Game design is a broad discipline, and it took me some time to define what I wanted to share here. To keep this section focused, I chose to concentrate on 3C design.​
So what are 3C? They stand for Controls (how the player acts), Camera (how the player sees the game), and Character (what the player character is and can do).Together, they form the core design features through which the player experiences the game.Well fleshed-out 3C feel intuitive and satisfying, whereas poorly designed 3C often lead to frustration or boredom.*
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*As often in game design, this depends on the project and the intended experience. For example, controls could be made intentionally awkward to support difficulty, immersion, or narrative goals.​
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It would take too long to go in-depths about each of the 3C's specifications, but here are some key concepts I keep in mind when working on them:
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Interdependence. Controls, camera, and character cannot be designed in isolation. They must be developed together, iterated on constantly, and tested as a whole.​
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Context. 3C are completely dependent on the game being made. They should serve the project’s core fantasy and support the creative direction.​
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Market study. Studying the market and genre conventions is essential when mapping controls, designing character abilities, and deciding how the camera behaves.​​​
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Designing the Camera for Steel Salvo
For our project Steel Salvo, our goal was to deliver the fantasy of piloting a mech. Instead of the typical third-person camera found in similar games, we chose a more immersive first-person approach that leaned into simulation. This helped differentiate our game from competition and served the game's fantasy of piloting a mech.
To achieve a qualitative immersion feeling, we decided to implement a dual-camera system: the cockpit camera is placed inside the mech, showing the player’s perspective as if they were physically seated, whereas the external camera is rendering the outside world and projected onto the cockpit’s screens.
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This subtle design allowed us to tweak each camera's parameters and behavior separatly to better simulate the weight of being inside a heavy machine.​​​