Gamefest: Designing Rapture To Make Sense In BioShock

An article was posted yesterday on Gamasutra on 2K's approach to creating believable environments that not only play well but also tell a back-story for the area with its aesthetics.

For those who aren't interested in reading the whole article, here are a few snippets and a short summary.

Excerpts

The BioShock staffers followed a simple formula: function follows form follows function.

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De la Plante explained, "What happens is we build a space, we figure out we have an underwater apartment tower, we figure how it's going to look, JP decides how the gameplay is going to function, and then we ask a question: what happened before the player got there?"

Summary

Essentially, the formula is actually function->form->function->form.

1. The first step, function, was deciding how the area would have originally functioned - if it was an apartment complex, the area had to be laid out like an apartment complex prior to gameplay and detailing concerns.
2. The second step, form, was detailing the area to fit with its original function. (Making the apartment complex BSP look like an actual apartment complex).
3. The third step, function, was making the game function well in terms of actual gameplay. (Adding places for the player to hide or blocking the player's access to certain areas).
4. The fourth step, form, was used to detail the area to provide the aforementioned backstory. This is where the step where things like extra rubble, corpses, and other signs of fights or other story elements would be added.