Initial Inspiration

When wondering where to get ideas from I started by watching a few films and playing through games to try and get inspiration from them as to achieve a starting point and also an idea of an environment. It was when I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl when the idea came to me to create a cave, but make it an abandoned pirate cave a bit like the one in Isla de Muerta at the end of the film. I started by looking at this film and how I could use aspects of it to create a game level that a character could walk around and interact with as if he was exploring it.

The cave itself isn't very well lit, which is the look that I would want to achieve in my own work and there is also mist around the entrance and in the main cave which is also something that I would want to add in to create that spooky atmosphere as if the character wasn't meant to be there; this also conveys the fear aspect that I wanted to bring into the project. The island it is set on is spooky as well and has interesting little areas that are rocky and also small beach like areas that go into the water. The water is then carried into the main area as well which is another interesting aspect that I would want to add in along with the vast amounts of treasure in the cave itself.

After watching a film I also played a few games to see if I could gain any inspiration from them as well and I found a really good example of a complex cave system in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim is probably one of the best games of this decade that I have personally played and thoroughly enjoyed. The main reason that I wanted to look at this game as part of this project is due to the beautiful scenery and environments that the game has to offer. One minute you can find yourself on s grassy plain standing by a river to next being on top of a snow caped mountain fighting to the death with a dragon.

Due to the fact this project is all about creating environments I knew that this game had to be looked at as it gives real inspiration - especially because I am designing a cave and Skyrim has plenty to choose and gain ideas from. Below there are image of the caves taken from the game which show ho I would imagine the cave walls and plants to be like. It is also an excellent example of how dark the caves need to be and also how they looked in terms of twists and turns in the cave system. It was very insightful to be able to look further into this game, looking at it in terms of being able to create my own game, and after we had had a play around on Unity I came to realise that maybe an environment like Skyrim actually wouldn't be that hard in the end. Whenever I used to play Skyrim before I always thought about how much effort must have gone into making it look so perfect; but after using Unity I am now even more excited about getting stuck into the project as I will be able to create something as good as this myself.