Due to the many tones that games can emanate, it is difficult to thoroughly quantify what atmosphere is. One game’s atmosphere can widely differ from another’s in successful execution and subsequent effects on the player. Horror games frequently strive for an aura of dread, for instance, while racing games often aim for a feeling of exhilaration. Despite the many possibilities of successful atmospheres in games, a well implemented tone can elevate gameplay by adding realism, feeling, and engagement to the player’s experience.
Creating atmosphere through music
Music is a common approach to convey a game’s intended atmosphere. From the beginning of Metroid Prime, its Title Theme generates a feeling of sci-fi mystique. Its strange instruments coalesce to construct an odd sound that feels otherworldly and ominous. This dodgy theme perfectly fits the space-exploration game’s emphasis of isolation and danger. Many other tracks in Metroid Prime similarly dramatize the player’s interstellar experience by adding a subtle, continuous, and ever-present lull of suspense and emotion.
Super Mario Sunshine creates a completely different theme throughout its cheery, upbeat tunes. The iconic Delfino Plaze’s theme instantly creates an upbeat and exciting vibe that energizes the player to explore and enjoy Sunshine’s tropical paradise. Steel drums also accompany its Gelato Beach tune, fittingly conveying the happy-go-lucky beach motif. Music remains a straightforward, yet instrumental approach to articulate a game’s intended atmosphere.
Creating atmosphere through visual design
Another common approach to generate atmosphere is throughout the visual design. The vibrantly colorful palate of Super Mario World exudes feelings of happiness and childlike excitement. It intelligently incorporates strong colors in core design features: Mario’s hat is red, his overalls are blue, yoshi is green, and common question mark blocks are yellow. The ubiquity of these elements creates a continuously colorful gameplay experience. The player constantly enjoys spirited colors that liven gameplay, fitting Super Mario World’s emphasis on pure platforming pleasure.
Rather than through color, the Wii’s highly successful Punch-Out!! incorporates empowering cutscenes to emanate the arduous boxing journey of its protagonist, Little Mac. After each title round, the player advances to a harder set of opponents. The game’s movies depict Little Mac training with his coach to prepare for this upcoming difficulty, thereby adding realism to upcoming gameplay. Each Rocky-like clip enlivens the player through its visual display of Little Mac’s arduous training, culminating in a reference to the original NES Punch-Out!! with a similar shot of Little Mac running with his Bronx home in the background. In addition to honoring its roots, these cutscenes emanate a sense of growth and power within the player that prepares him/her for upcoming matches.
Creating atmosphere through gameplay
As a subtler approach, games can create a unique tone through gameplay. Yu-Gi-Oh!’s Reshef of Destruction does so by altering the field when an evil opponent is engaged. Instead of the neutral duelist field that opens every other battle, these duels against evil minions and bosses result in the immediate implementation of the dark field spell. Powering up many of the dark monsters that these enemies use, this dark field spell gameplay addition often disadvantages the player. Because opponents become tougher to defeat, the tactical player must react by constructing a deck that benefits from, changes, or works around this dark field. Gameplay subsequently specializes with this strategic response, adding further depth to particularly strong adversaries. This difficulty also conveys the relentless danger of dueling these enemies, thereby infusing a daunting atmosphere into core gameplay.
As a lighter example, Pokémon X and Y design the player’s movement in each gym to embody a specific Pokémon type. Historically, a gym’s Pokémon battles included a particular type to articulate that type’s characteristics, as does X and Y, yet few Pokémon games before X and Y capitalized on how the player moves within the gym. For example, X and Y’s bug-themed gym implements a spiderweb floor to navigate, their rock-type gym includes rock climbing walls to surmount, and their grass gym features a massive tree to scale. These features not only diversity gameplay, but also embody each gym’s intended ambiance. The player perceives the role of each Pokémon type through both battle and navigation, resulting in a more intimately felt player experience.
Creating atmosphere by unifying these elements
As interactionist models posit, several elements can work together to collectively create robust effects. In terms of game design, games can incorporate their music, visuals, and gameplay to aggregately orchestrate an intended atmosphere. The lovable Yoshi’s Wooly World, for example, includes cheery music, adorable visuals, and approachable gameplay to synthesize its playful and childlike mood. Starting with music, the players enjoys a collection of bouncy tunes through each level that matches the game’s light and breezy tone. Furthermore, the entire visual design is filled with charming items that convey its wool motif. Yoshi spits balls of yarn, secrets are hinted with loose strings, and all characters are constructed with thread. The completeness of this stylistic choice constantly reinforces the game’s plushy and lovable nature. Gameplay matches this motif by empowering Yoshi with special yarn powers. Several bonus stages allow Yoshi to delightfully race as a yarn motorcycle, float as a yarn umbrella, or swim as a yarn mermaid. The overall gameplay is also fairly easy to lucidly enable enjoyment rather than frustration. These gameplay approaches provide creative movement that diversity gameplay and a difficulty setting that fits child audiences. Taken collectively, these elements create an encompassing atmosphere of cuteness and approachability that elevates the player’s enjoyment.
The Castlevania series executes a different approach to serve its atmosphere. Specifically, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow blends its many elements to emanate a tone of sober, fear, and danger. Its music ranges from mysteriously intriguing in exploration sections to ragingly exhilarating in boss battles. Its tonal variety appropriately shifts to match the player’s current experience, thus enhancing the player’s gameplay. Visuals include a macabre chapel, a forlorn garden, and a cursed clock tower. Once again, the variety in elements, this time in visual elements, aid the player’s overall experience by providing diverse and intriguing areas that convey oppressive evil and absolute desolation. Gameplay further aids this motif through both weapon and enemy choice. Weapons range from the classic whip to the evil sickles. The harshness of these weapons in both design and attack animations exemplify the setting’s overall brutality. Enemy choice also conveys morbid themes. The typical choice of ghouls, ghosts, and zombies appear, but with the addition of possessed knight goliaths and an indiscernible mass of grotesquely conjoined human bodies. These enemies are not mere goombas, they are sick and unholy aberrations that justify the player’s gameplay of destroying them. With the combination of its eerie music, morbid visuals, and ghastly gameplay, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow emanates a harsh atmosphere of dread that adds realism to gameplay.
Conclusion
Almost every game can benefit from a well implemented atmosphere. Atmospheres advance gameplay with added authenticity and help root the player in a somewhat consistent gameplay experience. While variety in gameplay can keep the player engaged, variety in atmosphere can confuse the player. For example, quickly shifting from tones of sorrow to joy could break the player’s state of flow. Thus, games with consistency in atmosphere can help prevent their overall experience from becoming segmented and diluted. The most compelling atmospheres arise from consistency in the interaction of a game’s many elements, and slyly help create unforgettable experiences for the player to to relish.
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