Environmental Reference: Caves

After sketching out a brief idea of the layout of the three-tunneled cave level, I now know what kinds of areas the player will need to navigate. In looking at reference for my underground environments, the first thing I thought of was Resident Evil 4/5.

Resident Evil 4 makes use of a mixture of narrow tunnels - often barely wide enough for one character to fit through – and expansive caves. I would want my own environment to be arranged similarly, contrasting feelings of claustrophobia with sudden vulnerability.

  

  Shadowy, underground caves are illuminated through flaming torches, oil lamps and beams of light through cracks in the cave ceiling. Dust/mist in the air catch the light, potentially dispersing it further. Leon has a weak torch but it offers no real source of light itself.
 

Resident Evil 4 features mixes up the colour palette of caves encountered at different parts in the game, for example cold, damp looking versus dusty, sandstone environments.

Resident Evil 5 is in many ways an updated version of number 4, in gameplay and particularly in its environment design. Although significantly shorter than its predecessor, it leads the player trough familiar environments. Observe the following cave level; it carries across many aesthetic choices from Resident Evil 4.

As RE 5 focuses more on ancient ruins and the interplay between man-made and naturally occurring structures it is of limited use for me at this time. I do like the idea of ancient structures making occasional appearances in the cave environment, to hint at the idea of an ancient presence buried deep beneath the earth, forgotten for millennia: crumbling pillars/wall with mysterious carved symbols.
 

A level earlier on in the game features a brilliant bit of asymmetric cooperative gameplay: in a pitch black tunnel, one player must hold a heavy torch while the other defends both players from enemy units. The torch-wielder is vulnerable to attack and cannot defend themself, but their team-mate is equally vulnerable without a source of light. This level shows how a more a advanced game engine can use a real-time light source to pick out detail in the environment, conveying the impression of a damp rock wall through simple textures and a limited number of polygons.

Appropriately for my transposed story, the US does have a history of mining, among other things, gold and silver and, to a lesser extent diamond. I should be able to find extensive photographic resources to use as reference, both from when the mines where in use around the end of C19^th and explorers documenting them in the present day. Here is a selection of reference:

Some of these colour images are great reference for colour and pattern on rock walls. I could even potentially use parts of the photo as texture in drawings.

Other good period reference shows wooden scaffold structures.