With any video game, setting is an important and basic concept that can set the tone and feel of how the player interacts with the elements found within. Whether is’s going on an galactic adventure through the cosmos or surviving the brain eating horde in the fields of 9th century Europe, settings in general gives us information about the world we inhabit and find ourselves in. Even simple games like tag are limited by the field of play! Game designers and level creators are more aware of this than anyone, as they are the ones creating the landscapes and challenges that the player will have to face. In come cases, this means crating a hallway or room with some statistically placed walls and pickups and populating the area with enemies. Sometimes even a boss with a unique gimmick. Other times however, they take the level and scenery and use it to tell a story, or show how things are changing. A personal example of mines was playing the game inFamous. In the game, your actions had a effect of the world depending on if you was playing the good or evil route. As you did bad actions, your character would wear darker clothing, look dirtier and the world around would look worst for wear with increasingly darkening skies and more dystopian looking buildings. Compare this to the good route, where the skies start parting the dark clouds and the city, while still rundown looking, shows signs of rebuilding and progress. These elements show that your actions have active consequences, and the game designers want you to be aware of that.

Setting too can also tell an underlying story. Such is the case of Bioshock Infinite. In this game we play as Booker DeWitt, a former detective trying wipe away his dept by taking on a mission to find a girl named Elizabeth on the floating city that is Columbia. It’s important to note now that the game’s developers, Irrational Games, were an American company. This comes into play very early on in the game when we are first introduced to the city of Columbia, a steampunk-esque city that somehow feels so advance for it’s time, yet oddly fitting in the themes of 1900’s America. The city is busing with old Colonial architecture and a somewhat similar motif of redesigned American flags, all while robo-officers patrol the streets. The setting is familiar enough to understand the general theme, yet alien and new. It makes the player want to explore and see what chain of events let to this environment. That is the importance of showing, and not telling. As quoted in “How to Play Viedogames,”

“There is both enough consistency and ambiguity present in the design of the geography to keep players speculating without ever being able to establish definitively how Columbia’s buildings are arranged. This makes Columbia appear larger than it is (because no single map contains it all), and it suggests, too, that there may be areas the player has not seen.[1]”

With the right setting, you can craft a whole world that is not only immersive, but also have meaning and creates interest for the player. Sure, not too many players are too focused on the backdrop, but if the elements show themselves without saying a thing, you know you have created an enticing world to explore.

[1] Huntemann, Nina B. How to Play Video Games (User’s Guides to Popular Culture) (pp. 77-78). NYU Press. Kindle Edition.