After considering our ‘gravity shifting for individuals’ mechanic, we realised that a large part of making this our core mechanic, and having it work. Will depend on how we help the player interpret which direction they’re ‘falling’ with how the camera is rotated and the perspective. So I did some research into games that have similar quick shifts, climbing or walking upside or on walls and other mechanics like that. To see how they handled it:
Games:
Portal
Mirrors Edge
Inversion
Gravity Rush 2
Portal:
While portal undeniably has some mind-bending puzzle and a lot of physics bending, it doesn’t really mess with gravity in any of them. I did however find an interview with a lead writer and developer at Valve who states:
Valve lead writer Erik Wolpaw revealed in a recent interview, detailing "a new Gel that allowed players to walk up the side of walls."
During the game's testing, Wolpaw says, Valve concluded that the gel's use was so "disorienting that it made people nauseas." Inadvertently imparting nausea is a constant concern when designing a first-person game, he explains.
As a result, Valve "made changes to frame rate and movement that will help anyone play Portal 2, even if they do experience a feeling of nausea while playing other first-person games."
This is not something we want with our game, and makes me very concerned with going with a first person perspective.
Mirrors Edge:
Mirrors Edge has some wall running, but they made the decision to only tilt the first person camera at 45 degree angles when doing so, and its just briefly. Our game mechanic is intended to have the player shift gravity and have gravity stay the way to extended periods of time. this and some of the test demo pre-viz work I did last week (shown below) has let me to the conclusion that we shouldn't work in first person perspective.
Inversion:
Inversion works in third person and has an interesting techinque for solidifying the fact that gravity has shifted for the viewer. The forced camera animation into the 90 degree shift sideways works. But I think the speed and the drawn out float upwards is too slow. especially for the multiplayer combat we're considering.
Inversion also tinkers with zero gravity combat, but only in the lateral sense, and there's no freedom in the movement, just choices between pushing from one targeted rock to the next.
This here an example of a taste of the kind of game-play I imagine from our game, minus the shooter aspect. I want fights and environments that aren't linear in terms of their level design and execution.
Inversion seems to just scratch the surface of the potential of this mechanic, I want to fully realise it.
Gravity Rush 2:
Gravity Rush is almost the perfect embodiment of the type of gameplay I envision. that sense of 'falling' sideways, or upwards, and the camera control is largely left up to player. The major difference is for our game, its multiplayer, and its in an arena. the details of which I'll go into further on.
I also did some pre-vis animating to help concrete the gravity shifting mechanic. And to assist with explaining how we envision some gameplay working.
Showcasing a spinning blades move, but while 'falling' forwards to get increased speed and killing another character.
I also spent a few hours familiarising myself with how Alex does his Rigging and its limitations, so I did a run/jog cycle to test and give some feedback on his rig.
