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[FreeFly]

I am currently undergoing the process of designing my first game, and I have a huge toubt in my mind. Long story short, I'm working on a 3D graphic adventure that will be based in one single house that undergoes major transformation during the gameplay, and I'm having a hard time deciding how to set up the main camera.

I believe that watching the protagonist's face is a key role for empathy, people are way more likely to feel connected to a character they see and perceive, seeing facial expressions and reactions in real time create a sense of attachment that is crucial, especially in a game where the story is everything. On the other side, a total indoor game is not the best option for a Mass-Effect like camera as it would need a lot of objects culling to run smooth on the entire building. There are many options that came to my mind, but I really can't decide which one could produce better results.

1) 3D person fixed-side: like This War of mine, I could create a lateral camera that renders the scene from one side. While it would probably be the better way not to hide stuff from the view, it is the most used camera of history, and being the project a one-house show, it'd take away not one but five view sides out of six, giving me way less space for the puzzles.

2) 3D person fixed camera: very much like Siberia, each space will have its own camera set up, and when a player enter that area it gets activated. This solution would give me three sides to put the puzzles, but it would also make the game look old, static and probably give the player too many cues about how to solve the challenges.

3) Orbital camera: an orbital camera would be a camera that rotates around the room in a 360 space, always focusing on the room center. When the camera is above, the roof is culled, when it is under the scene, the floor is. With this type of settings, I can use all the sides of a room, but it would be long and hard to code, and it would make the entire scene very artificial. Looking at a room from below really sucks, especially if you're on the second floor and there's another room you're hiding below.

4)First Person Controller: this solution seems to be the best one in terms of gameplay, but it goes straight against what I've said in the post introduction. Unless I make the player live inside a house full of mirrors, it will take away a lot of empathy, and it will be harder for the player to link with the character.

All those solutions have pros and cons, there are also a lot of hybrid possibilities that could be used, but still, I can't decide what to do. I'll probably be testing most of these solutions over time, but I still wanted to start a conversation about it. What do you people do? Does FP == less empathy? What camera would you use for such a game?

[ViktorTheBoar]

It really depends on how you want to control your character. Moving him with a controller is wildly different from moving him by clicking on places.

[FreeFly]

How so? in the end, the difference is just how the animations get triggered, isn't it?

[ViktorTheBoar]

Well, yes :D but it also changes the way that player feels involved and the target audience. Some people like a game with clicking and tapping, others like mashing buttons and pulling thumbsticks

[FreeFly]

Thanks, if I had a thousand doubts before, now I have a thousand and one XD

[Clipper]

While humans are naturally adept at identifying the subtleties of the human face, faces aren't the only source of empathy. There's also the character's actions, the context, and others. Try to imagine empathy with something without a human face, like a spider; if you can't put the viewer in the shoes of a non-human, your attempts at human empathy will be lacking. The human face is certainly a tool for empathy, but don't use it as a crutch.

As for first person cameras and empathy, I believe that a first person POV is a golden opportunity for empathy, since the player is almost literally seeing through the eyes of a character. Nobody can see their own face without a mirror; thus the player has something crucial in common with a first person camera. There are a bunch of other benefits as well, but I can't think of a way to put them.

[FreeFly]

You're absolutely right, face aren't everything. I could quote plenty of examples where games could create empathy between the player and the story without showing a human face, but in my case, I have the feeling that options are limited. Many FP games tend to let the character "talk to himself" when they need to communicate something to the player, but I must say I'm not a huge fan of that technique.

However, empathy and immersivity are two different things. If you put the player in a FP POV context the player is forced to behave and thing as if they were the character, and feel disappointed when they only have one action to perform. When you're guiding the character from an external point of view instead, the connection is different, you're kind of guiding him to his story. You may still feel disappointed, but it's not like you did something you didn't want to do, he did it, and you just don't like it.

[PaulWv2.017]

Honestly, I'd say it would depend on how good you are on modelling and animating.

I completely suck at those things, they're my biggest weakness. So I'd use an orbital. Probably restrict it to the top hemisphere only, maybe 30-75 degrees verticality even (looking up from below is just weird in games, and only acceptable if you are making a game around a first-person small character like a baby or dog). And of course, include a floor up/down in the HUD.

Regarding empathy and showing emotion, SNES games got by fine with full-body emotes and a bubble-emoji. If you are masterful enough to not only create and rig a face as well as not getting it to look weird or dumb (reference: ME:Andromeda), go for it. You could even do picture-in-picture if you want to use an orbital regardless.

[IndieTurtle]

Registered to post a couple of thoughts I had about your question. It's an interesting question because it gets at some core decisions about this medium.

Perhaps take into consideration which camera perspectives are most pleasing to you, and popular in games nowadays, balanced with how difficult it might be to develop the game using that perspective, but also what is most suitable to the type of game you are trying to make.

1. First-person perspective - If you did choose this perspective, instead of having mirrors everywhere, you could use a plot device as a pretext to showing the protagonist's face. Ex: the character is exploring the house while having a video chat with a friend on a mobile phone to keep them company. This way you could always show the protagonist's face and the friend's face, and sometimes use the mobile phone to emphasize something in the story, like if the protagonist were to switch the camera to the forward-facing camera to show some interesting object, calling the player's attention to it. I see two disadvantages with this option: first, FP seems mostly geared to action games; second, like someone else mentioned before, it would be tough to model enough convincing facial animations to convey the emotions you probably want.

2. Third-person perspective (like Uncharted - I'm a big fan of this perspective) - seems like it would provide a good balance between action (control) and exploration (view), but perhaps harder to develop around camera blocking issues, etc. Also typically never shows the protagonist's face, but you could use the same plot device as a. by having a mobile-phone like HUD device showing face.

3. 1st and 3rd person are probably a virtual tie in terms of popularity in 3D games nowadays. I think that the third most popular option currently would be a fixed side perspective, like a 2D platformer implemented in 3D (ex: This War of Mine). I think this option can look really nice, but it does have the problems you mentioned (cuts down the depth of the space, and thus the possibilities of exploration, as well as limiting the detail that you can achieve).

4. 3D fixed camera within the room (like Siberia) - I've never been a fan of this. It seems way too constrained and stale. Really, claustrophobic, even though I don't have claustrophobia. Personally, I would choose some 2D options over this one.

5. Orbiting camera around the middle of the room - this is probably the most unusual perspective you listed. I can only think of one game I played that used this: Baldur's Gate on Playstation 2. Because it's unusual, you would probably have to experiment with it quite a bit to see if it would work for your idea.

I would consider some other possibilities too:

A. How traditional 2D point and click adventures did things (think Lucasarts games) - you could see perhaps most of the room except for the 4th wall, in perspective, and explore around each room by clicking around. It can be nice if the art style is really good.

B. How traditional 2D (fake 3D) Isometric games did things (think Fallout, etc) - the camera goes way beyond the room, giving you a much wider perspective. Can also look really nice (sometimes even better than realtime 3D games) as long as the art is good (look at Stasis).

C. Switch it up - you could switch between different perspectives for different "scenes" in your game. A lot of games do this nowadays. Look at Uncharted. 3rd person for the action sequences, fixed perspective for certain puzzles, traditional film-style camera angles for the drama sequences.

Looking at the bigger picture, I think that you could convey a lot of emotion and generate empathy without showing the protagonist's face at all, or that much. How does a book generate empathy for its characters? How about a stage play? A radio play? Regarding games particularly, leaving something to the imagination can sometimes really help. Sound queues (think sniffles or whimpering), body language, and the story itself can all generate a ton of empathy by having the player fill in the blanks with their own imagination.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

[FreeFly]

Honestly, I'd say it would depend on how good you are on modelling and animating.

This is like 99% of the thing, I can ONLY model and animate, I have no drawing skills of sort and I'll never be able to make it a classic platform game like Maniac mansion for instance. To me 3D is the only choice, and in a way it gives me more limitations than opportunities in this case.

Perhaps take into consideration which camera perspectives are most pleasing to you, and popular in games nowadays, balanced with how difficult it might be to develop the game using that perspective, but also what is most suitable to the type of game you are trying to make.

1. First-person perspective - If you did choose this perspective, instead of having mirrors everywhere, you could use a plot device as a pretext to showing the protagonist's face. Ex: the character is exploring the house while having a video chat with a friend on a mobile phone to keep them company. This way you could always show the protagonist's face and the friend's face, and sometimes use the mobile phone to emphasize something in the story, like if the protagonist were to switch the camera to the forward-facing camera to show some interesting object, calling the player's attention to it. I see two disadvantages with this option: first, FP seems mostly geared to action games; second, like someone else mentioned before, it would be tough to model enough convincing facial animations to convey the emotions you probably want.

2. Third-person perspective (like Uncharted - I'm a big fan of this perspective) - seems like it would provide a good balance between action (control) and exploration (view), but perhaps harder to develop around camera blocking issues, etc. Also typically never shows the protagonist's face, but you could use the same plot device as a. by having a mobile-phone like HUD device showing face.

3. 1st and 3rd person are probably a virtual tie in terms of popularity in 3D games nowadays. I think that the third most popular option currently would be a fixed side perspective, like a 2D platformer implemented in 3D (ex: This War of Mine). I think this option can look really nice, but it does have the problems you mentioned (cuts down the depth of the space, and thus the possibilities of exploration, as well as limiting the detail that you can achieve).

4. 3D fixed camera within the room (like Siberia) - I've never been a fan of this. It seems way too constrained and stale. Really, claustrophobic, even though I don't have claustrophobia. Personally, I would choose some 2D options over this one.

5. Orbiting camera around the middle of the room - this is probably the most unusual perspective you listed. I can only think of one game I played that used this: Baldur's Gate on Playstation 2. Because it's unusual, you would probably have to experiment with it quite a bit to see if it would work for your idea.

I would consider some other possibilities too:

A. How traditional 2D point and click adventures did things (think Lucasarts games) - you could see perhaps most of the room except for the 4th wall, in perspective, and explore around each room by clicking around. It can be nice if the art style is really good.

B. How traditional 2D (fake 3D) Isometric games did things (think Fallout, etc) - the camera goes way beyond the room, giving you a much wider perspective. Can also look really nice (sometimes even better than realtime 3D games) as long as the art is good (look at Stasis).

C. Switch it up - you could switch between different perspectives for different "scenes" in your game. A lot of games do this nowadays. Look at Uncharted. 3rd person for the action sequences, fixed perspective for certain puzzles, traditional film-style camera angles for the drama sequences.

Looking at the bigger picture, I think that you could convey a lot of emotion and generate empathy without showing the protagonist's face at all, or that much. How does a book generate empathy for its characters? How about a stage play? A radio play? Regarding games particularly, leaving something to the imagination can sometimes really help. Sound queues (think sniffles or whimpering), body language, and the story itself can all generate a ton of empathy by having the player fill in the blanks with their own imagination.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

These are a lot of useful thoughts, thanks a lot! As I was saying above, in a way I am forced to use 3D, which is not the best mean for the graphic adventure genre. I must admin my first topic didn't give away many info about what I had in mind, but it's just because I didn't have that much.

My game idea was born like this: I have free time, and I want to build something I like, both for my portfolio, and because I want to learn something new. It's going to be a one-man project, and I must plan it accordingly. I love to write stories, I am probably the biggest Ron Gilbert stalker who ever lived, and I hope one day I'll be remembered for my stories and puzzles, not just for my code. I have an IT background and several years of programming on my back, which means I can do the programming part quite easily, but I also have dysgraphia and I can't draw. There is no way I could do 2D art, but I've been working with blender for almost three years and I know how to model and animate. I am surely not a pro, but I am sure I can do a decent job with the right tools, and it will be easier to ask feedback on proportions.

Being a one-man show, with a 3D environment, I had to keep the number of assets down to something i could produce myself, and I thought: what's the best way to recycle assets while not making it obvious? The answer came by itself: make it functional to the plot! Long story short, the game I am writing focuses on one boy that, for an unknown reason, wakes up every morning living the same day (just like the Groundhog day movie), but every time he is in a different universe, with different variations of the environment. By doing this, his house will be the only scenario I need, puzzles will change on every iteration of the event, and the plot will become clearer while he solves puzzles. The purpose of the game will be, very trivially, to break this loop and set him free.

Such a games present a difficult task, which is to keep the environment entertaining and fun to play without changing the scenario too often. Of course I will play with the iteration thing, changing objects positions, shapes, colors and models, but I surely will not be able to make four different houses by myself.

For this reasons, the design is hard, I am doing something different from other graphic adventures (using 3D), while breaking some canons of the genre (make a world where people would love to live). Most of the graphic adventures are 2D/ish games, all clues are in the background and players just need to find the right spot to complete actions. Doing this in a 3D space bring up the Camera problem I have explained above. I am currently planning to insert no cutscene of sort, some actions will trigger animations, but they will be short and real time events, they won't take the screen more than one second. For this reason, I feel like I shouldn't give up on following the character's face, I am already breaking too many rules that in a way I feel like I need to hook up onto something to make it work. I am still not sure how fun, in terms of fourth dimension wall and jokes, I will make the story, but nevertheless I still think that a sort of visual indication of emotions could help the game.

I am currently evaluating the idea of isometric cameras that can be switched with one click (watching North-East or South-West walls, and culling the other), just like you have suggested, but I need to do some tests before to take any decision.