Video Game Cities Are Weird

Cities in video games have come a long way over the years, and whether it be Novigrad in the Witcher 3 or Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto 5, some of them have been able to create a realistic vibe that makes the city feel alive. Of course, they aren’t and when examined even a tiny bit, the real world logic of them falls apart. However, while cities in games are reminiscent of cities in real life, they aren’t meant to be designed to be cities in real life—they are meant to be designed as video game cities and therefore every feature of them somehow ties to the player experience. So I spent some time here exploring the intersection of cities feeling “real” and being designed to improve the player’s experience.

Audio edit by @HeavyEyed

Additional Footage from StoryBlocks

[razbuten]

it is that time of year again where I call something weird. hope you're well.

[ukulelejulian]

Babe wake up. Raz is here to gush over the Witcher 3 again despite not liking it

[HazzaMakingMusic]

For someone who says he hates The Witcher 3, Raz really seems to love The Witcher 3.

[ologames]

5:49 I like how from a lore and world building perspective, the the city's location is dependent on the position of the river. But from a world design perspective, the river's position is dependent on the location of the city

[Evanz]

My favourite new niche subgenre of YouTube video is the videos where people analyse game worlds in great detail. Stuff like employment rates, power lines, railroads, rivers connecting to oceans etc.

[williamstokes]

One trick that a dev can use to make a city seem to have true scale is by actually limiting how much of the city you have access to, it doesn't work so well in open world games but with the right setup it creates a great illusion. Rudimentary geometry in the distance and creative skyboxes can add to the illusion. Abstractions of cities require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief and some people find this easier then others.

[stair.w]

I think a large part of why the worldbuilding in the Witcher 3 rings so true, is because the devs actually started by building the blank landmass, then placed their landmarks and towns/villages where they believed it felt most realistic i.e. almost all villages are near some kind of water source, and when they aren't, for the sake of a quest for example, they made sure to include the appropriate infrastructure to justify why the town was there, and how the town was there. So, when they needed a town to be located near mountains for the purpose of a quest, they made it into a mining town, with all the appropriate infrastructure, as there were ore deposits in the nearby mountains.

[theejackalope]

Night City was the first time I ever felt a real feeling of fear from a video game. Not in like a "OOOO spooky Jumpscare horror!" way but like a fear I've actually had, when I was alone on my own in a city for the first time.

Not understanding signs, not sure where I am, surrounded by people but completely isolated. Like I didn't fit in and the city knew that. It felt like it wanted me out.

But after getting used to it both in and out of game that fear became a small memory. I think night city is a great city by feeling and really captured that feeling for me.

[superspider]

"Despite Los Santos being based on LA, you'll never find yourself in a traffic jam"

Damn, shots fired >XD

[MightyWeeks]

4:25 - “Who cares about a nameless NPC‘s ability to meaningfully change their life?”

Me 😢😂

[cubelex]

You couldve mentioned Kingdom Come Deliverance which has fully simulated NPCs, completely accessible buildings, the most accurate depiction of historical towns ever and even some beautiful landscapes.

[oguianaodefinitivo]

2:57 Any Austin was mentioned, I'm happy

[Conta_Minated]

Night City is stuffed so full of buildings, messy cables, bridges, roads, trash and filth that it feels overwhelming and suffocating. Incidentally, that is exactly what you're supposed to feel like in this cybernetically enhanced hell. The city looks like a hundred years ago it may have been somewhat sensible, but over the decades, more and more layers were just built on top of the old ones, and nobody stopped to consider to how it's going to look or function.

[ayoncruz]

Nightcity is a landmark for cities in games. It's the first time I've played a game where the city itself is a main character.
People focus too much on the realism of little interactions with useless stuff from sandbox games like GTA games do, or the AI of npcs. Of course it's important but it depends on the type of game. Cyberpunk main point is the setting, the whole city is build for it and, for it, it nails perfectly.

[nootnewt]

Haven't played many of the games talked about here, but driving around Night City with the radio on is one of the most immersive experiences I've ever had playing a video game

[farronkeeps]

Kamurocho is definitely one of the best detailed cities in video games. Even in older games where they haven't gone with the Dragon Engine yet, no part of the map ever feels lifeless, even if half the npcs you bump into are basically there to wander about aimlessly, and the other half being there to pick a random fight with you. Each street has its own thing, theme, and environmental storytelling.

Play it long enough and you even stop referring to the map altogether when doing quests, because the characters already mentioned which street you're supposed to go to, and you already know where that is and how to get there.

[travesty-studios]

I think the only thing you missed in this great video, is that a lot of people don't say they want realism or they confuse the term realism with what games actually need, which is: Immersion

I'm not sure you said "immersion" a single time in this video, despite the fact you defined it lol

I'd say it's pretty impossible to design realism, the closest we could get is emergent behavior out of simulations.

[ENGLISH_TRUTH]

Cd project red really outdid themselves with night city from cyberpunk, its a character all of its own, one of the best 'characters' i have had the pleasure of exploring in my 30 years of gaming.

[viggo]

Kingdom Come Deliverance vs Skyrim would've been an interesting comparison, as KCD's cities are on the same scale, but feel so much more immersive

[SimuLord]

I love when a game isn't afraid to look the player right in the eye and say, either directly or through its design, "this world was here long before you got here and it'll be here long after you're gone. It doesn't need saving, least of all from you. Now go try and make something of yourself."

Witcher 3 does that well—the Wild Hunt isn't Alduin. The apocalypse Ciri is destined to prevent in the good ending won't actually end the world for quite awhile. And Geralt is just one witcher.

Mount&Blade does it well too. Yeah, you can conquer all of Calradia like you're a latter-day Alexander the Great, but it's not going to go quietly, nor will it hand you anything along the way.

Places like Novigrad sell that illusion...or the shattering of the illusion that Skyrim's world constantly reinforces.