I know that some of the readers to this dev blog have commented that the screenshots are very dark. As I previously stated this is somewhat deliberate. The game is set at night and the power is out, hence the building would be dark. Now obviously there needs to be a very careful balance between dark and can’t see a damned thing, especially early on before the player locates the flashlight.
In order to help me ensure a spooky dark atmosphere and ensure the player can see where he/she is going I got thinking about implementing a dynamic light that adapts depending on where you are in the building. It’s kind of like in games where the light adjusts when you move from an outdoor area to an indoor one.
I’ve implemented the same sort of process. I can set up regions in my levels that tells the environment to increase of decrease the lighting around the player. For starters I’ve ensured that the cell the player starts in is still just as dark as it’s always been, however when the player moves out into the corridor with the windows the ambient light increases to find a better balance. If the player retreats towards the cell the light fades back to the darkness required for that area. Perfect.
So, if you saw Friday’s dark picture:
You’ll be pleased to see in the new picture below the lighting has increased (automatically) to a more desirable level:
