Isn’t That Spatial?

Every video game has certain benefits and constraints in the way it represents space. Interaction fiction, arcade titles, 2D side-scrollers, isometric RPGs, and first person shooters all have advantages and disadvantages to how they deal with space–some technical in nature, some design-based. This month’s topic invites you to explore the ways games have represented the spatial nature of their storyworlds and what this does for the audience experience. Is it possible to ignore the constancy of spatial relationships in a graphical game? What would such a game look like? Are there ways of representing spatial relationships that we haven’t explored? Do you have ideas for games that could intentionally twist the player’s perception of space, or do you want to write about a game that already has?

Back in the old days, video games were almost entirely side-scrollers or vertical-scrollers. The camera either didn’t move (Space Invaders) or it tracked to the right, or upwards. This had one massive benefit - you weren’t going to get flumoxed by an uncooperative camera, nor were you ever going to be surprised by finding yourself going in a different direction to the one you thought you were going.

But the quest for both realism and a love for the cinematography of the film industry led us neatly into a number of different ways of handling the camera. There was the first person ’shooter’ perspective, the top-down, RTS perspective, the rolling 3-D mid-range ‘fighter’ camera. As it became more complex, it became much easier to screw up. A first person camera, designed to increase realism and immerse you in the characters world, would instead cause vector-buildings to explode into bizarre polygons when you came too close. Just like in the real world.

Hands down, the top-down, or side-scroller is still the easiest, simplest and most useful of all the ways of creating space. First person has its uses, and shooters could never abandon that now. However, clever use of space and camera can enhance and develop certain themes within a game.

Claustrophobia is an easy one. A first person pov, a small light-source, rapid movement that you’re never quite quick enough to catch, and all the unseen horrors of the imagination can create an atmospheric back-drop for a game. Equally, a rolling panorama with wide-angle mid-range lenses can firmly drop characters into a beautiful and well-realised world - ideal for fantasy and sci-fi.

My suggestion then, would be to keep to the simplest camera/perspective possible, and only deviate from that if you have a very well realised and developed reason for doing so. In which case, make it flawless. The camera should be invisible, a subtle undercurrent to the atmosphere, and not an obtrusive and difficult mechanism that increases the games difficulty.

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One Response to “Isn’t That Spatial?

Sept ‘09 Blogs of the Round Table – UPDATE 09-14 : Man Bytes Blog Says:
September 14th, 2009 at 8:49 am

[...] 14 – Write the Game: Isn’t That Spatial?. Keira advocates for [...]

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