Impossible spaces aka "Non-euclidian level design"

The idea of games having the ability to play with time and space was an idea that was brought up in the first lecture. This is one of the factors that separate game development from film production; these “spaces” can be created with relative ease. In addition to this, the immersion into a game, especially with the first person genre, allows for a greater degree of believability. Unlike cinema, where a much higher level of thought is required to create these spaces through the use of specific cuts and careful editing, level design in video games can seamlessly create these spaces using clever level design, assuming the game engine has the necessary ability. This idea reminded me of a video I had seen which shows how a game engine can create these spaces.

This video demonstrates some of the ideas of impossible spaces, which have been previously utilized in games such as Psychonauts (as mentioned in lecture) and Prey or have been the primary basis of games such as Portal.

One of the most interesting parts of this video comes at the end where the layout of the map is shown. What looks like one seamless collection of rooms is in fact series of disjointed rooms many of which show duplicate versions of what appear to be a single room while exploring within the environment.