How a Video Game Reimagined the American West
How a Video Game Reimagined the American West
It's one thing to make the world of a video game look realistic, but it's another thing to make the player believe that that world actually exists.
Red Dead Redemption 2 stands at a very difficult point to reach in the second issue.
The game, published by Rockstar Games in 2018, is, at first glance, a huge western story set in 1899 America. But when examined from a design perspective, we see much more than this: period typography, photography, architecture, costume, advertising, packaging design, sign culture, light, color and landscape design become parts of the same world.
And there is a very strong theme over all of this:
An era is coming to an end.
What makes the visual world of Red Dead Redemption 2 so impressive actually starts here. The game does not show us the peak of the Wild West. On the contrary, it shows the period when he was dying.
Railways are expanding. Cities are growing. Industry is moving towards nature. State authority is getting stronger. The space where outlaws can live is becoming increasingly narrow.
Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang aren't just running from the Pinkertons.
He escapes from time.
And almost the entire art direction of the game supports this idea.
1899: The Rift Between the Old World and Modern America
It is an important choice that Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place in 1899.
America is no longer the borderless and uncontrolled borderland we see in classic western movies. The 20th century is approaching and the country is modernizing rapidly.
We can physically see this transformation on the map of the game.
On one side there are muddy little towns like Valentine, and on the other side there is Saint Denis.
Valentine is wooden.
Saint Denis is stone, metal and electricity.
On one side there are horses.
Tram on the other side.
Small shop signs on one side.
On the other hand, big advertisements and the developing consumer culture.
Thus, Rockstar explains the transformation of America through environmental design without giving the player a long history lesson.
Moving on the map is actually like moving through time.
And you especially feel the impact when you arrive in Saint Denis for the first time.
Arthur Morgan is not of this world.
The city constantly reminds him of this.
Red Dead Redemption 2's Hidden Hero Landscape Design
One of the game's greatest strengths is its nature.
Mountains, swamps, plains, deserts, forests and rivers are not only used to separate different regions of the map. Each region has its own light, atmosphere, vegetation and color system.
In the snowy mountains of Ambarino, the view is almost monochrome.
Vast areas of green and yellow dominate the Heartlands.
Lemoyne reveals dewy greens, swamp tones, and fog.
As you approach the New Austin side, the world turns into shades of orange, brown and red.
For this reason, Red Dead Redemption 2's map does not have a single color palette.
It has a color journey.
The fact that the player can sometimes tell where he is just from the color of the light without looking at the mini map is one of the indicators of how consistent the art direction is.
Visual Memory from Western Cinema
Although Red Dead Redemption 2 approaches photographic realism, it doesn't try to replicate the real world as it is.
Because what we call western is already a visual memory largely created by cinema.
Expansive views.
A lone horseman heading towards the horizon.
Silhouettes formed at sunset.
Forests in fog.
The light filtering through the living room door.
Long shadows.
Dust.
The cinematography of the game uses these images constantly.
Compositions in which characters are shown as small and nature as giant are particularly important. In some scenes, Arthur only takes up a small portion of the screen, while the mountains and sky behind him take up most of the image.
It's not just "beautiful views".
It makes you feel the smallness of the character in front of the world.
Işık Constantly Redesigns the World of the Game
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the same location can transform into a completely different place at different times of the day.
A forest shrouded in morning mist can seem warm and safe in the afternoon and threatening at night.
The warm oranges of sunsets give way to intense blues at night. Artificial light sources in the towns also come from period-appropriate candles, gas lamps, and early electrical systems.
This detail is important.
In the modern world, light is often everywhere.
In the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, darkness is truly dark.
So when you see a light source, it has meaning.
Even a small house light you see in the distance can tell the player that life is present.
Here we can clearly see that good lighting design does not only provide visibility. Light also manages the actor's emotion and direction.
Red Dead Redemption 2 for a Graphic Designer
When we look at the game a little closer, the real interesting world emerges.
Signs.
Newspapers.
Advertisements.
Product packaging.
Weapons catalogues.
Shop fronts.
Medicine bottles.
Cigarette cards.
Wanted posters.
Train tickets.
Menus.
Brands.
Rockstar's success lies in the fact that it doesn't solve all this by using a few vintage fonts to "look old".
Each object is designed according to the social environment it is in.
The visual language of a shop in Saint Denis is not the same as that of a shop in a small town.
Because in the real world, design is not uniform.
These details take Red Dead Redemption 2 out of a modern world dressed only in period costume.
It brings us closer to a true late 19th century visual culture.
Period Typography Makes the World Believable
Typography plays a much bigger role in the game's atmosphere than we think.
Display characters, slab serifs, decorative scripts, and letterforms reminiscent of hand-painted signs used in America at the end of the 19th century are spread throughout the game.
But there is a very important distinction here.
Typography isn't just decorative.
Class.
The sign of a hotel is not the same as the sign of a slaughterhouse.
The typography of a government document is not the same as the typography of a circus poster.
The packaging of a luxury product and a cheap consumer product do not speak the same visual language.
This diversity makes the world feel much more real.
There is an important lesson here in terms of brand design: Consistency does not mean that everything is similar.
Consistency is our ability to believe that different designs belong to the same world.
There Are Hundreds of Fictional Brands in the Game
Red Dead Redemption 2 is also a massive imaginary brand design project.
Dozens of fictional brands have been created for tonics, drinks, tobacco products, foods, weapons manufacturers and stores.
Each one has a label, logo and packaging language.
The player will not look at most of these for more than a few seconds.
But they are there.
This is where the difference between world building and decoration emerges.
The scenery is there for the player to look at.
World building creates the feeling that it continues to exist even if the player is not looking.
Red Dead Redemption 2 chooses the second path.
Catalog Design: Being a Real Object Instead of Being a Menu
The catalogs in the game are one of the best examples of this.
When you want to buy a product from a store, instead of a standard digital store interface that we are used to in modern games, a physical catalog that reminds us of the mail order catalogs of the period opens.
There are product drawings.
There is a typographic hierarchy.
There are pricing.
There are decorative titles.
There is a page layout.
The player actually uses a menu.
But the game gives it as little of a "you're using a menu" feeling as possible.
This approach comes close to what we call a diegetic interface in the design world: the interface acts as a natural part of the world, rather than being a control panel that stands outside the world.
After all, user experience and art direction are inseparable.
The Diary of Arthur Morgan: How Interface Becomes Character
I think one of the best design details in the game is Arthur's diary.
Arthur draws the people, animals, places and events he encounters in his notebook and takes notes.
This notebook is actually one of the systems that records the player's progress.
But it's also about Arthur.
We see the character's observation ability from the way he draws. We understand how he sees things from the little notes he writes. We notice how he remembers certain things.
The interface transforms into the character's personality.
This is another version of the design approach we talked about for Mind Place in Alan Wake 2.
Good user interface doesn't have to just display information.
He can also tell stories.
Why Has Photography Become Such a Big Part of the Game?
After the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, the game's photo mode and the screenshots produced by players became a culture in themselves.
This isn't just because of the graphics quality.
The world already behaves as if it was designed to be photographed.
Layers of fog create depth.
Roads can be used as leading lines.
The character and horse provide scale.
Sunset creates natural backlight.
Trees frame the image.
Mountains form layers.
Anyone interested in photography can intuitively use many of the classical composition principles in the game.
That's why when you see some Red Dead Redemption 2 screenshots without knowing the game, it can be difficult to decide whether it is a digital photo, concept art or cinema still.
Saint Denis: Where Modern Design Comes into Play
Saint Denis deserves to be examined separately in terms of the game's design language.
Because the intensity of visual communication suddenly increases in the city.
Ads are proliferating.
The signs are getting bigger.
Storefronts appear.
There are trams.
There are posters.
There are industrial buildings.
The streets are busier.
People are more diverse.
In other words, the visual dominance of nature is beginning to be replaced by commercial communication.
Arthur's feeling of discomfort in this city is not only explained by the story.
The player feels the same visual intensity.
Red Dead Redemption 2 does something very clever here:
It shows that modernization is not only a technological but also a visual transformation.
Why Are Dirt, Mud and Impurities So Important?
Red Dead Redemption 2 is not a clean western.
Clothes get dirty.
Arthur's beard grows.
Your horse may get muddy.
Weapons require maintenance.
Buildings get old.
The roads are not perfect.
Paints fall off.
There is experience on wooden surfaces.
Although these may seem like technical details, they are extremely important for the credibility of the visual world.
Because one of the biggest realism problems in digital design is perfection.
The real world is not perfect.
Surfaces wear out.
Colors fade.
Objects are drawn.
The paper wrinkles.
Metal rusts.
Rather than eliminating these flaws, the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 turns them into part of the design system.
Silence in UI Design
The game's screen interface is also interestingly kept in the background.
Rockstar prefers to keep the world as visible as possible, rather than filling the image with giant icons and graphics constantly telling the player what to do.
This approach is also compatible with the tempo of the game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is not a game designed to be consumed quickly.
You travel long distances by horse.
You are setting up camp.
You are hunting.
You are listening to the conversations.
You are watching the view.
Sometimes nothing happens.
While modern digital product design is constantly trying to motivate the user, here we see the opposite:
The player is left with space.
And sometimes that's actually the right thing to do with good design.
Sound Design Also Invisibly Builds the World
We don't just see the world of Red Dead Redemption 2.
We hear.
Train passing in the distance.
Movement of horses.
Feet in mud.
Wind.
Animals.
Music coming from the halls.
City noise.
Gunshot.
While the soundscape can be extremely expansive and calm when you're in nature, it intensifies when you arrive in Saint Denis.
Therefore, the game shows us that the identity of a place is not established only by graphic design or architecture.
When we think about brands, this means "sensory branding".
The identity of a world is not just how it looks.
How it is heard is also part of identity.
Why Is The Story of Arthur Morgan So Compatible with Visual Design?
Even without giving spoilers, it's possible to explain Arthur's central conflict.
Arthur has been a member of the Van der Linde gang for many years. He believed in the ideals founded by Dutch van der Linde on freedom, independence and anti-authority.
But the world is changing.
And Arthur begins to change, too.
For this reason, the decaying western world in the play runs parallel to the inner world of the character.
A way of life is coming to an end.
A gang is falling apart.
A character questions himself.
A country is modernizing.
These four processes proceed simultaneously.
The art direction of Red Dead Redemption 2 is therefore not just a “western aesthetic”.
It is the aesthetics of something coming to an end.
How to Play Red Dead Redemption 2?
Underneath all the design analysis lies a massive open-world action-adventure game.
The player can complete main story missions by controlling Arthur Morgan; However, the important part of the game takes place outside of the missions.
You can hunt, fish, play poker, encounter strangers, examine animals, search for treasures, shop in shops, and most of the map can be freely explored.
The horse was designed as the character's companion rather than a classic vehicle.
As your relationship with your horse develops, his control and behavior changes. You need to care, feed and soothe.
These little systems all serve the same goal:
The player does not just visit the world, he lives there.
Red Dead Online
In addition to the main game, there is also Red Dead Online.
Here, the open world of Red Dead Redemption 2 becomes an online experience. Players can create their own characters, perform quests, take on different roles and share the world with other players.
However, for those who want to study art management, the main story offers a much stronger experience. Because Arthur Morgan's journey is directly linked to the change of the world.
Where Can It Be Played?
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available today on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC; Thanks to backward compatibility, it can also be played on new generation PlayStation and Xbox systems. On the PC side, it can be accessed via Rockstar Games Launcher, Steam and Epic Games Store.
For official information and the world of the game, you can use the Rockstar Games – Red Dead Redemption 2 page.
What Can Designers Learn from Red Dead Redemption 2?
The biggest lesson from Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't to "add more details."
The real lesson is that the details serve the same story.
If you are designing a packaging, think about why it wears out the way it does.
If you are designing a sign, think about who made it.
If you're choosing a color, don't just look at whether it's beautiful or not, but what emotion it conveys.
If you are designing a place, take into account who the people who live there are.
If you are creating a brand, think not only about the logo, but also about the whole world in which the brand will live.
That's exactly what Rockstar has done.
The world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is a combination of hundreds of small design decisions. But none of these decisions alone scream “look at me”.
Instead they all say the same thing:
Feel like this place really exists.
What Makes a Game Realistic Is Consistency, Not Graphics Quality
It's not just its high-resolution textures, realistic lighting, or detailed character models that make Red Dead Redemption 2 visually powerful even years later.
His world is consistent.
We see traces of the same period, from the advertising poster in Saint Denis to Arthur's diary, from the label of a whiskey bottle to the sign of the train station.
Nature, architecture, typography, fashion, packaging, photography and sound do not seem to be the work of independent departments.
They look like parts of the same world.
As Voldi Creative, it is therefore much more interesting to consider Red Dead Redemption 2 not only as a successful open world game, but also as a comprehensive visual world-building work.
Because a good designer can create a single beautiful object.
A good art director can make us believe that hundreds of different objects belong to the same world.
That's exactly what Red Dead Redemption 2 does.
And perhaps to describe the visual success of the game in one sentence:
Rockstar didn't redraw the Wild West. He designed it as if it were lived.
https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption2?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Nur Oğuz