BY: Rajeev Alekatt
Architecture is considered the mother of arts. The virtual world of gaming and architecture go hand in hand. Architects have the capability to give life to the background of a game, thus making it a richer virtual experience. Such a close relationship between game-play and architecture is due to the fact that architecture makes up most of our real-life environment.
Unlike other forms of media, video games deliver fictional environments that are believable and can be approached experimentally, the key being the work done by architects.
Architecture finds its main requirement in video games as the background setting.
Renowned games like Call Of Duty and Assassin’s Creed incorporates architecture in their realistic surroundings, which make the games an attraction to the young and old alike.
These backgrounds require inactive architecture, as their role is to give the characters a place to move and act upon. In real life, architecture is similarly inert; therefore this adds a more pragmatic touch to the virtual world.
Other games deal with a more impractical and fanciful story-line. Here, architecture is used to create worlds that have only existed in the minds of creative authors and readers whose imagination knows no bounds. Appropriate examples are games like Doom and Minecraft.
Minecraft is a game popular among children for the creative freedom that it offers. It follows a simple set of rules—governing terrain, vegetation, material types, or building types, which provide players with a simple set of blocks with which to create a narrative of their own.
In such games the architecture plays a role in shaping how the game narrative unfolds.
COD is a franchise that has earned its popularity due to its realistic story-line, unbeatable graphics and the multiplayer option that brings young people together. Various spin off games have been released. While the first few games in the series are set in World War II and the Cold War, the recent games have also been set in the modern times as well as a near future setting.
Architecture serves COD in numerous ways and brings its name to fame.
The earlier versions focus on war and age-old artillery, while the recent versions give us an insight into the future. This allows the gamer to view ancient historical architecture and also shows the possible development and advancement in the fields of architecture, technology and weaponry in the near future.
Needless to say, architecture assists video games in more various ways than those listed here. Architects are increasingly moving into the virtual world to construct appropriate settings and backgrounds for games that can bring in marvelous revenues. The architecture students of today are equipped with many tools required for game designing. It is clear that nowadays architecture has more to do with the success of a game that the story-line itself.
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