Vertical Alignment and Horizontal Alignment

In-class assignment for Level Design was to find examples of vertical alignment and horizontal alignment in level designs.


Vertical Alignment when used in video games is usually used to construct and/or give the appearance and illusion that things might be very tall. One example is buildings. Composed side by side of each other gives the illusion that these buildings are tall or even taller than they look. The buildings consist on many vertical lines to give this appearance. Games that used outside cityscapes use this. A game example is Batman: Arkham City. The city of this game is known to have very tall buildings. Also, “Vertical elements can emphasize a feeling of coldness…” The tall buildings enforce this as that is exactly what Gotham City is.

Screenshot of "Batman: Arkham City"

The second type of composition in video games is Horizontal Alignment. This is mainly used when constructing indoors sometimes, particularly rooms. But I think it can also apply to huge outside objects. In this case, in Grand Theft Auto IV, an example of horizontal alignment is the bridges in the city of the game. The many horizontal lines used to create the bridges contribute to the theme of the environment. In this case, bridges go well in a city. I don’t think there’s a city in the world without at least one bridge.

Screenshot of "Grand Theft Auto IV"