Our friends over at BLDGBLOG are talking about architecture and landscape design with respect to video games. How could we resist relaying a discussion like that? They touch briefly on a few topics including deformable and destructible environments though one could easily write a couple books on this subject. It’s worth a look as a catalyst – to get you started in the discussion. Indeed there ought to be more discussion like this. Let’s throw some urban designers and simulation game designers in to the mix too while we’re at it. Maybe even some economists too. This is one of the fronts upon which games will definitely be evolving over the next few years, and consumers will be a part of that both in terms of map editors built in to some forthcoming games, as well as in terms of destructible and modifiable environments being integrated int o gameplay itself. One wonders how AI will adapt to this.

Pictured: Unreal Engine destructible environment technology demonstration from the Game Developer’s coference 2008.