Sunday, April 3, 2011

Camera angles are evil!

Apologies in advance, i dont have microsoft word.
To discuss camera angles and how the invisible camera effects gameplay can be obviously debatable as every single game requires a camera.Their are many aspects that a camera can change, from objects that are unseen to reduce load or to increase gameplay (such as oblivions 1st person view toggle option).I would like to speak of gameplay for my example though, one particular game that you may or may not be familiar with is the MMORPG Runescape.This game is just a simple point and click, built with java engines and so forth created back in 1999.The reason the camera plays and important role is because of its 3rd person distant view, and with zoom you are still roughly 15-20 meters (relevant to gameplay size) away from the playerm but still closer to the ground and can see more of your character. This is important in the game as it focuses on a point and click system, so having a close up view like DragonAge which i found that you couldnt see very far, and if you did click it seemed rather mundane and inaccurate.Runescape also heavily relies on this distance from the character because it is a resource collecting game, and the chat system also relies heavily on being able to see who and what they are saying around you.Runescape also does not care about storyline being an MMORPG, its basically farming exp and enjoying your own accomplishments with friends, and though the game is impressive i do prefer this over Dragonage which relied way too heavily on cutting the map areas short, there was no possibly benefit to exploring, and the camera angles werent even done well enough becuase half the environment would cut off your line of sight.Our game (unnamed) will both have 3rd and 1st person toggle views, this is mainly to see close up people (as you are a large dragon, or a griffon) but also implements gameplay whilst breathing fire you can more accurately watch your enemies burn asunder :).While creeping up on enemy villages will also give you the advantage of looking around corners and over the tops of small hills.The 3rd person view will enable easy navigation whilst flying from locations, making sure you do not fly into a cliffedge. Also within the castles and homes you will automatically go into 1st person view, to keep the interiors mysterious, such as in caves that are small and not able to be flown in will remain more vague. also if there are enemies or hostages inside of buildings, you will need to poke your neck in to check!Hopefully we will have an accurate battle control system that allows you to do many functions such as picking individuals up as hostages, or perhaps fly up and drop them! this is why it is imperitive to have a closer and more person 1st person view, incase you grab the wrong person in amongst your human allies!

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