What is Immersion?

“Immersive” is one of those words you see thrown around a lot when talking about games, and I’d like to take a look here at what developers can do to make their games more immersive. So I think it’s best to start with a definition of the term.

Any game that’s immersive is one that sucks you in through it’s world and game design. The kind where you almost feel like the game itself is another world and you’re in it, interacting with it, living in it, rather than just playing a game about it. It’s such a unique experience that I believe only the interactive medium of gaming can truly capture. So with that out of the way let’s talk about what developers do to make their games immersive.

The first thing to not about games that immerse a player into their world is believable and mostly realistic world design. It’s important that the game world makes sense, although this doesn’t mean it has to be completely realistic. Dishonored 2 for example, part of the “immersive sim” genre, is great at getting players immersed because all of its levels are designed realistically.

World Design – Not real, but Believable

There are no dungeons with convenient exits near the end or platforming challenges that would only exist in a game. Instead you see buildings with living rooms and dining rooms with furniture and and windows exactly where you’d expect them to be. This kind of thing helps the player connect with the game’s world because it is instantly relatable and understandable. Like I said though, strict realism is not a necessity.

The Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2 is a totally insane mansion full of clockwork soldiers and walls and floors that move around to reconfigure the whole layout of the building in real time. It’s amazingly impressive. And though the idea of a moving mansion is totally absurd, it doesn’t bring the player out of the game. The reason for that is that you can see it all happening in a way that makes sense. You can explore the space where walls would move to change the room. You can watch them go in and out and around. There are no clever developer tricks that hide assets loading in secretly.

It’s entirely believable because the developers built it with real world physical restrictions in mind. Technically it is possible, therefore it’s believable, therefore it feels like a natural part of the in game world, and feels like a world you could be a part of.

That physicality is important in other ways too. Something you see a lot in games is set decoration, like knives and forks on a table, but it’s completely uninteractive. They exist only to make the world look realistic, but the illusion is broken once you try and interact with them.

Many games like Prey, another immersive sim, make it so you can pick up most objects. The Elder Scrolls series is well known for this as well. Practically every single object in those games can be picked up, placed somewhere else or sold. The vast majority are worthless like cutlery sets or pillows off someone’s bed.

There is almost no gameplay incentive to interacting with them, but the fact they can be interacted with is immensely important in creating the feeling of immersion. These things exist in the game world despite having no relevance to the player. To some this may seem like a bad idea. It can seem wasteful and it devalue the player’s significance in the world because the world was not tailored to them specifically as you would see in most linear action games. But that’s what makes it feel real. The real world is not built for any one of us in particular, and when a game world is built to seem like it simply exists rather than existing solely for the player, it feels more like a real world.

HUDS – Information and Immersion together at last

On that note, it’s also good to avoid things that don’t exist in the real world, such as the HUD. Lifebars and ammo counts on screen are no doubt useful for the player but can often distract and remind the player that they’re playing a game. The most immersive games take steps to make the HUD as unnoticeable as possible or integrate it into the world.

Many modern games will keep elements of the HUD invisible until they’re needed. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim does this for health, fatigue and mana bars. They aren’t on screen unless one of those 3 stats is going up or down. This way it only appears when the player would already be thinking about it and 90% of the time it keeps out of the way.

Some games take this even further by trying to get rid of the HUD entirely. If you’ve ever played Silent Hill 2 you may have noticed there’s no health bar, ammo count or mini map. The map is a physical map you need to check and the main character’s health is only visible when you pause to check on it. This serves to immerse the player in the world in two ways. Actually having to check a physical map feels real and not having anything on screen during gameplay keeps away anything that would detract from the feeling of immersion.

I should also mention the use of diegetic HUDs. That is where the information is displayed both to the player and the in game character. Dead Space provides an excellent example of this. Isaac’s health is represented by a coloured bar on his suit that measures his vitals and the inventory system is shown as a holographic display coming from Isaac’s visor.

Personally I think this is the best way to do an in game HUD. Inventory menus and the like often feel like they exist outside the main gameplay because you have to stop the game to do anything with them. Having the menus exist as part of the world lowers the need to suspend your disbelief because you are constantly interacting with the in game world. It also helps a lot in putting yourself in your character’s shoes.

Player Freedom – You can do Anything, Even if You never Would

The last element I’d like to touch on is one that comes up in a lot of games but often falls flat, and that is player choice. Too many times we see this come up as a choice in the narrative where everything stops so you can choose between one of three dialogue choices that changes the next few cutscenes. These are still enjoyable but it’s not the kind of player choice that immerses someone into a game world.

What I mean is letting the player play how they want throughout the whole game. Most immersive sims. Thief, Prey, Dishonored etc. are great at this. They don’t present choices in menus, but rather give you gameplay systems that all interact with one another. The best example is something as simple as opening a door in Prey.

You can find the key code, find another way in, hack the door or throw things through a gap in the windows to hit the button on the other side. Part of why this kind of design is so immersive is that you’re never explicitly told these are your options. You’re simply allowed to play the way you want to.

There are few things that take you out of an experience more than a game telling you that you can’t do something. Another example can be seen in the Elder Scrolls series. Morrowind was so immersive because you had total freedom. You could actually kill anyone you wanted, even to your own detriment. It doesn’t matter if you never want to do it, it just matters that you can. Each installment after Morrowind took that away. Certain NPCs became “essential”, making them immortal. While it made sure you could never fail a quest, it also made sure you knew you were playing a game. These characters no longer existed as part of some other world, but as part of the play set designed to make sure you were having fun.

So as you can see, there’s a lot that goes into making a game immersive. Not all are necessary of course but the most important things are creating a believably realistic world that feels like it was designed as a world first and as a game world second. Player choice and freedom is important too. Players should be allowed to make mistakes and not have their hands held all the time if a game is to feel immersive and real.

Thanks for taking the time to read this analysis. What games have you found to be the most immersive? Let me know in the comments below, or send me at tweet at @Kevlooks

I’d also like to give credit to NeverKnowsBest on Youtube, who’s video on the Elder Scrolls inspired this article.