Inside (2016) - Feeling Of Being Small
Level Design can be meaningfully use to create feelings. Danish developers Playdead use spaces, forms and cameras, to make one feel small and insignificant in Inside.
In the world of Inside, the player is a small and vulnerable child. Everything can be a danger. Besides of mechanics, and gamefeel, the environment participates greatly to this feeling.
Tall buildings and structures, without any visible ceilings, make the spaces look infinite and powerful. The same technique is used in forests environments, with trees that never end. Fog is also used in open area, which creates depth and infiniteness in the environment.
Most of the built spaces are dark and blocky structures. The concrete they are made of helps the dystopian narrative, as this material, coupled with blocky forms, is now identified as such in popular culture.
One of the cool things is how the camera is used. It is often positioned so the player is in the lower third of the screen. This directly creates a tension in between the avatar and the world, making the last bigger and more powerful than anything else.













