BA7 | Concept and Pre-Production #25

Environment Location Mood Board #1 - Sewer

The environment will begin in an underground tunnel system, hypothetically underneath an abandoned science laboratory or mansion. The area would serve as an environment connection whereby the player leaves the  upper level and delves into the haunting depths of labyrinth like tunnels. This underground section could simply be an derelict mining tunnel or link into the areas sewer system but common attributes will include: 

Man holes

Circular/curved walls

Bars shutting off tunnels the player can’t use

Long dark tunnel corridors

Limited lighting

Foggy atmosphere

Ladders

Doors

Heavy machinery/pipes

Lose wires

Valves

Dirt/grime/rotting/derelict

Water damage history, mould, rust

Claustrophobic confined areas

Vents

I decided the best way to illustrate my thought would be to create a mood board of influential/inspirational images that I have found during BA7. This way I will be able to give a clear visualisation of my ideas. This will help the production pipeline with regards to progressing into BA8 because I will have a set of images that will illustrate my ideas and prepare and inform for the design phase in BA8. Here are the image I have found…

 

Environment Location Mood Board #2 - Visual Semantics

This section will be the joining scene between the dark, eerie, uncomfortable sewer/tunnel area. While it will still appear to be set in the sewer, it will house strong visual semantics which narrate and inject strong themes of horror to the audience. I have been studying visual semantics in games for most of this project, understanding that it is a method in communication between creator and audience. As my project it focussed on the ways in which environments display, communicate, inject and illustrate horror, I thought it would be good to create a mood board of influential ways in which horror themed visual semantics work so that the reader of my research and development document can further visualise my idea. Elements include:

Blood stains

Visual narrative assets

Broken assets

Gore

Signs of violence and decay

Signs of pain and torture

Broken ladder

Uncovered manhole with bloodstains

Hole in the wall

Shovel 

Assets that force questions (what happened here, is this safe, am I in danger? Etc)

I used all my own screen shots for this mood board as I wanted to portray how visual semantics were used to communicate themes of horror in games, I felt in game visual examples would work best to communicate and help visualise/portray my idea.

 

Environment Location Mood Board #3 - Psychological Horror Room

Once the player has made their way through the haunting and decimate sewer/underground tunnels and analysed the visual semantics “centre piece” of the environment, they will come across a door which leads into a room.

I have named this room the “psychological horror room” because it will encompass and illustrate the research I did for the appropriately (and successfully) used horror game environments. 

I plan to take a few core themes from these environments and built an incredibly sinister looking room that takes visual core references from the environments research I did. Here are examples of themes, assets and room aesthetics to help illustrate the look and feel of the “psychological horror room”.

Abandoned hospital/asylum/prison room

Dirty walls, unsanitary (juxtaposition from clean, safe comfortable hospitals)

Decay

Confusing mechanical machinery

Disgusting and un private bathroom assets (toilet, sink, mirrors etc)

Clutter and rubbish

Dirt, grime and rust, unclean

Confusion

Unease, anxiety, eerie, haunting, vacant. 

 

Aesthetics Mood Board #1 - Look and Feel

A few weeks ago I created a visual style guide to visually demonstrate to one of my tutors the way I wanted my environment to look and feel. Unfortunately at the time I didn’t make note of the image sources but they were mainly Google image and Pinterest searches. Here is the Look and Feel Style Guide to how I want my environment to look over all, this refers to textures, types of assets, colours, tone, hue etc.

 

Aesthetics Mood Board #2 - Environment Atmosphere

This mood board is comprised of screenshots I have taken whilst playing the horror games I feel have influenced this project the most so far, they are Outlast , Dead Space and Amnesia. I have used screenshots that I have taken whilst playing that I feel really communicate a horrific environment and portray the type of atmosphere I want my environment to replicate. 

 

Aesthetics Mood Board #3 - Environment Lighting

This mood board demonstrates the types of light I hope to be able to replicate in UDK for my environment. I feel they illustrate lighting that compliments horrific and eerie environments which is what I am trying to visualise. Techniques will include:

Strong patches of light contrasted against harsh darkness.

Spotlights

Light coming through cracks, door, windows

Low key high contrast

Limited visibility

 

Aesthetics Mood Board #4 - Environment Surrealism

One of the key and most important aspects of my project is that I don’t want my environment to look like a carbon copy of other psychological horror games. Whilst it will borrow and re create important, appropriate and effective methods employed by successful psychological horror games, it wont directly copy them, I want my environment to have a unique flare to it. As I have illustrated in my research, the way in which I plan to do this is by incorporating surrealism. 

The surrealism will affect both the environment aesthetics and assets because the surreal element can be applied to both. I have been looking at haunting and obscure surrealism to help me achieve this look visually and, in BA8, when it comes down to modeling the assets and environment, I will revise the surrealism research to ensure I capture and communicate the correct aesthetics. 

This mood board portrays how surrealism can be used in environments to enhance the aesthetics and further communicate themes such as horror. Its all about incorporating surreal elements, whether they are obvious or subtle, to enhance and infuse the horror themes. They will promote obscurity and distortion; both massive theme influences throughout my research.