THE HIDDEN WORLD OF GAMING AN EXPLORATION OF PRE-PRODUCTION DESIGN, HYPERREALISM, AND ITS FUNCTION IN ESTABLISHING CONCEPTUAL AND AESTHETIC VISUALISATION, CHARACTERISATION AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE By Simone Beneke Student No.: 212505903 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the School of Humanities, University of KwaZulu-Natal Supervisor: Michelle Stewart 2019 Declaration I, Simone Beneke, declare that: 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. their words have been re-written, but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the internet, unless specifically acknowledged, with the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. Simone Beneke Student Name _______________ Signature 8th of August 2019 Date _______________ Name of Supervisor _______________ Signature _____________ Date ii Dedication I would like to dedicate this body of work to my husband Niall for his amazing continual support and belief in me as well as the energy boosting cups of tea he makes and my parents Johann and Chyrine for their love and support throughout my academic journey. Acknowledgements I'm sorry for any spoilers you may read in this thesis. I tried not to include too many. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. What is Pre-Production Design and Why Should it Matter? The Importance......................... 1 and Function of Pre-Production Design and the Pre-Production Stage ................................ 1 1.2. The Phases of Production ........................................................................................................ 3 1.2.1. The development phase ................................................................................................ 4 1.2.2. The pre-production phase ............................................................................................. 5 1.2.3. The production phase .................................................................................................... 6 1.2.4. The post-production phase ............................................................................................ 7 1.2.5. The distribution phase .................................................................................................. 7 1.3. Disney: The Origin of Pre-Production and Pre-Production Design First Seen in Games ....... 8 1.4. Pre-Production Design in Early Video Games ...................................................................... 11 1.5. DOOM - Pushing the Boundaries .......................................................................................... 13 1.5.1. DOOM and hyperrealism ............................................................................................ 18 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................. 21 2.1. What is Hyper-Reality, Living in a Hyper-Real World? ....................................................... 21 2.2. Jean Baudrillard's Concept of Hyper-Reality ........................................................................ 23 2.3. Umberto Eco's Concept of Hyper-reality .............................................................................. 26 2.4. Hyper-realities’ Place in Video Games .................................................................................. 28 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................. 43 3.1. The Push for Hyperrealism in Video Games ......................................................................... 43 3.2. CD PROJEKT RED’s Approach to Pre-Production Design .................................................. 51 3.3. Game Engines and Tools in the Pursuit of Hyper-Reality..................................................... 58 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 68 4.1. Wizards of the Coast and The Tyranny of Dragons - How Would This Work as a Video Game Focusing on Hyper-reality? ......................................................................................... 68 4.2. Aspects of Gameplay ............................................................................................................. 70 4.2.1. Episode 1 .................................................................................................................... 72 4.2.2. Episode 2 .................................................................................................................... 74 4.2.3. Episode 3 .................................................................................................................... 75 4.3. The Main Characters .............................................................................................................. 76 4.3.1. Humans ....................................................................................................................... 78 iv 4.3.2. Halflings ..................................................................................................................... 79 4.3.3. Gnomes ....................................................................................................................... 79 4.3.4. Dwarves ...................................................................................................................... 80 4.3.5. Half-Elves ................................................................................................................... 81 4.3.6. Elves ........................................................................................................................... 82 4.3.7. Tieflings ...................................................................................................................... 83 4.3.8. Half-Orcs .................................................................................................................... 85 4.4. Important Non-Player Characters and Foes ........................................................................... 86 4.4.1. Governor Nighthill ..................................................................................................... 86 4.4.2. Langdedrosa Cyanwrath ............................................................................................. 88 4.4.3. Leosin Erlanthar ......................................................................................................... 90 4.5. Creatures and Monsters ......................................................................................................... 92 4.5.1. The Roper ................................................................................................................... 92 4.5.2. The Kobolds and Winged Kobolds ............................................................................ 94 4.5.3. Drakes, Ambush Drakes and Guard Drakes ............................................................... 97 4.5.4. Giant Lizards ............................................................................................................ 100 4.5.5. Swarms of rat, bats and Stirges ................................................................................ 101 4.5.6. The Adult Blue Dragon ............................................................................................ 104 4.6. Conclusion and Analysis of Practical hyper-reality ............................................................ 106 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 109 APPENDIX 1 .............................................................................................................................. 144 APPENDIX 2 .............................................................................................................................. 146 v LIST OF IMAGES Figure 1 - (Video) Lionhead Studios Limited (2015) Return to Albion ......................................... 3 Figure 2 - (Video) Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Nemesis System - E3 2014 Trailer ............. 8 Figure 3 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarves concept illustration image 0 (left) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves concept illustration image 04 (right) ..................................... 9 Figure 4 - (Video) Evolution of Video Game Graphics 1962-2017 ............................................. 12 Figure 5 - Sonic original design during the creation of the first game (SEGA, 1988) ................. 13 Figure 6 - (Video) Doom (93-94) vs Doom (2016) - Equivalent Monsters Comparison (YouTube, 2017) .........................................................................................................................