Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A common mistake designers make when using a moving camera, most often in a three-
dimensional game world, is taking the camera away from the player. The camera flies through
the room to show us something the creator has deemed important: the exit, an important thing
to collect. This isn't design; it's a failure of design. Stepping in and
forcing
the camera to look at
something breaks the relationship between player, camera, and world.
Design has other ways to get a player to look at something. The space should draw the player's
attention to the important area. Think about the composition of the player's view when she
enters the scene. Is the important thing framed in that view? Does it look important?
There's a story from the “Developer Commentary” to
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
(2006) about a smart
solution to the challenge of drawing the player's attention without snatching control of the
camera. The scene in question involves the protagonist and his friend trying to escape from a
collapsing building. As the characters hurry across a bridge, a helicopter full of enemy troops
zooms by below the bridge.
Naturally, the game's creators wanted the player to see this. It develops the game world: the
enemy is evacuating its troops because their former headquarters has been shattered. But it
comes from a weird direction—to the side of where the player is moving. How did the design-
ers get her to look?
To get the player's attention, the designers put an enemy soldier in front of the take-off site. The
game already contains signals to show the player where she's being shot from—the straight,
lingering streak of a shot going by or a red glare in the direction from which she's hit. Knowing
from which direction one is being shot at is important in a game with so many gunfights. When
the player turns to retaliate, she has a great view of the helicopter taking off and zooming away.
Whatever camera our game uses, whatever window the player looks through into our game,
design must decide what the player sees. This isn't a place where we're allowed to give up on
design.
So far in this chapter, we've talked exclusively about visual elements. Digital games also have
the capacity for audio expression, and it's a powerful tool. We can use sounds to communicate,
to underscore the important interactions in our game. A metal “tink” could tell the player her
weapon has glanced harmlessly off an opponent. A melody could tell the player the coin she
just touched is valuable. Sound is a very different channel than video. It can support visual
information, oppose it, clarify it, or confuse it.
