonist is the primary source of empathy the player is to experience.
143) cf. Marschall, Susanne (2009): Farbe im Kino. Marburg: Schüren Verlag GmbH. p. 22.
144) Allport, Aaron / Cheshire, Bob / Pestridge, Ian (2010): Creating Atmosphere In Dead To Rights: Retribution’s Grant City. http://www.
gamasutra.com/view/feature/4337/creating_atmosphere_in_dead_to_.php, as of July 28th 2011.
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Monsters, on the contrary, are creatures that threaten the player’s goals and
evoke feelings of disgust and fear. »Monsters (…) constitute a straight-forward
threat; they are always unambiguously malevolent and the emotional reactions
they provoke are rather negative.«145 Their design usually fits to the style and
through their appearance and movement, they directly mirror the attributes of
the game environment.
2.3.3.6 Contrasts of Release and Tension
Intense long, black shadows against harsh, contrasting white spaces are not the
only way to describe the principles of contrasts of release and tension. It is far more
to it than plain light-and-darkness contrasts. This feature refers to environmental
changes that appear throughout the game, it is rather the displaying of release and
tension through visual manners. Closely linked to game design, the art supports
play sequences that are of substantial importance for the player’s experience. The
best example for such visual release and tension contrast can be found in the
Silent Hill series, where an apparently deserted village turns into a nightmarish
pandemonium once the siren shrills.
2.3.3.7 Visual Semantics
»Visual semantics refers to that part of semantic memory that deals with the
knowledge about visual aspects of elements in the world around us.«146 The
aspect of the visual semantics within the context of visual language in games
deals with special objects, colours, or elements that are easily recognized by the
player as visual leitmotivs throughout the game and symbolize certain events.
Whether they are portrayed in an alienation effect or are an obvious reoccurring
mark, they evoke certain emotions in the player, purposely triggered by game
design. This is a rather easy tool to use, nevertheless a powerful and effective
technique for guiding the player’s attention as well as support storytelling and
create basics for moods. It is also important to note that visual semantics refer
to a diegesis of the game, which means that symbols included in the HUD or
the interface are not a part of this analysis. This criterion is limited to elements
directly implemented and merged in the game world. A good example is provided
by Dead Space 1, where illegible messages written in blood cover the walls of the
deserted spaceship, implying some terrible events that must have taken place in
various locations. And the more the player encounters such engravings, the more
it is evident that s/he s heading right towards the main enemy.
146) Gupta, Abhinav / Garcia, Gary / Ebrahimi, Touradj (n/a): Analyzing Visual Semantic Processing and
Recognizing the Shape Changes in Video. Kanpur: Indian Institute of Technology. p. 2.
.
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In fact, many parallels can be noticed between classical Hollywood narrative
framework and main structures of survival horror games. Construction of a
psychologically-motivated character, establishment of goals, obstacles and
objectives or a cause-and-effect-construction for overcoming and solving problems
in order to evolve, are conventions of narrative cinema. To emphasize this
affinity, the cinematic editing tends to communicate characterization, situation
and location of its environment.147 Many games make use of well-known clichés
for establishing the right mood, like displaying scratched celluloid aesthetics on
the lens or completely switching to monochrome (Silent Hill Origins, Forbidden
Siren, Haunting Ground). Those signifiers of a cinematic approach often cue the
player to read and understand such scenes according to the conventions of film,
rather than gaming.
»A sense o fate-like preordination builds as the solutions to puzzles are revealed in
newspaper clippings, photographs, and archived hospital noted. These games elicit
an experience if obsessive compulsion as successful play involves the repetition if
psychologically destructive actions protagonists have already performed.«148
2.3.4 Visual Pattern Template
In this final section, a template will be described that will serve as a basis for
further visual patterns, established in the upcoming chapter.
1. Name - The name of the pattern can be a single word or a short phrase,
defining the main concept of this pattern.
2. Core Definition - Immediately after introducing the name of the pattern,
a brief sentence in italics follows with the description of the core aspects of the
pattern. The idea behind core definitions is to provide an initial overview while
browsing through an extensive pattern collection.
3. General Description - First point of this section is a short, general description
of properties that provide the fundamentals of this pattern, as well as the motivation
for its name. General properties are stated by using game examples and concepts
that occur in the component framework. The general description is concluded
by some explicit examples of various aspects and games that contain the pattern.
147) cf. Roux-Girard, Guillaume (2009) ib. p.65.
148) Kirkland, Ewan (2009) ib. p.77.
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4. Using the Pattern - Patterns can be regarded as general descriptions and
each application of a pattern to a certain situation requires a number of choices
that are based upon the design context. In this part, a variety of choices is
mentioned that is helpful when one attempts to apply the pattern. Such patterns
are mainly related to the described pattern through the aspects of instantiated by
and modulated by patterns.
5. Consequences - The consequence-part provides information about issues
that might appear when such pattern is found in the game. This section is
directed toward analyzing visual aspects to help solve art problems in an already
existing visual design or to suggest other patterns to instantiate in the art of the
game. This specification makes use of other patterns, mainly with the instantiates
and modulates relations, but eventually with potentially conflicting relations.
Still, patterns with other relations might also be present, especially when the
consequences are based on interactions between several patterns.
6. Relations - In this section, relations that exist between the analyzed pattern
and other patterns are listed. Any related patterns are sorted into five categories
of different relations: instantiates, modulates, instantiated by, modulated by and
potentially conflicted with.
7. References - In this part, the direct inspirations for creating this pattern are
listed, as well as some descriptions that contain main aspects of the pattern.149
3
APPLYING
VISUAL
PATTERNS
Applying Visual Patterns
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As defining a wide range of visual patterns for a truly useful implementation
would go beyond the scope of this master thesis, the main attention is directed
towards trying to introduce the concept of visual patterns as such. For a topical
distinction, the theme of survival horror was chosen as it provides many obvious
visual features that serve as good examples for establishing this theory. Even
though it was not possible to analyze such number of various games in order to
be able to create truly validated patterns for various situations as already found in
other fields of game design, the six games described below are chosen as famous
representatives of their genre, each of them truly meaningful and expressive. The
patterns emergent from these six examples should be convincing enough to prove
the significant advantage of using patterns in game art as well.
Each game is going to be examined based on aspects introduced in the previous
chapter in the first place and finally, visual patterns will be worked out, based on
the results of this analysis.
3.1 ANALYSIS OF SURVIVAL HORROR GAMES,
BASED ON VISUAL FEATURES
As already mentioned, this section deals with a selection of six survival horror
games that are famous representatives of their genre, introducing three western
and three Japanese games, to ensure a wide range of features, considered scary by
multiple cultures. Starting with Dead Space 1, this game is probably the only one
on the list that does not leave the protagonist as helpless and fragile as the player
might encounter in other survival horror games, but Dead Space 1 was entirely
successful in creating a terrifying and claustrophobic atmosphere throughout the
whole playtime and is definitely a game that provides a great deal of inspiration
for this genre. The next example is given by Silent Hill 2, certainly the leader
of disturbing, obscure games with an endless amount of visual symbolism and
creepy moments. The following analysis will focus on Alan Wake, which is a
successful title, playing well with the psychology of fear. The fourth part will
analyze the features of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the final two examples
will deal with the Japanese survival horror classics of Project Zero, also known as
Fatal Frame and Haunting Ground, both games successfully scary in a very deep,
intrinsic way.
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3.1.1 Dead Space 1
The game Dead Space, developed by Visceral Games and EA Redwood Shores
and published by EA in 2008 was a successful representative of the survival horror
genre. The 3rd person shooter followed the storyline of Isaac Clarke, an engineer
who has to survive on board of the USG Ishimura, an interstellar mining ship
infested with mutated, human-like creatures called Necromorphs.
Style
The game follows a realistic style complected with futuristic sci-fi elements.
The look is detailed and carefully portrays an alien environment, but due to its
naturalistic approach, the things the player recognizes as familiar, feel disturbing
and distorted. The style also perfectly supports the topic, as well as providing the
necessary degree of sophistication to display horrific images and create a terrifying
atmosphere throughout the whole game.
Colourcodes and Scene Temperature
The basic colourcodes of Dead Space can be traced back to the duality of
structures within the environment. On the one hand, there are clean, mechanic
and metallic shades that stand for the top notch technology Ishimura is based on,
but on the other hand, there are also shades of rusty colours, appearing mostly
where the infected and mutated masses are located, showing the decay of the
space ship. The main colours consist of various sepia-tones, shades of blue, grey
and partially green, but all colours rather desaturated in the first place. The overall
scene temperature is cold and even though some tones of golden and orange light
in the near distance might appear rather warm, the shapes of the environment
do not leave a doubt about its hostility. Corridors use general distance-settings
of colours, as the spatial proximity is displayed by rather warmer hues of orange,
yellow, gold or sepia and the distance, in contrast, is purely cold with grey
and bluish tinctures. In certain variations there are also specific colourcodes for
different types of rooms: machine rooms tend to be mostly brown, laboratories
almost colourless in shades of light grey and white, biological examination rooms
green.
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These colour concepts are interrupted only by a certain emphasis on neoncolours, displayed on monitors and screens, as well as various machines and
technical apparatuses.
Fig. 9: Colourcodes of
Dead Space 1
Light
Light is emitted through multiple sources in almost every room and it is always
flickering, showing a spaceship that is out of power and on its last reserves. The
light-sources are all rather faint, so they do not distract the player too much. As
they are always in certain movement, they imply the feeling of constant motion
inside rooms, which increases the stress level, as movement is usually a sign of
enemies. Usually the rooms are filled with a light, uncomfortable haze. In many
rooms, there are also cones of light, shining on bizarre places, particles of dust
whirling in the light and reminding of the fact that the place has been deserted
for a long time already. The spare light in the rooms is most of the time barely
enough to illuminate the silhouettes of the objects in rim light and suggests
noticing their fine detailed structure.
Environment Art and Architectural Geometry
The environment of Dead Space portrays the duality of technology and nature,
except that nature in this very special context is something evil, infested and
dangerous, as it is an alien substance from another planet. While the ship’s
architecture is stern and static, the infested mass is pictured through animated
decals to show the restless throbbing of the hostile ground. The architecture of
Ishimura itself is rather fancy – not the purely utilitarian look one would expect
of a spaceship. It has many offshoots in its objects and is structural, littered with
technical ornaments. Still the environment appears cold and lifeless, as the formal
shapes are stern and almost alien themselves. Besides, the whole ship is full of
malfunctioning technology and defect apparatuses that evoke the uncanny feeling
of a broken device, floating lost in space, combined to a claustrophobic anxiety,
caused by small instructable locations.
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Character- and Monster Design
The protagonist Isaac Clarke is a rather anonymous character. Even though
he has a personality and an individual history that plays an important role
throughout the game and his own motivation, his face is never shown to the
player. Instead, his whole body is covered in futuristic armor, which he wears
from the beginning. This suit was designed according to the main features of
the spaceship itself as many of its shapes are reminiscent of the Ishimura. On
Isaac’s back, there is the glowing line, running down his spine and symbolizing
the status of his health.
The design of the monsters in Dead Space picks up efficient clichés as it shows
creatures that are former human beings, but were killed and later mutated to socalled Necromorphs. Those creatures have visually just enough traces to define
them as human-like to a certain extent, but their bodies were brutally mutilated
and instead of some limbs, they carry blades or other weapon-like tools. Using
their macabre prostheses as additional means of transportation, their movements
remind of spiders and are overly creepy. Basically, there are two types of monsters
– those with doubtless alien origin, as their shapes do not seem familiar at all,
and those originating from human beings, far more disturbing than the aliencreatures. Even though preserving the main proportions of a human, their viscera
seem to be wrapped inside out, showing muscles, organs, entrails and even the
whole spine on their skin’s surface.
Visual Contrasts during Encounter
With the beginning of an encounter with an enemy, it gets darker instantly
and the scene temperature changes. The light starts flickering madly and in much
shorter and decidedly intervals, with extra light accents mark the way through
dark corridors. It seems as if the whole ship turned on the emergency reserves.
The camera shakes and cones of strong, piercing light circulate through the
room, confusing the sight of the player even more and increasing the stress level.
Sometimes the whole screen is lit by a white flash for the split of a second and
motion blur post effects are added to the image. Getting hit by a monster results
in a temporary blurry vision and losing too much health colours the screen red.
Visual Semantics
There are two main themes in Dead Space 1; first, the already shortly discussed
duality between technology and nature and second, the absolute isolation one
experiences in space. This topic has already been exploited by many authors or
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movie directors, with the probably most famous examples like 2001: A Space
Odyssey or the even horrifying movie Event Horizon. Making use of windows
with the sight of space, the feeling of emptiness gets even stronger, as one realizes
the hopeless situation, by being caught on a broken space ship, infested with alien
creatures and left alone with no hope of rescue. Another more subtle symbolism
can be found among the strange signs written in alien alphabetic that appears
as writings on walls. The player discovers more of it the more s/he makes his/
her way towards the Marker, an evil, alien artifact responsible for the infectious
mutations on the ship.
3.1.2 Silent Hill 2
Konami’s survival horror classic Silent Hill 2 relies mainly on dynamics of
aberrant psychology as its most essential element. The game evolves around the
protagonist James who receives a letter from his late wife Mary, inviting him
to meet her at their special place in a small town called Silent Hill. As soon as
James arrives there, it is the beginning of a nightmarish journey through distorted
realities and obscure locations, walking the thin line between sanity and madness.
Style
The style of Silent Hill 2 is almost hyper-realistic to a certain extent: the
locations, creatures and characters are all made to be very recognizable in order
to confuse the player with subtle abnormalities of well-known settings. It carefully
focuses on various details so subtle variations seem even more disturbing, as if
trying to suggest some upcoming ominous events.
The colours of Silent Hill 2 are rather faint, they vary from sepia tones of
the interiors to blu-ish grey shades of the outside. Colour accents are created
through red that is encountered mostly as traces of blood and white that serves
to distinguish the staining and decay of the environment. The game carefully
combines cold shades in order to create an eerie feeling of uneasiness even if
the player in not facing an enemy. While the sepia grading is reminiscent of
old photography, hinting at a faded memory repressed unconsciously that could
break out any moment, the cold, almost colourless exterior evokes solitude and
the uneasy feeling that one is on his/her own. This colour selection suggests that
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the environment is fundamentally hostile. Besides, the textures are in high detail,
showing artistically decorated rooms, fine wallpapers or neat carpets – at least
as they were before the decay that came over the town. Now those structures
underline the dirt and loneliness of an abandoned place. In addition to that,
bloodstains on the wall signalize acts of violence that took place in the formerly
clean and fine rooms.
Silent Hill 2
Light
Silent Hill 2 is dark. Even if the player roams the deserted streets of the
town filled with dense colourless fog, the vision is strongly limited. Disregarding
audible signs, enemies can be noticed by their silhouettes first. The light inside
the interior is rather dimmed too, each room has its black corners and plenty of
dark spots that hide potential danger. Whether it is caused by the spotlight of the
protagonist or set to stage the location, usually it is lighter around the character
to enable limited sight and lets disturbing details appear right before the player
in minimal distance, which of course, intensifies the effect of shock. Another
tool that is essential for creating a subtly stressful, creepy atmosphere is the use
of dynamic shadows that react to light sources. With only a few of them in a
room, shadows move vividly around, evoking the feeling of unease and something
unpleasant, lurking in the dark.
As Silent Hill 2 is based on a rater realistic style, it was not difficult to preserve
the style of architecture. The town filled with small houses and cozy-appearing
buildings (at least before) that now seem even more infested by the evil. The
architecture is inspired by an old-fashioned style of small villages of the mid 70’s
and underlines the bygone times of comfortable friendliness associated with this
past. This architectural issue also supports the retro-style that is suitable for a
horrific atmosphere as it suggests that the friendliness of the past is gone and
the protagonist is alone in a deserted place, inhabited only by monsters now.
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Probably the most remarkable place of horrors is the Silent Hill Hospital. The
old fashioned interiors convey memories of things that might have happened in
that town, long time ago.
James Sunderland is an ambivalent protagonist, torn between his fears and
visions in Silent Hill 2. Even though he is portrayed as a loving husband at the
beginning, his actual motivations and the nature of his reasons are highly open to
interpretation. The actual madness of the protagonist is probably shown clearest
in the NPC, as examined properly, every single of them seems to represent some
specific side of James’ conflicting emotions. The monsters of this game have their
origin in James’ subconscious. As he murdered his own wife in rage for stealing
his vision of future by becoming terminally ill, his memories are buried deeply
in his subconscious and create various creatures, manifesting his feelings of guilt
and sexual desires. Silent Hill 2 presents several monsters that became famous
in the glossary of video game adversaries. Mannequins with two sets of legs and,
the latter set replacing their torso were based on the pictures of a German-born
French surrealist Hans Bellmer, who photographed dolls in disturbing poses
with bizarre limbs to protest against the Nazi regime in the early 1930’s. Other
famous enemies of Silent Hill 2 are the Bubble Head Nurse, with her melted
face and stained apparel, the Abstract Daddy, a giant bulge of flesh, resembling
a human figure on a flat surface with extremities peeking out of the frame. Such
creatures imply inexplicable sexual undertones. Pyramid Head is doubtlessly the
most important boss of the Silent Hill series, making appearances in the other
parts as well. With his large metallic pyramid-shaped helmet and his huge sword,
he suggests phallic symbolism and is the most powerful and dangerous enemy
in the game as he represents James’ violent, repulsive subconscious. A strong
feature that evokes disgust is the skillful use of unusual animations, referring to
the uncanny valley and creating disturbing movement.
Visual Contrasts during Encounter
Release and tension are portrayed in Silent Hill 2 in various ways. As there is
no exact time when the player can feel safe from being surprisingly attacked by
monsters, the element of the siren plays an important part. Even though it does
not separate Silent Hill into the Otherworld and the Fogworld as it did in Silent
Hill 1, it still is an important break of tension. It starts during a hopeless fight
with Pyramid Head and causes the monster to leave and open the path for James
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and the second time it shrills, it results in James collapsing during a fight with
Flesh Lips and waking up in the alternate version of Brookhaven Hospital. But
strictly speaking, each time the siren rings, darkness and evil comes forth to take
over the town and infest it with more enemies or inverse as it ends the current
nightmare.
Visual Semantics
Silent Hill 2 presents a variety of twisted symbols that are based on elements of
sex and death, rehashed in subtle signs. Good examples are the Nurses and their
appearance. Wearing cap and apron, stockings and a rather impractical mini dress,
they remind one more of fetishistic symbols than real nurses. »As shambling,
moaning aggressors, they’re representative of the deeply repressed sexual
frustration experienced by a man losing his young wife, and his objectification of
women in general – a theme supported by the appearance of Maria, a scantilyclad, self-centered and manipulative identical doppelganger of Mary.«150
Other symbolism of sexuality can be found in the piecemeal jointed mannequins
that are shiny, flesh-toned and jerking as they move. Occasionally they even wear
Mary’s clothes. Even though Silent Hill does not fall behind obvious semantic
clichés like blood stains on the walls or mutilated bodies in corners, its strong side
is certainly displaying symbolism through monster design, reflecting the twisted
mind of the protagonist.
3.1.3 Alan Wake
Alan Wake is a story-driven survival horror game, also swiping the genre of
psychological thrillers. It was developed by Remedy Entertainment and published
by Microsoft Game Studios in 2010. The plot follows Alan Wake, a novel writer
on his journey to uncover the mysteries of the small town Bright Falls and the
disappearance of his beloved wife. The main idea of the game is to fight darkness
with the use of light.
Style
The game pursues an almost photorealistic look that supports the cinematic
approach. It fits well with the concept of displaying the journey of Alan as TVlike episodes. Thanks to its overwhelming visual style, the game is very touching
and immersive and draws the player gradually into the world of Alan Wake with
an intensity that goes under the skin.
150) Alexander, Leigh (2007): The Aberrant Gamer – Sundering the Mind. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/07/the_aberrant_gamer_
sundering_the_mind.php, as of July 28th 2011.
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Colourcodes in Alan Wake are rather intuitive issues. As the change of day and
night plays a crucial role in the game, the scenes change, not only in colour, but
also in contrasts, hue and saturation. Let us have a look at night in the outdoor
range first. The night is basically deep blue, with highly saturated tones of indigo.
It has passages of pure black and the contrast is set high. Overall, the night
conveys a really intense colour-experience. Inside buildings, there are almost no
traces left of strong saturation. The colours, even though basically staying the
same bluish tinctures of violet or green, seem to be washed out, grey rather than
colourful at all. There are also shades of sepia mixed with the colours again. Still,
the shadows remain deep black, distinguishing a hard contrast between fair and
dark areas. The daylight, on the other hand, appears being almost colourless,
compared to the night. The exterior is very bright with low contrast, mainly filled
with shades of sepia and grey, both in very low saturation. The interior is similar,
just a little bit darker and denser, reminding one of the classic colourcodes of
other survival horror games. The interesting change starts with the dusk, when
darkness approaches. First of all, the contrast settings improve even though the
hues do not change yet. Dark areas filled with grey shadows become deep dark
and seem to expand. After that, the hues take shades of violet and brown with
a higher saturation that evokes an eerie feeling and finally the intense blue hue
merges with the other colours.
Alan Wake
Light
The type of light also depends on the day / night changes in the game. The
light during night almost always outshines its source and causes strong rim lights
to accentuate silhouettes. On the contrary, shadows appear deep dark, in both the
static and moving condition. Darkness is signified by glowing spots and haze in
the background. Daylight, again, is extremely outshining and almost purely white.
Even though it should improve the feeling of security during a sunny day, the
fact that the light it colourless and white makes it appear rather sterile and cold,
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almost lacking shadows at all. The third aspect of the light can be found within
the torchlight that is an indispensable tool for Alan. It provides the protagonist
with an enhanced view in darkness and is essential during the fight against dark
creatures. The emblematic cone of light that shines down on Alan from times to
times is displayed by dense, strong light, piercing through darkness, shielding and
protecting him from it.
As the setting takes place in the small town of Bright Falls, the game world is
rather open and provides the player with building interiors as well as open nature,
filled with forests, lakes and meadows. The nature is shown in a beautiful, almost
poetic way, while turning vile and wild when roamed by the Dark Presence. The
buildings are very rustic and country-styled, reminding of the fact that the place
was an Indian reservation a long time ago.
The protagonist Alan Wake is a very natural looking character with a likable
face. It is pretty easy for the player to emphasize with him and even get attracted
to his looks, as he has certain charm and the advantage of not being a golden
boy or a space marine G.I. Joe. His expressions are somehow ambiguous, as he is
torn between fragments of his memory while apparently suffering from temporary
amnesia. The main antagonist of the game is known as the Dark Presence and
is a dark and evil force responsible for the nightmares haunting Bright Falls.
Visually it is manifested as heavy fog, bleach smoke, dense shadow, swarms
of birds or even people. The player encounters the Dark Presence most times
as dark, human-like creatures, dangerous and faceless that are immortal unless
pierced by the torchlight. They appear as silhouettes without any personal traits.
Visual Contrast during Encounter
The contrast during an encounter with enemies is a visually impressive
experience. The whole screen changes colour and fades to apparently unrelated
shades. The colours get expressive in hue and saturation, shifting between bluegreen, blue-violet and red or pink. Any light sources are strongly outshined,
adding glowing and sparkling accents to the scene. The shadows appear more
vivid, dancing around in wild motion. The player is at the same time exposed to
slow motion, motion blur and bloom post effects, while shiny sparks emit more
confusing lights. The camera is shaking and when hit, the whole screen turns red.
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There are also signs of the enemy approaching that can be noted by exploding
light sources, immediately before the actual encounter.
Visual Semantics
The main theme of Alan Wake is Light and Darkness and not only in terms
of daytime, but also in terms of a man’s sanity. This aspect can be found clearly
through visual responses within the game, as the day is desaturated, almost
colourless and faint compared to the night that nearly bursts with intense colours.
It is the night, when Alan has to pursue his quest and daytime when he has to
face his fantastic adventures with the advancing logics that try to whisper doubts
about his mental state, referring to his nightly encounters with the Dark Presence.
3.1.4 Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a survival horror adventure, developed and published
by Frictional Games in 2010. The game features the unarmed protagonist named
Daniel who suffers from amnesia and explores areas of the dark and foreboding
castle, while trying to avoid terrible creatures and dangerous obstructions in order
to regain his memories.
Style
The game is stylized to fit into a setting of the early 19th century. Even
though it tries to provide a realistic image, it refrains from an overly detailed
and ornamental style like the previously analyzed games. It focuses on the basic
elements that are sufficient enough to create an atmosphere of horror.
Just like the others, this game also features sepia in various tinctures, contrasted
by blue shades. Yet, the darkness in Amnesia consists of a saturated tone of
blue-violet that increases the feeling of creepiness as the storm rages outside the
castle walls. Due to the cold shades of blue and grey in rooms with windows, the
environment appears hostile. Warm tones come from candles lit in rooms and
corridors. This actually creates an invert experience of temperature and distance.
Usually the warmer colours are close to the spectator and the more s/he looks in
the distance, the colder the image gets. Amnesia reverses this concept in certain
places. Through the use of candlelight, the spots in distance appear warmer than
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the place where the player is actually standing at the moment. This results in the
ambition of the player to constantly move forward, to subconsciously get away
from the inimical felt places and reach the more friendly ones. By lighting a torch
or a candle, the player can affect the scene temperature him/herself. Areas that
are placed underground with no window, such as dungeons, are usually in sepia,
brown and faint orange shades only, appearing hostile despite their potentially
warm colours. In some spots, visual accents are placed by using a deeply saturated
red colour.
Amnesia: The Dark
Descent
Light
The light in Amnesia directly reflects the environment. Coming from the
outside, it manifests in fleshing lightings that illuminate the rooms through the
windows, causing long and disturbing shadows. The more the player advances
towards the center of the castle the less there is natural light until the only light
source can be found in candles and torches. Illuminated spots appear faint and
underlining the ancient character of the place, covered in dust and filled with a
dense fog rising from the brick floors. Generally, the game is really dark, often it
is up to the torches on the walls to show the player the right direction. Standing
in the light, the field of vision is strongly limited when trying to peer through
dark corridors. But once the player dares to enter the darkness, his/her vision
improves, as the protagonist’s eyes adjust to it. Still the field of view is limited
by a dark, violet haze, not showing much more than vague silhouettes of objects
inside the rooms.
The game takes place in a Prussian castle called Brennenburg, with the
protagonist seemingly trapped inside. The castle has the typical flair of a haunted
house, deserted long time ago and inhabited only by strange creatures. Even
though the events take place in the early 19th century, the architecture of the castle
appears to be rather medieval. Still, there are elements that are definitely rather
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recent. The dungeon which the player reaches later in the game has even traces
of Steampunk that can be found in the bizarre pipes and tubes, or apparatuses
with gear drives. An obscure and dangerous substance has infested the cold castle
walls and is displayed by vibrant decals. A feeling of claustrophobia arises as the
player has to lead the protagonist through the labyrinth-like construction, filled
with narrow corridors, dark dungeons and cold castle rooms.
The main character of Amnesia is the young man Daniel, trying to retrieve
his memories. As the game is displayed in 1st person, the player never gets
a sight of Daniel’s real appearance. In order to help the player identify more
with the protagonist, his visual looks remain unidentified and anonymous. The
creatures hunting Daniel down are, on the contrary, very expressively designed.
Even though some of them appear only as waves and water blisters, harming the
protagonist when he steps into the water, most of the creatures are really creepy in
their looks. With faces distorted in macabre ways, they appear almost surrealistic
with their huge mouths, full of teeth, covering their whole heads, reminiscent
very much of Salvador Dalí’s melted watches, which certainly does not decrease
the effect of shock once the player encounters them. One of the main enemies,
the so-called Gatherer is even so terrifying that the protagonist turns insane if
looking at it. The main enemy is the shadow, the infected substance and it is like
a poisonous net, transforming the castle slowly.
The visual change is very obvious as it starts even before an encounter,
depending on the mental state of the protagonist. The more he experiences fear
and starts losing his mind, the more the view changes and the player is losing
control. If suffering from a panic attack, the camera will shake slowly and motion
blur is added. The image starts to float from one side to the other and the vision
starts to blur more and more. Occasionally, even light sources start to move.
Once hit by a monster, the screen turns red as usually.
Visual Semantics
As the protagonist is trying to remember his past on castle Brennenburg, various
elements serve as guidelines. The most common ones are letters and pages from
his old diary, helping Daniel to reconstruct his past. Other, much more blatant
hints are human bones and body parts found in the dungeons, that suggest cruel
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events that have taken place there. Sometimes, even real short flashbacks occur,
showing the real event of things.
3.1.5 Project Zero
Project Zero, also known as Fatal Frame in the US, is a survival horror game by
Tecmo, released in 2001. It has a unique plot that deals with ghosts, exorcism
and dark, evil Shinto rituals. The game follows the young girl Miku Hinasaki
on search for her missing brother Mafuyu, who disappeared after entering the
haunted Himuro Mansion. Equipped only by a camera, the player must survive
among hostile ghosts and defeat them.
Style
The style is slightly abstract in terms of Japanese point of view, the characters
having anime-traits. Yet, the environment is portrayed with a high level of detail,
trying to achieve a realistic and authentic look that suits the concept of the game
and still does have enough classic Japanese characteristics that are essential for
Asian horror.
The colours are very desaturated throughout the whole game and mainly
based on hues of sepia, as the environment is an old, abandoned house, build
of frail, rotten wood. Bluish shades of grey stand for the cold stones and other
fundamentals of this building and in a slightly more saturated way, they can be
found in the version of the darkness outside the house. Therefore the overall
temperature is constantly cold, with some few colourful accents of a deep purplish
red. Flashbacks appearing inside the game are almost completely monochrome.
Project Zero
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Light
As it is very dark in Project Zero, there are only few light sources inside
the manor which results in an almost flat, diffuse image. The one distinctive
light source comes as Miku’s torchlight. Some light spots are also included with
the help of flickering candles; however, they do not provide much light, but
rather serve as guidance. There are also other types of light, the dangerous ones,
originating from the evil souls of the ghost. Those are flying around as friar’s
lanterns and illuminating the room with their intense, cyan light.
The Himura Manor is a classic haunted house, built in medieval Japanese style.
Dark Shinto rituals have changed the property and now it has been deserted for
many centuries. The once magnificent and splendid samurai manor is now a
shabby, rotten, dusty and decayed place. Even though there are enough signs of
the former beauty of the house, like the detailed ornaments stitched on wedding
robes, they are, too, stained and soiled by now. The building appears to be
forsaken and abandoned, very dark and cold and overly hostile to any living soul.
Again, a claustrophobic feeling arises as the player leads Miku through tight and
narrow corridors and small rooms in this labyrinth-like manor.
Miku Hinasaki is a very fragile protagonist, a young girl with no weapon but
her camera. She wears a variation of the Japanese girl school uniform, with a
white shirt, red scarf and a short skirt that shows more than it hides. With her
dark hair and big eyes, she portrays the classic image of a frail Japanese heroine.
The creatures in Project Zero are hostile dead spirits. As those ghosts are visually
connotative corpses, they trigger disgust reactions. They are often portrayed in
painful and unnatural poses, invoking images of pain and suffering through
deformation or mutilation. »The ambivalent nature of the spirit-monsters opens
the way for multiple emotions: the player is invited to feel fear for and pity the
trapped souls, followed by joy as the spirits are relieved of their torment.«151
Most of the ghost appear to be Yūrei – ghosts of women in white kimono, the
traditional funeral clothes in ancient Japan. They do not have legs, so they hover
over the ground, accompanied by light blue flying flames.
151) Ekman, Inger / Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p.192 .
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Usually, the enemies are invisible in Project Zero. The only safe way to detect
them is by using the camera and make snapshots of them. Looking through the
camera shows the reality behind hidden things. The image is lighter and clearer
and of higher contrast through the lens, even though grain is added to the screensection. If the camera focuses on a place where the ghost might appear, the image
starts to blur and becomes indistinct on that point. This effect gets stronger as the
ghost starts to manifest himself until it is recognizable in transparent, incomplete
shapes. The only moment the ghost is fully visible is when taking a picture, while
it is attacking from immediate proximity. In case Miku gets hit or touched by
the evil spirit, she will panic, which results first in a short white flash and then
inverting all colours and adding strong blur to the scene.
Visual Semantics
There are many symbols within the game, starting from obvious ones, such
as diary pages and newspaper scraps to much more sophisticated ones, like the
medium of photography that makes the dead visible and even has impact on
them. Entitled as Camera Obscura, the Japanese developers probably invested
their research-time on other aspects of the game. But the idea remains the same
as transported from the medium of photography: It shows events and objects that
are not visible to the eye (first proven by the famous photo-series of the running
horse by Muybridge) and detects hidden elements, doors, treasures but also evil
presences in their true forms. Another symbol can be found in the mirror, as
mirrors seem to have a similar effect of showing the hidden and even revealing
ghosts when they stand in front of them.
3.1.6 Haunting Ground
Haunting Ground is a disturbing survival horror game, also known as Demento
in Japan, developed and published by Capcom in 2005. The plot revolves around
Fiona Belli, the eighteen year old protagonist, who awakens in a sinister castle
after being involved in a car accident. Even though her memories seem too vague
to figure out what happened, she soon recognizes that she must quickly escape
from the castle. Accompanied with a German Shepherd dog called Hewie, Fiona
tries to evade and hide from the odd personnel of the castle that is stalking her,
hunting her down and trying to kill her.
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Style
The game is stylized and decorative, slightly abstract in terms of Japanese visuals.
The graphics, characters and environments were often praised as wonderfully
detailed, with stark but appealing visuals. The overall image even appears to seem
water colour-like due to its illustrative and planar impression. As the camera is
fixed, the player is presented an intriguing image with every single shot.
The colours in Haunting Ground all seem to be kind of washed out and
grayish. The outside shades vary from cold grey tones to hazy blue and green
ones, while the hue of the interiors evolves from shades of sepia, orange and
yellow. Even though the scene temperature of locations inside the castle is not
always cold, especially when bathed in warm, orange light, the environment
seems hostile enough to preserve the feeling of uneasiness. The level of contrast
is low and the saturation is the same on all stages of colours, which makes the
image appear kind of flat and planar. Neither assets nor characters stand out
too much, everything is smoothly integrated into the scene. Due to its overall
pastel tones and ambiguous, a slightly abstract water colour-like approach can be
noticed. Comparatively, certain elements have saturated colours, usually in deep
purplish hues, pointing out relevant elements and providing guidance throughout
the game.
Haunting Ground
Light
The light is very diffuse and flat, providing the game with very little contrast.
Obvious light sources are additionally outshined and even though the sight is not
limited to a small radius, the rooms appear rather gloomy and awkward. Still,
there are enough dark corners and dynamic shadows that increase the uneasiness
caused by the dimmed lighting. Light is also the main feature of dangerous
creatures called Luminescents that are portrayed as bluish shining and sparkling
ghost lights, floating over ground.
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The game takes place in Belli Castle, a huge, labyrinth-like building with the
flair of a haunted house. The castle seems to have gothic elements from outside,
as high pillars, lancet windows, ribbed vaulting and detailed ornamentation. Still,
the architectural style is not consistent throughout the game. The interiors appear
rather Romanesque with stark stores, the decorative elements coming from Art
Deco-styled furniture with an amount of detailed, delicate and luxuriant features.
Also, traces of Steam Punk can be found in the outfit design as well as in some
apparatuses inside grotesque laboratories. In addition to this mixed style, there
are even some recent assets, such as the electric fan hanging from the ceiling,
suggesting that events take place at least at the end of the 20th century. The
rooms portray different personalities of the castle’s inhabitants. The player enters
dirty, messy dungeons and disturbing kitchens, frightening laboratories filled with
dust, huge, sinister libraries as well as majestic dining halls and also cozy, almost
romantically furnished rooms.
Character- and Monsterdesign
The protagonist is the young girl Fiona, suffering – surprisingly – from amnesia.
With her long, silky blond hair and wide blue eyes, she appears fragile and almost
angelic. Forced to wear a beautifully decorated outfit with a very short skirt,
her image presents a sexualized undertone, as well as it suggests her vulnerably
feminine side and her weaknesses. Fiona meets all expectations as an innocent
and helpless heroine throughout the game, who triggers the players empathy and
desire to protect her. There are only four main antagonists in Haunting Ground,
the inhabitants of Belli Castle who constantly chase after Fiona. Each of them
has personal features that cause disgust and fear for the player. First, there is
Debilitas, a huge, mentally disabled man. Even though he is in the mental state
of a child and moves rather slowly, he is horrific, as he is the visual counterpart
of the frail Fiona, a tall, very strong man with a broad back and an empty,
retarded expression. The second stalker encountered in the game is Daniella,
the maid. Despite her pretty looks, she is an artificially created homunculus
and has an extremely disturbing style of movement when chasing after Fiona.
Her marionette-like motions give all credits to mastering the phenomenon of
uncanny valley. The third stalker is Richardo, a hooded sinister foe with a gun,
appearing rather like a monk. After revealing his face, a huge scar can be seen
in the center, between his eyes, reminding of cobwebs or broken glass. He also
has the dazing appearance of Fiona’s late father, as his doppelganger. Richardo is
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fast and frightening and he is the only one of the stalkers who does not pursue
Fionas death. Instead, he tries to rape her to get her impregnated and give birth
to his immortal self. The final boss is Lorenco and even though he appears is four
different looks throughout the final fight, his true look is the one of a crippled
old man, bound to a wheelchair and surrendering to his madness.
When Fiona is chased, she experiences a feeling of panic that has a strong
visual appearance. First of all, motion blur is added to the scene, followed by
a flash of inverted colours as she is in shock. Panic mode inflicts blurriness of
the screen, higher contrasts and lower saturation, combined with a freeze-frame
effect. If the fear lasts for too long, the colours vanish completely, the contrasts
get turned up to the maximum and the camera shakes wildly. This is when the
player loses control of Fiona and is able to detect her surroundings in a very
limited and distorted way.
Visual Semantics
As Haunting Ground is a combination of high-end presentation and disturbing
sexuality and psychological mindjobbing, according to the reviews of IGN, it is
filled with symbols. One of the most important features is the shadow that, unlike
in other survival horror games, is your friend. As the danger does not lurk in
the darkness only, but rather tries to hunt the character down mercilessly, it is
up to the player to actively look for darkness that provides the protagonist with
a chance to hide. Another strong feature is the analogy found within Fiona’s
companion, Hewie. The dog is portrayed once again as the faithful partner of the
human, protecting her against enemies. Mirrors are also important in this game,
as they show the truth behind illusion. Daniella the housemaid cannot bear to
look in the mirror, even though she is beautiful, as the mirror reflects her true
image of an imperfect homunculus. At last, she is so distraught by the horrifying
image of herself she experiences that, unable to evade it, she is impaled with a
large shard of broken glass from the ceiling and dies.
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3.2 CONSTRUCTION OF VISUAL PATTERNS
The following section attempt to use the information gained through the analysis
of the games in the previous chapter to create rough approaches of visual patterns
that should inspire artists and helo them with their art decisions. As already
mentioned before, those patterns should be considered as incomplete mock-ups
of the initial idea and should give the basic overview of how visual patterns could
be constructed for various genres.
3.2.1 Visual Pattern for Style of the Survival Horror Genre
The decision about the visual style is the primary one to make, considering the
art of a game. Style is the essential element that influences further decisions
about environment, characters and monsters but also plays a role in terms of
user experience, empathy and immersion. The more realistic the style, the more
it appears genuine and the player takes notice of slight subtle changes.
Example: Alan Wake introduces an almost photorealistic style to the survival
horror genre, with visuals that go under the skin. This highly cinematic approach
increases the authenticity of the displayed environment as well as the characters
and enables the designers to make use of very subtle clues or hints that are,
however, still visible and noticeable to the player.
Example: A highly developed level of detail can also be found in Silent Hill 2.
Pursuing a realistic style, the image is always clear enough for the player to
experience the eerie locations of the town and recognize the infestation of the
environment to its fullest extent. The style also support the angst-factor, as many
objects and creatures are rather familiar, but distinctively mutated and odd in
bizarre and disturbing ways.
Using the Pattern
Video games have adapted the trend of high level of detail to their artistic and
technical possibilities. Basically, choosing the right style is supportive also for
design and programming issues. Survival Horror games tend to be established
in the realistic field, as this style provides many opportunities to play with the
player’s attention and guide his point of view.
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Actually, many parallels can be noticed between classical Hollywood narrative
framework and the main structures of survival horror games. Construction of
a psychologically-motivated character, establishment of goals, obstacles and
objectives or a cause-and-effect-construction for overcoming and solving problems
in order to evolve, those are all conventions of narrative cinema. To emphasize this
affinity, the cinematic editing tends to communicate characterization, situation
and location of its environment. Many games make use of well-known clichés
for establishing the right mood, like displaying scratched celluloid aesthetics on
the lens or completely switching to monochrome. Those signifiers of a cinematic
approach often cue the player to read and understand such scenes according to
the conventions of film, rather than gaming.152 The style suggests an immediate
intersection of supernatural themes, haunted and claustrophobic settings and
horrific events descending upon the player. A deeper resemblance of reality results
in advanced representation of illumination and atmosphere and can enrich the
understanding of experience in survival horror games. Another good possibility
of creating a genuine style is to get inspiration from paintings in order to include
significant elements to the overall look. Masahiro Ito, the creature designer of the
Silent Hill series, stated that his concepts are based on paintings by Francis Bacon
and Hieronymus Bosch.
Consequences
If locations and spaces of survival horror are encouraged to preserve a
sense of situation within believable environments, they support the immersive
verisimilitude based on their richly detailed and photorealistic graphics. While
this genre manages to astonish the player with an amount of impressively
ornamented and atmospheric locations, the scenery is filled with macabre images
of carnage, unsettling interiors portrayed through disorientated camera angles and
claustrophobic discomfort.
Instantiates: Credibility and Genuine Reception, Emotional Immersion,
Character Design, Monster Design, Player Acceptance,
Gameplay, Exploration,
Modulates: Narrative Structures, Visual Colourcodes,
Perception of Environment, Tension
Instantiated by: None
152) cf. Kirkland, Ewan (2009) ib. p.65.
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Modulated by: Occurrences of Encounter
Potentially Conflicting with: Technical Requirements
3.2.2 Visual Pattern for Colourcodes and Scene Temperature
Defining colour codes for environments and objects is an important art decision
besides the choice of the overall style. As colours transport information themselves,
they are a strong tool to adjust the atmosphere of the game and increase
immersion. It is due to their graduation and combination that the reception of
various attributes, such as safety or hostility, is communicated to the player in a
visual manner.
Example: The small town of Silent Hill is presenting the player with an abandoned
space, surrounded by an opaque, dense mist that appears cold and hostile due to
its almost colourless image. The interiors of building are rather decayed inside
and displayed by shades of sepia, reminding of the style of old photographs and
suggesting memories of events past.
Example: The environmental colourcodes of Amnesia: The Dark Descent are
very distinctive. The only shades of deep blue and violet tinctures come from the
stormy night sky and can be found in rooms with windows and limited sight
to the outside. On the contrary, tones of brown, orange and sepia dominate the
inner part of the castle, but due to the possibility of a warm colour approach the
combination of colours rather evokes the feeling of something rotten and infested.
Using the Pattern
The applying of colourcodes strongly depends on the genre of the game and
the desired atmospheric effect one wants to achieve. Survival horror games usually
have five types that define the choice of colours. First of all, there is the contrast
of Night X Day that is also responsible for the overall temperature of the scene.
While creating the day experience, colours are used in desaturated manner and
very low hues. Often, days seem bleak and colourless, suggesting the grim and
desolate environment that becomes hostile the more daytime approaches its end,
in anticipation of the upcoming darkness. Nights, on the other hand, are dark
and obscure, whether with a stronger saturation or remaining grayish, the colours
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tend to have tinctures of blue and green, strengthening the cold and malevolent
area. The second contrast that has to be taken into consideration is the aspect
of Outside X Inside. As many survival horror games take place in the nighttime,
the outside world is portrayed similarly to the attributes of night, in cold, bleak
colours of grey and desaturated blue. Basically, the interiors are lit to a certain
extent, therefore they have different colours, usually shades of sepia that certainly
is a complementary colour, but preserving the cold scene temperature of the
outside. The next approach deals with the difference of Illuminated X Dark
Environments, directly linked to the field of vision of the protagonist. While dark
environments tend to be really dark, lacking colours to distinguish the location
and leaving the player in obscurity, illuminated environments are limited to a
small radius depending on the source of light. They create immediate colour
contrasts, as since they usually use shades of orange and yellow, they are the
only places that evoke the feeling of warmth and safety. Emitting from torches
and torchlight, they create an important narrative separation between light and
darkness and thus also between the protagonist and his/her enemies. The fourth
contrast deals with the important distinction between Purity X Infestation of the
environment, as it is a part of the creepy experience of being able to realize the
level of evil presence, taking over the once beautiful and solemn place. While this
aspect is usually a matter of detailed textures and animated decals, it is necessary
to visualize the explicit distinction between original environment and the evil
presence that subjected the primal state of the place, moulded with it and created
one hostile environment, without breaking the continuity of the style. The last
aspect can be regarded as an addition the previous one, introducing the contrast
between Technology X Decay. Not relating to alien infestation, this contrast
rather illustrates the ancient and outworn traits of the environment. Colours of
rust are suitable for this aspect, as they evoke strong associations in the player,
suggesting that the place – with or without being filled with enemies – was
forsaken a long time ago, often leaving the protagonist to experience the pressure
of centuries, clinging tightly to this place and the feeling of absolute isolation and
solitude. Besides these aspects, the games always use one or several colours in
higher saturation that are used for guidance of the player or in order to set visual
accents and change the focus.
Consequences
Survival horror games mostly make use of two expressive colourcodes, based on
interior-exterior attributes. Overall they could be described as colours of sepia and
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colours of grayish blue. Even though the scenes provide many different shades,
they usually never break the guidance of the two manners. While the sepia
colourcodes feature tinctures of orange, brown and pale yellow, those usually
warm colours are rearranged and drawn off their saturation, so they possess a
high degree of grey, which makes them likely to appear unfriendly, dusty and
dirty. The colour palette for the exterior shades revolve around highly desaturated
blue and green, contrasts can be found only in showing dark shadows. The
influence of gray is more present than in the sepia palette and often displays
the environment as almost colourless and faint. Proper saturation can only be
found in the one accenting colour, usually red, that is used in various shades
from blood-red to deep purple and stands out especially on bleak, desaturated
backgrounds.
Instantiates: Credibility and Genuine Reception, Emotional Immersion,
Spatial Immersion, Visual Acceptance, Player Orientation
Modulates: Narrative Structures, Perception of Environment,
Imperfect Information, Focus of Attention
Instantiated by: Visual Style, Environment, Day / Night Cycles, Interior / Exterior
Modulated by: Occurrences of Encounter, Light
Potentially Conflicting with: None
Fig. 15: Colourpalettes and
Contrasts of Survival
Horror Games
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101
3.2.3 Visual Pattern for Light
This visual pattern describes the use of light in various terms of implementation.
Obscurity and darkness are clichés within the survival horror genre. Therefore, it
is important to notice that pure darkness is only one of several means of creating
hostile environments that serve as basics for subliming terror of the game.
Example: Alan Wake introduces a very efficient factor of controlling tension of
the player, by using the method of night/day shifting. The game skillfully stages
the approaching darkness through several brightness levels, establishing one of
the primal human fears – the fear of darkness by decreasing the field of vision
and slowly evoking subtle emotions of unease and anxiety.
Example: The light plays an essential role in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, as its
presence helps to preserve the protagonist’s sanity. Besides running and hiding,
staying in lit areas is the characters only possibility to endure the madness, as he
is roaming through the dark, infested castle, equipped only by his torch.
Using the Pattern
In the survival horror genre it is not too difficult to notice that the presence
of light and darkness one experiences during play result from several different
dynamics. Most of the games already exhibit a day / night cycle; or, the game
as a whole starts in daytime, followed by dusk and night and finally ending with
a dawn and sunrise sequence. Most of the horrific action, of course, takes place
under the moonlight, either outside or inside buildings, where the player is not
less aware of the changes in the time of day. Usually, the variations between
day and night illuminations are rather dramatic and support the display of the
environment which directly affects the player’s mood. This fact has also an impact
of shadows and their movement, as well as the contrasts between lit and dark
areas. The amount of light serves also as a tool to determine the perceivability
and behaviour of monsters. Another strategy to deal with obscurity results from
actively using light sources, such as torchlight that improves the field of vision,
while roaming in the darkness. Light also serves as an element for exploring
the darkness edge in individual environments, as it supports imagination by
showing vague silhouettes of possible objects or creatures, looming rim-lit from
the distance. This feature takes advantages of human ability of filling visual gaps
by projecting one’s own – usually scary – imagination onto the perceived image.
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Consequences
There are aspects of darkness that do not emerge from the structure of value
overall from the game, but rather serve as guidance and navigation for the
player through simulated 3D spaces. Whether coming from torches, incandescent
lighting or flashlights, the contrasts between light and dark often correspond to
the implied source of staged lighting of a scene. In addition, the illuminance levels
also change from exterior to interior environments. »Besides supporting an overall
sense of spatial and temporal progression through the game, the distribution
of light and dark illumination in (…) environments also displays a logic that
enhances a sense of player vulnerability through obscurity.«153
The darkest environments in the game are in the core of the building, centering
around almost completely black rooms. Playing through these sequences, displays
the character with limited health and defensive resources in his/her greatest
vulnerability.
Instantiates: Focus of Attention, Immersion, Field of Vision, Level of Difficulty
Modulates: Player Behaviour, Character Behaviour, Narrative Structures,
Visual Colourcodes, Movement, Perception of Environment
Instantiated by: Environmental Changes, Day / Night Cycles,
Various Light Sources
Modulated by: The Player, Monster Appearances
Potentially Conflicting with: None
Fig. 16: Average Fields of Vision
in Survival Horror Games
153) Niedenthal, Simon (2009) ib. p.176.
103
3.2.4 Visual Pattern for Environment Art and Architectural Geometry
The environment plays an essential role as it is the basic for every gameplay or
parts of gameplay and is determined by spatial relationships of various game
elements. In the survival horror genre, it defines the degree of hostility of the
settings. Suitable to the style of the environment, monster design is created to
make the nightmarish world appear genuine and seamless.
Example: Dead Space 1 locks the player and the protagonist up in a defunct
spaceship floating alone in the space while being exposed to infested and
contaminated by mutated former crew members. The interiors of the spaceship
are bizarre and alien, supporting the feeling of absolute solitude and isolations.
Using the Pattern
Mastering the environment usually means mastering its creatures. The artist
must make the decision about the experience the player gains while moving
around the environment. The special characteristics are an important feature as
they determine the size of the area and whether it is open or closed. With very
few exceptions, the survival horror genre presents the player a strictly limited
area to explore. It seems essential to maintain the feeling of an almost living
construction that is in itself harmful to the protagonist and tries to keep him/her
imprisoned inside. Independent of the decision about the actual location (whether
it takes place in space or an abandoned house), the environment must provide
enough visual contrast to be able to communicate the malevolent changes that
took place inside. Therefore, it is necessary to present at least the shadow of the
previously magnificent location, in order to increase the horror caused by the evil
after it took over the environment. A good way to achieve this is the figurative
contrast between technology and nature, one representing the original, advanced
and splendid space, the other standing for dangerous infestation that now causes
the decay of the place. The places usually correspond to the archetypal sense of
gothic vision. Such architectural forms play vertical aspirations against natural
shapes and underlying caverns. »The artifice in Gothic cathedrals mocks the
natural models of forest trees, stressing especially the vertical tension between
spiritual spires and charnel/carnal catacombs, what The Monk terms ‘vaults above
and caverns below.«154
»Establishing loneliness is also effective in increasing a general tendency
to perceive anthropomorphism, which attributes human characteristics and
104
motivations to nonhuman agents. This tendency is inherent in humans, and it
is strengthened whenever people are in absence of social connection to other
humans, or have a high need to interact effectively with their environment.
Furthermore, anthropomorphism is encouraged by a desire to understand and
act (or witness action) based upon the situation and to unwind the story that is
being told. Games massively exploit the tendency to see life in inanimate objects
and anthropomorphism forms the basis of perceiving characters as persons.«155
This thesis is emphasized by the visual design of making hostile environments
appear kind of alive. It is the slight change the player might notice while walking
though the deserted areas with an increased feeling of being not only watched by
potential creatures but also the environment itself. Traces of such unease can be
achieved by familiar objects, attracting the attention of the player, suggesting a
deeper connection between the environment and the protagonist than assumed in
the first place. This theory is further stressed by the fact that almost all survival
horror games provide a direct link between the hero and his symbolic prison.
In addition to this, environments in this genre come as labyrinths in several
varieties. While some spaces are explicit labyrinths, such as dungeons of haunted
castles, other ones are rather limited in sight through a dense mist that decreases
the field of vision and supports the feeling of disorientation and implies the sense
of vulnerability.
Consequences
There are various strategies of creating obscurity of environment. As it is not
necessary to pursue the constant image of Gothic architecture, other styles are
just as applicable as deserted castles. It makes no difference if a haunted house
becomes a haunted community or a haunted spaceship. Vastness can be easily
exchanged for familiar and quotidian forms, dense and grainy fog replacing
dramatic lighting and expressive shadows. The really important aspect while
creating environment is to preserve traces of the uncanny, varying from the
subtle threat to the expressive danger. Sigmund Freud described this feature
as un-homeliness which suggests a simple sense of not belonging. »It was the
fundamental propensity if the familiar to turn on its owners, suddenly to become
defamiliarized, derealized, as if in a dream.«156
Instantiates: Spatial Immersion, Exploration, Tension, Emotional Response,
Visual Acceptance, Player Orientation
155) Ekman, Inger/ Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p.193.
105
Modulates: Player Behaviour, Monster Behaviour,
Instantiated by: Levels, Visually Distinctive Areas, Reconfigurable Game World,
Architectural Choice
Modulated by: Game Masters, Storytelling, Lighting, Colourcodes, Visual Style,
Locations, Goals, Enemies, Outstanding Features, Camera Ankle,
Inaccessible Areas, Strategic Locations, Obstacles,
Strategic Locations
Potentially conflicting with: None
3.2.5 Visual Pattern for Monster Design
Enemies are avatars and units with the goal to hinder the player trying to
complete the goals. Their stronger representatives with increased powers are
known as boss monsters and have to be overcome by the player as crucial parts
of reaching essential goals, related to the plot.
Survival horror games offer a widely diversified range of monsters, portrayed
by gruesome and awkward creatures. Their visual purpose in hindering the player
to proceed is created by their disturbing look that ideally evokes feelings of fear
and disgust, so the player is tempted to avoid any possible encounters.
Example: Silent Hill 2 presents various monsters, visually based on odd works of
art (photography and painting), as well as psychological components of mental
malfunctions. These features of abnormality and disfigurement are sources for
primal fears every human being fears to a certain extent.
Example: Monsters encountered in Dead Space 1 highly remind the player of
former human beings, brutally mutated and mutilated, which plays with the
psychological aspect of basic human fears of disfigurement and body-horror.
Using the Pattern
There are two essential choices that have to be made when designing the
monsters. First of all, how is the monster hindering the player character and how
can s/he overcome it? Second, what is the desired emotional impact the monster
106
should evoke in the player? The threat can be both physical and psychological
and the experienced fear relates directly to situations in which the player perceives
that his/her personal survival or his/her objectives are endangered. The particular
psychological threat is based on social roles, as a person can fear conflicts, loss
of status or complete isolation from the community. Monsters encountered in
survival horror games are likely to prompt fear. While some of them constitute
a straightforward fear, they are unambiguously dangerous and the emotional
reactions they provoke are in almost all cases negative. The main factor for visual
creation of monsters in this genre is based primary on emotional responses of
disgust.
»Disgust relates to situations in which one perceives something as physically or
psychologically contaminating. In terms of survival value, the disgust reaction
serves to ensure that risky substances (such as spoiled food or infectious agents)
are avoided. Feelings of disgust are not bound to factual contamination; instead,
underlying the feeling of disgust is precisely a desire to avoid contact.«157
Nevertheless, similar disgusted reactions are not necessarily linked to physical
impurity only. They can also emerge from mental disability and morally disfigured
factors, often portrayed through a strong visual image of the monster’s suffering.
In terms of provoking disgust, game art seems to focus primary on physical
contamination and gustatory. Many monsters are depicted with rotting limbs and
are covered in blood, combined with aspects of repulsive mutilation. The negative
emotions result from the revolting representation of physically contaminating
substances and bodily fluids.
Consequences
As suggested in the previous paragraph, monsters in survival horror games
are built up to create disgust reactions. Even though there is no risk of real
contamination involved with video game monsters, the vivid and visceral
experience of the player is enough to trigger emotional responses. While being
completely fictional, they still create associations of contamination that somehow
pose a threat to the player’s physical and moral purity. Besides, they pose a real
threat to the player’s goals so s/he must decide to face them in any way that is
suitable for reaching the objectives. The player usually experiences a duality of
emotions – disgust and fear – in relation to monsters. On the level of player
experience, those two emotions tend to interact and merge, which makes it hard
to distinguish them from each other.
157) Ekman, Inger/ Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p.191.
107
Instantiates: Conflict, Preventing Goals, Tension, Disruption of Focused
Attention, Social Dilemma, Fear, Emotional Response,
Visual Acceptance
Modulates: Exploration, Levels, Narrative Structures, Player Behaviour
Instantiated by: Other (Boss) Monsters, Game Masters, Player Characters, Avatars,
Visual Style, Types of Movement
Modulated by: Damage, Reactions towards the Player (Idle or Attacking),
Outstanding Features
Potentially conflicting with: None
3.2.6 Visual Pattern for Visual Contrast during Encounter
Encounter with enemies is strongly connected to tension during gameplay, as
especially in the survival horror genre, the player is left with doubts about the
uncertain outcome. Emotional investment during such moments is also expressively
visualized in various manners, in order to clarify the fact that the player is not
fully in control of the events and more importantly, of his/her character.
Example: When encountering a stalker, Fiona from Haunting Ground might
panic. Her whole vision then becomes limited to essential things, her focus
changes and colours change their contrast and saturation. The movement is
restricted by adding a freeze-frame effect, combined with strong motion blur and
camera shake.
Example: In Amnesia: The Dark Descent, protagonist Daniel is susceptible to
darkness. Even vague movements in the distance can trigger his fear. Paired with
losing control over the character, the camera starts to sway at the first sign of an
upcoming panic-attack. It is followed by a blurry image that gets distorted more
and more, as Daniel is giving in to his insanity.
108
Using the Pattern
The presence of enemies, deadly traps as well as player character killing and
player character elimination is the basis for the existence of factors that are
trying to inflict damage on players and thus create a feeling of tension. In the
survival horror genre, the player is expecting those factors all the time, which
puts him in a constant state of tension. This feeling can be even improved by the
actual contact with such factor – usually in form of an enemy. Encounters are a
strong visually impressive experience for the player and have two main purposes.
On the one hand, it is important to visually underline the immediate danger,
coming from this encounter and urge the player to change the situation, whether
it is through fighting or running, and on the other hand, they strengthen the
connection between protagonist and player, as the protagonist’s fears are directly
communicated, showing his limited vision and abilities caused by the panic s/he
experiences. Making use of various elements to support this situation, the image
is filled with disturbing visuals, such as swaying and shaking of the camera,
change of saturation and hue, stronger contrast and often also movement of
lighting, combined with additional light sources that increase spaces of lit areas
and darkest shadows. The survival horror genre introduces some key-features,
such as the third-person perspective (at least in most cases) that allows showing
the scenery framed in high-or low angle long shots or distorted lenses in order
to increase the feeling of vulnerability and isolation and especially improve the
shock, experienced during an encounter. These features add dramatic tension
to the scene, allowing the player to see things that would usually remain lost,
such as the approach of monsters and the protagonist running for his/her life
at the same time. The tension of an encounter reaches its visual peak when the
monster is able to grab the protagonist – this is the moment when the character
usually panics as much as s/he can. Often, this moment is displayed in a short
negative shot – an image with reversed tones – followed by the most advanced
disassociation of the usual look and feel. The camera might move around way
too fast or in completely slow motion, while the character’s and the monster’s
movements might appear excessively jerky, with the overall representation of the
horrific game world possibly becomimg very confusing.
Consequences
The visual representation of an encounter serves mainly the purpose of
shifting the focus of the player, directly influencing the perception of the horrific
atmosphere when one experiences loss of control. Considerations of a probable
threat cause a state of constant emotional anxiety which is a good base for
109
experiencing shock, as this exact scenario is more or less expected by players of
survival horror games. According to Power and Dalgleish158, the fear reactions are
mainly triggered by expecting the threat, rather than observing it. The immediate
encounter is the climax of such expectations, resulting in the peak of a visually
disturbing alienation. The entire graphical representation apparently focuses of
communicating the experience of shock and loss of control to the player, as it
integrates elements of cinematography, light and colour as well as multiple post
effects to the scene, in order to change the image to its utmost expressive and
vertiginous extent.
Instantiates: Emotional Immersion, Tension, Disruption of Focused Attention,
Fear, Emotional Response, Visual Acceptance, Field of Vision
Modulates: Focus of Attention, Perception of Environment,
Imperfect Information, Player Behaviour, Character Behaviour
Instantiated by: Monsters, Penalties, Combat, Damage
Modulated by: Time Limits, Character Killing, Player Behaviour
Potentially conflicting with: Visual Style, Gameplay
Fig. 17: Visual Contrast and
Change during EnemyEncounter in Haunting
Ground
158) cf. Ekman, Inger/ Lankoski, Petri (2009) ib. p.192.
110
3.2.7 Visual Pattern for Visual Semantics
Semantics and symbolism occur in almost every game, but the survival horror genre
has its own visual language to guide the player through the hostile environments
and inflicting additional horror beside the threat represented by evil creatures,
due to the subtle way of communicating and inviting the player to fill the gaps
in spatial presence with his/her own imagination.
Example: In the survival horror game The Suffering, protagonist Torque encounters
many so-called micronarratives, histories of the tortured men appearing together
with members of his own deceased family who try to indicate the direction in
which he should proceed.
Example: The Camera Obscura, possessed by Project Zero’s heroine, is a tool that
shows the truth hidden behind credible-appearing illusion. Photographs taken
by the camera reveal hidden doors behind walls and tapestry and evil ghostly
presences can be detected by looking through the lens.
Using the Pattern
A number of features that occur in survival horror games are based on
challenging existing mental structures. Themes of supernatural events – such as
receiving a letter from one’s late wife – require a thematic accommodation by
the player »while the visual qualities of survival horror game worlds require a
perceptual accommodation, as we seek to penetrate fog and darkness and make our
way in the world.«159 Exploring the game in terms of narrative structures reveals
many things about the nature of the genre. Usually the player has to assume
the role of a detective in order to obtain information hidden in diaries, masonry
and bodies and revealing the mysteries of the haunted places the protagonists
are trapped inside. As most of the characters suffer from amnesia, visual cues
support uncovering the repressed memories and reconstruct past events. Printed
documents, photographs or letters aid the player in his/her quest. But the signs are
not only limited to small objects, they are reflected in the architecture and ideally
in the whole environment as well. »They serve as the location of extraordinary
or horrific past events which can be read in the bloodstains on the walls, the
wooden planks on the window, the disemboweled prison guards crawling across
the floor. The fact these detailed environments offer limited opportunities for
disruptive interaction indicates the trade off between prescriptive story and player
participation.«160
111
Survival horror is the genre where everyone, it seems – research assistants,
merchants, various passers-by – keeps a journal. Analyzing the amount of visual
clues leads to a hermeneutic pleasure. »As champions of the symbolic order,
players are tasked with imposing narrative structure onto the signs encountered
in game and “thereby giving ontological meaning to the movements of the
avatar, psychoanalyzing their fractured, false and repressed memories.«161 Visual
semantics provide both the player and the protagonist with additional information,
sometimes essential for the gameplay, sometimes only placed there in order to
improve the atmosphere of horror, such as bloodstains on the tarmac or dead
bodies bearing useful hints. Successful gameplay include s the correct reading
of these visual clues, completing the actions being foreshadowed and creating a
visual experience which ideally approximates the feeling of narrative cinema.
Consequences
Visual semantics can be regarded as embedded narrative to the visual style of
spatial design. They are scattered throughout the whole environment and apply to
the broad visual elements or the mise-en-scène of survival horror space. Interiors
of many buildings are remnants and testimonies of gruesome events, increasing
the power of narrative techniques. The boarded windows, overturned desks,
mutilated corpses and spilled documents within the hostile location, the interiors
testify about malevolent infestation and the presence of an evil the environment
fought with and lost.
»From bloodstained reception areas bearing witness to grizzly evens, to bookfilled libraries and laboratories suggesting unnatural scientific activity, to the cells
and torture chambers which exhibit the stains of long-departed prisoners, survival
horror space suggest story.«162
Instantiates: Focus of Attention, Emotional Immersion, Exploration, Tension
Modulates: Player Behaviour, Character Behaviour, Character Development,
Narrative Structures, Perception of Environment, Surprise
Instantiated by: Visual Style
Modulated by: Storytelling, Imperfect Information
Potentially Conflicting with: Disruption of Focused Attention, lllusion of Influence
4
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
113
Approaching the end of this thesis, the conclusion is going to tackle several
final aspects, as well as discussing one or two further theories and giving a brief
overview of potential future prospects.
As the reader might fully understand by now, a great game experience can
be measured by the player’s emotional involvement, communicated by specific
factors. In order to achieve such immersion, different approaches are necessary
that are interacting together on various levels. As the success definitely lies in
their skillful combination, not one single factor can be left out, otherwise the
game will appear flat, boring, frustrating and unpleasant. As concluded from
the first chapter, atmosphere needs challenging game design, a good narrative
aspect, a skillful use of sound design and an appealing visual look. The emotional
experience of a game is all about the ambiance - and this was one of the reasons
why the choice of analyzing the principles of atmosphere fell on the survival
horror games. Even though those aspects are relevant to other genres as well,
none other is so expressive and capable of evoking such intense emotions in a
short time as the survival horror genre. As fear is one of the primal elements
in the evolution of human beings, it is also one of the strongest, because it is
the key to survival and self-preservation. Complexly encoded within the human
behavioral patterns, there are various factors that can trigger fear, usually resulting
either from disturbing disfigurement of familiar shapes, also known as bodyhorror, or a uncanny change of well-known social structures. As the western
society of the 21st century provides a rather stable and secure standard of living,
people are not put into situations that would endanger their existence to such a
degree. Of course, being involved in an accident or a robbery are tragic incidents
that trigger strong survival-driven emotions, but it is not on the daily agenda
anymore, having to face a saber-tooth-tiger and being given the choice only
between the options to fight and kill – to run and (hopefully) survive - or to lose
and die. Apparently, today’s society weeded out such primal instincts, or at least
decreased potential situations in which they would usually appear. But of course,
as they still are an essential part of the human nature, people figured out how
to enjoy the pleasures of fear in a safe environment with a limited effect on their
personal involvement. As the first chapter described, there are several reasons
for enduring an obviously unpleasant experience, even though it is apparently
not essential anymore. Being remnants from the primeval times, facing fear and
mastering the horror successfully is guarantees a positive emotion afterwards
and leads to improved self-affirmation. Having this as basics, the survival games
are predestined to be a prosperous medium for such challenges and tests of
Conclusion
114
courage. Playing with various factors, they dig deep into human subconscious and
try to reveal hidden phobias and create tension that goes under the skin. One
reason why survival horror games might be even more effective in evoking strong
emotional responses is that real tension requires the feeling of risk of losing
something. Superficially speaking, the risk in the game is, well, losing the game.
Granting rather low ammo or none at all, with safe points miles away, the early
survival horror games often skillfully mixed the tension with a tang of frustration.
Still, they were undoubtedly thrilling. Even though the intentionally obscure and
choppy controls were a factor that added certain tension by making the player
feel rather helpless, in the end they were not far away from causing frustration
rather than an emotional experience one would like to pursue. One can certainly
remember issues with the old survival horror games, their apparently unintuitive
controls and the dubiously set fixed cameras, confusing the player by always
shifting to the wrong angles, especially during dangerous encounters. »Move left,
no wait YOUR OTHER LEFT! No Jill, don’t run into the armoire! GO AWAY
from the monsters. Ah hell…«163
Modern games of this genre tend to create tension and fear through other
elements, mainly making use of intriguing aesthetics. Making the gameplay
itself primarily an artistic element, the new, player-friendlier approach improves
the emotional experience in terms of tension and fear though a strong visual
language, finally reaching the necessary level of detail that is necessary to create
uncanny ambiences. And with the help of new technology, artists can employ
such techniques brilliantly in many ways: Over-arching light-and-dark contrasts,
combined with eerily luminous visual clues lure players to intuitively follow the
right path and lead to an effective and immediate visual comprehension. This is
a very positive feature, as it supports storytelling to a high extent, following the
approach of show, don’t tell.
Furthermore, the survival horror genre has found another purpose for aesthetics.
By changing and intensifying the visuals, moments of horror can be improved and
lead to a stronger experience of atmosphere. As the visual style evolves around the
subjective perceptions of the protagonist in many survival horror games, it is often
changed drastically during encounter with enemies or injury of the protagonist.
Deflecting from the usual clean image, the player is suddenly confronted with
blurry vision, shaking camera, desaturation of colours or even start monochrome
or inverted hues. Even details of the environment fade in visual importance as
protagonist and player are experiencing a shocking moment. In order to convey
the disorienting, surreal and highly disturbing fear to the player, such visual
163) Matulef, Jeffrey (2011): In-Depth: Scare Tactics – How Horror Games Have Evolved Their Controls. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/
news/32736/InDepth_Scare_Tactics__How_Horror_Games_Have_Evolved_Their_Controls.php, as of July 15th 2011.
Conclusion
115
shifts are also an effective tool for improving empathy, as player and protagonist
seemingly share some terrible experiences. In order to analyze the fear-evoking
features of survival horror games, this thesis also discussed the question what
truly scares us and why moments of uncertainty and desperation, or the worry
of getting lost in darkness and a subtle sense of a lurking threat, can evoke the
feeling of immediate danger and cause real emotional responses, even though the
audience certainly can tell the difference between reality and virtual media.
There is also a very interesting aspect concerning survival horror games, in
terms of experiencing tension and fear during play. A study that appeared in
the February issue of the journal Emotion164 presented some strange findings,
showing that players apparently feel a sense of relief and release of tension upon
dying in a game. The article states that »instead of joy resulting from victory and
success, wounding and killing the opponent elicited anxiety, anger or both [rather
the] death of the player’s own character… appear[s] to increase some aspects of
positive emotion.«165
According to the authors, such result may come from some temporary relief from
engagement brought by the character’s death. Even though such results seem
highly counterintuitive and deniable to every player, there is still a disturbing
possibility of some kind of a Freudian death instinct. On the other side, it would
at least speak well for the player’s morals not being overly happy by plainly
killing their opponents, much to the chagrin of killer-game-opponents. Still, this
study would require more research to confirm its theories, as it was a rather small
study and the authors’ conclusions seem mostly tentative. Nevertheless, it is an
interesting approach and certainly one worth sharing.
Being an artist myself, one could ask whether it was necessary to go into such
details of psychology or mediology, if the goal was simply to establish visual
patterns for the atmosphere in survival horror games. But being raised upon
the preaching of Frazer McLean, who was repeatedly urging one to »do your
homework«, I considered a broader analysis of the topic as crucial. One must
know as many factors as possible that influence one’s subject of interest in order
to be able to deal with it in a professional and goal leading manner. Therefore
it was necessary to comment on the principles of emotion and fear, as well as to
discuss the various techniques, the video game uses to implement such complex
structures into a virtual medium. Pursuing my main idea of introducing the novel
idea of visual patterns to the artistic field of expertise, a detailed description about
patterns was important as well, to demonstrate the reader the original use, as
164) cf. American Psychological Association (2008): Psychology of James Bond: Phasic emotional responses to violent video game events.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/emo/8/1/114/, as of August 2nd 2011.
165) Erickson, Brandon (2008): FPS players feel better after dying than after killing others, say researchers. http://www.gamecritics.com/
fps-players-feel-better-after-dying-than-after-killing-others-say-researchers, as of August 2nd 2011.
Conclusion
116
well as the advantages of patterns. Only after all this research, it was possible to
start developing the approach to visual patterns. Admittedly, this part was a real
challenge, as even the term of »Visual Patterns« is a neologism, created especially
for the issue of this thesis. Dealing with the problem of defining art-style and
more importantly the question of how to translate it properly into its virtual
representation within a video game, I came across the method of patterns. It is
important to notice here, that patterns are only one of many options how to solve
design problems, they are only one possible way, how to display an issue in a
problem definition-solution approach- and consequences-chart. Personally, I found
this methodical construction appealing and after dealing with it properly, I came
to the conclusion that using patterns in art of video games would present many
advantages. While artistic processes tend to proceed in a rather chaotic way (which
is doubtless positive to a certain extent), a bit more structure would definitely
improve the workflow and the amount of time, invested into experimenting.
Again, introducing the idea of visual patterns to the artistic production does not
attempt to make it applicable for all teams the same way. It should only offer the
possibility to draw on a new, a bit more structured approach, as an alternative
way of creating ideas for visual content.
The chapter that introduces the idea of visual patterns gives a good overview of
their application and also discusses the alleged worry about decreasing creativity
by using structured approaches. Within this context, it is important to note that
visual patterns could also serve to reveal weak spots in one’s style and help to
define a unique, original visual appearance for a game. For instance, the visual
pattern for colourcodes and scene temperature that was constructed upon the
analyses of several genre-leading examples clearly shows that survival horror
games are brown and grey. All of them. While varying slightly in tones and
saturations, their styles and colours are basically all the same. Knowing that
aspect, an art direction with the goal of creating an outstanding style could save
his/her time by skipping the step of coming up with the novel idea of creating
a creepy game, set in a world in the shades of sepia. Instead, dealing with the
visual patterns, one could possibly define the context of the intended style rather
quickly, knowing which patterns to use and which take as a negative example.
Sticking to the topic of the visual style of survival horror games, patterns could
suggest unexpected and novel approaches if combined in clever ways. Deciding
upon certain key-patterns, one could dismiss others or introduce patterns from
other genres in order to create a unique look. An interesting approach of a truly
intriguing horror look was introduced by the art team of Toei Animation in
Conclusion
117
2007, launching the animated series called Mononoke, a collection of traditional
Japanese horror stories. While being surprisingly multi-coloured, with no contrasts
of light and darkness at all, each shot was an artistic masterpiece of composition,
reminding of delicate ornaments of a kimono in colour and shape. Despite the
lack of obvious visual traces, representative for the horror genre, this series was
uncanny and disturbing to the highest extent. (Of course, the well-implemented
narration and skillful sound design need to be given credit as well.) But another
example of how the style can make a game atmospheric can be found in the small
but impressive indie game Limbo, where the creepy and horrifying atmosphere
results mainly from the innovative approach to aesthetics (without being obviously
brown and grey).
Fig. 18: Intriguing Visual Style
of Limbo
Fig. 19: A Daring Style that
works in Mononoke
Efficient and well-performing patterns are results of extendsive analyses of a
huge amount of references or, as described in the second chapter, through a
theoretical foundation, based upon studying games and their concepts in an
academic approach. It is obvious that such an extended study was not possible
in terms of a master thesis, therefore patterns created for this work serve rather
as mock-ups, primary aiming to representing the idea of visual patterns and
their possible implementation. If successfully established, a sophisticated analysis
would be necessary in order to make them properly usable. This approach was
undeniably challenging, as the outcome was not sure in the first place. In the
Conclusion
118
beginning it seemed like an uncertain try to merge two, completely different fields
of expertise. But having talks with experts on both sides, the artists as well as the
pattern experienced people, I was convinced of the importance of giving it a try.
As it promised to not only being something goal leading, but also to a certain
extent really novel, I was willing to accept the challenge. And struggling with
the various topics and trying to maintain the common thread, I was positively
surprised how well the subjects fit together, resulting in meaningful correlations,
represented by the final collection of visual patterns in the last chapter. Finishing
my research, I am fully convinced of the advantages provided by visual patterns
in art.
In the respect of future perspective, certain schemes can already be noticed
among art departments, inclining to more structured approaches of the creative
process and style definition. TJ Galda from Electronic Arts, contributor at the
FMX 2011 confronted the audience with a new artistic approach of creating
emotionally appealing and cinematic experiences in Fight Night Champion. Even
though the question of the art team was »If your game was a movie, what kind
of genre would it be?«, the approach resulted in a really structured way of dealing
with animation, lighting, rendering and composition, based on a pattern-like art
development. Another similar way was described by Jonathan Jacques Belletete,
the art director of the long awaited title Deus Ex Human Revolution. Discussing
the visual concept of their intended cyber-renaissance aesthetics, he described the
essence of visual signals, crucial for a successful realization of the style:
»They’re motifs. They are patterns. That’s the direction we chose.«166
Even if they might not be called »Visual Patterns«, the trends of a structured
artistic approach rise from day to day, making this investigation relevant in many
aspects. Introducing the theory of patterns in art might therefore be the basis for
another successful tool of brainstorming and further, of offering ideas, solutions
and methods for a practical translation of artistic concepts into the engine-based
3D space of the game, preserving significant aspects of art and style.
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