Lost: Via Domus (Ubisoft, 2008) is a game spin off of the Lost TV series, where you play a photo journalist named Elliott Maslow who loses his memory in a plane crash.
The game employs the use of flashbacks as a storytelling device, much like the television show, and gamifies the act of photographic capture as a way to retrieve memories. Framing, focusing and zooming are realistically simulated in-game, while the function of the photographic act is given the supernatural power to “cure” the protagonist’s amnesia.
Trauma is a 2011 by Krystian Majewski game that uses photographic concepts of framing, zooming and taking a snapshot as ways to navigate through dreams of the main character.
TRAUMA tells a story of a young woman who survives a car accident. Recovering at the hospital, she has dreams that shed light on different aspects of her identity – such as the way she deals with the loss of her parents. TRAUMA lets you experience those dreams in an interactive way, reminiscent of Point-and-Click Adventure Games. It builds upon this established formula by introducing a gesture-based interface, real-time 3D technology for dynamic level layouts, unique photographic visuals and a level design philosophy that focuses on creating a rich experience rather than an elaborate puzzle challenge. Combined with the unconventional story, it is aimed to be a compact and deep game for a literate and mature audience.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what about a videogame? The first episode of 1979 Revolution, a game that places you in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis, speaks to just how important visibility can be when corruption and misinformation run rampant. You play as Reza, a photographer tasked with capturing the chaos of the regime change and subsequent protests. In this context, a picture becomes as dangerous as a stray bullet, rendering you a big target. A well-researched passion project from creator Navid Khonsari, 1979 takes you back to this important moment in history with a Telltale-style branching narrative. The consequences of your actions are palpable, your choices affecting the families and the splintered factions forming around you. Pushing both the medium and player to new heights, 1979‘s first episode can not only educate an unaware American audience, but also help us see our own role in the turmoil (source: Killscreen)
Paparazzi is a local multiplayer game of cat-and-mouse. The celebrity runs, dashes, and hides while the paparazzi tries to take constant photos of them. It’s a simple yet competitive arcade-action game with a Where’s Waldo feel. It’s a test of focus and reflexes and a silly take on celebrity culture.
Snapshot is the tale of a lone robot lost in an abandoned world. Armed with only his trusty camera, Pic sets forth on his great adventure. A camera might not seem like enough for a puzzle platforming adventure, but this camera is different from most: It has the ability to capture and remove from the world the very objects that it photographs. Not only that, but it can also use its powers to paste the photos it took back into the environment! Everything that the camera captures is perfectly preserved, and when the photos are restored the objects are restored with it. On top of all of that, this amazing camera can also rotate the photos before they’re pasted. Take a picture of an incoming fireball, rotate it and paste it to send it flying into a wall of heavy boxes to knock it out of the way.
Dead or Alive has a Spectator Mode or Watch Mode, which lets the user have more control over the game engine camera. Camera Mode, intended as simulation of the act of photographing and simulation of analog camera mechanics and aesthetics, was implemented only later.
In Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (2006, developed by Team Ninja) the in-game camera was improved.
The camera has been slightly modified to address the criticism that the one in the original game moved erratically or too frequently.The offline two player “Exhibition” mode from the previous game has been removed, forcing players who wish to play against other players to do so via Xbox Live.
In Dead or Alive Paradise (2010, developed by Project Venus) you are given a camera from the Island Shop and you can freely take photographs of the DoA girls which can then be assembled into an album.
Once the relationship with the girls is on an intimate level, the girls would then present the player with “venus clips” which can be viewed and edited by the player.
While photography is simulated via a through-the-viewfinder look and framing/shutter capabilities, the act of snapping pictures remains a free mode, not connected to core game mechanics. The theme, the interactions with the subject (e.g. befriending girls to have special poses for the camera) and sexist overtones are similar to the ones employed in Snapshot! Paparazzi.
Dead or Alive 5 (2012) featured an improved camera mode and the possibility to freeze gameplay, move the camera in 3d space and take in-game photos of the fighting game.
Extras include Spectator, where players can watch replay of their matches, or watch fights between two AI players, and also take photographs from a position and angle of their choosing with a fully controllable camera
in-game photography 