So I've been thinking a bit about three different scrolling methods lately, which could apply to pretty much any genre featuring a world larger than the screen. Let's assume that you have quite a large virtual game world, in which the player controls a character which moves around it. You'd need some form of scrolling to be able to show the whole world to the player. The first method I'm thinking of is the more simple "screen-by-screen" way, meaning that the player only sees one area at a time, and when he/she touches the edge of the screen, the viewport is moved to another screen. This can be seen in

">Knytt. The second method I've found is a perfectly scrolling world which never drastically swaps from one screen to another but instead always has the player centered on the screen, like in real life. An obvious example would be World of Warcraft. No need to show a video for that, I guess. The last method is a combination, which means that many screens are combined into one big screen, and when the player is about to leave the big area, there camera swaps into the new place. Another example of this is

">Golden Sun. From the level designer's perspective, I'd say that the first one is easily the best one. It allows you to hide secrets much easier, since the player has a more limited vision than in the other scrolling methods, and it is also much easier to do transitions since the screens do not need to fit perfectly with each other. But I'd guess that the other ones are more appealing to the player, since the game doesn't become as "jumpy" as it would've been otherwise. What are your thoughts on these types of scrolling? Which do you prefer?

I think a motionless cemera has visual advantages. The gameplay can also feel more solid. Scrolling for every inch of movement causes the game perspective to be in flux 99% of the time.

This is true in 3D with third person and first person games as well. Compare Resident Evil with Hitman, or Virtual Cop with Doom. The 3D motionless camera comes with limits and restraints, though, inflicting serious handicaps on players. You couldn't see right in front of you with Resident Evil, and you couldn't control your perspective at all with Virtual Cop.

For my own (3D third person) shooter, I've implemented a cursor mode. The player can press a key to switch from camera-aim mode to cursor-aim mode. They can still move around, and the camera will follow, but it won't rotate to look or aim. You wouldn't believe how much easier it is to aim when the entire world doesn't transit for every inch you shift your gun. It's also much more realistic; you don't need to rotate your head or vision to shoot at different trajectories. But it has its problems. Most notably, it's clumsy having to switch back and forth between modes in order to look more up/down/behind to shoot.