Have you ever wondered how to make your game immersive or why some games are more immersive than others? Learn about this and more in the Ultimate Immersion Livecast.

Laurie (Avocado Fire) joins Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* to discuss ultimate immersion in video games. In this Livecast they explore immersion in the games Hacknet, The First Minutes and more, along with other experiences that can be found in video games.

(*Rick has more than 14 years experience in the game dev industry, working on IP's that include Mario, Transformers, Captain America and Mortal Kombat. He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's very own Instructor extraordinaire).

Listen to the whole chat here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvnXIHRj-GI

Our 'AHA' moments

  • Learn how to be a ‘hacker’...
  • Hacknet is so immersive that Tim has to show us a video rather than play it and try to talk
  • Music and environment help create a level of immersiveness
  • Does the genre of a game affect immersion?
  • What is more important? Story or Gameplay?

Does The Genre Of A Game Help With Immersion? (9:07 - 10:51)

The genre of games can definitely help with immersion. However, it’s not limited to just one genre.

Some of the more immersive games are where the camera is in a first person point of view, this gives the player a feeling that they’re experiencing the world through their own eyes.

Other third person point of view games like Mass Effect can still be immersive, you spend a lot of time as the protagonist Commander Shepard and each important decision you make really feels like you’re Commander Shepard.

Any game can feel immersive if you’re willing to invest yourself in the game.

Having Items In Houses That Can't Be Interacted With (41:40 - 43:10)

In many games, you will come across multiple chairs, items and elements that can’t be interacted with. As a small dev, a good way to add barriers in front of them is to create locked doors or obstacles in the way.

Having chairs that can’t be sat on removes the believability value of the game, keeping them from being accessed can be a good way to prevent this.

Sometimes you’ll need to come up with creative solutions to help keep the level of immersion.

Is Immersion Based On Story Or Gameplay? (49:13 - 49:58)

Immersion can be based on both, there are also a lot of other elements that add to the immersion of the game, such as camera angles, characters and environment.

Some users prefer gameplay over storytelling for their immersion and some prefer a good story over gameplay. It depends on the individual but by having a mix of both you will appeal to more potential users.

We hope this Livecast helped you get an understanding of immersion in video games and ways to help make your game immersive.

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Remember, we host live develogy livecasts every Tuesday at 10pm BST on our YouTube channel. You can catch all the recordings, including this episode, in the Devology Livecast course - it's free to join, and also on our YouTube Channel.

Until next time, happy dev'ing!