I Am Alive

This game displays a pretty good example of a method I wish to use in my Riot Street scene - a washed out, desaturated colour pallet to give a pessimistic, oppressive tone to the environment. This game gives a great sense of the theme from these screenshots alone, making it a good piece of reference for my project, even if it only has one theme as opposed to my collection.

I Am Alive screenshots on Gamerant.com

I played this game on Xbox360 and have once again found that not having universal screenshot options is a big oversight for console makers. It is basically free advertising for their platform, could not be too hard to implement and would help out students and reviewers by not making them use PCs and external software/hardware.

Dear Esther

This game has shown some parallels with my own project. First of all, the only interactivity is exploring and observing the environment. By this method, along with narrated extracts from letters, the player is drawn into the narrative. Although the letters give the specifics of the story, it is the environment that sets the mood and backs up the details. As my final piece will also be an environment with the purpose of setting the theme and mood, this is a great published example to look at. The second reason Dear Esther is relevant to my project is the content; the somewhat bland and weather beaten island hides beneath it a system of caves rich with crystals, stalactites and vibrantly-lit chambers. My environment will feature a street ravaged by civil unrest, through which an unexpected cave of crystals is exposed underneath.

NatGeo

Desert reclaims buildings in Namibia

I am increasingly finding that National Geographic is one of my favourite sources for real life inspiration. This photo is just incredible, I'm not sure whether to believe this is natural lighting or not, but it makes for a fascinating environment nonetheless.

Amazing Volcano Photo

Lightning Strikes in Volcanic Ash Cloud

An incredible photograph of a night-time volcanic eruption lit up by lightning in Chile (National Geographic).

Deep Sea Creatures 2

The incredible Dumbo Octopus; uncanny faces of the Hatchetfish; surreal-mario-style Predatory Tunicate, glass-internal-organ-looking Tunicate and huge floating colony of Tunicates.

Deep Sea Creatures

Recently, I have been looking at deep sea creatures in a good portion of my spare time and have been a little obsessed with them for a few years now. I think that they can provide incredible inspiration for very original art, in environments, characters, concepts etc. It is one of the richest design resources I have ever come across, and looking at some of the cliches that appear in many games and films, seems to be relatively unexplored.

The surreal deep sea cucumber, Enypniastes; a group of ancient-looking Isopods and a mugshot; the transparent-headed Barreleye Fish; the ridiculous Blobfish.

Environments: Skyrim vs Oblivion

I think that the difference between the environments in Oblivion and its sequel Skyrim are a good place to research what makes a good 3D environment.

A deeper look into the differing methods used by artists will be helpful, such as the fact that all environments in Skyrim will be put together by artists rather than using the procedural generation of Oblivion. So far the game looks much richer and more like a living world. I think this will help players to get immersed in the game and that highlights the importance of environment design in games, applicable to the rationale of my research project.

I will carry out very thorough 'research' on the game when it comes out in November. :D