Zoom: Paparazzi im Einsatz

Zoom: Paparazzi im Einsatz (Exozet Game, 2006)

In Zoom: Paparazzi im Einsatz the player takes the role of a paparazzi who photographs VIPs in embarrassing situations. The game is played like most other first person shooters but the only weapon is a camera. So the player walks through the 15 levels, e.g. a private club in Hollywood or a musical premiere on a yacht, and searches for something interesting to happen. To make it easier the important persons are marked with a green arrow just before the event. Then the player uses his camera and receives his money instantly.

The main problem is that paparazzi are unwanted on these parties. So if the player is near a bodyguard when taking a picture they start to hit him – if the player loses his life energy the mission is lost. His only option is to blind the bodyguard (or an angry VIP) by photographing him and to run away quickly. Other threats are other paparazzi which steal the most interesting scenes. In every mission the player has to earn a certain amount of money to pass it. Sometimes he also needs to take pictures of specific events. The missions are fully scripted (which means that the player can memorise the events), and offer optional humorous content, e.g. conversations to listen to.

source: http://www.mobygames.com/game/zoom-paparazzi-in-action

Safari Guns

In Safari Guns you play a photographer with the assignment to document the disappearance of the african wild and raise awareness on the issue. You play switching between a camera and a shotgun, taking pictures of animals and killing poachers in a 2D scrolling mechanics.

Initial release date: 1989
Developer: New-Deal Productions SA
Platforms: AmigaOS, Atari ST, DOS
Publishers: Infogrames Entertainment SA, Action Sixteen

Game review: https://oldschoolgameblog.com/2012/02/13/review-safari-guns-amiga-500-1989/

Depth Hunter 2: Deep Dive

Depth Hunter 2 offers 25 exciting missions in 3 huge locations around the world. Players will hunt different fish species and face the difficulties of breath-holding spearfishing, an ancient fishing method.

Players will also have to find treasures and get the possibility to take underwater photos to capture the beauty of the simulated, detailed and lively underwater worlds they’re exploring also in a exploration mode.

source: http://store.steampowered.com/app/248530/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1

Game Underwater Photography

Game Underwater Photography is a free web-game where the player is an underwater photographer. Simple camera simulation allows the player to frame and shoot. Pictures are evaluated based on centering of the target and multiple fishes within the frame.

 

http://www.zoolabo.com/eng/fish-creation/game-underwater-photography.html

“Press A to Shoot”

“Press A to Shoot, Pokémon Snap – Shots and gamespace ownership” by Alexandra Orlando and Betsy Brey is an essay that focuses on the game mechanics of Pokémon Snap and the politics of in-game photography.

They draw a parallel between photographs and games as being both models, or “photographic referents” in Barthes’ terms:

games are models of experiences—not just depictions or descriptions (Bogost 4). The same can be said of photographs, which are also not representations of themselves, but instead, models of what they reveal.

The authors also trace a similarity between Susan Sontag’s “view of reality as an exotic prize to be tracked down and captured” by the photographer and the in-game world as a constantly reshaped environment, manipulated by the player. [personal note: to an extent this idea of Sontag’s photographer-hunter reveals (on top from the obvious political implications that made her work “On Photography” one of the most influential writings in photography theory) a gameplay element within photography, before there was even the possiblity to “gamify” its mechanics digitally.]

One interesting analysis of Pokémon Snap’s gamification of photography is the points-based system the game uses to distinguished a good photo from a bad one:

Each photo is judged on a few main qualities: size of subject, pose of subject, and technique of the shot. Additional bonuses are added to the score if there are multiple subjects in the photo, or if the player has performed certain events on a course that lead to special or unique poses (for example, getting a Pokémon to stand on a surfboard or sing in a group). The game privileges shots in which the subject’s size takes up about a third of the frame, the subject is in the centre of the frame, and is facing the camera. Some poses are encouraged over others, such as dancing with or attacking other Pokémon, but for the most part, all that is emphasized is that the Pokémon should not be facing away from the camera.

This leads to what Orlando and Brey call a “photographic colonialism”:

The fact that Snap gamifies basic photography skills and teaches its players how to create a single kind of photographic image indicates a single acceptable or desirable kind of photography. Not only does it teach just one style, but it also discourages learning others in the game space. This can be viewed as a kind of photographic colonialism—the limitation to a single viewpoint at the expense and extinction of others by a controlling power outside of the immediate environment. Snap disallows a variety of voices within its gameplay and photographic requirements, separating itself from photographic arts[…]

read the full essay here: http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/press-a-to-shoot/