Knytt, and Atmospheric Games

A friend just wrote to ask if I’m playing STALKER yet (I’m not), recommending it for its atmosphere. That’s not the first mention I’ve heard of the game’s atmosphere, and I’m looking forward to picking it up as soon as I have time to give it proper attention.

In the mean time, I’ve been playing a free little game called Knytt. It was made by one person. It’s 2D, low res, and also surprisingly atmospheric. (Play full-screen, and with sound: is music always essential to atmosphere?) It’s hard to get a sense of it from screenshots, so I strongly recommend just downloading it. It takes a couple minutes to download and another minute to learn, and I really can’t recommend the game highly enough. It’s fantastic and astonishing.

Knytt’s author says he was inspired by Ico, Doukutsu Monogatari, Seiklus, and Shadow of The Colossus. (The two of those I’ve played certainly do interesting things with atmosphere.) Horror games live and die on the moods they create: Alone in the Dark and System Shock 2 are favorites of mine, though perhaps obvious. The Orisinal games succeed to various extents, primarily on the backs of their art and music combinations as opposed to anything the game does (though Raph Koster has written extensively about High Delivery).

This post is barely scratching the surface: there’s so much to explore, from what atmosphere in a game really is, what part of atmosphere is unique to games, to how to pull it off. I’m actually surprised that some games seem to do it so well: this is a part of the medium that some people seem to have an intuition for. What are some of your favorite atmospheric games? What games have pulled off a strong mood that you still remember today?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Game Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

http://www.doublefine.com TheOtherErik

What really impresses me with the atmosphere in STALKER is that it goes beyond aesthetics — it’s expressed in numerous other ways via actual gameplay. If you aren’t able to be scared by horror games, you might be underwhelmed by the rough first quarter of the game, in which you’re quite weak.

– BEGIN MINOR SPOILERS –

They really sell that this is a damaged world. There’s a palpable selfishness that comes with fear for one’s own survival, and it flows through every person and animal in the game. While I maintained my neutrality between the Duty and Freedom factions, I definitely grew an affection for the Freedom folks. They were easy-going and, perhaps more importantly, they actively offered me the benefits of membership (mainly protection in key areas) without requiring that I do anything but pitch in and do my part.

So after a certain point in the game when all hell breaks loose I found myself in what had previously been a safe and well-protected Freedom outpost. Suddenly a malicious set of mutants (the most lethal sub-type in the game) ran through the camp and systematically slaughtered every man there. I was PISSED. I worked through the mutants with a vengeance. These guys had saved my life a dozen times and I’d just watched them all get killed off, because that’s what happens in this fucking place.

– END MINOR SPOILERS –

It’s been a long time since I’ve been drawn into a game this emotionally and viscerally. And I don’t know why it works so well for me; it’s not like the story or dialog are good (they’re not). But somehow they really pull it off.
http://independentcreator.com Matt

Interesting– difficulty definitely does some good things for games. In Fallout 2, you’re similarly crap at the beginning, and pretty much anything can kick your ass. The easiest way to get past that is to become scum of the earth. It’s a lot harder to just be a hero solving everyone’s problems, and it makes for a more realistic feeling.

STALKER sounds awesome. I really need to get it….
http://www.independentcreator.com/2007-07-03/cave-story/ Independent Creator » Blog Archive » Cave Story

[...] and perhaps because of that, Cave Story’s atmosphere isn’t quite as strong as Knytt. If that sounds like your sort of thing, download the game first, then download the patch [...]

diary of an indie game developer

Knytt, and Atmospheric Games