June 4, 2009


Guiding The Player’s Eye

Matthew Gallant outlines the challenges of organically guiding a player in a three dimensional game:

Moving games into the third dimension introduced a new challenge for game designers: player-controlled perspective, and the host of problems associated with it. One of those problems is guiding the player’s eye. How can you direct them toward the next objective? How can you make them notice special events and clues? How can you ensure that they’re facing the right direction at the right time?

Turns out, “Birds are never just birds in Half-Life 2.” The game designers use a bird’s motion to encourage the player to see other objects and obstacles. The feel, by contrast, is much more organic than the traditional “cut-scene” nonsense that is abused in the industry today.

posted by Andrew Simone in design, games 

comments

4 Responses to “Guiding The Player’s Eye”

  1. Deron Bauman on June 4th, 2009 at 11:15 am

    I love that idea (if I am understanding it correctly). Using the flight of birds to attract the eye. Love it.

  2. Andrew Simone on June 4th, 2009 at 11:16 am

    You do, I cleaned up the text to make that more clear.

  3. Michael Smith on June 4th, 2009 at 11:20 am

    I’ve always found cut-scenes more distracting than helpful, especially the ones that, when finished, turn your POV to a preset location forcing you to reset your understanding of where you are in the virtual world.

  4. Andrew Simone on June 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    If you have ever played a Valve game, then you will notice they use them very

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