RESEARCH

To create a post-apocalyptic environment, I draw inspirations from some of the most successful games within the same genre and theme. My main inspirations include games such as The Last of Us, Metro Exodus, and Fallout 4. In this research, I am going to look at different layouts, visual styles, atmosphere, and moods of these iconic games. Additionally, I will analyse other environments and concept art created by various artists, art that resonate the most with the vision I have for my bunker environment. By the end of the research, I will have most of my references gathered into mood boards that will later help me with art direction and design decisions. 

Environmental Design

The Last of Us games excel in environmental storytelling, with interior environments rich in details and narrative significance. Each location tells a story through its layout, props, and visual cues, providing insights into the lives of characters and the world they currently live in. Interior environments range from abandoned buildings, improvised shelters, and quarantine zones. These spaces are often designed to feel lived-in, with cluttered interiors, personal belongings, and signs of past occupation.

If we look at some examples of environments in the games, there is a strong contrast between the world outside and the spaces where survivors live in. While the exterior environments often reflect the aftermath of a fungal apocalypse, with overgrown vegetation reclaiming urban spaces and buildings crumbling, the improvised shelters and quarantine zones are usually well organised and cleaner.

The Last of Us - Exterior environments examples

The Last of Us - Interior environments examples

Layout and Structure

The layouts of interior environments are mostly crafted to facilitate exploration and gameplay. Locations are interconnected through corridors, rooms, and open spaces that offer multiple pathways and opportunities for strategic navigation. Other environments often include key areas such as living quarters, communal areas, storage rooms, and other points of interest such as workstations, medical facilities, and security checkpoints. These spaces were designed considering both player progression and narrative pacing.  

Visual Style, Atmosphere, and Mood

The visual style in The Last of Us games can be characterised by a combination of realism and stylisation, with detailed textures, dynamic lighting, and other atmospheric effects, adding to the immersion of the environments. The colour palettes are mostly muted, reflecting the post-apocalyptic setting of the game. However, some areas make use of vibrant colours, making some environments more vivid and sharp. 

Various colour palette (source https://www.instagram.com/gamecolorcharts/)

Lighting plays a crucial role in setting the mood and tone in The Last of Us games. Different lighting techniques are used throughout the games to convey specific moods, with dynamic shadows, volumetric lighting, or ambient occlusion, contributing to the overall aesthetic and gameplay. As someone who played both games, I noticed there are three lighting scenarios predominantly throughout the games. The first one, evenly lit scenario, is mostly used in safe environments, when players can clearly see enemies and the surroundings. The second one, a high-key or bright lit scenario, not very often used, but encountered in key story levels or throwback happy memories. The third one, low-key lit scenario, is the most used one (as it is the case, since the games have survival horror elements) in really dangerous environments, to induce fear and low visibility.

Storytelling

The Last of Us games are rich in environmental storytelling elements such as graffiti, notes, and any other details that provide context and backstory to the places you explore as a player. These elements not only help immerse players in the games, they also encourage for more exploring to uncover secrets behind each location. Similarly, props and set dressing make the environments more believable and they also contribute to the storytelling and overall aesthetic.

Environmental Design

Metro Exodus game features a diverse range of environments, from claustrophobic tunnels of the Moscow Metro to the open-world wilderness of a post-apocalyptic Russia. Interior environments are often represented by tight corridors, dim lit tunnels, and cramped living spaces; they often convey a sense of claustrophobia and isolation, together with fear induced by mutants and hostile people. On the other hand, exterior environments are represented by a beautifully crafted post-apocalyptic world.

Metro Exodus - Interior environments examples

Metro Exodus - Exterior environments examples

Layout and Structure

The environments layouts, just like The Last of Us games, are designed to encourage exploration. Interior environments are often represented by places within the Moscow Metro which are connected through a network of tunnels and stations, each having its own unique atmosphere and challenges. The protagonist also explore various dilapidated buildings. Outdoor environments, on the other hand, are structured mostly around key landmarks and points of interest, such as large abandoned buildings, military outposts, or natural landmarks. 

Visual Style, Atmosphere, and Mood

Metro exodus is renowned for its atmospheric and immersive world design. Some of its strengths include detailed textures and realistic lighting. It can be noticed that the interior environments make use of dim lighting, rusted metal surfaces, and decaying infrastructure. The world outside features dynamic weather effects, the environments are usually well lit, even during the night scenes. 

There are various colour palettes throughout the game, depending on the environments and their specific mood. For example, in the decaying urban environments, the colour choices often include muted tones of grey, brown, and green. In some natural environments, the prominent tones are white and icy blue, for the snowy landscapes. In darker environments, such as tunnels or night scenes, the prominent tones tend to be deep blue, with accents of warm orange and yellow from light sources.

Various colour palette (source https://www.instagram.com/gamecolorcharts/)

The atmosphere in this game is often tense, given by the dangers that always seems to be lurking in the dark, especially in the underground, intensified by the ambient noises and dynamic music. Lighting in the game seems to follow the same scenarios, as in The Last of Us games, with low-key lighting being mostly used in the undergrounds (the most dangerous places) and evenly lit scenario in all other environments.

Storytelling

Metro Exodus features many storytelling elements such as graffiti, signage, and other environmental details. However, unlike The Last of Us games, in Metro Exodus players can learn more about different stories and the world around them by interacting with NPCs most of the time. 

Environmental Design

Fallout 4 features a wide range of environments, from urban and rural areas with dilapidated buildings, to underground shelters (Vaults). All environments are designed to reflect the game's post-apocalyptic setting, emphasising a sense of decay, destruction, and survival of humanity.

Fallout 4 is set in an open-world environment, where players have the freedom to explore various locations, build settlements based on existing ones (abandoned or conquered). Players also have the opportunity to access underground shelters like Vaults which are designed with a maze-like layout, featuring interconnected corridors and rooms. These locations often contain hidden passages, secret rooms, and experimental facilities. 

Fallout 4 - Exterior environments examples

Fallout 4 - Interior environments examples

Layout and Structure

The environmental layouts, just like the previous analysed games, are based on their location and purpose, and mostly designed for exploration. Urban areas often consist of interconnected streets, buildings, and alleys, while rural landscapes feature expansive open spaces and scattered settlements. Underground vaults, as mentioned above, are usually fortified shelters designed to house communities that could survive the nuclear holocaust and sustain life for a long period of time. Some vaults are located beneath important buildings (e.g., Medical Laboratories), while others in various locations near communities (settlements). 

Vaults Layout

The vaults are very similar in their basic functions, but sometimes were constructed according to different designs. They usually feature a main entrance (the only connection to the world outside), living quarters with one hundred single rooms, each with a sanitary annex (standard pre-war design), a command centre where the Overseer's seat is located, operation centre, laboratory, water purification system, an armoury, computer core (AI monitoring the shelter), a library playing an important role in educating vault dwellers, a common meeting room, and a storage room.

Visual Style, Atmosphere, and Mood

The game takes place in an alternate version of history that features 1940s and 1950s aesthetics, such as diners and drive-in theatres, while design and technologies advance in the directions imagined during that era. Fallout has a distinctive visual style characterised by retro-futuristic aesthetics. The colour palettes are mostly muted, dominated by tones like browns, greys, and greens, and sometimes accentuated by occasional vibrant colours from neon signs, graffiti, or mutated plants. 

Various colour palettes

The atmosphere in Fallout 4 is mostly one of uncertainty and danger, with constant sense of tension in urban areas. Rural landscapes are desolate and haunting. Some elements that contribute to the changing mood include the game's dynamic weather system, day and night cycle, and  environmental hazards like radiation storms. However, some settlements and player bases may evoke different moods, nostalgic and melancholic in some, and a lively atmosphere in others.

Storytelling

Environmental storytelling plays an important role in Fallout 4. Many locations tell their own stories, through environmental details, visual cues, and found objects. Players can uncover the history of the world and its inhabitants by exploring abandoned buildings, reading terminal entries, or putting together clues scattered throughout the environment.