Firefall developers Red 5 have serious eSports aspirations, and are following up this week’s huge patch – changelog excerpt: “Gameplay changes: Changed everything. Created fun” – by putting their dev time where their mouth is with a new suite of tools for match observers and shoutcasters.
Talking to PC Gamer, Red 5’s dedicated eSports type Morgan Romine discussed the thinking behind new observation options, which include static cameras at critical points on Firefall’s maps, as well asa top-down view:-
“With FPSes it’s really hard because you can only watch from the perspective of one player at a given time. That’s still going to be the majority of the gameplay that you’re watching as a spectator, but one of the things that we’ve provided in the observer mode is the top-down view.
“So at any given time, kind of like if you’re watching a basketball game or a soccer match, the broadcasters will show you the view of the field so you can see where all of the players are at a given time, which gives you the layout of where the action is, what momentum is driving the gameplay.”
Further shoutcaster-specific tools include a WASD fly-cam, player-specific stat cards summoned at the touch of a button, and multiple screen support. These will be available only to broadcasters given the official Red 5 nod. For more, see PC Gamer’s vidi-chat below.