HOW RUNNING A THEATER LIGHTBOARD SAVED OUR GAME’S GRAPHICS

I was having a hard time getting the lighting right for Devoid. Something wasn't clicking. And I was not satisfied at all with the look.

But, a few weeks back I was presented with an amazing learning opportunity that has helped me elevate the game’s lighting in a big way. And I want to share with you some of the techniques and theories I picked up.

For some background context, a friend of mine Mike Ford had recently started a new theatre company in town called the Bridge Theatre Co. It bridges the gap between our rural upstate NY town and NYC. Which is funny because Jakub (my co-founder) is from NYC and I am from upstate.

Mike had floated the idea of me doing some work for him. Typically I am hesitant to take on new work because it diverts my attention from Devoid. But he comes into The Valley (a tech-incubator / co-working space that I work for) quite often and I'll admit the guy has charisma, so naturally he convinced me to run the light board. Although I will say my real reasoning for taking on the gig was completely selfish as I needed to better understand lighting otherwise the game was going to look "meh". It also was an opportunity to diversify my knowledge of entertainment. Games are a form of entertainment. And so is Theatre. After experiencing it for the first time, I find it to be one of the most raw forms of art. And there is no doubt I’ll be stealing some tricks theatre uses to design Devoid.

So, as I wrap up my last show at the Bridge Theatre Co, I am going to break down everything I have learned throughout this experience and how I’ve tied it back to game dev. A lot of the lighting techniques I picked up were thanks to lighting technician Pete as he taught me how to use the lightboard. So shoutout Pete.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Especially in this play, using lights at the right time is key. You can use calculated blackouts to reset an audience's brain. You can flash or flicker lights to snag attention. Or even use long fades to slow things down. If changing lights, timing is critical, because the speed of change can manipulate perceived tempo. And in our case, that will be game pace.

LIGHT CONTROLS MOOD

For this particular play the director wanted me to use blues for the sad foreshadowing scenes. This choice was fantastic because it amplified the dread, and made a hard distinction between the rest of the play which had a bright lighting configuration.

One thing I changed is our player lights (the lights that rest on the player). It’s now a very white pink, and a very white yellow which Pete told me is used in theatre for daytime.

LIGHTS SHOULD BE USED TO FOCUS AN AUDIENCE’S ATTENTION

A lot of sci-fi devs will disagree, but I now think that backgrounds can’t be the star of the show. It’s tempting to throw in a beautiful nebula as a backdrop but what theatre has taught me is that the actors, or in Devoid’s case, the shuttles, must be the center of attention. Especially in an action game. Otherwise you are failing to direct the audience's attention to what is actually important. Which most of the time will be gameplay. That said I’m sure there could be cases where the background needs attention especially if it ties in with the story, or setting of the game.

In short you want to cut the noise and dull anything that is not important to players.

GELS

In theatre you use gels to change the color of a light fixture. There is also a special kind of gel called a diffuse that makes lights softer and more widespread. This is very similar to adjusting a gradient texture you use when building a point light.

Now I took this and changed some of my light textures to be softer like a diffuse light. This let me achieve a full stage fill. I fixed the broodmother's lair using this technique. I’ll drop a before and after. Before I had hard lights, and you can see where they are located. With the diffuse I have a much softer fill which is much more natural looking.

HIGHS & LOWS

Last thing. Somewhat related to lighting, but in theatre I've noticed great story plays with people’s emotions. Highs and lows are extremely effective to drive emotion. The play I was a part of went from happy to sad quite a bit. People were in tears. I’d often find myself feeling emotional too while working the lightboard during the show. The acting and directing was fantastic which helped drive that. But I think this concept of a rollercoaster can be applied to gameplay pace, story and even visuals to build impactful experiences.

So that's what I learned. Shoutout Mike Ford, Sarah Diamond, and Steph Moffett-Hynds for running the Bridge's first show. I look forward to what's to come and I hope my experience was helpful to fellow devs, creators, and gamers.

Until next time,

-Charles Dill