[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yes! Someone finally got it, it had to be good ol' Ragnar T.! Even though it had to take him a long time to get it, he got it!

One major change that’s happened since E3 and which we haven’t spoken about yet. Consider this an exclusive:

The camera. We’ve changed the way it works.

If you’ve followed the development of Dreamfall, you’ll know that early on we decided to go with a scripted camera controlled by the game and not by the player. Why? Two reasons:

One, we wanted to make the game easier to play for adventure gamers not used to a traditional third-person camera. We wanted players to focus on playing the game, not fiddling with the camera. And we wanted to make the game feel more like a movie, with dramatic camera angles and sweeping pans.

Two: With the unique focus-field feature mapped to the second joystick (on joypads; the mouse interface works a little differently), there just wasn’t room for manual camera controls.

So we created a pretty complex and powerful system to allow the designers to set up and control all the different cameras in the game. Thing is, it never worked well. When we played the game ourselves, we craved more control. When focus testers played it, they were often confused and frustrated. We knew that there was still a lot of work left to make it work, and even then, it might not work particularly well. If we’d left the camera static, it would probably have helped, but we didn’t want that. We wanted movement. We wanted drama.

Immediately after E3, we started implementing a new trailing camera - one that keeps following the player character regardless of where you go, and which can be manually adjusted - and it didn’t take long before it was in the game. And it worked beautifully. There’s nothing revolutionary about it: quite the contrary, it’s what everyone else is doing. There’s a reason for that. It works.

What does this mean? It means that the old scripted cameras are gone. We’ll still have scripted cameras around for cinematic sequences, dialogues, stuff like that. But for the most part, the camera is free-roaming. You can explore every nook and cranny of the world and not have to worry about what the camera is (or often isn’t) showing. You can swing it around, check out Zoë, look up, look down, and enjoy total freedom. It’s cool. Everyone’s much happier now.

So why didn’t we do this before? Because we wanted to make the original design work. We figured we needed to put more time and effort into it, and we were convinced we could pull it off. We might have. It might have worked eventually, but to be honest, I don’t think it would ever have looked quite as good as what we’ve got now. There’s simply something to be said for flexibility.

How does the focus field work now? It works well. It has to be turned on, but that’s easy. It probably feels more awkward for us right now than it will for someone who’s never played the game before, because we’re used to it working differently.

What’s the lesson? Don’t be afraid to change something if it doesn’t work, even if it means going back on a decision you made long ago. Don’t ignore feedback, especially from people who haven’t played the game before. And don’t forget the most important thing: If no one else is doing it, it doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t thought of it. It might just mean that it’s not a good idea.

Ragnar Tornquist's blog

[After a brisk nap]

"Fricking finally"? Isn't this news, like, a month old?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Well, it's news to me! But even Marek didn't know about it til a couple days ago.

[Jake]

Yikes.

So I guess it's time for a classic round of "Spending 25 out of 30 hours of gameplay looking at the back of someone's head, instead of their facial expressions and animation."

I hope this is actually good.

I am already frequently annoyed the free-roaming camera in Mario Sunshine which is a game entirely based around the need to see everything so you can jump on it, so I'm clearly feeling nervous about seeing it in a game that is still at its core (despite fighting and branching paths) a guided gameplay experience.


(I'm also apparently clearly more prudish and traditionalist than some would believe.)

[artwking4]

Originally Posted by Jake

Yikes.

So I guess it's time for a classic round of "Spending 25 out of 30 hours of gameplay looking at the back of someone's head, instead of their facial expressions and animation."

If it's like the camera implemented in Splinter Cell then you won't have to stare at the back of Zoe's head. You could pan the camera around at her face and watch her walk towards you. You'll have no idea what she's walking towards, but you'll be able to do it. Or tilt it downwards and try to look down her shirt as she walks. Or aim it at her left or right side for a profile as you walk along a street. You perv! Hehe...


My opinion is that Splinter Cell has the best camera for third-person 3D and it should be used more often. 3D in Adventure games CAN work.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by artwking4

You'll have no idea what she's walking towards,

Yep. Lame.

[artwking4]

Originally Posted by Jake

Yep. Lame.

Were you hoping for a rear-view mirror?

WARNING: Facial expressions in mirror are more vacant than they appear.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by artwking4

If it's like the camera implemented in Splinter Cell then you won't have to stare at the back of Zoe's head. You could pan the camera around at her face and watch her walk towards you. You'll have no idea what she's walking towards, but you'll be able to do it. Or tilt it downwards and try to look down her shirt as she walks. Or aim it at her left or right side for a profile as you walk along a street. You perv! Hehe...

If I'm right that's probably how it'll work. You'll be able to swing the camera around using the mouse for the PC version, and in the Xbox version the right analog stick will move the camera around.

My opinion is that Splinter Cell has the best camera for third-person 3D and it should be used more often. 3D in Adventure games CAN work.

I had a superb experience with the camera in Splinter Cell's PC version.

[EvoG]

Amen.

Best.

3rd Person Camera.

EvAr.

^Splinter Cell

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Now for some reason I'm fuming over Broken Sword 3's stupid camera work.

[fov]

Originally Posted by Jake

So I guess it's time for a classic round of "Spending 25 out of 30 hours of gameplay looking at the back of someone's head, instead of their facial expressions and animation."

Hey, so is THAT why I could never get my avatar in URU to stand so I could see her face? I thought I just didn't get the controls.

It's strange to me that they were doing it one way for so long and now they completely scrapped that and are doing it another way instead. Would it have been possible to implement both and let the player choose? Or would that not have worked for some technical reason I don't understand?

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by fov

It's strange to me that they were doing it one way for so long and now they completely scrapped that and are doing it another way instead. Would it have been possible to implement both and let the player choose? Or would that not have worked for some technical reason I don't understand?

That would probably depend on how many scenes there are in the game, and how many fixed cameras they'd have to place in each one to capture the right bit of each action the player takes. If they've not done all that work already, a flexible camera system cuts down the need for putting all those cameras in and testing them all.

As for the gripes about looking at the back of someone's head rather than their face... I certainly don't walk around with a mirror in my hand so I can look at my facial expression while I turn door handles etc. There are cinematic scenes to see facial expressions where its more necessary.

Regardless of what camera system is used, if you wanted to see a character's face then they have to be looking in your general direction and that means the object of their focus is off screen... maybe you can tell someone is looking at a door knob by the lilt of their eyebrow or perhaps the graphic engine is so crash hot you can see the refelection in the iris of their eye. I certainly can't, so maybe I should rethink that mirror thing.

[squarejawhero]

Good... they were directing the scripted cameras in an odd, confusing manner anyway. This should go some way with immersing people in the gameworld.

[Orange Brat]

This is the most disappointing news ever. Scripted cameras are the way to go. Ah well, maybe it'll still be decent, but it just slipped to the bottom of my gotta have it list.

[Wormsie]

Thank GOD! No more of that Broken Sword 3-esque dumbness.

[AFGNCAAP]

I haven't played Splinter Cell. Does its camera work like in Gabriel Knight 3? Cause that's how Ragnar's description sounds to me.

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by AFGNCAAP

I haven't played Splinter Cell. Does its camera work like in Gabriel Knight 3? Cause that's how Ragnar's description sounds to me.

Ew, please no. GK3's camera work annoyed the hell out of me.

That game wasn't ready for roaming camera's anyway. You could leave the character and move the camera independently miles and miles away. It broke the suspension of disbelief immediately for me.

--Erwin

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

Ew, please no. GK3's camera work annoyed the hell out of me.

That game wasn't ready for roaming camera's anyway. You could leave the character and move the camera independently miles and miles away. It broke the suspension of disbelief immediately for me.

--Erwin

Well, I, for one, immensely enjoyed GK3's interface, so would love the answer to be "yes".

How did it break the suspension of disbelief? I can see why to someone it could feel less "immersive" compared to 1st person view, agreed. But since your point-of-view is already outside the character's body, free camera doesn't really change much in that regard, I think.

Anyway, my understanding is that in case of Dreamfall the camera will only roam in the character's vicinity, so it shouldn't be a problem.

[squarejawhero]

This move will also save them time and money. Directing for animation from a non-interactive viewpoint is already a full-time job, so they'll also be saving money that would go to hiring someone with knowledge of direction.

[Wormsie]

Originally Posted by Jake

So I guess it's time for a classic round of "Spending 25 out of 30 hours of gameplay looking at the back of someone's head, instead of their facial expressions and animation."

"What does this mean? It means that the old scripted cameras are gone. We’ll still have scripted cameras around for cinematic sequences, dialogues, stuff like that. But for the most part, the camera is free-roaming. You can explore every nook and cranny of the world and not have to worry about what the camera is (or often isn’t) showing. You can swing it around, check out Zoë, look up, look down, and enjoy total freedom. It’s cool. Everyone’s much happier now."

So **** off you stupid purist traditionalist.