Psychology

Over the past few weeks I have been researching into my main subject area of immersion to get an idea of what it fundamentally means. And from this study, looking at various articles, books and websites I felt I had figured out the meaning of the term Immersion, when it comes to game environments. What is immersion?, "It is when the primary focus of an individual is towards what's on screen rather than the surrounding world i.e. they become engrossed within their virtual surroundings".


Several elements need to come into play, for what is described as immersion, when it comes to games. You have to be able to create an atmosphere to envelope the player.To do this you first need to think about what themes and styles you will incorporate into the level and stick to them, (it is no good if you use too many themes/styles otherwise this will break the immersion and make it less believable e.g. (Having a demonic castle next to a Greek temple).

The next thing to which needs to be involved is the story of the game level. If you can somehow include the history of the environment or something to do with a character even a emotional attachment to something this can add depth to the story (objects in the environment). To create a successful story all these things are needed, but you need to be able to either relate to the player or find something new/ unexpected.


 Here is a process of how immersion and atmosphere of a game are achieved.
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2013/09/why-gone-home-is-so-immersive/