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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

You can play any game into a photography game if you like.

Photography games, or simulated photo games, are very popular recently, and the reproductions of "New Pok Dream shoot" and "Zero: the Witch of Ravens" released last year both support photography.

These games are not the only form of photography games. In a broad sense, photography games can be roughly divided into two types: one is the similar function found in almost every 3A masterpiece today, that is, adding a photo mode to the game. Players are free to shoot beautiful scenes in the 3D world as embellishments on their adventures. The other is more common in independent games, where photography is the main way to play games, and many independent game developers have been pushing this category forward. The emergence of games such as Umurangi Generation, Alba: wild Adventure (Alba: A Wildlife Adventure) and Dog photographer (Pupperazi) show that, like FPS games, this new category is sufficient to support a variety of rich ways of playing.

Zero: the Witch of Ravens: I had to pick up the camera.

It is difficult for the poor three generations of photography to trace the exact origin of photography games. With well-known games as prominent coordinate points, in the Japanese horror game series Zero, you have been encouraged to use cameras to promote the development of stories.

The photography feature added to the fifth generation of "three Men and one Dog", which was released in 2013, is also an important coordinate point, and you can even take selfies in the game. The strong influence of this game has led to the popularity of photography. Since then, in the 3A and open world games, more and more games support photography, and those that do not support are almost regarded as different.

"three Men and one Dog 5": selfie, even unkind selfie

The Assassin's Creed: the Great Hero: filming London at Night in the 19th Century

Of course, in games with photography as the core, we can also cite many earlier examples. For example, "Afrika" on PS3. The 2008 game allows players to act as a photographer, walk into Africa, get close and photograph the wildlife there. You can make money by shooting, and then upgrade the equipment to get more shooting opportunities and a better shooting experience. Unfortunately, the game is not popular for various reasons, and even if the spark of photography is planted, it has not yet reached the day of popularity.

Taking the mainframe generation as the benchmark, photography has existed for more than 3 generations, but in fact, it is not until recent years that photography has become more and more, and it has been gradually accepted by people. On the one hand, this comes from advances in game vision-when you see 3D characters and scenes like tofu blocks in the PS2 generation, it's hard to feel the urge to shoot. On the other hand, the popularity of smartphone devices has completely lowered the threshold, really driving people to go to photography and like photography.

"Africa": unique experience and mediocre sales

"Wizard 3: hunting": a game with good art will make people have a strong impulse to shoot.

In addition, with the progress of game technology, the thinking of photography games has also been opened, this type is not only the pursuit of gorgeous pictures, but also made efforts in the style. The puzzle game Photo Adventure (TOEM) is a typical example.

In Photography Adventure, the player plays an amateur photographer exploring the country town and taking pictures along the road. What is little known is that at first it was not a photo game, and two developers, Lucas Gulber and Nicholas Mickelson, had planned to create a non-violent puzzle game that would allow players to stop and enjoy the scenery, but the original idea was still a more traditional point-and-click puzzle.

Today's "Photography Adventure" may not be what they originally envisioned, but after some frank communication, the two continued to improve the game prototype and laid the foundation for a later outstanding art style-the game's main perspective is a 2D-like overlooking perspective, the scene is drawn by simple 3D graphics, and the characters are pure 2D. No one thought that such technical conditions could adapt to photography, including the developers themselves.

"We changed it five times until we collided with a version with a photo function." "Lucas tried to add binoculars to the game, so he told me maybe we could add a camera to the game," Michaelson recalled. " Gulber and Micelson are from Sweden, and because of the game, they set up an independent game studio, Something We Made.

Photography Adventure: bring your camera and enjoy the roaming

In Photography Adventure, players can only use cameras and tripods to shoot, sort out and browse the finished works in photo albums. Although the tools are limited, they can do a lot of things. By contrast, the game of "Umurangi Generation" is more complex. It is a masterpiece of environmental narrative and requires players to complete a variety of difficult photo tasks. They can unlock new lenses and editing tools at a pace that they feel comfortable. Even beginners will not be persuaded to quit because the threshold is too high.

Developer Naftali Faulkner says he wants to make a game where editing is as important as taking pictures.

"the joy of photography lies in choosing the right lens and post-stage tools." "choosing a lens is a technical job," Faulkner said. "when you first come into contact with photography, you will realize that the lens can capture what the human eye can't see. I think it's very important to restore this feeling in photography games."

In terms of the level design of "chasing the Red Last Generation", Faulkner's creative inspiration mainly comes from the "Tony Hawk professional skateboarding" series and "Jet Set Radio". " In Tony Hawk Professional Skateboarding, many players don't care about their scores, but enjoy the fun of skateboarding, so I get some inspiration from it, which is to turn photography into a game without losing its entertainment. "

In Macro, a dystopian bar and arcade called "player Paradise," DJ Tariq performs music in the DLC level of "chasing the Red Last Generation." The game will not directly tell players who Tariq is, but one of the tasks at this level is to take pictures of DJ, and you can complete the tasks in the rhythm and order you like. As Faulkner said, "if you go crazy with your friend about an Amway movie, and the other person thinks it's average after watching it, that's not good." You need to let players explore, discover the secrets of the game, and experience the excitement that comes with it.

"chasing the Last Generation of Red Red": the author creates the imaginary end scene, and the players take pictures of what they see.

The impact of street graffiti on the game is even more obvious than Tony Hawk's professional skateboard. If the Marco level is fully explored, players will unlock their skates. In addition to that sense of speed and power, the world outlook and background setting of "chasing the Red Last Generation" is largely inspired by the "street graffiti" series.

"Street graffiti is essentially an ironic game, and we learn from those mechanisms and bring them into the 21st century." "in some scenes, the police become more aggressive, and everyone thought it was just to create a comedy," Faulkner explained. if Street graffiti came out now, people's reaction might be very different. "

At the same time, the Photography Adventure development team uses photography mechanisms to simulate their favorite parts of the real world, rather than the most frustrating parts. "I always save all the photos from my trip, and it's amazing to look back a year later." Michaelson explained why they added photo albums to the game.

Photography Adventure: there are so many secrets hidden in a simple scene

In Photography Adventure, players can flip through photo albums at any time. If Photo chasing the Red Last Generation focuses on teaching players basic photo editing skills, then Photography Adventure emphasizes the power of photos as a personal collection. For this reason, the development team does not want the game mechanism to appear too complex. "We have deleted some complex photo functions because it is more suitable for games. We often think about the question: 'can this increase entertainment?' most of the time, the answer is no."

In the end, in this game, Photography Adventure only adds an extra feature to the camera-loudspeaker, and water spray is added to DLC. In total, there are only two additional uses, but they are enough to enrich the nonsense elements in the game.

Dog photographer: wouldn't it be nice to stay away from fighting and killing and sit down and take pictures of the dogs?

Radiation 4: the record is desolate

"Photographic Adventure" is Something We Made's first work, and during the development process, Michaelson and Gulber will discuss each mechanism repeatedly. As an art of "photography adventure", Gulber proposed the seal function: when the player completes a goal, the player's community card will open and test the task itself, and then add a seal to the collection. This is also one of the most satisfying mechanisms in the game. "I think stamping symbolizes a complete task cycle. when the seal hits the card, the whole card shakes slightly to reinforce the feeling." Gulber said.

In the eyes of several developers, photography games are attractive in part because players appreciate their artistry and details. Games such as "Photography Adventure" and "chasing the Last Generation of Red Red" not only demonstrate the power of photography, but also encourage players to be creative, express themselves in a non-violent way and stimulate their inner feelings.

"it's a wonderful way to explore the world." "it's more about observing things than destroying things," Gulber said. "

In the final analysis, this is the essence of photography: recording and preservation, not destruction. If you like, you can play any game as a photography game-recording the beauty you see in the game.

This article is compiled from: https://www.eurogamer.net/ on-the-growing-appeal-of-photography-games

Original title: "On the growing appeal of photography games"

Original author: Bryn Gelbart

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