A hacked renderer shows a 1D perspective projection of a platform game from the avatar’s perspective. Although the view is initially disorienting, the tight feedback loop of the interactive medium allows players to gain spatial understanding through controlled movement. Perceptual cues such as atmospheric perspective (also known as distance fog) and visual allusions to classic video games aid the player’s comprehension of the space.
Though it has the trappings of a platform game, First Person Platformer offers few of the motivations of the genre it mimics. It runs in a kiosk mode with no dead ends and no permanent tally of the score: collected coins eventually regenerate, enemies inflict a pain sound but no actual damage, and a warp chute at the bottom of the world leads right back to the top. Instead, First Person Platformer is a meditative exploration of perception and virtual space.
First Person Platformer was included in Other Worlds, an exhibition on the psychogeography of game space, as part of Vector Game Art Festival in Toronto in February 2013.
With music by David Renshaw and using the Flixel library by Adam Atomic. Play it online here or view more screenshots here.