Game guide: perspective, mechanics & gameplay

Videogames usually fall into one of two perspectives – first-person or third person (much like literature).

In first-person, the view of the game camera is usually fixed to the perspective of the playable character.

Unfortunately, first-person is often associated with first-person shooters, but as mentioned in ‘game style’ many walking simulator games are also first-person, and these games often revolve more around exploration and puzzle solving.

Third-person games see the camera usually behind and slightly above the playable character in three-dimensional game worlds, and usually side-on for two-dimensional games.

Often 2D role-playing games have a top-down, third-person view of the character, examples include Stardew Valley and Diablo.

As mentioned, in city builder or large-scale strategy games, the third person perspective can mean hovering high above an open expense, almost God-like, which befits those game styles not just because you need to see large areas, but you have immense control over the environment and people within it.

Let’s say for argument's sake, that in the English or Media classroom we would normally be dealing with a videogame that has players inhabiting a character, rather than building cities.

It’s worth asking: to what extent does the perspective of the camera in the game invite the player to inhabit the playable character?

‘Perspective’ relates more to the position of the camera in regard to the playable character, but considering who the playable character is, and who the player is playing as, is also worth defining and considering. You could use protagonist if you prefer, but ‘playable character’ is a nice way of distinguishing from non-playable characters or NPCs.

The important thing to consider is: what is happening in the game with the player and playable character relationship. By this we mean:

• Is the player playing as a pre-defined character (playing as someone else).
• Is the player playing as an un-defined character (so is the player themselves in the game world)
• Is the player playing as a character they co-create in some way (the player isn’t the character, but they have shaped that character)

“Who am I playing as in this game?” is worth defining. This might be slightly confusing for us English teachers who are used to texts being written from first, third (or possibly second) person perspectives, whereas in videogames first or third person perspective refers to the camera’s view of the playable character, not who the player ‘is’ within the game. Not to worry though, students could say something like “in this third-person game, players take control of Sunny, a brave adventurous woman…” or “you play as yourself in this first-person walking simulator” and so on.

It is important to think about the player perspective and the camera perspective when considering what the author(s) of the game are trying to say thematically, and how they want the player to feel.

For example, a first-person game where the player is ‘themselves’ to some degree, could encourage empathy and immersion.

However, it’s not as if a third-person perspective game where the player is a playing as pre-defined character can’t illicit similar emotions; still, we should consider the effects of perspective and character perspective, and the intended effects of these decisions.

Game mechanics are simply the things the player can do within the game.

It’s not the buttons you press or use, but what those buttons (and combinations of) enable the player to do in the world of the game.

It’s always worth creating a list of things the player can do in the game.

Simple or limited game mechanics don’t necessarily equal bad or uninteresting games.

Untitled Goose Game is a great example of a game that has on its face, limited mechanics. You can walk and run, hide, honk, pick up things, and drop things. But these mechanics can be used to do things like surprise humans, steal things, hide things, and cause distractions.

Walking simulators (think first person shooters without the shooting) are incredibly popular as they often offer rich worlds to explore and great narratives to engage with, even if the mechanics might be limited to walking and interacting with other characters or objects in the world.

First-person shooters have been around for a long while, and while their core mechanics haven’t changed, there has been great innovation in this genre.

Consider the game Portal; it looks like a first-person shooter however, the weapon you brandish shoots portals, not bullets. Through this innovation of the shooting mechanic, a game that looks on the face of it like a first-person shooter becomes a hug, brain-bending, 3D puzzle game.

Below is a great video that analyses not just this unique game mechanic, but how the game teachers the player this mechanic in a seamless way:

If game mechanics are the things you can do in the game, think of game play as being the sum of: game mechanics + the aims and objectives of the game, and how players use the game mechanics to achieve those aims and objectives.

If someone were to describe a game’s gameplay as being ‘good’ it’s most likely due to a pleasing combination of game mechanics and the objectives set. We would normally see an increase in the difficulty of those objectives, requiring players to further leverage the mechanics of the game.

If you were to watch a review of a game online, they would most likely analyse the graphics of the game separate to the game play. Think about how immensely popular a game like Minecraft is (and has been for some time now) despite its low-pixel look.

It’s a great example of how players can separate graphics and gameplay, and how good gameplay can trump simplistic graphics.

To further illustrate the mechanics and gameplay relationship, let's think about Untitled Goose Game again.

One of the mechanics is to 'honk'. This mechanic can be used in a variety of ways to produce gameplay; you can honk to cause an NPC to make a mistake. You can honk to distract an NPC and lead them away from an area. And you can honk simply because you the player feel like it (in a funny way, the same honk can sound very different to the player depending on the scenario the player is in; it can express anger, joy, frustration, or victory).

The objectives gradually get more difficult in the game, meaning players need to use ‘honking’ and other mechanics to better effect; perhaps combining mechanics with a greater understanding of the game world to achieve the objectives.

Exploiting mechanics to create gameplay

This is a bit of an aside but it's interesting to think about gameplay that is intended by the makers of the videogame, and exploits things the game makers didn't intend, but players have found a way to do.

Red Dead Redemption 2 online had an exploitable feature where players could go beyond the boundaries of the map/game world, and explore a weird and wonderful world that was never meant to be seen by players.

This map exploit became the subject of a video artwork created by a collective of gamers and game designers who call themselves The Grannies. You can see a trailer for this work below: