Camera Conundrums

Why game cameras are complicated

At the most basic level and regardless of perspective (first-person, third-person, isometric, etc),” begins developer Trent Polack, “a camera system is the player’s eyeballs in a game world. It is the single most defining system by which a player interacts with a game.” And with over a decade of experience in the industry, Polack would know. Before you can figure out a game’s control scheme (which is often camera-dependent), or even gain a sense of investment in a game’s world, you need to be able to see.

In isometric real-time tactics game Brigador, solving this issue proved far more complicated than the developers expected. Jack Monahan, one of Brigador’s developers, recounted the difficulties of creating levels and assets within this perspective. “An area ‘behind’ (from the camera’s perspective) of a city block might have for example twice the amount of sidewalk space you’d expect, so that the player can comfortably navigate the area without losing sight of their vehicle or bumping into scenery a lot,” Monahan says. “It’s a bit like how it’s not very fun to run through realistically sized doors in third-person games, so door widths are almost twice as wide, and hallways tend to be grandiose so the camera isn’t bumping into things.”