"Discuss a good or bad example of camera in a game and how it effected your experience, also discuss the camera view you would like to use in your game."
Cameras are one of the hidden elements of video games but play a crucial role in their development, one that if done badly, can ruin the game entirely. Many games try and concentrate on making their games camera work effortlessly so that the users don't even notice their involvement. However some games have taken a step in a different direction when dealing with their camera movement by giving the player more of a role in establishing how and where the camera is used, this gives the user an extra aspect of the game to concentrate on and another aspect for someone to excel at. This is a main feature of the RTS style of games and especially in one style of game, one of the most competitive online and LAN games in history, Defence of the Ancients, better known DotA. This is the game which i personally believe highlights a good and creative example of camera in a game.
DotA and its two current successors, League of legends, also known as LOL and Heroes of Newerth also known as HON are highly regarded for their ability to play on a competitive online scene and competitive tournament style. The use of camera is one of the key features which gives the game its competitive streak. The ability to use the camera effectively takes countless hours to master and has an extremely high skill cap. (The skill cap is how well the action can be completed, a higher skill cap means although the action could be easy or hard to do, to complete perfectly it takes a lot of skill and practice.)
While i have experienced all three games of the what is being called, Real Action RTS genre, i currently play LOL the most, therefore i will refer to that for example.
League of Legends uses a standard RTS camera view which is free to move wherever you like within the level, the camera can be either moved by using the Up, Down, Left and Right keys on a keyboard, clicking a section in the minimap in which you wish to view or what is the generally more used method, by panning your mouse to the end of the screen in the direction in which you wish the camera to go. Their is also hot keys to make the camera jump straight to certain positions on the map, space bar will send the camera to automatically position your character in the centre of your screen. f2 through f4 will cycle through characters on your team positioning each character in the middle and f5 will put the camera on top of your base. The camera view reveals a small segment of the map, the section will either be clear with the ability to see any activity going, this means an allied unit is within range, or it will be shaded out, this means no allied units are close by. This requires an ability to make sure your awareness of the entire map is alert but that also your character is being constantly watched and played. This comes from your ability to position the camera well and ability to move the camera quickly and accurately. I believe this feature greatly increases the experience of League of Legends and highlights their method of making an easy to implement camera style which is still seen as a great element of the game.
Although the method of our camera is undecided for our game so far, I would like to implement a similar style as League of Legends in the way they have made the camera an additional aspect of the game and not just something that is only focused on in a negative light. I personally like the idea of being able to observe many areas to a lesser extent, whilst keeping focus on one area mainly but having the ability to shift the camera for an instant to the others. For example using reverse in a car racing game. An idea for our game was to implement a secondary item, similar to a flashlight in many FPS games, a kind of mirror which can be used to give the central character the ability too look around corners by changing the camera view.
I greatly enjoy the freedom that skill involved in camera usage in League of Legends and really want to take some of those elements in too thought when developing our own game.
