Camera Dimensions
The dimensionality of the camera and degrees of freedom that camera has to depict the game action. These often take the form of a three dimensional representation, sometimes a two dimensional one. As noted in the section on Cardinality of Presentation, this camera dimensionality depends very little on the cardinality of the gameplay. A number of games have represented a three dimensional space using a two dimensional camera view, such as Double Dragon [Technos Japan, 1988]. Some games are now using three dimensional cameras to depict essentially two dimensional action in a world that some may argue has effectively two dimensions. For example, Ikaruga [Iuchi, 2003] shows a top-down view of a space ship progressing through a series of mazes and enemies. All game action takes place in a two dimensional plane. Enemies can fly into the action from above or below, but cannot shoot at, be shot by, or otherwise interact with the player(s) until they enter the two dimensional plane in which the game's action takes place.
A camera's dimensionality breaks into two areas. The dimensionality of the camera's view describes how the camera frame represents space, whether using two dimensional graphics or by graphically approximating three dimensions. Dimensionality of camera motion describes how the camera moves within or in relation to the represented game world.
Parent
Children
- Three Dimensional Camera Motion
- Three Dimensional Frame
- Two Dimensional Camera Motion
- Two Dimensional Frame
References
Iuchi, H. (2003). Ikaruga. Infogrames, gamecube edition.
Technos Japan, developer (1988). Double Dragon. Tradewest, nintendo entertainment system edition.
