Reality Without Gravity
- Architecture in video games
Writer: Yang Yuhao
Assassin's Creed Concept Art
Image taken from Gallery of What It’s Like to Be an Architectural Consultant for Assassin’s Creed II - 5 (archdaily.com)
Landscape architect Thomas Church famously said, “The only limit to your garden is at the boundaries of your imagination.”. Indeed, generations of architects have pushed the boundaries of technology and crafted masterpieces that are deemed “physics-defying”. However, even with the advancements we have made over the centuries, mankind is still limited by technology and gravity. It seems that we still have some way to go before we can board the Howl’s Moving Castle, but this is possible virtually in video games. As 3D engines and modelling software advance, architects are defying gravity and constructing the “impossible” in the world of “0” and “1”.
Genshin Impact Gameplay (Enkanomiya)
Image taken from Genshin Impact Enkanomiya unlock guide - Polygon
Talking about gravity-defying, we would immediately think of floating structures. Games like Bioshock Infinite has portrayed the concept of the floating city in its captivating gameplay in 2013. Today games like Genshin Impact and World Adrift have elevated the graphics and selective physics within the game to emulate the real world and make the gaming experience more immersive.
Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay
Image taken from Cyberpunk 2077 is an architecture critique with nothing to say (archpaper.com)
Apart from literal floating structures, games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Ghostrunner also strives to reimagine the foreseeable future in the form of abstract architecture representations of a hyper-advanced (and dystopian) society. Along the same track of futurist architectures, games like Control builds upon the idea presented in the movie Inception by creating spaces with portal-like qualities.
Control Gameplay
Image taken from Here are the architecture-minded video games to play this winter (archpaper.com)
On the other end, games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted explores the ancient structures through reimaging ancient relics in their adventure-packed storyline. Other games such as Tekken and King of Fighters are more literal with their landscape creation by replicating existing architectures in-game. Culture is also a big theme in many open-world games. Genshin Impact, for instance, crafted different regions with reference to different cultures around the world. For example, the Liyue region takes reference from Chinese culture, the buildings and landscapes generated are simply remarkable reimaginations of existing cultural elements.
Genshin Impact Liyue Concept Art
Image taken from The Dimensional Dragonic Knight (Genshin Impact x Male Reader) - Chapter 15: To the Liyue and.... God of Geo is Dead?!?! - Wattpad
With that said, most games are still (somewhat) bonded by our existing understanding of architecture and social elements. As renowned art critique, Jerry Saltz once said, “It’s art that pushes against psychological and social expectations, that tries to transform decay into something generative.”, architects hold the key to unlocking the endless possibilities in a world without gravity. Perhaps, discoveries made through a computer screen can inspire real-life developments and help make the Howl’s Moving Castle a reality.