Scott Miller believes that the key advantage of the 3rd
person view involves the fact that, "you can see your character at all times, and
this allows the player to see all the moves Duke makes, and in turn allows Duke’s
personality to show more easily." For a character as rich in personality as Duke,
third person seemed like the perfect vehicle to allow more attitude in the game
environment. However, Miller also mentions that "the key disadvantage is the camera
isn’t always giving you the best view of the action, and it’s more difficult to
aim weapons in the third person viewpoint."
The issue of aiming weapons in 3rd person was a major hurdle in the design
for n-Space, but Dyke they’ve come up with the perfect system to solve the problem of
taking clear shots. However, this is one of the few parts of the game they are remaining
decisively mum on for the time being. Dyke says, "I want to keep this quiet until E3,
but let’s just say that I think we’ve found a legitimate and feasible way to
make this work." His silence is understandable, perhaps because n-Space doesn’t
want another developer to steal their thunder at E3.
 With
the auto-aiming problem supposedly solved, Dyke was confident that third person was the
way to go. As such, "We’ve designed the game to take advantage of the fact you
can see the character for climbing, jumping and scaling," he remarks. In truth,
complicated jumping puzzles will now be much easier to solve when the camera is able to
zoom out to show a wider view of the level , giving players a point of reference by way of
the character model.
Dyke is more matter-of-fact about the advantages of 3rd
person, clearly citing the fact that you get to see the character as a huge advantage.
"Did you ever wonder if Duke adjusts himself with his left or right hand?" Dyke
asks as he tries to demonstrate some of the more quirky animations that are now possible
with the chase camera view of Duke. However, with the constant view of the character,
n-Space has spent months creating over 850 unique animations for Duke, about twice as many
as most 3rd person games. "When you see the character," comments
Dyke, "the amount of work that you have to do to make a convincing game goes way up.
For example, when Duke hits the toilet in the original Duke 3D, you hear some sounds and
get some comments. In our product, we have to animate Duke zipping down his fly, holding
his piece, the shake, and zipping his fly back up – Only then we get to worry about
the sound and comments." Without question, Dyke is a master salesman, simply stating
the obvious that we all might forget. No doubt, legions of Duke fans can hardly wait to
see a wad of repulsive groin-pulls, one finger salutes and other vulgar gestures animated
in all their polygon glory. |
