Cameras and Gameplay Feelings

Today I wanna talk about Game Cameras and how we can use them to try and enhance the feeling we want players to experience.

Cameras are a very important part of the game and according to the book “Level Up! the Guide to Great Video Game Design” over 1 billion TVs are smashed every year because of bad cameras on games. Well, the statistics are not that reliable (completely made up), we understand that cameras are a big deal.

Most of a game is represented for the player from the camera, and it works very well when what is showed in the camera connects with the experience that game genre gives to players. I believe that as Designers we can enhance the experience we want players to feel with how we use the Camera. How we show their character, the world, details, and much more. What I want to talk about today is how can we improve this so the camera can enhance even more the gameplay experience.

Here is an example of how we can design a camera for a random Racing Game.

On Image A we see that the camera is close to the character, right? What does the camera afford by being so close? I believe it affords the sense o speed, we see the character in high speed, very close to us and moving throughout the level.

On Image B the camera is not that close, and what do we feel when we see that? I feel that I have more awareness of the scenery and what is happening in my surroundings. And it comes with a price, losing a little bit of the sense of speed.

Using this specific example, taking acocunt here that we are deisgning a racing game and we want to pass the feeling of speed to the player, I would choose the camera on Image A result. “Why?” Because I can only see things that are very close to me and I need to control the character with quick responses. I believe the result of Image B can be applied to games that do not only work as racing but that also have a battle style too. “Why?” It shows us a bit more of the level and what is going on, good to create strategies on how to engage in battles, for example.

But don’t get me wrong, in this example, we are only seeing the speed perspective and only that, there may (and certainly will) be lots of different variables that the camera will need to afford for the gameplay experience. The thing I realized while designing this camera is how important it is for us to know what kind of experience we want to provide for players.

That’s what I wanted to understand and talk a bit more today. What about other genres? What other feelings we can make players experience by desiging a camera? Been thinking about it, let’s chat!

Thank you for reading, and see you soon!