Some common fears, like fear of heights or of the ocean are, on a basic level, fear of empty and unknown spaces.
Psychosomatic ReactionsĮmptiness can be terrifying too, and I don’t just mean in an existential sense. But unlike in Mass Effect, it also encourages rumination on the game’s central objective, since there’s little else to do in between battles. Here, empty space gives the player time to breath. The game’s vast distances, while occasionally broken up by minor challenges, give the player ample time to think about what they are doing and why they’re doing it. In contrast, consider the mounting unease of the player as they ride out to confront another giant foe in Shadow of the Colossus. The empty moments in Mass Effect feel safe. From this perspective, the empty silence of the elevator rides is time spent in companionable silence. I appreciate getting to know my companions and developing friendships with them. But they also accomplish another aim of negative space in art: giving the eye a place to rest.įor myself and many others, Bioware games like Mass Effect are all about the relationships between characters. Like the fog of Silent Hill, these sequences aim to hide the seams of the game world. Players hear occasional dialogue between companions and announcements over the PA, but it’s mostly just empty downtime. In place of loading screens between areas, Mass Effect places players in long elevator sequences. (Lao-Tzu, Te-Tao Ching)Īnother famous - or maybe infamous - example of negative space as technical masking is the elevator in Mass Effect. It is precisely where there is nothing, that we find the usefulness of the wheel. But it’s also impossible to imagine the game without it - the atmosphere and experience just wouldn’t be the same. Fog conceals the low draw distance and pop-in effects that would otherwise be jarring in what was supposed to be an immersive world. The PS1 didn’t have the capacity to render Silent Hill as the developers intended. It amplifies how alone Harry Mason is and how unfamiliar the town is.īut the main purpose of the fog is technical - it masks the limitations of the system for which the game was designed. The player doesn’t know what is lurking in that looming emptiness.
The blank space created by the fog is a major source of atmosphere and tension in the game. How does that work in video games? One example is the fog in Silent Hill.
The negative space of the panel is a technical mask that happens to also work as a focusing tool. This shortcut is a way to make panels more “readable” or draw attention to a character’s expression, but most importantly, it’s a way to save time. One in particular applies to games: the idea that the artist need not draw backgrounds in every panel. But typically, it’s something we only experience when the game breaks.Īs a comic artist, I’ve internalized countless pieces of advice about the medium. We know that beyond what we can see there is nothing, a space of potentiality. Our experience of the world within the game takes place in a void, a digital vacuum. We don’t often associate video games with the concept of negative space, at least not in an intentional way. In visual art, we would say that it draws the viewer’s eye to the subject. The “negative space” of the long walk up supports the fear or anxiety of reaching the boss or the big moment in a story. If it succeeds, or just succeeds at testing the player’s patience is another matter - but it’s an attempt to intensify emotion and bring the player’s attention to a focal point. In both cases, the intention was probably to build tension. This too is a strange moment in the game, but so much of that game feels uncanny. And this use of empty game space fails to build suspense.Ĭompare this to the long and dangerous path to Nashandra at the end of Dark Souls 2. Even when there are moments of travel without fighting, there will be loot to pick up or landscape to take in. A level will respawn skeletons or Stygian Crawlers after you clear it. A second pass through will refill an area with enemies. There aren’t other long, empty places like this in Diablo 3 that I can recall. It’s a peculiarly empty moment in an otherwise dense gameplay experience. But the staircase is really long! It’s twisting and falling apart like most things in the Cells and it takes several seconds for your character to traverse. Here, there aren’t any difficult enemies and the rescue isn’t especially compelling storytelling. After a pitched battle across a fire-ridden arena, your character defeats the Butcher and continues into the Cells of the Condemned to find the Stranger. At the end of Act 1 in Diablo 3, you’ve descended through the Highlands and the Halls of Agony, battling Khazra, Dark Cultists and the fearsome Warden to meet the Butcher.
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