Selecting Viewpoints
to text descriptions of the environment. This does not
mean that they were ine?¬? ective??”just the opposite??”
anyone who remembers playing an Infocom text adventure
probably also remembers the sense of immersion
that can come from a well-wri en story line.
However, when computer displays were able to
move beyond the display of text, several major graphic
viewpoints for interfaces were developed fairly early
on. These viewpoints have evolved in complexity as
The interface for a digital game is a combination of
the camera viewpoint of the game environment and
the visual display of the game status and controls that
allow the user to interact with the system. The controls,
viewpoint, and interface all work together symbiotically
to create the game experience and allow the player to
understand and have agency within the system.
As with control systems, the viewpoints for the ?¬? rst
video games were limited, and they were mainly limited
8.10 Simple control table
Side View
The side view is popular with arcade and puzzle
games like Donkey Kong, Tetris, and The Incredible
Machine, but it probably has had the most in?¬‚ uence
in the form of the side-scroller.
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