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• 1 2023-12-08T17:20:49+00:00 Set Pieces and Environment Design 8 (Reid Jaeger) plain 2023-12-09T02:32:02+00:00

       This page focuses solely on Tacoma. One of the greatest ways to build immersion is to make the world come alive and feel lived in. A great example of this is the seemingly pointless interactivity of Tacoma. Throughout the game, the player will come across numerous things that they can interact with that do not forward the plot in any way. For example, the player can flush the toilet (or use any/all of the plumbing for that matter). If a player wished, they could take a break from the plot and play the fully functional billiards table or dart game (see image below). The reason all of theses work is not because they are needed for the story. They work because if one was actually in this location in reality, the toilet would, the darts would fly, the eight ball would roll. By building more than the minimum, the whole world becomes more real. The existence and furhtermore, the functionality of the pictured table makes the world more dynamic, it is not a statue or a set, it is a room, it is a world.

  
       Another aspect of the set design is its density. There are all of these things to interact with, and they are all crammed into a tin can with the player. This tin can of a space station then has small twisty corridors that further compact and divide areas. This makes the word feel all the more full and lived in. 
  
       In “Hamlet on the Holodeck,” Murray wrote that “...videogames are about exploring an infinitely expandable space” (Murray 127). While Tacoma does not take place in a tiny space, cramming so many things to do and interact with, Fulbright has created infinite possibilities within a finite space.
  
       This lived in feel is further built upon by all of the smaller personal items/props. You can look through people's emails, their closets, look at all the small secrets of their lives, thus making their lives more fleshed out and real feeling.