Video games have come a long way in the field of accessibility. From granular tweaks in how games present visually, aurally, and tactically, to entirely new controllers made to be more inviting, impaired gamers are experiencing a more level playing field than at any point in the past. One of the best examples of these accommodating menus is found in Remedy’s excellent Control. And so I was stopped dead in my tracks when I found out that the only accommodation I count on is missing from their newest opus, Alan Wake II!
I know the request I’m about to make pales in the face of the accommodations made for serious impairments, but here it is:
Can every single developer out there creating games with a free camera please, please standardize the option to flip the X axis as well as the Y? It’s one line on one option screen. And I can only imagine it takes little more than a copy/paste of the code that does so for the vertical input. If not developers, then how about at the hardware level? Why not let users map their sticks as easily as we map macros on elite controllers?
The option to invert the vertical camera has been a bog standard option for decades, apparently stemming from flying games that only offered flight stick-style input for up and down. Ever since, doing the same for the horizontal input has never quite been as guaranteed. And I’m afraid this old camera operator’s brain is hopelessly wired to depend on it.
If you’ve ever wondered how someone comes to want both axes inverted, you only need to look at a professional camera rig. Generally, they are controlled with a paddle stemming from the back of the tripod. So, aiming one requires the operator to abide by opposing movements. Imagine someone directing your gaze by gently grasping the hair on the back of your head. To make you look up, they’d direct their own hand down (just like flight controls). To make you look left? You know it: Their own hand travels right. That’s all there is to such weird behavior.
Film enough local sports and informational talk shows and, just like me, you’ll never associate camera movement with the default cardinal directions again. So please, all you kind and inclusive developers out there, let me move my in-game camera the way I always move my real life cameras. Missing that option has kept me away from entries in series like Tomb Raider, Darksiders, Lord of The Rings, and now Alan Wake. Which I still can’t believe because the first game actually has the option! Remedy, it ain’t that deep.
Do you flip camera controls? If not, do you begrudge the option to odd ducks like me? Let me hear it in the comments or over at the Boss Rush Discord.
The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord.
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