The spirit of digital place - game worlds and architectural phenomenology
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In this presentation from 2021, I discuss an approach to making and understanding game worlds based on Christian Norberg-Schulz's conception of architectural phenomenology.
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The spirit of digital place - game worlds and architectural phenomenology
- 1. THE SPIRIT OF DIGITAL PLACE Architectural Dwelling and Game Space Christopher W. Totten – Kent State University at Tuscarawas ◦ Image Credit: @_R23X_
- 2. Christopher Totten • Assistant professor and lead faculty – Kent State Animation Game Design • Co-founder – SAAM Arcade, GameFest Akron • Owner/Founder – Pie for Breakfast Studios and Team Nemo • Author – An Architectural Approach to Level Design • Editor – Level Design: Processes and Experiences
- 3. “A house is a machine for living in” Le Corbusier, 1927 – Towards an Architecture Le Corbusier, Unite d’Habitation, completed 1952
- 4. ◦ Le Corbusier - Modulor ◦ Rob Davis – The Level Design of God of War (GDC Level Design Workshop 2019)
- 5. How does architectural design help us understand game space design?
- 6. 4-dimensional art • Artwork practices that involve time • Motion graphics, • Film • Animation • Performance Art • Internet Art • Architecture • Games • Elements/principles • Time • Light • Sound • Movement • Interactivity • Spatial relationships
- 7. ◦ Prof Brown – Applying 3D Level Design Skills to the 2D World of Hyper Light Drifter (GDC Level Design Workshop 2017)
- 8. Game spaces as individual works • Collected Work Theory • Games are often treated as single art objects • They are the work of multiple skilled professionals • Artists (art) • Composers (music) • Level designers (architecture) • Apply the principles of these disciplines to understanding works within games • Game levels are works of architecture ◦ Top – VGA Gallery in Chicago, IL ◦ Right – Manifold Garden, William Chyr, 2019
- 9. Dwelling and Genius Loci • Dwelling • Finding an “existential foothold” in a place (Heidegger, 1971) • Genius Loci and place • Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, 1979. • “Spirit of place” • When a space becomes meaningful to occupants ◦ SE, Sweden , Fårö and BE, Belgium from the series Genius Loci by Anastasia Savinova, 2016, collage.
- 10. Can we use the experiential principles of architecture to build game places?
- 11. Norberg-Schulz’s elements of genius loci Visualzation The act of building 01 Complementing Using structure to enhance the experience 02 Symbolizing Highlighting aspects of a place important to the occupant 03
- 12. Genius loci in game space Craft The construction of game worlds 01 Gameplay Interactive patterns that create meaningful experiences 02 Evolution Building relationships with game spaces over time 03
- 13. Craft • The construction of game worlds • Visual art • Interactive game objects • Audio assets • Theming = “character” • Lighting = “atmosphere”
- 14. Craft - style • The architecture of George Trevor • Second Empire and Georgian influences • Complex floor plans • Narrow hallways • Secret rooms • Convoluted locks • Death…traps? • The fictional architect of of buildings in the Resident Evil franchise • Craft becomes shared aesthetic lineage of spaces
- 15. Gameplay • The construction of game worlds • The effects of designed space on occupants • Users change context or meaning of space over time • Space can be designed to encourage interaction • Unplanned interactions = meaning
- 16. Gameplay - shaping • Space should be designed for supporting the user’s play • Occupants’ “everyday life- world” should be the concern of “architects in particular” – Norberg-Schulz • Design of space shapes interaction • Orienting oneself is an element of dwelling • Mastery and ease of use
- 17. Evolution • Building relationships with gamespace over time • Game spaces contain signs that allude to larger stories (Nitsche, 2008) • Spaces adapted for new use • Spaces repeated in multiple games • Spaces visited multiple times in a game • Revisiting = reunions
- 18. Evolution – change and loss • Hagia Sophia • Built as a Byzantine Christian Church – 537 CE • Converted to mosque after the fall of Constantinople – 1453 CE • Museum – 1935 • From Russia With Love filming location – 1963 • Mosque again - 2020 • Evolution allows spaces to grow, change, and gain new meanings
- 19. Evolution – change and loss • Hagia Sophia • Built as a Byzantine Christian Church – 537 CE • Converted to mosque after the fall of Constantinople – 1453 CE • Museum – 1935 • From Russia With Love filming location – 1963 • Mosque again - 2020 • Evolution allows spaces to grow, change, and gain new meanings • Spaces can experience loss
Notas do Editor
- Thank you for coming to my talk! My name is Chris Totten and today I’m going to be looking how the architectural concepts of dwelling and genius loci, or “spirit of place” can be used to understand and create emotionally resonant game spaces.
- So first of all, who am I? I’m an Assistant Professor at Kent State University in Ohio and the lead faculty of our Animation Game Design program. I’m one of the co-founders of two museum-affiliated game festivals, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade. I make games through my company Pie for Breakfast Studios. More importantly for this talk though – I have a masters degree in Architecture, and published 2 books on level design.
- Many of you may be familiar with maxims of modernist architecture, like Louis Sullivan’s “form ever follows function” or this one by Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier: a house is a machine for living in, which he employed in some of his ultra-rational housing projects.
- Corbusier was fascinated by functional architecture that responded to human proportion and created a series of diagrams called “the modulor man”, that found connections between the human body and the golden ratio. He studied how architecture might be built with forms that responded to the body in different postures. And this ultra-rational approach is something that we see in modern video game level design, such as in this 2019 GDC Level Design Workshop talk on God of War. In these diagrams and screenshots, we see but one of many studies of how environmental elements were tuned to Kratos’ movement capabilities.
- Looking at these functional connections, we may ask ourselves…
- One place we may look for answers is in the study of 4-dimensional art, which scholar Ellen Mueller describes as artwork practices that involve time. This category includes areas such as motion graphics, film, animation, performance art, and yes – architecture and games.
- These connections are not lost on the industry. Besides employing former architects as level designers, they do consciously employ architectural concepts in game levels. In this 2017 GDC talk, Lisa Brown talks about how they implemented Hildebrand’s prospect and refuge principle in Hyper Light Drifter’s design.
- And I would even go as far as to say that game spaces – levels, worlds, etc. – are works of architecture. As both practicing game developer and as an academic, I employ what I call a collected work theory of game analysis, in which I look not as games as whole objects, but as collected works of art, music, sound, architecture that come together to form an experience. Pippin Barr showed us a gallery of Unity Assets that embodies this very mindset earlier today. In this way, we can do things like incorporating architectural theory in the study of levels.
- But can we go further and address the emotional life of the player with gamespace? This is where we can look at the theme of dwelling. Heidegger refers to dwelling as “finding an existential foothold”, which was an exciting concept for Norwegian architect Christian Norberg-Schulz. Applying the term genius loci, or “spirit of place”, he sought a way to incorporate dwelling to architectural space in such a way that one could design places that were meaningful to the people that used them.
- Around the same time, architect Christopher Alexander was also exploring what he called “the quality without a name” (which he would later call “life” or “wholeness”) in buildings. From his studies of how different cultures built in response to the world around them, he invented a series of patterns, called a pattern language, that he believed responded to human need and created wholeness.
- So now we must ask – can we do the same to game spaces? Can game spaces be places that their players form attachments with, remember, and even cherish?
- Early in his work, Norberg-Schulz describes 3 elements of genius loci. Visualization, is the actual act of building itself. Complementing is how the physical elements of a structure are used to enhance the experience of the space. Symbolizing is highlighting some aspects of the place such that it becomes important to the person.
- Here are the principles again, modified so they can speak directly to game development. Craft is the construction of the space, but thinking in terms of layout and assets in a game engine. Gameplay is how a game’s interactivity is enabled and enhanced through the organization of space. And evolution is how relationships are formed with game spaces over time according to the patterns of when we play games.
- So here’s craft. As I said, this is where we think about the construction of space in a very practical way: how are visual art, interactive objects, audio, lights, and other features of software placed to build what Norberg-Schulz called a space’s “character.” Level theming such as ice, water, or art deco build this same character. He also highlights lighting as a condition that can make space feel “fertile” or “threatening.”
- To explore this idea I want to look specifically at the work of an architect. George Trevor was an architect with an unusually elaborate style. His buildings tended to have complex floor plans with narrow hallways. He also used…secret rooms…convoluted locking mechanisms…and…death traps? Hold on I think my slide got screwed up… Oh that’s right…he’s the fictional architect of the buildings in the Resident Evil franchise. Trevor though, is a really interesting meta acknowledgement of how RE’s environments are designed and decorated, adding an aesthetic lineage to environments in the series.
- For gameplay, the construction we do as we craft is applied to channeling player activity in such a way that opportunities for meaningful interactions are created. Some of these interactions may be in multi-user environments between different players, or can be in singleplayer environments where a player orients themselves and eventually identifies strongly with a game space.
- Urbanists Kevin Lynch and Jane Jacobs give us some ingredients for meaningful self-identification in space. Lynch talks about elements of a city that let users identify their location through the use of recognizable landmarks, the character of a neighborhood, meeting place, and so on. Jacobs was a staunch advocate for neighborhoods where work and life intersected and gave people opportunities to meet. Game worlds do the same. The best open worlds are those that give players the means to orient themselves with carefully placed landmarks so they always feel a sense of clarity and path. Multiplayer spaces both support the basic gameplay of the game, but also provide opportunities for player classes or gameplay styles. When these come together in places such as towns in MMORPGs or competitive maps, emergent awesomeness happens!
- Last is evolution. Michael Nitsche points out that game spaces often allude to other larger stories. We see this all the time in architecture: buildings are repurposed for new uses, or we return to our hometown after a long time and see that it’s changed. In games, we may revisit the same land throughout entries in a series, or games may be structured such that you visit the same space multiple times. These visits grow and change our relationships to these places.
- An architectural example is Hagia Sophia, which has had a lot of functions in its long life. It was originally a Christian Church, then a mosque, then a museum, at one point a set for a James Bond movie, and is a mosque once again. Sega’s Yakuza series sets all of its games in the Kamurocho district, which fans can see change socially and economically from game to game. Two entries in the Zelda series, A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, have a unique relationship in that they share the same map despite being released 22 years apart. Changes in the game world and in the mechanics of how players explore evolve players’ relationship with this familiar place.
- Bringing these methods together can create an array of emotions from cozy familiarity to loss. I’ll end with a game place that I love, Tazmily Village from Mother 3. Spoilers for the game if you haven’t played it, but it begins as a pastoral rural town where people live in this idyllic close-knit community. One day, it’s rocked by the arrival of an army that destroys the forest around the town and begins introducing modern technology to the residents. They eventually become so covetous for more that they abandon the town for the big city, which sets up the final conflict of the game. Admittedly, spirit of place is nearly impossible to objectively quantify, but with a place like Tazmily, the combination of changing environmental artwork and atmosphere throughout the game, along with a structure that requires repeat visits creates a genuine sense of attachment. This is really reinforced when the town changes and you feel as though you can never go home again. While this seems like ending on a down note, it shows how powerful the spaces within games can be and how designers can harness this to make memorable spaces players can cherish.