Concept: Camera / Possession of other objects
Concept: Camera Tricks / Possession of other Objects
Now during my research, I came to a realisation a mechanic that I have overlooked, but it truly is vital in the form of tutorials and player navigation/direction, this being the use of camera actors in a way that seems possessive.
What I perceive this to do come in a variety of flavours, and these would include:
Remote controls of native objects - As an idea consider you have a mount in-game such as, a car or a horse, and upon interacting with the object it gives you a new control system for that bespoke object in order to give you the experience to learn how to navigate with it, which in turn give you the added ability to travel further faster. A great example of the car concept is Rockstar's GTA series, where you have the ability to not only drive around but collect bonus missions in certain vehicle types, additionally gaining the added ability to roll on by and creating havoc with a drive-by with appropriate weaponry at your disposal.
What I perceive this to do come in a variety of flavours, and these would include:
Remote controls of native objects - As an idea consider you have a mount in-game such as, a car or a horse, and upon interacting with the object it gives you a new control system for that bespoke object in order to give you the experience to learn how to navigate with it, which in turn give you the added ability to travel further faster. A great example of the car concept is Rockstar's GTA series, where you have the ability to not only drive around but collect bonus missions in certain vehicle types, additionally gaining the added ability to roll on by and creating havoc with a drive-by with appropriate weaponry at your disposal.
I also mention another idea of remote based controls in an earlier post, where I mention it's used within the TimeSplitters series, where you can use a camera station to gain access to the surveillance cameras, cycle through them and view what is going on in each room, another bonus is that some have additional controls in the form of turrets on the camera giving you the added ability of gunning down enemies before you enter the room, talk about sweet success.
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Following cameras for dynamic angles - Although this may somewhat a bit of a mouthful, I believe the best way to explain this would be to consider the Crash Bandicoot games, just think how as you traverse the level the camera pans and adapts to the position of the player in order to give the most desired effect, and ultimately affect how the level is traversed due to this constrained system.
As you have the ability to dictate where it is, but due to the system in place you cannot go out of its bounds, which in turn creates a dynamic presence for the player to explore and judge the environment before proceeding. Along with this platform, I would also the Rayman series, but more particularly Rayman 2: The Great Escape, this being due to its break from its initial mould from its 2D older brother, anyway like how the camera follows Crash in order for the player to get the best dynamic view of the level, in Rayman 2 I found that this is in a similar case in order for the player to traverse the 3D landscape, so perhaps this sort of camera trickery could be the key, but in retrospect of GTA that I had just mentioned, you have the ability to direct the camera yourself in order to gain your preferred view similar to Rayman, although it does force views on you from time to time, and unlike Crash where it depends on where in the level you are.
"This then begs to question, if this sort of mechanic is useful in order to direct the player, or perhaps its due to the theme to decide if its to be used or not?"
Cinematic Purposes - For most games now it goes without saying, that most will have some sort of animation/cut-scene in order to explain the story further and in effect giving the designer opportunity in order to change the environment and remove the other assets in order for the player to be immersed into the change going around them. Additionally these cut-scenes provide the player with useful information in order to know the events of the game and in turn adding to the immersion, now this does not mean that I intend to do this sort of work, primarily due to the modelling and animation skills required in order to create a dynamic render for the best results.
Game Orientation - This being the use of cameras in order to direct the player through the use of small cut-scene/camera panning techniques in order to literally show the player where to go, it is just the players sense of direction that is used in order to get there.
Furthermore I know it's good to talk about what is good about these mechanics, but through some investigation I did come across a thread where someone goes into the detail about some problems with cameras within games, now from what I have briefly seen some of the games that are mentioned are somewhat dated but then I would consider that as it has little information on recent games that developers have devised ways in order to prevent these issues in the newest releases. If you wish to read the thread just follow the link below.
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