Unit 12 – Contextual Perspectives

Environment Design

An Environment Designer’s role in the games industry is one that is very important now that graphics have reached levels of extreme realism. They’re role is to make the world/level look alive (or dead if that’s the intention) by creating concepts, assets and lore. Level Designers would hand an environment designer a level template and they would fill the world up with assets and textures giving players something to look at.

This is an important role to have since the environment gets the most screen time out of anything else in the game aside from the main character. The first thing the player sees is the environment and since games now are becoming a more immersive experience, players are now expecting an environment that simulates the real world as way to live a different life.

Why I want to be an Environment Artist

I love the idea of designing worlds and creating stories for that world as it’s what I’ve been doing all this time since I was a child. As a child I would imagine fantasy scenarios and make up stories of my own. I can remember the game of my childhood that made me want to live in it’s world and that game was Final Fantasy 10.

Final Fantasy 10

 

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I fell in love with every level in this game. They all looked visually impressive to me. I love how each level has a different colour palette and theme,I love the lore behind each level, I love how you go from being in a very small village to a massive fantasy sci-fi themed city, I love the use of particle effects and how it adds a feeling of calmness and sorrow all at the same time and most importantly the reason why I hold this game in a high pedestal is because a lot of the levels remind me of home.

Philippines

As a Filipino I’ve been exposed to different living conditions. As a child I lived near the city with my mother and we would visit my grandparents in the countryside. This is how different it was in Philippines:

 

I loved how exposed I was to nature and the hectic city life. This influenced what I find visually appealing. I love it when cities are big with plenty of lights and people and I love a quiet country life setting with a lot of exposure to the natural environment.

I also love how water can make any environment look livable. Creating realistic water is something I want to learn as an environment artist.

Seeing games evolve.

My childhood games were Super Mario Bros and Contra. I remember playing on the gameboy until the age of 6 as we couldn’t afford a PS2 at the time. I got to grow up playing games that kids from the 80s played in their childhood

When we moved to the UK to we finally got live with my Dad, he bought us a PS2 and I remember playing Spider Man 2, Tony Hawk’s Underground and of course, Final Fantasy 10. For Spider Man I loved how it felt like I can visit every location in New York City and I loved how the NPC interacted with the player making them feel like they were Spiderman. This made me realize how fun open world games are as it felt big and alive at the time.

Then there was Tony Hawk and I immediately fell in love with the game as it gave you the feeling that you can use everything within the level to perform tricks. Although this aspect of Tony Hawk may have been more on the Level Design side and not the environment design it is still worth noting that the environment designer should still take into account the needs of the level designer so that the environment work for the player.

Then when my dad bought me a PS3 I got to play one of the most impactful game of my generation and that is Skyrim.

Skyrim was an open world game set in a snowy/foresty country that was inspired by norse/viking civilization. It is the first game I have ever played that I felt was never ending since there were so many locations to visit and so many things to do. When it comes to the environment design of the game I loved how you can seamlessly transition from thick forests to dark swamps to foggy snowy regions and as someone that loves world building I love the fact that there is a backstory to almost every single area.

World building to this scale is one of the things I want to be able to do in the future whether it be a personal project or a future project for a company.

Lastly, getting a chance to work with 3D modelling softwares such as Maya, Substance Painter and Zbrush and realising how easy it is for me to learn the interface is really motivating. I want to just keep pushing myself to make higher quality models. With the introduction of substance painter I can now make custom high quality textures without needing to find low quality 1024 by 1024 textures from Google.

 

Possible essay titles I might use to argue

• Is the environment artist the most skilled job in the games industry
• How important is travel in becoming a good environment artist
• The environment artist has the most important job in the game industry
• Describe the skills needed to become an environment artist

 

I think the most relevant title for me is: how important is travel in becoming a good environment artist?

I feel like I’ll have more to say with this question since I have experiences with both arguments of the discussion.