An occasional newsletter highlighting fixed camera games!

...with loads of resources and the friendly community you’ve grown to know and love (or at least tolerate).[discord.gg] Our backup Stoat server can be joined here![stt.gg] Drop by and chat with us about upcoming game, classic titles and wibble on about cinematic approaches and the future of fixed camera! See you there!

A quick reminder to tag games as Fixed Camera on Steam[imgur.com] - atm it’s way too hard to find fixed camera games on Steam! Let’s hit that critical mass of games tagged ‘Fixed Camera’ so we can find more of them by searching with that tag! Only YOU can change Valve’s view!

(Disclaimer: Unless stated otherwise, the following are not reviews or recommendations!)

’Drawn from life’ is one thing, but some of these works are ‘drawn TO life’...! (Demo available)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4483320/Lost_in_Art/
Looking better than Eve’n! A tactical, action RPG set in the near future! (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3983000/Parasite_Mutant/
A dark Japanese tale of exploration, hidden histories and punching each other in the street! (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3903740/Nemunai/
Fall into a burning ring of fire and weird western horror! ORRR…
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967440/God_Help_Us_All/
...get frozen in ice in a period survival horror adventure in the Antarctic!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3312480/To_the_Bone_1998/
Patient - heal thyself! …By entering your own body in fixed cam! Easy! (Demo Available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4870180/Cytokine_Storm/

An unsettling wander through an abandoned garden - classic survival horror stylee!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2498630/The_Frozen_Garden/
A FREE horror puzzle game where you explore a spooooky manor! Photonic mechanics!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493220/28_Leicester_Square/
A strange mystery thriller where a Japanese man must uncover his forgotten past…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3853830/6days/
A ‘survival horror sokoban’ where you play a chicken under the knife…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3066660/Ells_Tales_Chicken/

In the lists of the Fixed Camera Appreciation Society, there are some entries that might seem a little out of place; these are games like Little Nightmares, or Inside. These 2D platformers don’t obviously match the criteria for our group (usually “multiple 3D camera angles per room”), but I think that while the gameplay mostly happens within a single tracking camera per room, the care and staging of cameras and elements make them a strong companion to our main concern, and worthy of consideration.

One of these games is Another World (1991), which came out a year ahead of the first true fixed multicam game, Alone in the Dark (1992).

Developed almost entirely by a sole artist/coder named Éric Chahi, Another World was part of the contemporary growing interest in borrowing from linear cinematography - yet with an Amiga 500 as the target platform (no CD drive and only 512k of memory!)Éric would have to find innovative means by which to achieve his filmic ambitions.

And so, Another World is a static-screen platform game made almost entirely from vector art with animation drawn from rotoscoping, creating a video game aesthetic never seen before and never seen again. Check out the intro sequence - still stunning today (cinematography, design, pacing…). Even the semi-spiritual sequel Flashback returned to using sprites for the majority of its art.

Many ‘scenes’ have multiple cameras, and players used to the difficulty of the opening moments of Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark will feel well at home here. Player movement is driven by animations, which leads to some awkwardness, but with some practice (and trial and error), players will find themselves on a strange and sometimes terrifying adventure of fantasy and friendship.

It’s worth mentioning - upon beginning development, Chahi didn’t have a clear plan on how the game or story would turn out, and so he’s occasionally referred to the entire game as an ‘improvisation’...!

At a time when cinematic ambitions for video games were limited to unplayable cutscenes, ambitious JRPG work with tiny sprites or point-and-click adventures, Chahi’s ambition, artistic flair and impressive code development opened a tiny glimpse of the future. Next year his fellow countrymen would release the world’s first fixed multicam adventure. What was the French government putting in their water in those days?!

https://guruzera.itch.io/isolation - Brief horror exploration in abandoned hospital
https://sedeth.itch.io/faultline - Horror puzzler in arctic cavern
https://comma4.itch.io/arcanists-towers - French escape room game
https://spectris-games.itch.io/wicked-woods - Survival horror where you end scaled down?

And, as a bonus - a trailer! White Creek have put out an 'official' trailer - found by Stoibs! Check this out!
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My god, it’s warm here. Make sure you hydrate folks, please take care of yourselves! And do jump into the Discord[discord.gg] or Stoat[stt.gg] - we’d love to talk to you. See you next week! --Rev
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An occasional newsletter highlighting fixed camera games!

And there’s plenty of great fixed multicam on sale - check out our curator and click on the DISCOUNTS tab[imgur.com] to find a wealth of awesome cinematic goodness going for very affordable prices!

...with loads of resources and the friendly community you’ve grown to know and love (or at least tolerate).[discord.gg] Our backup Stoat server can be joined here![stt.gg] Drop by and chat with us about upcoming game, classic titles and wibble on about cinematic approaches and the future of fixed camera! See you there!

A quick reminder to tag games as Fixed Camera on Steam[imgur.com] - atm it’s way too hard to find fixed camera games on Steam! Let’s hit that critical mass of games tagged ‘Fixed Camera’ so we can find more of them by searching with that tag! Only YOU can change Valve’s view!

(Disclaimer: Unless stated otherwise, the following are not reviews or recommendations!)

Imagine… a world… beyond your imagination. And it’s a JRPG with prerendered backgrounds!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4446690/Harbingers_of_Destiny/
A low-fi psychological horror with a queer point of view, this looks very interesting!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4296480/They_Cry/
An immersive sim - but with a fixed camera approach?! Now there’s an unusual pitch…! (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2722660/Fraudulent_Idols/
Retro gaming goes wrong, as reality warps and twists into a strange, hostile world…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3869290/Evil_Cartridge/

A short but beautifully executed innocent walk through a forest (Free!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2438960/Silent_Rooms__Chapter_1/
An interactive mood piece, with some very appealing visuals…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3922050/Chilling_Silence/
A dystopian cyberpunk adventure - you are the author of our memories! (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4071280/Nocturne_for_CylHestia/
Light puzzle adventuring with a sense of humour in a sinister (?) underground lab. (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1936530/Subsequence/
(EDIT: OOPS! Credit to The Teratoma for pointing out that Fragile Reflection isn’t Fixed Multicam!)
Take another look at Sanguine - the dev has been providing a lot of updates! (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2825080/Sanguine/
The first act of this strange survival-come-Saw thriller! (Demo available!)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4152560/Perished_Truth

So, Alone in the Dark came out in 1992, followed by sequels and promotional games in 1993. But these games all had (gorgeous) hand-painted backgrounds. The first fixed multicam game to feature pre-rendered backgrounds came out in 1994, developed by Andrew Spencer Studios, published by Psygnosis and… it’s an odd duck!

Ecstatica[ecstatica.fandom.com] mostly eschewed polygons in favour of gouraud-shaded elipsoids for the characters - and for much of the background environments! In theory, this produced a much more ‘rounded’ visual style than polygons of the time could achieve.

In reality, the game looks distinctly… ‘bobbily’, kinda kid-friendly, with characters looking a lot like rounded wooden dolls. The friendly effect is enhanced by the bright primary colours used for characters and many on-screen elements.

That impression is undercut by the subject matter - this is much closer to a Berserk or Dark Souls than the graphics would lead you to believe, with a medieval village overrun by bloodthirsty monsters who’ve tortured and killed most of the inhabitants.

Of special note is the inclusion of what appears to be the first ‘stalker’ or ‘shiki’ enemy in a fixed multicam game - the Werewolf! This creature will take damage, but heals it’s own wounds and appears to be immortal… and will track and ambush you at several points during the game, growling out, “STARRRRRRRRS!”

…Alright, maybe not that last one.

I think Ecstatica is also the first fixed multicam game to feature low-health walkcycles, where you're required to determine the health of your character by how they're behaving on screen.

Unfortunately, Ecstatica doesn’t appear to be on sale today, playable only through DOSBOX and online emulators[ecstatica.fandom.com]. There’s a great wiki devoted to the game and its sequel (and the unreleased, but fascinating ‘Urban Decay’!). A shame it’s not easily available - Ecstatica remains an important milestone in the development of fixed multicam.

In honour of the weather: Buying an AC because it's boku no natsuyasumi these days by Kuuki Yomi[kuuki-yomi.itch.io] I like the contrast of the sprites against the backgrounds…!
A fun but basic stealth game[sneakydaggergames.itch.io]
A straightforward escape-the-asylum game[noveriansoft.itch.io]
A ‘Clocktower’ where you race around an office floor, fixing servers…![howdystranger.itch.io]

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I think that's it! Do jump into the Discord[discord.gg] or Stoat[stt.gg] - we’d love to talk to you. See you next week! --Rev

Here's an interesting one - White Creek, a mystery and investigation survival horror is about to launch their Kickstarter campaign. One of the interesting things about White Creek is that it's being developed... as a Dreamcast game!

I like the texture and modelling work that I've seen of this game so far - though the monster death yelp will take... some getting used to!

Check it out!

An occasional newsletter highlighting fixed camera games!

BIG NEWS!
...with loads of resources and the friendly community you’ve grown to know and love (or at least tolerate).[discord.gg] Our backup Stoat server can be joined here![stt.gg] Drop by and chat with us about upcoming games, classic titles and wibble on about cinematic approaches and the future of fixed camera! See you there!

Hey gang! Heads up - IT’S DEMOGEDDON!

Normally we’d balance the games featured here between upcoming titles and games available to buy, but given the amount of great fixed camera demos out at the moment, below you’ll find an Upcoming section fit to burst with meaty, playable chunks!

A quick reminder to tag games as Fixed Camera on Steam[imgur.com] - atm it’s way too hard to find fixed camera games on Steam! Let’s hit that critical mass of games tagged ‘Fixed Camera’ so we can find more of them by searching with that tag! Only YOU can change Valve’s view!

(Disclaimer: Unless stated otherwise, the following are not reviews or recommendations!)

Descend into a strange orphanage asylum, populated by vicious, uncanny beasts, where you will learn the meaning of the word… eclosion!https://store.steampowered.com/app/3349520/Iris_Dissolution/
Go old, OLD school with pre-rendered backgrounds and a malevolent presence that hungers for your demise…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4605350/Cornered_Cadavers/
Explore an Evil Residence as a lawman trapped in a horrific experiment of resurrection and twisted obsession!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4693140/Rebirth_Denied_Protocol
Use the Focus Meter to unleash multi-stagger combos, critical headshots and melee attacks in this action-focused horror adventure!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3851600/Pulsebreaker/
The odds are against you in the MetroBunker, where meat and mutation oppose you at every step!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4008240/FEAR_OF_SLEEP/
A children’s hospital! Aww. But a RANDOMISED children’s hospital riddled with anomalies, puzzles and a strange stalker…! Yikes!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4814230/Mr_Nice_Guy_Demo/
Bloody odd and full of personality with an interesting visual stop-motion style to boot - be sure you can pay when the rent is due…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2168480/Janet_DeMornay_Is_A_Slumlord_and_a_witch/
Under water and over a barrel - can you survive the mysterious futuristic station filled with abominations and crazed AI?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3946040/Faithless_Water/
Cyber. Punk. CYBER. PUNK. CYBER! PUNK! Also, noir, survival horror and THE NINETIES!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4106800/Project_Titan_The_Redacted_Files/

Atmospheric tale of an alchemist delving deep into a nightmare manse! Spells! Creatures. Mystery!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3935330/Curse_of_Argentum/

Ahh, my beloved - this week we look at the all-time classic Resident Evil 2 (1998) from Hideki Kamiya and his team at Capcom. Resi 2 is an exceptional sequel, improving on Resi 1 in every way while leveraging the fixed multicam approach to deliver cinematic atmosphere and thrills as never before.

Bravely eschewing a straight follow-up, the opening introduces two new protagonists, punky biker Claire and fresh-faced rookie cop Leon and immediately builds momentum with zombies, chases, explosions and captivating new setting - the Raccoon City Police Station. Those pre-rendered backgrounds looked absolutely gorgeous, and are impressive even now.

Pitched by screenwriter Noboru Sugimura, the station setting (cribbing from John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13) combines a functional institutional flavour (contrasting deliciously with zombie carnage) with that classic Resi esoterism, justified in this instance by the building supposedly having once been a museum. So unlocking doors by positioning statues and hidden gems makes total sense.

So many elements and moments to savour! Duel protagonists mean a minimum of four playthroughs, with different enemies and puzzles depending on the path and resources you take. The debut of the now classic monster, the Licker! Mr. X! That corridor with the arms! An underground cable-car! THE NEST! WILILIAM BIRKIN!!! RE2 just bursts with brilliant setpieces and rotten guts.

Not to mention that this game is the closest Resident Evil got to one of its chief inspirations - Night of the Living Dead’s George Romero, who shot a television advertisement for the game that only aired in Japan…! Class. RE2’s brilliant use of fixed angles for cinematic storytelling was the game that cemented my interest in the approach, and it holds up today as an exercise in tension, horror and excitement. You need to have played this.

(And the remake’s not too shabby)

Hit the slopes - if the slopes were zombies and you were hitting it with a handgun.[jivinjimmy.itch.io]

Servicible survival horror with a great big spider boss![budget-unicorn-studios.itch.io]

Icicles aren't the only dangerous thing you're going to find in this frozen outpost![kierkiewicz.itch.io]

A short tale of a town invaded by strange forces, told from multiple viewpoints[deathjehuty.itch.io]

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That's it! We'll see you next week! Maybe! Sure, look, it wasn’t half a year this time, was it? =P --Rev

An occasional newsletter highlighting fixed camera games!

Hey gang!

Whuff, it’s been a while! There’s a lot of great titles on their way at the moment, so I figured I should try and list a few that are tickling our eyeballs right now! And, b’god, it’s been so long since I put out a Fresh Angles that GROUND ZERO HAS LAUNCHED! Maaaan, I’m looking forward to diving into that gorgeous-looking Korean nightmare! (Currently 20% off!)

A quick reminder to tag games as Fixed Camera on Steam[imgur.com] - atm it’s way too hard to find fixed camera games on Steam! Let’s hit that critical mass of games tagged ‘Fixed Camera’ so we can find more of them by searching with that tag! Only YOU can change Valve’s view!

(Disclaimer: Unless stated otherwise, the following are not reviews or recommendations!)

The new trailer’s been out a while, but it makes The Florist look fresh as a daisy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152440/The_Florist/
The new trailer comes with a soundtrack to make your pulse race!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3851600/Pulsebreaker/
As if Psychopass, Texhnolyze and Ergo Proxy brought up a child with Parasite Eve…!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3014650/45_PARABELLUM_BLOODHOUND__Cyberpunk_Active_Time_Action/
New details are on the Steam store page, promising an intriguing blend of coop and Malaysian survival horror!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2967220/yan_Parasomnia/
A Hill-sian approach to Resi survival horror - excited to see how this turns out!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2939450/Inherited_Shadows/
A new trailer, proclaiming 'vampire waifus in dark gothic fantasy'!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3212500/Vampire_Huntress__Lament_of_the_Sun/
Combining timer-based tactical combat with non-stop cardio, you owe it to yourself to try out the demo of Parasite Mutant!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3983000/Parasite_Mutant/


Be it from zombies or the 8 tons per square inch of water around you, this game offers a high-pressure experience! Demo available!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3726370/Heavy_Metal_Death_Can/
A hugely anticipated title, which has been out for uh, a while now… Really excited to play this!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2340130/Ground_Zero/
I have you in my sights, you classic zombie hunt, you!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3316350/Flesh_Made_Fear/

Like a dog smashing through a window, Resi 1 is suddenly available on Steam!
Now, I’m not sure anybody here will have heard of this one, but… Oh, you have? Really? It’s wonderful that Capcom have finally brought (with the help of the GOG porting team!) their classic 1996 Alone in the Dark clone to modern systems - and Steam in particular! (On sale now for 50% off!)

I didn’t start my Resi journey with this game (I stumbled into the Raccoon Police Station alongside Leon in 1998) but this founding title is dripping with equal amounts of polish, invention and interesting dialogue choices! And those cinematic, atmospheric camera angles… all the credit to Tokuro Fujiwara, Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya and their team!

If you don’t own this game, I urge you to check it out. Alone in the Dark might be the founder, but without the execution and marketing of Resident Evil (Biohazard in its native Japan!), it’s doubtful that fixed multicam games would be as popular as they are today…!

If you’re looking for a comprehensive history on the making and legacy of this game, be sure and check out Alex Aniel’s excellent history, Itchy Tasty[www.goodreads.com]!

This is excellent! A wonderful ~20 minute video essay from Under the Mayo, which sums up a lot of my feelings on the benefits of Fixed Cam! (*cough* multicam)
Credit to the developer of Sanguine, who’s just put out a new patch!
If anybody’s interested in Camouflaj’s under-appreciated game Republique, I happened across some interesting tid-bits from its development…![www.david-mckenzie.com]
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A quick note regards the curator… It’s a fantastic time for fans of fixed multicam games, with a surprising quantity of titles being released. In the past, I’ve tried to play through the entirety of these games before reviewing them on our curator, but due to time commitments and in the interests of protecting my sanity, I’m implementing a one-hour-minimum policy for when I’m reviewing a game.

In essence, this means that games I test in the future have about one hour to grab my interest - and if I don’t enjoy ‘em in that time, I’m going to give ‘em a negative review and label them as having been played for one hour.

At the moment, this seems fair to me - it’s fairly easy to pique my interest even if a game is a bit janky, but I’m not going to feel obliged to force myself through mostly unfinished, questionably written gameplay…! I hope you understand my decision to take this approach. =)

Right! That about wraps this up…! Let me know what fixed cam games you’re playing - and what are you looking forward to?

Fingers crossed - we’ll see you next week! --Rev