ГРУППА STEAM

Fixed Camera Appreciation Society FiCaApSo

Присоединиться

ГРУППА STEAM

Fixed Camera Appreciation Society FiCaApSo

302
УЧАСТНИКИ

В ИГРЕ

В СЕТИ

Создана

27 августа 2021 г.

Язык

английский

Главная Объявления Обсуждения События Участники Комментарии Куратор

О Fixed Camera Appreciation Society

Let us fix that (camera) for you.

Check our Curator and the most extensive list of Fixed Multicam games on every platform!

Follow us on Twttr!

36 hours left on the WALK Kickstarter!

We appreciate games with direct character control and multiple predefined third person views per room! (Eg. Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil 0, Dino Crisis...)

Fixed multicam is a niche, but a healthy one - the Resident Evil Remake sold 1m copies in three months, which made it Capcom's "fastest selling digital title in history"[www.pcgamesn.com]. Detroit sold 8m copies[www.psu.com] and Telltale's multicam 'Walking Dead' was met with critical and commercial success.

With a wave of new fixed multicam titles like Tormented Souls, The Medium, and Alisa, it's never been more exciting for this cinematic form of gaming!

When fixed multicam pays off, the visuals speak for themselves - while handing the designer a unique level of authorial control over player pacing and situational awareness. It's nothing less than the ability to directly frame the player's visual understanding of the game world, forging and relying upon a bond of trust between player and developer.

There's an untapped vein of criticism on this approach and the analysis of games that employ it. In a medium that values smooth controls and user comfort, fixed multicams can disorient the player... But is that a fatal flaw, or an unsolved and an interesting design problem? One that could be solved with cinematographic consideration or a pure input approach, or...!

Games covered by this Steam Group should feature multiple third-person 'fixed' cameras per-room that frame a character controlled directly by the player (usually no point-and-click).

Positioning and orientation of cameras cannot be directly controlled by the player (eg. as with 'chase' or 'orbit' cams). As players move in and out of 'shot', the game will 'cut' between cameras (ala filmic editing). Tracking and pivot movements of the camera are rare in comparison to 'cuts'.

The Associated Games section on the right of this page only covers titles on Steam, but I'll try to add some relevant links for notable games or moments... Please check our Fixed Multicam Resources for lists of related PC & console games!

Let us know your thoughts & comments in the discussions! Here's to an intentional view!

--Rev

ПОПУЛЯРНЫЕ ОБСУЖДЕНИЯ

ПОКАЗАТЬ ЕЩЁ (75)

НЕДАВНИЕ ОБЪЯВЛЕНИЯ

FRESH ANGLES #11: Shoot from the hip (shot)...!

17 июля - Reverend Speed | Комментариев: 7

An occasional newsletter highlighting fixed camera games! (...and exceptionally lame puns)

Hey gang!

I added a bunch of lists to our curator! Is this good? Will anybody ever look at them? Have I, once again, wasted precious minutes of my life making these? Let me know in the comments! (And let me know if I missed something and it needs to be on the lists!)

A quick reminder to tag games as Fixed Camera on Steam[imgur.com] - atm it’s way too hard to find fixed camera games on Steam! Let’s hit that critical mass of games tagged ‘Fixed Camera’ so we can find more of them by searching with that tag! Only YOU can change Valve's view!

Thanks to The Teratoma for referring a lot of these games! Be sure and check out their excellent curator!

(Disclaimer: Unless stated otherwise, the following are not reviews or recommendations!)

UPCOMING

No time to be kitten around - this hospital horror will give you paws for thought!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3091260/Darkbound/
(DEMO AVAILABLE)

At last, the videogame that HP Lovecraft claimed to be!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3643600/Providence/
(NO ONE WILL GET THAT JOKE)

Alone in a city filled with monsters? Another night in Dublin...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1214690/Rainy_Night/

Surely there is nothing to be afraid of, down there, deep below the streets...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1318610/The_Sewers/

In the post-USSR East, crime solves... you?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1861990/Srok_Godnosti/

AVAILABLE NOW

Super-impressive student project from Spain...! A lot of fun!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3719120/Inside_the_Crows_Nest/
(FREE GAME)

A strange, awkward puzzle game, but an interesting setting!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2648260/PseudoHaunting/
(DEMO AVAILABLE)

The second sewer game this week! Typical. You wait ages, then...!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3054960/Into_The_Dread/

What if Alone in the Dark but Resident Evil and no intellectual property protection?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3189010/The_Mansion_of_The_Macabre/
(DEMO AVAILABLE)

CLASSICS

"Death makes sad stories of us all."
https://store.steampowered.com/app/316790/Grim_Fandango_Remastered/?curator_clanid=41127038
A game about a metaphor, told without metaphors?! What a fascinating concept!

Before Far Cry 2, before Dead Space, Tim Schafer and team at Lucasarts (ahh, 90s Lucasarts) sought to create a cinematic tale about what happens after we die, and then make the interface entirely diagetic.

Fixed camera is key to this, of course, presenting the world to us with style and none of the affectation of first person. More importantly, however, Grim Fandango eschewed the verb GUI and inventory metaphors of traditional point-and-click adventure games of the time. Instead, when selecting an item, Grim Fandango 'cuts' to an insert of Manny's chest, cinematically demonstrating him withdrawing the desired item from his coat.

It's a simple change to the formula, but suddenly the entire experience is consistently delivered in the language of the silver screen - juxtaposed in time with the exploration gameplay, Grim Fandango harmonises the player's various interactions and the result is pure cinema.

Grim Fandango isn't perfect (some of those puzzles are TORTURED...) but it's a remarkable blend of sharp, characterful writing, emotive performances and a dedication to cinematic fixed multicam storytelling and if you haven't played it yet, I envy you. Enjoy the most stylish afterlife gaming has to offer...!

NON-STEAM

Ah, government conspiracies, the occult and mining!
Three great tastes that... taste great together?[spectris-games.itch.io]

You know, I think we covered this one before...?
...it's repeating, like the nightmare of handing up assignments for school - the topic of this game! (Seamless, well done Rev, a brilliant transition)[annswwr.itch.io]

Only distributed to members of the Leaf Fan Club...!
Leaf is a Japanese visual novel games company, and I believe Abyss Boat was released as a free bonus to members of their fanclub. Sadly, it seems like it's only playable with emulation nowadays...
_________________

Crikey. What a busy summer. I've mentioned this before, but I think Fresh Angles is likely to become a biweekly or even monthly periodical in the near future, as my work schedule ticks ever upwards.

On the other hand, it's lovely to see how many fixed multicam games are being developed and released!

That's the problem with being spoiled, of course - now I want fixed multicam games that experiment and innovate with the form... especially in developing some control methods that overcome the disorientation that comes with the fixed multicam approach. The solution is out there, devs - get iterating!

Last word - if you fancy some fixed multicam fun on the cheap, remember to check out our curator and click on the 'Discount' tab - there's usually something interesting to be found there!

See you next week! --Rev

PS: Do check out the Darkbound demo, it's purrfec-- it's very nicely polished.

FRESH ANGLES #10: Keep on truckin' (camera)!

11 июля - Reverend Speed | Комментариев: 7

An occasional newsletter highlighting fixed camera games!

Hey gang!

A quick reminder to tag games as Fixed Camera on Steam[imgur.com] - atm [url]it’s way too hard to find fixed camera games on Steam![/url] Let’s hit that critical mass of games tagged ‘Fixed Camera’ so we can find more of them by searching with that tag! Only YOU can change Valve view!

We've put out a few announcements this week as there's been some rather exciting Kickstarters going on - I hope these are useful to you, and we'll be back to our usual announcement tempo very shortly...!

(Disclaimer: Unless stated otherwise, these are not reviews or recommendations!)

UPCOMING

Now THIS looks worth the wait! Well done, Vincent!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1257030/Heartworm/
LAUNCH DATE TRAILER! As a wise man once wrote, "We'll be fine tuning in and eliminating static sooner than we thought with this one!" (DEMO AVAILABLE)

Looks FANTASTIC, sounds... very quiet on the trailer...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3851600/Pulsebreaker/

Jupiter Lighthouse returns with a career focused roguelike horror?!?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1258030/Paranormal_Precinct__Last_Copy_of_99/

Self-proclaimed RE4-like, but with plenty of fixed camera angles...!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1397840/Cult_of_Dawn/

Some very intimidating monster designs - but I'm sure they just want to be friends...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144240/Hellspawn/

AVAILABLE NOW

Something for the Onimusha / Project Zero fans?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1066430/Kwaidan_Azuma_manor_story

Brief horror adventure in a demon-wracked Montenegro!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594370/No_Hope/

Psychological horror in the style of The Shining and Fatal Frame!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2303950/TRAUMA_Broken_Paradise/

Outwit a fiend that ambushes from the shadows!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2026140/Telos_Pragmaton/

CLASSICS

"Well. That's disgusting."
https://www.gog.com/en/game/dino_crisis
Ahh, Regina - unflappable dino slayer of our dreams. I actually have more than a few problems with Dino Crisis - the environment is mostly boring offices, the dinosaurs are often more frustrating than entertaining to fight, the worldbuilding is extraordinarily flimsy, even for 90's Capcom (though Shu Takumi would later go onto great things!)...but: when this game looks good, g♥dd♥mn, it looks GREAT. The first implementation of fixed multicam in full 3D, with some amazingly atmospheric trucking shots - and what about the T-Rex's first proper entrance? If you know, you KNOW. I only wish that this and the original 90's Resident Evil games could be made available on Steam...!

Do you hear me, Capcom?! PUT THE OLD SCHOOL RESI AND DINOCRISIS GAMES ON STEAM! This, I, Reverend Speed, COMMAND!!!

...Please?

NON-STEAM

"The X-Files is a show... with music by Mark Snow...!"
The sad recent loss of the X-Files composer prompts me to highlight the second X-Files console game (the first one's quite an interesting FMV game!) Play as Mulder or Scully and MURDER AN ENTIRE TOWN as you piece together a spoooky mystery, with David Duchovny quipping and Gillian Anderson being really quite reasonable when they're not MURDERING AN ENTIRE TOWN. Worth a look for a western PS2 take on cinematic fixed multicam.

Oh deer...
There are many important questions one must ask oneself over the course of one's life, and 'why is there a frozen deer in the room in which I've woken with no memory' is one of them.[lionfrog13.itch.io]

Brief. Bare-bones. Brutal.
Just so.[dannyf22.itch.io]
_________________

Oh god. Oh christ. I bought so many indie fixed cam games during the sale. Why? WHY? It's not like I have time to play them all. Hhh.

...I'll tell you what, though, I DID play the Aether Singularity demo and that game has personality and tone in SPADES. Combat's a bit wobbly though. Another demo to check out is Silent Sun but... uhh... it's basically lit by a genius or a madman, and I'm leaning towards the latter. However - there's some excellent writing and fun ideas, if you can get past the insane lighting.

Variations, ladies and germs, do take care of yourselves and we'll see you next week for more FRESH ANGLES! --Rev

ПОКАЗАТЬ ЕЩЁ (197)

КУРАТОР STEAM

Обзоры Fixed Camera Appreciation Society

"3d games with direct character play from dev-authored fixed third person views! (Eg. Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil 0, Dino Crisis...)"

Недавние обзоры Fixed Camera Appreciation Society

Комментариев: 37

показать все

< >

The Teratoma

10 июл в 10:48

You are most welcome, I agree it's too hard to tell at this point of it's truly fixed cam or not, one to watch regardless though, looks pretty cool.

Reverend Speed

10 июл в 4:41

Hmm. Yeah, I like the setting and the aesthetic, really compelling. I think I need to see a little more before adding it to our SACRED AND MOST HOLY LISTS, WE MUSSSSSST PROTECT THE LISSSSSTS but I'll keep an eye on it... =) Thanks The Teratoma!

Stoibs

9 июл в 13:49

Ooh if nothing else I love the PS1 aesthetic!
Neat, I'll be following that one, cheers.

The Teratoma

9 июл в 13:27

Now, I'm not totally sure if this is fixed cam or not, but the trailer certainly makes it look like that might be the case.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2282920/Catagaia/

The Teratoma

1 июл в 16:13

My pleasure.

Reverend Speed

1 июл в 10:49

Holy cow, Parasensor looks fantastic - that's a heckuva trailer and I love to see painted backgrounds. Much obliged, The Teratoma. =)

< >

ПОКАЗАТЬ ЕЩЁ (302)

УЧАСТНИКИ ГРУППЫ

Игрок недели в группе: