So what i have gathered so far is that in creating a virtual environment there are two main frameworks;

Systems of play and Systems of representation.

How can the representation of the city prove to be a playable environment?

In the case of the virtual city can urban planning prove to be an important model for the aesthetics of spatiality and playability?

Or are the buildings simply constructed as a path to facilitate gameplay?

Well, the buildings are constructed to facilitate gameplay, but I don't know if I would call that a simple process. Consider Splinter Cell, for example. Right from the first game in the series, both interior and exterior locations were an integral part of gameplay, as the primary objective was to traverse a space without being detected. This gave rise to secondary objectives dependent on architectural/building details, such as eliminating illumination (shoot out the lights, shut off the switch, etc), avoiding humans going about their business and circumnavigating various internal obstacles.

Gears of War takes advantage of both a more Gothic architectural style and the notion of destruction/decay to create a series of points of deteriorating cover for your predominantly pitched battles with the Locust Horde. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time uses ornate Persian architecture both to establish an ambiance and provide an engaging path through which you traverse by means of your acrobatic skills. Thief establishes its medieval environs and provides numerous opportunities for skulking, pickpocketing and other core gameplay features. The original Halo is generally considered to possess very sound level design - alien and futuristic industrial design and architecture punctuate the series - but it also includes the absolutely atrocious Library level. The way you played the game didn't change pretty much throughout, except for whenever you drove/flew a vehicle rather than walked on foot, but changes to the level design altered the overall experience drastically.

The process is not linear, but rather cyclical. The gameplay objective informs the architectural requirements, which informs the spatial design, which, in turn, refines the gameplay possibilities. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Hello, well i am actually at the end of my research now and writting up my paper. It is such a facinating topic though and feel that i am only scratching the surface, i just have too much to write. hehe, What is your research for? Everyone thought i was crazy writting about this but its good to find others so interested in it.

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Original post by LeanneT Hello, well i am actually at the end of my research now and writting up my paper. It is such a facinating topic though and feel that i am only scratching the surface, i just have too much to write. hehe, What is your research for? Everyone thought i was crazy writting about this but its good to find others so interested in it.

A little late, but i would like to add one thing. There are games, where a virtual city that is made to look like as much as a real one will result in better immersion. My example would be the old mmorpg called neocron 1. The city is built with an architecture that is in use today (sadly because this futuristic look destroys old european cities). Many places feel and sound like they do in a current day city. The shops, the npc people that are there just to make a crowd, even the trash on the ground (you can even pick it up). The whole city was made to look like a real one, including the boring parts, that are only visited when a job brings the players there, or someone wants to see every ally. Having a huge map (around 500 fps style zones) results in a really huge world. Having players own apartements in various city blocks resulted in a living address system, where every building can be entered, down to the apartement level, finding an office of an npc in a company hq was a real pain though. The various corridors and levels of buildings that are part of the city base maps allowed such things as jumping from one balcony to another at the height of several levels (or shooting at each other). In general the desingers of the game followed a constant theme in each zone, that can be found in a modern city. (including: plaza areas, rich neighbourhoods, inustrial, slum and entertainment zones) Moving between them was possible on foot (really slow, took 1 hour to cross the city while running) or with the public transportation system (5 mins to cross the city by tube). My assumption is that the number of npcs in each zone was between 10 to 100. This resulted in a really large playable city with a unique interactive npc population of 50000, not including mobs. The next game that comes near this is oblivion but it's cities still look really small and empty compared to this old mmo.

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Original post by LeanneT Hello, well i am actually at the end of my research now and writting up my paper. It is such a facinating topic though and feel that i am only scratching the surface, i just have too much to write. hehe, What is your research for? Everyone thought i was crazy writting about this but its good to find others so interested in it.

Please post the paper, if you get a chance.

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Original post by kvp Quote: Original post by LeanneT Hello, well i am actually at the end of my research now and writting up my paper. It is such a facinating topic though and feel that i am only scratching the surface, i just have too much to write. hehe, What is your research for? Everyone thought i was crazy writting about this but its good to find others so interested in it. A little late, but i would like to add one thing. There are games, where a virtual city that is made to look like as much as a real one will result in better immersion. My example would be the old mmorpg called neocron 1. The city is built with an architecture that is in use today (sadly because this futuristic look destroys old european cities). Many places feel and sound like they do in a current day city. The shops, the npc people that are there just to make a crowd, even the trash on the ground (you can even pick it up). The whole city was made to look like a real one, including the boring parts, that are only visited when a job brings the players there, or someone wants to see every ally. Having a huge map (around 500 fps style zones) results in a really huge world. Having players own apartements in various city blocks resulted in a living address system, where every building can be entered, down to the apartement level, finding an office of an npc in a company hq was a real pain though. The various corridors and levels of buildings that are part of the city base maps allowed such things as jumping from one balcony to another at the height of several levels (or shooting at each other). In general the desingers of the game followed a constant theme in each zone, that can be found in a modern city. (including: plaza areas, rich neighbourhoods, inustrial, slum and entertainment zones) Moving between them was possible on foot (really slow, took 1 hour to cross the city while running) or with the public transportation system (5 mins to cross the city by tube). My assumption is that the number of npcs in each zone was between 10 to 100. This resulted in a really large playable city with a unique interactive npc population of 50000, not including mobs. The next game that comes near this is oblivion but it's cities still look really small and empty compared to this old mmo.

Also 'logical' constructs which players feel at home in and can apply real world experience (ie- knowledge of how trasportation networks are organized so that a player 'sort-of' knows what should be there -- main drag with side streets, manhole cover connect to a systematic sewer system (and not just a windy tunnel leading to a scenario, but one that might be used to get past a blocked street because it extends in a recognizable pattern, etc...).

Unique landmarks that help eliminate 'twisty little passages all alike' syndrome. Where styles or visible features define a sub area and allow a player to recognize where they are much of the time (and possibly where they are in realaation to other areas). Having to endlessly reference a 2D map to try to figure out where you are and how to get to a destination detract from the game.

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Original post by Oluseyi You speak of virtual cities, which introduces the topic not only of architecture but of urban planning. A frequent (and naïve) dream of usually rookie game designers is to create a virtual world where you can "go anywhere and do anything." Well, in a real city you don't want to go everywhere, because a lot of places are just boooooring. Virtual cities are created for the explicit purposes of supporting a narrative and a series of interactive engagements. Consequently, were one able to examine the city as a whole, I suspect one would find the urban planning to be quite fragmented - heavily detailed in areas that carry the symbology you mentioned, depending on the game, such as a public square with imposing statuary in a futuristic or mildly political shooter; presenting labyrinthine pathways reminiscent of the organic evolution of European towns in games with an emphasis on stealth; and so on, with each feature being dictated by the narrative milieu and gameplay emphasis of the game or segment of the game. Similarly, one wonders how completely modeled large buildings in some games are, given that the story/"mission" only necessitates passing through a given subset of areas. Many games use locked doors or other forms of access restriction inside buildings to "funnel" the player in the desired direction, some quite clever (rubble and debris, a sudden fire). Outdoors, where such "natural" obstacles may be harder to come by, we are often presented with the "invisible walls" problem, where the spatial design suggests that a place is accessible but narrative, interactive or physical (e.g. system memory) constraints make that undesirable and the game therefore brusquely turns you back after a certain point. I think this is a very interesting area of study, as it can help with planning to reduce the many physical design inconsistencies that lead to the illegitimate challenges Sneftel mentioned. Keep us posted!

Well will get of topic for a sec , game design is all a dream the reason man created video games is because he had a dream that he couldnt acheive in real life.

Ok back to topic, Most of the time in games i dont see archetecture like your talking about i see themed buildings. A game designer knows the theme of the time so he creates buildings from that time or place. As far as medievil archetecture and different styles of buildings in a game in lots of variety i think you will be the first one to attempt this. Good job and keep your DREAM alive

This may be only semi-relevant, but this month's PC Gamer has an article about Lucas Arts' latest technical focus on simulating environments rather than building scripted facades. One of the things they demo/talk about is a physics system designed to handle proper collapse of buildings (they have gorgeous shots of a demo castle responding to rock impact, and some Indiana Jones examples). This could take the role of architecture to the next level, IMO: as well as an immersive facade, buildings have structural details that define how they respond to damage. There will still be a tendency to focus on dramatic effect (no real building would feature plenty of readily destroyable balconies, bridges and similar for safety reasons!), but if I'm reading the PC Gamer hype-machine properly then it will be necessary to worry about structural supports and similar. The first example I can think of this being tried was Red Faction, with its destructible everything system (that ended up toned down to uselessness due to the ease with which one could tunnel out of the level). If Lucas Arts are right, and games move towards more of a simulation, then it seems likely that game architects will study real-world architecture even more to provide buildings that behave as intended - even when hit by a rocket, and so on. Just my 0.02!

The game companies will hate it - no more painted-on doors, stage prop building facades, and ability to lead players around by the nose. Players will have more opportunity to be creative and the companies will have to provide the content and interactive details.


The computers now have the processing power to do this, and it will be another step closer to 'reality' where things act the way people expect them to.