Lighting

I am going to look more into how lighting in a game environment can really affect the player. Such as how the mood of a scene can be greatly changed by the lighting, giving the player completely different feelings. Without correct lighting a game can give a player a completely wrong feeling to what the developer is wanting that player to feel at that moment in the game.

A good example of correct lighting would be in Horror games where the environment has a big impact when affecting how the players feels. The use of dim lighting, dark shadows and often flickering is used to make the player feel as if they are being followed or there is some unseen entity just around the corner or lurking in the shadows.

Outlast 2 is a game which use's lighting to its full effect, they even have a game mechanic based around it where the player can activate a cameras night vision when the environment becomes too dark allowing the player to see more. But the ability does not last forever so it makes player think about when they need to use it most. All of the scenes are often dimly lit and lighting is used to guide the player through the levels, forcing the player into confrontations and jump scares.

For my next task I am going to create a small environment where I can play around with the lighting and see what different moods I can create only through the changing of the lighting.