Rotating Room [MECHANIC]

This prototype has been imagined in the context of Welcome Home, the name given to a game where the player controls a lonely home assistant in an apartment. Without getting into all the details, I wanted to experiment on how the world could interact with the player.

I knew quite early that I desired an orthographic view of the apartment, and see through its walls. Although, if the player could later interact with several elements placed inside, it would be cool if he can change his point of view over the location. That’s why I created a simple mechanic that let the player rotate the camera around the room.

The player can either use the arrow keys or his mouse to pivot the view. The smooth damping here helps having a responsive and heavy feel on the interaction. Although, one big problematic, was how to see through the walls of the apartment while rotating the camera.

For that, I decided to use triggers and a collider on the main camera. I also applied tags to define if an object is situated on the north, west, south or east side. With that approach, I can easily reach the objects (walls and hanging items on them) that need to disappear when needed.

The apartment is divided into four trigger sections. Each of them makes game objects invisible from two specific edges (for instance, North and West) when in contact with the camera. However, when objects are hidden, they still cast their shadows in real time. That way, even if some objects turn invisible, the player can still discern how the room’s layout, even with missing objects from the view.

For now, the switch, from visible to hidden, is quite abrupt. But with a simple shader implementation in the future, I can achieve a nice transition effect that will make the mechanic feel even smoother.

This prototype was made to be used in the game Welcome Home, if I decide to develop the game further.