![]() Not only does this emphasise the connection between spaces, but it makes the player go through that process of layering themselves: it encourages you to think about buildings not as single paths, but as webs of branching and interlacing routes, built on top of each other over the course of hundreds and thousands of years. Again and again the player will progress forward, only to loop back on an earlier location from a different perspective. Part of Miyazaki’s skill lies in directing the player – part fighter, part archaeologist – through the interconnected labyrinths that make up these games’ environments. Grand Theft Auto and the airbrushing of history From the ruins of Firelink Shrine and its relationship to the Undead Church above it, to the various connections between Bloodborne ’s Central Yharnam, Old Yharnam and Cathedral Ward, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team of environment designers imply much of the game’s narrative through the clash between one architectural style and another between one layer of history and the next. The fabric of the building hasn’t changed that much, but the small details within it have – and that tells a story.”ĭark Souls and Bloodborne both put the player in decaying worlds and invite them to peel back layers of history. “It was built in the 1700s as a Christian chapel, then in the 19th century it became a synagogue, and then in the 1970s it became a mosque. ![]() ![]() “Or there’s the Brick Lane Mosque,” Sale says. Sale gives the example of Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, which has its origins in 672 AD but has been built up and added to by people across hundreds of years. Religious buildings also tell stories through the layering of history. “The fabric of the building hasn’t changed that much, but the small details within it have – and that tells a story.” It’s no coincidence that FromSoftware’s Dark Souls and Bloodborne – games where the player faces up to deity-like enemies and religious institutions – both prominently feature the architecture of cathedrals. Medieval cathedrals typify it, where the aim was to make the viewer feel humbled by God and dwarfed by the institution of the church. It conveys narrative in the sense that there is progression from feeling safe and enclosed to feeling awestruck at something much bigger than your own body. Squeezing and letting go yanks you from intimacy to vulnerability, emphasising the grandness of a space and your exposure within it. It’s one example of how games tell stories through spaces. ![]() That movement from a small, protected space to a vast, exposed area is used in many games the sheltered room before a boss fight, or the big reveal of an environment, such as the underwater city of Rapture in BioShock. You might have a small lobby, or in a house you might have a porch – those small spaces give one feeling, and the larger spaces give another.”Īs with real-world architecture, contracting and releasing is one way that game architecture can give space a sense of feeling and narrative. At the threshold you have that sense of protection, from this grand space. “If you imagine walking into a cathedral, you’re going from the outside, which is a big space, through a small doorway, and back into a big space,” Sale continues. The soon-to-be-mother gripping her partner’s hand. Contract and release is a great phrase it reminds me of someone being born. The soon-to-be-mother gripping her partner’s hand.Ĭontract and release is a great phrase it reminds me of someone being born. ![]()
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