Hello everyone, I thought about writing up another game design document when i found myself thinking about this. I decided to just write down all my thoughts in an essay like format. Its completely unedited and is just a contemplation of everything of a half an hours thoughts compiled into a document.
i'm planning on releasing this again as a finalized version to a few people, However noone in my family or friends has any experience in the game industry or even cares enough to even try to understand what i'm trying to put down on paper.
So i'm hoping, with the wonderful community here at the escapist, that you guys would care to proof-read and interject your own thoughts into this contemplation here as well so i can further refine the document into an actual document that people can draw on for inspiration.
Well, here it is, the ugly unedited version Enjoy.
Perspective Lobsterkid101
Perspective in any form of entertainment is a sort of make or break deal. It can provide intense, realistic, visceral action coupled with suspense, or reveal faults, disillusionment, and frustration. In terms of gaming, perspectives tend to stick to specific types of genres that the game centers around. Platforming, Action adventure, RPG, MMO, and Fighter games all tend to take place in the third person, while shooters tend to take up majority of the first person category with some notable exceptions taking place in the third. The main problem with this is that most company?s stop with just that, the perspective of looking at someone do your actions for you, or having you be the person doing the actions, and nothing more.
However, the issue of perspective goes beyond jumping between first and third perspective, but who the player takes control of. Will the player always take the perspective as the lone super soldier making his way through hell to meet his objectives, or will he perhaps play as the antagonist who is trying to stop a band of heroes from ruining his plans to take over the world? Such a twist in perspective is rare in modern games who all too often stick to a generic franchise with little to no innovation beyond the standard update in weapons, locations, and characters. A notable exception to this monotony is the Overlord series. By putting the player as the evil lord instead of the noble hero trying to make moral choices the game instantly opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for it to explore and allowed the series to grow and become unique from the trappings of its genre.
Inversely, it is a choice of perspective that ultimately doomed the Transformers game adaptation to mediocrity. The Transformers movie centers on a boy *Sam* whom is caught up in the middle of a war between ?giant? alien robots. For the game, it was decided that the player would instead take control of the alien robots instead. Instantly the visceral, fast paced, larger than life, quality that made the transformers movie so fantastic is whisked away as we now see everything from an almost top down perspective. From there the game becomes a brawler where epic fights between transformers turn into fist-cuffing matches reminiscent of Gundam?s own franchise ?Dynasty warriors.?
Now let us look at what a change of perspective could do for the mediocre Transformers game. Switching down from the top view camera, and into third or first person view of Sam whom the transformers are waging war over the action immediately becomes more intense. Instead of regular sized characters the transformers are now towering behemoths that fill most of the screen with their actions. Running through the chaos of the battle is the player, controlling Sam and perhaps even fighting smaller transformers with whatever he can spare on the street while giant aliens above and around him battle it out as well for supremacy as explosions and debris rain through the air and the booming voices of the transformers yell out in the distance to encourage Sam to keep moving at all costs. All this visceral action achieved by the simple act of changing the perspective of the player to someone who would experience the action at its most visceral and exciting level.
While transformers would benefit extremely from a different perspective in terms of character, most games would also benefit greatly from a simple change from first to third person, and vice-versa. The first person perspective is great for showing us what the character is going through at that exact moment, it does little to show us how the character is actually responding to the events. This is where life as a game designer gets a little tricky, as he must balance the players need to feel immersed, and therefore ?be? the character as much as possible, which requires the character feel or at least show little emotion and have the player fill in the blanks as a result, and the need to build complex and deep characters from whom the player can develop an emotional bond with. Empathy is the word. One very notable game that did this effectively was Metal Gear Solid 4, Guns of the Patriots. In multiple points in the game, the player connects to him on a very personal and deep level, sharing both his pain and happiness. In the games finale, where Snake is forced to walk through a microwave tunnel, is a stunning example of how third person views can portray what the character is going through far better than a red tinged outline in first perspective could ever do. Seeing snake walk down the path, falling, and then being forced to crawl through the intense heat as pieces of his suit flake off is painful to watch but too engrossing to look away sealing the emotional impact of the game.
However, what if we took away the third person perspective of snake crawling through the tunnel and replaced it with the first person view. Instead of seeing snake react to the heat blast of the microwave tunnel, we would see perhaps only a hand in front of the camera trying to deflect some sort of invisible wave. Snakes limp would be replaced by a rising and falling camera, and all the damage that snakes body undergoes while in it is lost to imagination as we cannot see him, and instead only see what he sees. Without the image of seeing snake going through this ordeal and just seeing the player do it, removes the chance for the player to empathize with snake, for he is trying to BE snake instead of just controlling him.
Seeing Snake crawl through the microwave tunnel is very engrossing, however, a major concern of ?perspective? is the gameplay aspect. How does a change of perspective affect gameplay? It is a question that is easier left unexplored for in a time of economic turmoil, the safer ?known? option is usually undertaken which inevitably leads to the rehashed franchises that we?ve come to know in today?s games. For examples sake, a hypothetical game is conceived of where the player originally takes control of marines hunting for terrorists in some canyons that the U.S. has been bombing for quite some time now. The game becomes monotonous, as the player searches and searches for targets, perhaps finding one or two, and then finally culminating in the end to the target he was originally seeking. The result is formulaic and dull, with no room for any real interesting mechanics to form. However, change that perspective into the eyes of the terrorist, or perhaps to him, the eyes of the hero, and a whole host of new gameplay options appears. No longer is this a game of locate and eliminate, but a game of cat and mouse, as the player lures his enemies into fortifications in an attempt to secure his countries freedom. The gameplay is changed from standard infantry warfare into guerilla warfare whose stakes are much higher now that the player is viewing through the eyes of the terrorist and without the might of the U.S. Army to back him or her up and instead having to face that very same might at the receiving end. A change in perspective may not be the safest choice, but it is the one that often reveals the best ideas. The most unique game often is just a change of perspective away.
i'm planning on releasing this again as a finalized version to a few people, However noone in my family or friends has any experience in the game industry or even cares enough to even try to understand what i'm trying to put down on paper.
So i'm hoping, with the wonderful community here at the escapist, that you guys would care to proof-read and interject your own thoughts into this contemplation here as well so i can further refine the document into an actual document that people can draw on for inspiration.
Well, here it is, the ugly unedited version Enjoy.
Perspective Lobsterkid101
Perspective in any form of entertainment is a sort of make or break deal. It can provide intense, realistic, visceral action coupled with suspense, or reveal faults, disillusionment, and frustration. In terms of gaming, perspectives tend to stick to specific types of genres that the game centers around. Platforming, Action adventure, RPG, MMO, and Fighter games all tend to take place in the third person, while shooters tend to take up majority of the first person category with some notable exceptions taking place in the third. The main problem with this is that most company?s stop with just that, the perspective of looking at someone do your actions for you, or having you be the person doing the actions, and nothing more.
However, the issue of perspective goes beyond jumping between first and third perspective, but who the player takes control of. Will the player always take the perspective as the lone super soldier making his way through hell to meet his objectives, or will he perhaps play as the antagonist who is trying to stop a band of heroes from ruining his plans to take over the world? Such a twist in perspective is rare in modern games who all too often stick to a generic franchise with little to no innovation beyond the standard update in weapons, locations, and characters. A notable exception to this monotony is the Overlord series. By putting the player as the evil lord instead of the noble hero trying to make moral choices the game instantly opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for it to explore and allowed the series to grow and become unique from the trappings of its genre.
Inversely, it is a choice of perspective that ultimately doomed the Transformers game adaptation to mediocrity. The Transformers movie centers on a boy *Sam* whom is caught up in the middle of a war between ?giant? alien robots. For the game, it was decided that the player would instead take control of the alien robots instead. Instantly the visceral, fast paced, larger than life, quality that made the transformers movie so fantastic is whisked away as we now see everything from an almost top down perspective. From there the game becomes a brawler where epic fights between transformers turn into fist-cuffing matches reminiscent of Gundam?s own franchise ?Dynasty warriors.?
Now let us look at what a change of perspective could do for the mediocre Transformers game. Switching down from the top view camera, and into third or first person view of Sam whom the transformers are waging war over the action immediately becomes more intense. Instead of regular sized characters the transformers are now towering behemoths that fill most of the screen with their actions. Running through the chaos of the battle is the player, controlling Sam and perhaps even fighting smaller transformers with whatever he can spare on the street while giant aliens above and around him battle it out as well for supremacy as explosions and debris rain through the air and the booming voices of the transformers yell out in the distance to encourage Sam to keep moving at all costs. All this visceral action achieved by the simple act of changing the perspective of the player to someone who would experience the action at its most visceral and exciting level.
While transformers would benefit extremely from a different perspective in terms of character, most games would also benefit greatly from a simple change from first to third person, and vice-versa. The first person perspective is great for showing us what the character is going through at that exact moment, it does little to show us how the character is actually responding to the events. This is where life as a game designer gets a little tricky, as he must balance the players need to feel immersed, and therefore ?be? the character as much as possible, which requires the character feel or at least show little emotion and have the player fill in the blanks as a result, and the need to build complex and deep characters from whom the player can develop an emotional bond with. Empathy is the word. One very notable game that did this effectively was Metal Gear Solid 4, Guns of the Patriots. In multiple points in the game, the player connects to him on a very personal and deep level, sharing both his pain and happiness. In the games finale, where Snake is forced to walk through a microwave tunnel, is a stunning example of how third person views can portray what the character is going through far better than a red tinged outline in first perspective could ever do. Seeing snake walk down the path, falling, and then being forced to crawl through the intense heat as pieces of his suit flake off is painful to watch but too engrossing to look away sealing the emotional impact of the game.
However, what if we took away the third person perspective of snake crawling through the tunnel and replaced it with the first person view. Instead of seeing snake react to the heat blast of the microwave tunnel, we would see perhaps only a hand in front of the camera trying to deflect some sort of invisible wave. Snakes limp would be replaced by a rising and falling camera, and all the damage that snakes body undergoes while in it is lost to imagination as we cannot see him, and instead only see what he sees. Without the image of seeing snake going through this ordeal and just seeing the player do it, removes the chance for the player to empathize with snake, for he is trying to BE snake instead of just controlling him.
Seeing Snake crawl through the microwave tunnel is very engrossing, however, a major concern of ?perspective? is the gameplay aspect. How does a change of perspective affect gameplay? It is a question that is easier left unexplored for in a time of economic turmoil, the safer ?known? option is usually undertaken which inevitably leads to the rehashed franchises that we?ve come to know in today?s games. For examples sake, a hypothetical game is conceived of where the player originally takes control of marines hunting for terrorists in some canyons that the U.S. has been bombing for quite some time now. The game becomes monotonous, as the player searches and searches for targets, perhaps finding one or two, and then finally culminating in the end to the target he was originally seeking. The result is formulaic and dull, with no room for any real interesting mechanics to form. However, change that perspective into the eyes of the terrorist, or perhaps to him, the eyes of the hero, and a whole host of new gameplay options appears. No longer is this a game of locate and eliminate, but a game of cat and mouse, as the player lures his enemies into fortifications in an attempt to secure his countries freedom. The gameplay is changed from standard infantry warfare into guerilla warfare whose stakes are much higher now that the player is viewing through the eyes of the terrorist and without the might of the U.S. Army to back him or her up and instead having to face that very same might at the receiving end. A change in perspective may not be the safest choice, but it is the one that often reveals the best ideas. The most unique game often is just a change of perspective away.