Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
a mathematical one; it has some liberty in interpretation. Such a screen setup also
complies with another visual rule known as the
lead room
. It says that a motion is
perceived better if there is some space in front of a moving object; in the case of a
game, it is the space in front of the running main character. Otherwise, the audience
may think that an character is moving toward a wall and soon would be stopped or
crushed.
Note
To increase the sense of speed, some tricks can be done with props. The geo-
metry of items can be curved in a direction that is opposite to the vector of the
protagonist's movement(inotherwords,itshouldberotated alittle counterclock-
wise). In an ideal case, some shear effects can be programmed to distort some
screen layers
It is worth mentioning that if the protagonist changes the direction of movement, for
instance, by moving backward, the screen layout should be recalculated on a fly.
The virtual camera should shift smoothly so that the protagonist is placed in the third
thirds of the screen.
