Something I've been really interested in lately is the idea of breaking the fourth wall in games. I've been trying to come up with ways I can mess with the player during the finale sequence of Ritual and the idea of having the game suddenly glitch out really intrigues me so I've been looking in to the concept of fourth wall breaking in the medium of games more in depth.
Traditionally the fourth wall refers to the imaginary wall between the audience of a theatrical performance and the stage. To break the fourth wall involves breaking the suspension of disbelief by addressing the audience directly, mentally removing them from the fictional universe they are immersed in.
Traditionally the fourth wall refers to the imaginary wall between the audience of a theatrical performance and the stage. To break the fourth wall involves breaking the suspension of disbelief by addressing the audience directly, mentally removing them from the fictional universe they are immersed in.
In videogames the actual fourth wall is unclear. Conway (2009) explains “When you play a game,
you fulfil the dual role of audience member and performer on stage” – the
player is both the viewer and the participant.
Kirkland (2007) agrees with this statement, acknowledging that
“Consumer’s presence outside the text is frequently, even perpetually,
acknowledged in a manner universal in other popular forms of media”. For instance, it is often necessary for
in-game tutorials to break the fourth wall in some form. User interfaces are often presented in a
non-diagetic or spatial format, on a plane solely for the player/viewer as
opposed to the characters of the game world.
Throughout the years many developers have explored the use of this technique in game design. The horror genre is “ideal for exploring deconstructions of videogame text” (Kirkland 2007) as the genre excels at subverting conventional game design in support of an often twisted or supernatural narrative. There are several areas that can be addressed in terms of breaking the fourth wall in videogames. Firstly, the player character may directly refer to the player. Examples of this can be found in Silent Hill 3 (Konami 2003) where, should the player choose to make the game’s protagonist Heather look in to a toilet bowl, she will turn to the screen and exclaim “Gross! Who would do something like that anyway?”. Kirkland describes this as both “comic and chilling” and points out this use of fourth wall breaking is suited to horror as it reminds the player the fate of their character is in their hands. Another method of breaking the fourth wall involves the game itself displaying self-awareness as a videogame. For instance during a nightmare sequence in the narrative of Max Payne (Rockstar Games 2002) a note left by his deceased wife reads “You are in a computer game, Max” and in the recent Playable Teaser for Silent Hills the fourth wall is broken directly by having one of the puzzle pieces the player must search for hidden inside one of the menu screens.
Perhaps one of the most interesting uses of fourth wall breaking in horror game text is an example found in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and the use of its sanity metre mechanic. Should the player let this metre deplete too much a number of intrusive gameplay elements may occur such as blurred on-screen overlays or eerie sound effects. However one of the most extreme consequences for this involves the manipulation of the user interface, such as the occurrence of false messages stating game controllers are unplugged that all of the information on the player’s memory card is being erased. Taylor (2009) states that “horror games often use the interface to subvert typical play and to challenge conceptions of game interface design”. This is an especially interesting use of breaking the fourth wall in horror as it questions the relationship between the player and the game and suggests the horror of the game is so real it is not only happening to the player character but to the player themselves.
If implemented efficiently, designers of horror games can make practical use of breaking the fourth wall in their games in order to enhance atmosphere. Though an element of this breakage is already present to some extent in certain videogames through the presence of UI elements on a separate plane to the game environment, the fourth wall can be broken through the player character addressing the player directly or the suggestion of self-awareness by the videogame itself. Doing so can create feelings of confusion and paranoia in the player that can only support a horror atmosphere.
--
As mentioned in a previous post, saturated colours represent danger in the game so I want the "limbo" area to be a sort of distorted version of the forest area with a very intense colour scheme. I took a screenshot of the forest and messed about with it in Photoshop:
Throughout the years many developers have explored the use of this technique in game design. The horror genre is “ideal for exploring deconstructions of videogame text” (Kirkland 2007) as the genre excels at subverting conventional game design in support of an often twisted or supernatural narrative. There are several areas that can be addressed in terms of breaking the fourth wall in videogames. Firstly, the player character may directly refer to the player. Examples of this can be found in Silent Hill 3 (Konami 2003) where, should the player choose to make the game’s protagonist Heather look in to a toilet bowl, she will turn to the screen and exclaim “Gross! Who would do something like that anyway?”. Kirkland describes this as both “comic and chilling” and points out this use of fourth wall breaking is suited to horror as it reminds the player the fate of their character is in their hands. Another method of breaking the fourth wall involves the game itself displaying self-awareness as a videogame. For instance during a nightmare sequence in the narrative of Max Payne (Rockstar Games 2002) a note left by his deceased wife reads “You are in a computer game, Max” and in the recent Playable Teaser for Silent Hills the fourth wall is broken directly by having one of the puzzle pieces the player must search for hidden inside one of the menu screens.
Perhaps one of the most interesting uses of fourth wall breaking in horror game text is an example found in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and the use of its sanity metre mechanic. Should the player let this metre deplete too much a number of intrusive gameplay elements may occur such as blurred on-screen overlays or eerie sound effects. However one of the most extreme consequences for this involves the manipulation of the user interface, such as the occurrence of false messages stating game controllers are unplugged that all of the information on the player’s memory card is being erased. Taylor (2009) states that “horror games often use the interface to subvert typical play and to challenge conceptions of game interface design”. This is an especially interesting use of breaking the fourth wall in horror as it questions the relationship between the player and the game and suggests the horror of the game is so real it is not only happening to the player character but to the player themselves.
If implemented efficiently, designers of horror games can make practical use of breaking the fourth wall in their games in order to enhance atmosphere. Though an element of this breakage is already present to some extent in certain videogames through the presence of UI elements on a separate plane to the game environment, the fourth wall can be broken through the player character addressing the player directly or the suggestion of self-awareness by the videogame itself. Doing so can create feelings of confusion and paranoia in the player that can only support a horror atmosphere.
--
As mentioned in a previous post, saturated colours represent danger in the game so I want the "limbo" area to be a sort of distorted version of the forest area with a very intense colour scheme. I took a screenshot of the forest and messed about with it in Photoshop:
I really like how the sky turned out in that last one and how the bright cyan contrasts with the lava-like oranges and reds. However the purples and greens come across as too friendly so I plan on having the foreground and trees appear more dark and sinister. For the glitch effect I'll take snippets of the environment and add noise and animate segments distorting and place theme around the environment, with the effect growing more intense the further the player progresses, with error messages occasionally popping up in the same way as the ghosts do in the beginning of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment