August 17, 2014 at 17:41When the game’s interface itself becomes part of the plot and the world
One of the most magical things is to turn an interface into a game object. Here, for example, evaluate: The
kid from Fallout 3NV carries on his hand exactly the same system menu as we do
. In Deus Ex, everything that we see on the screen is displayed directly on our optic nerve. This is not the game’s interface, this is the pre-reality of our character:
The game’s interface is a familiar convention, and if you eliminate it, you’ll get a little less distrust of what we see on the screen. Well, it's just insanely beautiful.
Here is another absolutely wonderful old game. Here, the entire interface is taken out on a laptop: We
finished shooting, crouched on the grass, laid a rifle nearby, opened the mail and read the intelligence report. Or ordered a couple of trunks at the nearest airport. Or they looked at the files of the mercenaries.
And here comes the second insanely interesting thing. It’s not enough to make the interface a part of the game - you can still play with how it affects this game by itself. For example, in JA2: UB, the pilot of our helicopter manages to break off the antenna of the laptop, and the interface must be repaired (!) In one of the cities where there are suitable accessories.
Here are the Vanger . Here, during a dialogue with escape advisers, strange objects could be picked up around the edges. The game takes place without knowledge of this feature, but with lipuring and a rabbox before rabification is somehow much easier. Sticky, imbued with the amount of scent dragged by a vanger, at some point even advises picking a Cucumber, giving a completely playful hint.
And here, in Deus Ex, a dialogue system is shown with pre-reality from the integrated in our head conversation module.
In addition to collecting information (which is well implemented ), at the right time we can release the necessary pheromones. And there are two scenes in the game: the heroine begging Adam not to use this module (pheromones allow her to be convinced that Adam is sincere and speaks from the heart), a man with immunity to pheromones, who practically ridicules our movements in the interface. This is also another step towards a realistic world.
In some games, cartridges are shown directly on the weapon - this is also a good step to dive deeper into the world. What else can be brought to the "reality" of the world? A good example is role-playing magazines and logs. Here is Bioshock Infinite, here is the storage medium - voice, sound recording. The joy is that you are given at the beginning of the game at the fair to record your voice on such a device. After this, one believes in their realism.
Another cool role-playing theme is to change the interface depending on the character's abilities. For example, the diary of the protagonist of Arcanum can turn into hellish hell if you manage to generate a mentally retarded character.
It is also very good when some mega-useful game books are put in the supply of a large collection box. For example, world maps, important guides, or something like that. You can hold a “game” item in your hands - this also creates an additional connection with the reality and the world of the game.
I think that the beauty of reducing the virtual world through the transformation of an interface into a game object has been more or less sorted out. Now a couple of examples from our field.
The easiest is to remove the threshold of virtualization. For example, we have an intercom in Space Alert that announces the time of the mission and provides important information during the flight. It is implemented on a card with a list of events and a timer. A good way to change the interface is to record voice files that solve the same game problem, save the attention of players, are more realistic and, in general, are recorded using the EDI voice from Mass Effect (as we would like in the Russian version - but not a fact yet).
Secondly, the speed of the interface can be a game delay.And even the main object of the game. In reaction games, there are usually two measures: recognizing a game situation and using the appropriate game action. In the "Bear" you need to grab a log in the middle of the table with the correct cards, and in the same "Confusion" to break the brain, trying to determine the coincidence of the cube with the blue face and the second cube with the yellow face that says "blue".
Thirdly, the interface can simplify the calculations. For example, in the Pentagon (these are tic-tac-toe on a line of length 5, where you must also turn each turn and twist a quarter of the field) you can physically pick up the game and turn the field to see how it will look a bit later. And turn back.
Fourth, the interface can perform non-basic functions.For example, on the Imaginarium box, the lodgement is simultaneously a playing field. And beneath it there is also a storage-pantry for other small games. So the result is such a meta box. By the way, due to unusualness, at first she often suffered from attempts to tear the field.
This is the lodgement field, under it is the pantry
And, fifthly, the interface can be directly a game object. In quest games like Ruff, you can roll an airplane out of the rules, put a box on your head, and so on. In this regard, the book “Wreck this Journal” is insanely happy, which every day offers a quest to destroy itself: then you need to bury it in the garden and find it in two hours, then go to the shower with it and so on. A great example of a self-destructing interface.
Comparing Stalker and Fallout 3, you should be surprised at the unrealistic implementation of the idea of the interface of the latter at some points. Remember, when we go into the radiation zone in Fallout, a crack starts and a pop-up block appears on top of the screen? In Stalker, if something is popping in your pocket, you need to get it and look at the arrow. True, our hero can not only heal bullet wounds with bread, but also see radiation, but still the lack of a pop-up window on top of the game reality is cool.
Try to run like that with a pip fight.
And a very wonderful Outcast. Also pre-reality, as in the much later Deus Ex over the character's view. But that's not all.
The game has an incredibly stylish first launch of the map in each new world. Around the hero runs a green laser grid from his wearable computer, which scans the terrain. The player sees that the card is not a certain abstract function, but a very specific part from our special forces equipment.
And the second absolutely charming moment is the preservation of the game. Yes, yes, Outcast is one of the few games that has managed to make saving the game a part of the world. At the very beginning, we are given a special stone - gamsaav. According to local beliefs, before a responsible case, you need to look inside and concentrate. Reality will go in circles, and things will surely succeed.
kid from Fallout 3NV carries on his hand exactly the same system menu as we do
. In Deus Ex, everything that we see on the screen is displayed directly on our optic nerve. This is not the game’s interface, this is the pre-reality of our character:
The game’s interface is a familiar convention, and if you eliminate it, you’ll get a little less distrust of what we see on the screen. Well, it's just insanely beautiful.
Here is another absolutely wonderful old game. Here, the entire interface is taken out on a laptop: We
finished shooting, crouched on the grass, laid a rifle nearby, opened the mail and read the intelligence report. Or ordered a couple of trunks at the nearest airport. Or they looked at the files of the mercenaries.
And here comes the second insanely interesting thing. It’s not enough to make the interface a part of the game - you can still play with how it affects this game by itself. For example, in JA2: UB, the pilot of our helicopter manages to break off the antenna of the laptop, and the interface must be repaired (!) In one of the cities where there are suitable accessories.
Here are the Vanger . Here, during a dialogue with escape advisers, strange objects could be picked up around the edges. The game takes place without knowledge of this feature, but with lipuring and a rabbox before rabification is somehow much easier. Sticky, imbued with the amount of scent dragged by a vanger, at some point even advises picking a Cucumber, giving a completely playful hint.
And here, in Deus Ex, a dialogue system is shown with pre-reality from the integrated in our head conversation module.
In addition to collecting information (which is well implemented ), at the right time we can release the necessary pheromones. And there are two scenes in the game: the heroine begging Adam not to use this module (pheromones allow her to be convinced that Adam is sincere and speaks from the heart), a man with immunity to pheromones, who practically ridicules our movements in the interface. This is also another step towards a realistic world.
In some games, cartridges are shown directly on the weapon - this is also a good step to dive deeper into the world. What else can be brought to the "reality" of the world? A good example is role-playing magazines and logs. Here is Bioshock Infinite, here is the storage medium - voice, sound recording. The joy is that you are given at the beginning of the game at the fair to record your voice on such a device. After this, one believes in their realism.
Another cool role-playing theme is to change the interface depending on the character's abilities. For example, the diary of the protagonist of Arcanum can turn into hellish hell if you manage to generate a mentally retarded character.
It is also very good when some mega-useful game books are put in the supply of a large collection box. For example, world maps, important guides, or something like that. You can hold a “game” item in your hands - this also creates an additional connection with the reality and the world of the game.
Desktop examples
I think that the beauty of reducing the virtual world through the transformation of an interface into a game object has been more or less sorted out. Now a couple of examples from our field.
The easiest is to remove the threshold of virtualization. For example, we have an intercom in Space Alert that announces the time of the mission and provides important information during the flight. It is implemented on a card with a list of events and a timer. A good way to change the interface is to record voice files that solve the same game problem, save the attention of players, are more realistic and, in general, are recorded using the EDI voice from Mass Effect (as we would like in the Russian version - but not a fact yet).
Secondly, the speed of the interface can be a game delay.And even the main object of the game. In reaction games, there are usually two measures: recognizing a game situation and using the appropriate game action. In the "Bear" you need to grab a log in the middle of the table with the correct cards, and in the same "Confusion" to break the brain, trying to determine the coincidence of the cube with the blue face and the second cube with the yellow face that says "blue".
Thirdly, the interface can simplify the calculations. For example, in the Pentagon (these are tic-tac-toe on a line of length 5, where you must also turn each turn and twist a quarter of the field) you can physically pick up the game and turn the field to see how it will look a bit later. And turn back.
Fourth, the interface can perform non-basic functions.For example, on the Imaginarium box, the lodgement is simultaneously a playing field. And beneath it there is also a storage-pantry for other small games. So the result is such a meta box. By the way, due to unusualness, at first she often suffered from attempts to tear the field.
This is the lodgement field, under it is the pantry
And, fifthly, the interface can be directly a game object. In quest games like Ruff, you can roll an airplane out of the rules, put a box on your head, and so on. In this regard, the book “Wreck this Journal” is insanely happy, which every day offers a quest to destroy itself: then you need to bury it in the garden and find it in two hours, then go to the shower with it and so on. A great example of a self-destructing interface.
In the end
Comparing Stalker and Fallout 3, you should be surprised at the unrealistic implementation of the idea of the interface of the latter at some points. Remember, when we go into the radiation zone in Fallout, a crack starts and a pop-up block appears on top of the screen? In Stalker, if something is popping in your pocket, you need to get it and look at the arrow. True, our hero can not only heal bullet wounds with bread, but also see radiation, but still the lack of a pop-up window on top of the game reality is cool.
Try to run like that with a pip fight.
And a very wonderful Outcast. Also pre-reality, as in the much later Deus Ex over the character's view. But that's not all.
The game has an incredibly stylish first launch of the map in each new world. Around the hero runs a green laser grid from his wearable computer, which scans the terrain. The player sees that the card is not a certain abstract function, but a very specific part from our special forces equipment.
And the second absolutely charming moment is the preservation of the game. Yes, yes, Outcast is one of the few games that has managed to make saving the game a part of the world. At the very beginning, we are given a special stone - gamsaav. According to local beliefs, before a responsible case, you need to look inside and concentrate. Reality will go in circles, and things will surely succeed.